Not all those who wander are lost: the Hype Travel Thread

[Erzengel]

Where have you traveled to?

Last November, I went on a Cruise and traveled to:
Aruba

Colombia

Panama

Costa Rica

Grand Cayman

Year before that I went to San Francisco:

and Las Vegas

What are your next travel plans?

Might just be going to Florida again.

Best travel experience?

Probably the last one I was on, there's nothing like being on a floating city and going from port to port with each day just seeing something new. I had a lot of fun on that trip. Also we got to spend a few days in Miami as well.

Worst travel experience?

Flying home from Florida once. Storm prevented us from going into Atlanta and we didn't get into NJ until the wee hours of the morning. To put it into perspective, we could have driven home from Florida to NJ quicker than it was to actually get home.

Tell us about your top 3 dream destinations/vacations.

Hawaii
Europe (Probably, Germany, England, Spain, France, Amsterdam, Italy, Ireland, Greece)
Phillipines

 

[amazingfantasy15]

I've been to a bunch major cities in the US, Canada, a couple Caribean cruises, Ireland and London.

The next trip I've got planned is New Orleans with my girlfriend next weekend, we're running the Mardi Gras Half Marathon together.

Best Travel Experience would be Ireland, got to tour the entire country and since we've got some relatives there got to see more than just touristy stuff.

Worst would probably be London, just didn't like the city, too expensive and stuffy.

My 3 dream destinations/vacations would be Australia, Boston and Greece, in that order.

 

[Manic]

Year before that I went to San Francisco:

LOL, complete with trademark fog.


The fog's been going a little crazy lately, though. Probably trying to make up for the lack of snow.

 

[Erzengel]

We walked from one end of the bridge to the other.

 

[knowsbleed]

Hahaha cool, can you actually go up in there?

Yup, it's a restaurant called Naha Harbor Diner. I had the lamb and it was great. Nice view of the ocean from there.

The coolest restauraunt I've ever been in was in Costa Rica. It was an old WWII Carrier plane that had been placed on a cliff over the ocean, hollowed out and converted into a bar.

I've been in a similar restaurant. The scenery wasn't as beautiful as what I'm sure the one you were in was like (it was in Colorado Springs) but same idea. A airplane converted into a restaurant.

 

[knowsbleed]

Bumping with a pic of my recent trip to the northern most tip in Okinawa... Hedo Point.

This thread is too good to waste. Moar travel stuffs!

 

[Ahura Mazda]

Here are a few photos from a day I spent hiking in snow shoes in the mountains:

 

[Watson]

So my Europe plans are coming along nicely

I've booked my flights (KLM) and all my hostels. I'm going in a loop. Amsterdam-Berlin-Prague-Munich-Paris-Bruges-Amsterdam. Now I'm taking care of the trains. I've decided to eschew the usual rail pass and buy tickets individually for each leg. If you use each nation's rail service sites, it comes out a lot cheaper. The disadvantage is that you have to use that nation's rail service site .

It's also looking very likely that I'll be headed to Chicago and Montreal this summer. I'll be in Chicago for Lolapalooza. It's my first time there so I'm pretty excited! Montreal I've been to a few times. We'll probably just drink, eat, and take in the scenery.

 

[PemLam]

Where have you traveled to?
Live in Ohio now, but with 20+ years in the military and raised in a military family I've been to too many places to name them all. Middle East, Japan, Korea, Italy, England, France, Germany, etc.

What are your next travel plans?
Taking the kids to Disney World and then my wife and I are taking an Alaskan Cruise.

Best travel experience?
I was at the Hogmanay celebration at the Edinburgh castle in Scotland in 1991. Absolutely stunning and DAMN those Scots can party.

Worst travel experience?
Multiple deployments to Iraq, specifically the last one in 2007. The only one I've been on that had one of my teammates lose their life. (Vehicle roll-over accident).

Tell us about your top 3 dream destinations/vacations
Hawaii for the scenery, Australia for the adventure and Egypt for the history.

 

[Ahura Mazda]

So my Europe plans are coming along nicely

I've booked my flights (KLM) and all my hostels. I'm going in a loop. Amsterdam-Berlin-Prague-Munich-Paris-Bruges-Amsterdam. Now I'm taking care of the trains. I've decided to eschew the usual rail pass and buy tickets individually for each leg. If you use each nation's rail service sites, it comes out a lot cheaper. The disadvantage is that you have to use that nation's rail service site .

It's also looking very likely that I'll be headed to Chicago and Montreal this summer. I'll be in Chicago for Lolapalooza. It's my first time there so I'm pretty excited! Montreal I've been to a few times. We'll probably just drink, eat, and take in the scenery.

If you want any advice or suggestions for Paris or Amsterdam, let me know. I know Paris very well and I think my fiancé knows Amsterdam.

 

[Erzengel]

It's just Florida but...

Sanibel - Captiva Islands

 

[Watson]

Huge bump because I am back from European adventure and wanted to share some photos!

So, I landed in Amsterdam about three weeks ago. We spent the night getting over our jetlag. We decided to save the drugs/sexy stuff for the end of the trip because we didn't want to be obliterated before our first train trip.

So we just enjoyed the pretty



Then we went on to Berlin. Berlin was insane. In Berlin, bars and clubs are open 24 hours a day and you can drink anywhere you want. In fact, if you leave a restaurant and you haven't finished your drink, they will give you a plastic cup so you can take it with you. Needless to say, I had some very late nights that turned into early mornings. The best bar I went to: a ping pong bar. Yup, you get drunk and play ping pong. It was sweet.

