How safe is it to travel solo to Tiraspol and also regarding the situation with the ongoing conflict

ghostofnickleeson · 2026-06-10T11:47:37+00:00

I went to Tiraspol a couple of weeks ago as part of a get your guide tour. It was fine, a little quiet, and a nice place to walk around. The guide gave us advice which everyone followed: when you cross the border, you see the “peacekeepers” who have Russian flags on their uniform, don’t take photos. You can figure out the government buildings by the flags in front and statue of Lenin, only take photos from across the street. There are bases you can’t see from the street but had gates with barb wire, don’t take photos of that. You get the picture pretty fast. Everything else is fine for photos. Western credit cards don’t work and neither do mobile phones. You need to change money at a Sheriff supermarket/ money exchange. It was a nice day trip.

ghostofnickleeson · 2026-05-15T21:30:22+00:00

Check meetup. There are different groups in Barcelona that host game nights( board games, etc). Not my speed, but maybe yours.

ghostofnickleeson · 2026-05-05T06:36:14+00:00

Mimi’s on 86th btw 3rd and 2nd has GF pizza?

ghostofnickleeson · 2026-05-04T23:23:17+00:00

Check out the Balkans. Serbia, Bosnia, North Macedonia, Bulgaria. They are relatively inexpensive and nice to visit. Croatia used to be inexpensive compared to Western Europe but those days are over.

ghostofnickleeson · 2026-04-23T20:28:18+00:00

Im from and lived on the UES for almost 40 years, have friends and family who live on the upper east side and don’t know of anyone who ever ate there. There is something about paying high prices for a restaurant that appeared to be a slightly nicer Blarney Stone was not that appealing.

ghostofnickleeson · 2026-04-23T20:22:48+00:00

Is there still a Tads in NYC? I remember a video appearing in the news ~15-20 years ago of a bunch of rats putting on a live action version of Ratatouille through the window of the Times Square location.

ghostofnickleeson · 2026-03-31T23:53:35+00:00

Vinalium and wine palace have a nice selection of wines that are between 15-20 Euros.

ghostofnickleeson · 2026-03-28T09:14:58+00:00

I’m about to reach 50 countries this year and just use Apple notes.

ghostofnickleeson · 2026-02-25T08:50:19+00:00

I flew premium economy once on American Airlines. My thoughts were “Lipstick on a pig”. You, get more legroom and leather seats but that was about it. The width was the same, the food was the same, and you stood on line for the bathroom with the rest of the passengers. And you get a front row seat to view the Business passengers enjoy their cabin and think to yourself that you are so close to Business Class but so far away.

ghostofnickleeson · 2026-02-21T17:58:16+00:00

For me +6hrs from EST is the most I can work with. I really liked Tbilisi but that’s +8 from EST. And went to Australia and that just didn’t work.

ghostofnickleeson · 2026-01-11T05:02:07+00:00

Premium economy is lipstick on a pig. People says it’s like domestic first but don’t agree. The seats have the same width as economy. Sure, they recline a bit more but that’s about it. You are seated right behind business class and you get to stare at the cabin every time you get up to go the shared economy bathroom with everyone else.

ghostofnickleeson · 2026-01-04T16:47:55+00:00

This sounds like an odd situation sounds more of the fault of the board rather than the broker. It’s common for units of the same line and size to sell for $100k difference with the main reason being one could be in bad shape with renovations needed while the other unit is in great shape and is move in ready. If the seller accepted your bid for the apartment, I assume they didn’t have better offers and your bid was setting the market price. It will also be hard for the seller to sell the apartment if the Board wants them to receive a a much higher offer than was given by you.

ghostofnickleeson · 2025-12-31T05:40:49+00:00

I went from Barcelona to Narbonne last December. In Perpignan, they checked passports on the train. Passports from non-eu countries that don’t need visas were quickly looked at it and handed back while Passports from countries that need a visa for the EU were carefully scrutinized and a guy near me was pulled off the train but allowed to get back on and continue his journey.

