Víctor Caveda Blog » Travelling

The SANS Experience

caveda — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:30:44 +0000

Days ago I was reorganizing my photo-HD and I came across the pictures of my second visit to Prague. Memories immediately piled up! It was a couple of years ago in order to attend to a SANS Wireless Security training. Seven days of security knowledge overload shared with a number of great people from the Europe’s IT industry. To be completely honest, the best Czech beer was also present . Due to the tough timetable, I didn’t have a lot of time to take pictures but I’ve uploaded a few to my Picassa album.

Chances are, SANS course at Prague has been one of the best training experiences I’ve ever had. This kind of courses are pretty expensive but trust me, it totally worths every € you pay. Even if you don’t attend to any SANS course, a getaway to the beautiful Czech Capital is mandatory.

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Top#1 Restaurantes: Casa Poli

caveda — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:35:34 +0000

Tras breves deliberaciones, el Top#1 de restaurantes 2009 en los que he estado se lo lleva Casa Poli (Puertas de Vidiago). Ha vencido sobradamente a restaurantes de todo tipo, condición y estrella Michelín por lo único que pide cualquiera que se sienta a una mesa fuera de casa:

Trato excelente.
Cocina (Tradicional Asturiana) de primera.
Precios más que razonables.
…y estas exquisitas almejas de tamaño portaaviones por 17€

Posiblemente el único incoveniente es que ya se ha hecho bastante popular, la última vez nos encontramos este panorama a la puerta…

…por lo que conviene llegar a la hora que abren (13:30 las veces que he ido). A pesar de todo, es de obligada peregrinación una vez al año para todo devoto de la cocina de siempre.

Tras el yantar conviene darse una vuelta por el lugar e incluso acercarse al bufón de Arenillas si la pleamar lo permite. Nunca sabes a quién te puedes encontrar…

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Go Turkey

caveda — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 19:31:54 +0000

Turkey seemed to me quite different from all those countries I had previously been to. It’s hard to say; perhaps it was due to the wide range of landscapes, the Muslim mosques everywhere or simply Turkish people’s hospitality. Who knows!

After going for a stroll around Istanbul, flying Kapadokya on a ballon, navigating the Bosphorus, walking over a huge salt lake, haggling in the Great Bazaar and so on…all that remains is the promise of going back soon.

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PTC Driving Course Weekend

caveda — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:36:21 +0000

Last weekend we made a getaway to Galicia in order to attend to a defensive driving course at PTC School which is located in A Pastoriza (approximately 40 kms from Lugo). This was something I always wanted to do but due to different reasons I’ve never could.

The course is really exciting mainly due to the quality of the trainers who have a high level of expertise (particularly Isaac Fernández). The course began at nine o’clock in the morning with a couple of hours full of well-explained theory. All kind of topics were discussed such as position of hands on the steering wheel, understeer, oversteer and so forth. At about eleven we began with practical sessions on an Alfa 147 with petrol engine. First session were focused on keeping the right hands position and following the accurate trajectory bend after bend. Afterwards, we started to drive quicker just to find out how the right hands position helps you when things get difficult. The two last sessions were about understeer and oversteer and I must say they were indeed the hardest and funniest at the same time. We learnt how to manage to keep the car on the track while trainer touches your hand-brake in the middle of a wet bend. Simply, revealing and impressive.

Leave you a brief video about practical sessions:

By and large, we enjoyed the course a lot. Just a single suggestion: I missed some stuff about emergency braking. Apart from that, I highly recommend it. I strongly believe things learnt in this kind of courses can be useful in many ways. It isn’t cheap, that’s true, but you never know when you might need to capitalize on it.

The rest of the weekend was pretty laid-back. We stayed in a quiet hotel next to Vilalba. On the way, we also took a walk on the nice Cathedrals Beach. To conclude, I should mention the outstanding “Arroz Caldoso” (rice with lobster) we enjoyed at A Cofradía located in Rinlo. In short, it was a superb weekend.

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