Berlin is also rich with history and art. Because of the Iron Curtain, a lot of buildings haven't been able to be restored to pre-war, so lots of bullet holes are still apparent. As well most of the buildings are actually recreations because they were so badly bombed out.



Berlin Holocaust Memorial. Series of blocks of uneven height and width placed to make you feel as disoriented and lost as Jews did during WWII.



Berlin Cathedral

There is also a ton of street art in Berlin. We did an alternative tour where we got to see a lot of the art, and went into an artists squat.









Next we went to Prague.

Side story: We had to catch the train to Prague on less than two hours of sleep, and what I guess I would call a hangover, but in reality I was still raging drunk. Ugh. Not fun when you are carrying a sixty pound pack on your back. Anyways we shared the train with the most horrible German school children who sang Ace of Base songs all the way to Prague. I have never come so close to punching a child in the face.

Prague truly is a fairy tale city. Everywhere we turned there was an astonishing building or sight.



View of one of the (many) cathedrals.

 

[Watson]

Statue of Kafka in the Jewish Quarter. There was so much tourist crap you could buy about him. I wonder what he would make of it.



Roof of the Old New Synagague and the Hebrew clock. This is where Rabbi Low trapped the Gollem, and where it still resides to this day if you believe the legends.



Famous Czech composer dude with Prague Castle and St. Vitus cathedral in the background.

Prague was started sometime in the 900's and only completed about 10 years ago. It's the coolest mishmash of architectural styles I have ever seen.



Back view of St. Vitus Cathedral from the park.

Prague was also dirty cheap which my Visa appreciated. 50 cents for a pint of beer!

From there, we took the train to Munich. Munich was probably my least favourite stop on the trip but my view was coloured by the fact that the weather was horrible the entire time we were there. However we did spend a lovely day at Neuwachstein castle, which is in the lower Alps. It was built by King Ludwig of Bavaria and was dedicated to the opera composer Wagner. In fact, he planned on having him and Wagner live in the castle and then it would be destroyed after their deaths. Yeah, he was an interesting dude.







It's the basis for the Disney Castle, if you couldn't tell.

 

[Watson]

After our day at the castle, we did the Munich beer challenge. The challenge is not to die of alcohol poisoning. Basically, they take you around to all the beer halls in Munich and you drink LITRES of beer. And eat giant pretzels and sausage and stuff. It's pretty great. We went to Haufbrahaus, which is the most famous and largest beer hall in Munich. It was also Hitler's favourite drinking hole and one of the birthplaces of National Socialism. um, cool I guess?

I also found this in Munich




So Rape seed is another word for Canola seed, I believe, but it was changed in the seventies by the Canola board because of the negative connotations with the word. I guess the German's didn't get the memo.

We then moved onto Paris, where the sun returned and we were happy. I found the really nerdy street in Paris with awesome comic book stores and an indie video/DVD place (with region 1 disks, score!) so that was fun. I got a cute French comic book where Freud analyzes all the superheroes. I'll try to post some scans later.



Sacre-Coure Cathedral at sunset



Seine, also at sunset



The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries in the Musee Cluny (medieval art). I bypassed the Louvre for this and it was well worth it. Way less tourists and no lines.

From the same museum...



This is obviously a knight's helmet but I chose to believe it was a Orc helmet.




View from the Eiffel tower.



Oscar Wilde's grave in Pere Lachaise cemetary

 

[Watson]

We went to Bruges next for a break from the big towns. It is a very touristy place, however we had friends there who showed us around so we got to go a little off the beaten path. We had a beautiful, but cold, picnic in the park, meandered the town, and drank absolutely phenomenal beer. I LOVE Belgian beer. And they serve it to you in the coolest way.



Look at how classy this is. I always want little cheeses and a doily with my booze from now on.

Also, I'm sure some of you are thinking there is too much head on the beer. THIS IS HOW THEY DRINK IT. I know, right? Apparently, it's the same idea as letting wine breathe before drinking it. You allow the head to go away a bit and it actually enhances the flavour of the beer.

Americans, you will also be happy to know that Bruges has paid homage to your current president.



Yup, that's Obama made of chocolate. Chobama?

This was at the chocolate museum we went to. It also had the creepiest and worst thought out mascot I have ever seen.



Also, racist



Then there was the pretty stuff as well.



A sunset in Bruges

 

[Watson]

So then we went to Amsterdam. Oh my, Amsterdam. Well, we did do some actual cultural stuff (Anne Frank house, Van Gogh Museum, etc) but the real fun was the cannabis stuff and the sex stuff. I did not go to a sex show (I really don't want to drop cash to see two ugly people bumping...yeah), but I did meander around the red light district and I did visit the coffeeshops. The novelty of it was extremely weird, but the red light district especially also had a Disney tourist vibe to it. Yes there were people there to actually pay for the ladies services. But there were also tons of tourists. Little kids, middle aged couples...you name it they were checking it out. We also went to a sex museum which was hilarious because they had all these animatronic people acting out different...scenarios, and all I could think was that this would either be the worst or best place for a West World-type situation.

I have no pictures of all this because if the ladies see you taking pictures in the redlight district they will take your camera and drop it in the canal. And I really like my $500 kit, so I opted to leave the camera at the hostel.

I did however, go to a concert. Weirdly enough a ska-punk band called the Flatliners that I have seen a million times before were playing a gig so we decided to go check it out. I got some pretty good shots, so enjoy these as the last of my trip.