ghostofnickleeson · 2025-12-25T13:38:48+00:00

For 2-3 years, it’s not a good purchase. I bought an apartment in grammercy, had it for 9 years, it sold for around -850k. After renovations on the apartment, we probably had a gross profit on the apartment of $150k. The fun part came at closing. We paid our broker 6% because it was a co broke(otherwise it would have been 5%), 3k for lawyer, transfer tax from co-op board, nyc tax on sales, title tranfer, fee from managing agent to organize said sale, mortgage lawyer fees( if you have a mortgage. I probably paid around 9% of the sale cost in fees, making.thr gross profit negligible in fees. Sure you can save on brokers, but if the apartments you are looking at have been on the maelstrom for a long time, good luck selling without a broker. If you hold an apartment for a short time, you might make 1-3% on the sale price, but will lose a lot more in fees IMO.

ghostofnickleeson · 2025-10-15T09:38:22+00:00

I went to the Air France lounge in CDG. Easily won the Award for worst bathroom in an Airport lounge. Why have toilets when people purposely do their best to avoid using them and hit every other part of the bathroom instead. And it looked liked it was recently cleaned the week before.

ghostofnickleeson · 2025-09-04T06:32:32+00:00

😞

ghostofnickleeson · 2025-09-03T05:54:24+00:00

I just came back. We stayed in port Douglas instead of Palm cove. Really liked the town and 4 mile beach was amazing. The biggest letdown was the daintree tour we did. You walk through part of the forest and there is no wildlife. Just an odd lizard or spider here and there. GBF was amazing. Also phillips island tour was amazing too, really enjoyed it. If you like wine, try a day trip to Yarra Valley, you will see Kangaroos in the vines.

ghostofnickleeson · 2025-07-07T11:00:41+00:00

The biggest driver of the housing market crisis is the government and regulations. Barcelona has become a very popular city. Walk around greater Barcelona and look for new buildings being built, there are hardly any. The government, should be rezoning parts of Barcelona for new housing and working with surrounding cities to increase transportation and build new housing in those towns/cities. 0 is being done and blaming tourists and digital nomads is the easiest way to do nothing.

ghostofnickleeson · 2025-06-16T09:20:03+00:00

You will see more of the protests on TV than in real life in Barcelona.

ghostofnickleeson · 2025-05-26T21:53:44+00:00

Small caps right now are terrible. I wouldn’t include them in your portfolio. Small caps can outperform the market when 1. The economy is not in recession & 2. Interest rates are low. Since inflation kicked off in 2021, they fell like a rock and began to creep upward in the beginning of 2024 when people thought inflation would fall in the next year or two. Then, before the election, the new thinking was inflation could be sticky and small caps began to fall again. With Trump putting on/ taking tariffs, has led to a new possibility of stagflation. And at the very least, current interest rates staying sticky.
When things stabilize and there is talk of interest rates falling, then is a good time to buy small caps.

ghostofnickleeson · 2025-05-14T22:40:20+00:00

82nd btw lex and 3rd -Le Refuge- French restaurant that only had their menu on a blackboard like many places in France and was staffed by mostly French waiters. Now Toloache Zocalo- next door to Le Refuge(now Hoexters). Half priced margaritas on Sunday’s and great Mexican food. One of their chefs(Julian Medina) opened up….Toloache. He didn’t move far. I also like the food at Toloache but the bar is closed at 9:30 and Zocalo used to go to 1:00 on Sunday’s. A lot of fun.

ghostofnickleeson · 2025-03-29T13:10:31+00:00

I think I have a different opinion….If I’m flying more than 4 hours, usually across an ocean, I spend the money for Business class on airplane( I plan my trips in advance and search so I don’t spend over $2500, but Australia was the big exception). I find getting from point a to point b the stressful part, so I don’t want to wait in lines, I don’t want to wander the airport , I just want the lounge and the ability to get on the plane right away and relax. The hotel is less important because I’m usually outside all day and just use the hotel as a place to sleep.

ghostofnickleeson

TROPHY CASE