Rambling man

Post by **fabyak** » March 23rd, 2010, 16:27

Personally I loved Vienna, loads of stuff to see and people were absolutely lovely. Food was good, weather was good, metro was a dream (tickets work on an honour system, you don't have to have one to travel, but if they check and you don't have one you get a big old fine but apparently that only happens a couple of times a year). They have a zoo as well and a lot of the stuff is free or cheap to see

Post by **Grimmie** » March 23rd, 2010, 18:07

I had no idea that this thread would get any interest, so I'm quite pleased now :D You guys are the best. AWWW.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXDtQcuA5Bo[/media]

Post by **Roman Totale** » March 23rd, 2010, 18:24

Admittedly it's not overseas, but I would highly recommend the Lake District. Lovely area, great scenery and lots of little pubs with proper beer.

I'd love to do some sort of bike ride through the Tuscan countryside myself. Again, amazing views and the food is mouthwatering. Don't think I can do any more holidays this year though - Florence in 3 weeks time!

Post by **tandino** » March 23rd, 2010, 19:03

Roman Totale wrote:Admittedly it's not overseas, but I would highly recommend the Lake District. Lovely area, great scenery and lots of little pubs with proper beer.

I'd love to do some sort of bike ride through the Tuscan countryside myself. Again, amazing views and the food is mouthwatering. Don't think I can do any more holidays this year though - Florence in 3 weeks time!

The Lakes is one of my favourite places, next to Crete (the parts off the beaten track), and Amsterdam - A lot of my family history is Dutch.

Grimmie, if you ever want an alternative tour of Liverpool (the culture rich bits, lovely bars that are chav/poser free etc) you're welcome to stay in Tandino Towers for a few days. There's plenty of room and I have the woods and the beach just up the road, and am half an hour from the centre of Liverpool.

Sheriff Fatman · Post by **Sheriff Fatman** » March 23rd, 2010, 19:24

I'd love to join you, but you'll probably be pleased hear I can't

If you fancy a city break, and can stretch to it, I highly recommend New York. I've been a few times and loved every minute of it. There is loads to do, for any taste. We were lucky in that I had a friend who lived just up the coast in Westport, CT. Which meant we had a bit of local knowledge and didn't have to pay for a place to stay, but there is so much going on in NY that neither of those should be a problem. We befriended a few Kiwi girls on our second night who took us around and about.

If you do stay in the city I'd imagine it might be a little relentless, though; it really is the city that doesn't sleep (although, fortunately the police were sleeping when I decided to streak outside Grand Central Station at 5am).

Iconic architecture, Central Park, a good few museums, loads of different food places and bars (one of which had a very impressive collection of table top arcade classics) and the East Coast Merkins are almost British in their attitude, which may or may not be a good thing

I hadn't considered it before that point, but when I stepped out of Grand Central for the first time NY satisfied all my preconceptions immediately. It was all there, huge buildings, loads of people, huge "sidewalks", steam rising from the streets in Manhattan and yellow cabs everywhere. And if you want to get out of the city the beach and mountains are only a day trip away.

Errr, so yeah I like New York.

Paris is another cracking city but, with the language issue and general attitude of Parisians, it just doesn't come close. The 'Dam is great for a couple of days but I found we ran out of stuff to do fairly quickly. I liked Venice; there are some great sights. The Bridge of Sighs was a fairly touching moment at the time. I've since learned that most of the story behind it is somewhat exaggerated. St Mark's/Basilica will blow you away and Venice is great place to wander around, a tourist hell-hole but worth a visit.

The only place in Eastern Europe I've been to is Warsaw, which again had some interesting places. There's an "old quarter" (I forget the proper name) which had some local colour, However, it's been touristified in the last few years and apparently isn't what it used to be. And Polish food is pretty uninspiring, to say the least.

I'd love to do a tour of the battlefields in Europe, and ultimately end up at The Menin Gate. That's something I'd prefer to do alone though, since I'll probably end up blubbing like a girl

None of which really sticks to the original point of this thread, but there's my two penneth worth. Get thee to New York!

Post by **Dog Pants** » March 23rd, 2010, 19:31

Roman Totale wrote:Florence in 3 weeks time!

Get you.

Also,

Sheriff Fatman wrote:I'd love to do a tour of the battlefields in Europe, and ultimately end up at The Menin Gate. That's something I'd prefer to do alone though, since I'll probably end up blubbing like a girl

This. I've missed out on two since I've been in the RAF, one to Normandy and one to Arnhem. Both were because work fucked me about, and I'm gutted about it.

Post by **Joose** » March 23rd, 2010, 19:32

Sheriff Fatman wrote:Venice is great place to wander around, a tourist hell-hole but worth a visit.

unless you have watched Dont Look Now recently. I had, and would probably have leapt into the canals if a little girl in a red coat had wandered past.

Post by **Grimmie** » March 23rd, 2010, 19:32

Thanks Tandy, I may take you up on that offer, not really been to the great north save for the Lake and Peak districts.

Thanks Sherf! That info was just the sort of thing I was looking for :D

TheJockGit · Post by **TheJockGit** » March 23rd, 2010, 19:51

Grimmie wrote:Thanks Tandy, I may take you up on that offer, not really been to the great north save for the Lake and Peak districts.

errr... Blackpool's further North than Liverpool.

Post by **tandino** » March 23rd, 2010, 19:57

TheJockGit wrote:
errr... Blackpool's further North than Liverpool.

If you fancy a jaunt to my neck of the woods, let me know and we'll sort something out.

TheJockGit · Post by **TheJockGit** » March 23rd, 2010, 20:04

May just do that one weekend...

Wiggy · Post by **Wiggy** » March 23rd, 2010, 23:06

I'd be interested in a NYC trip too, if anyone else decides to go and/if I have enough cash at the time

Post by **tandino** » March 23rd, 2010, 23:46

TheJockGit wrote:May just do that one weekend...

Beer Pirates Day!

Akiakaiu · Post by **Akiakaiu** » March 23rd, 2010, 23:55

If my house wasn't losing my house and moving in with the p's I'd have offered up my place. NYC is 1.5 hours up 78, Philly is 1.5 hours down 76, DC is 2~3 hours down 81. For battlefields we got Gettysburg, Antietam's about 2hrs away. Shame I lost the place.

Almost forgot... it's the "Reading" of monopoly railroad fame.

Oh, and they filmed some of the last airbender here, we have a pagoda.

I've only been to NYC a few times, mostly as a kid with grandparents so it was not a clubbing trip, but got to see all the sights. Been up a few times as an adult and fulfilled all my hippy fantasies by hanging in Greenwich Village, walking on Bleaker Street, seeing Simon and Garfunkel in the Garden.

Philly is not as big as NYC, but you have alot of history there too, with Independence Mall and a couple of nice museums. The Mutter Museum is a pretty freaky place. Philly also has South Street which is a pretty fun place to hang out with stores like Zipperheads and Condom Nation. It's also a place I haven't been too much recently except for a few Eagle's games at the Linc, or concerts.

If you 5punkers do come over the pond I'll have to hop a bus or steal a car to spend a day or three. Maybe now that I don't have a place and a woman to tie me down I should save up and get out of the country myself. I'd love to see someplace older then 200 years, someplace with a real history.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » March 24th, 2010, 2:19

Aside from dungeons, only places I'm really interested in at the moment is pretty much the whole of eastern Europe, Prague, Moscow, St Petersberg, Chernobyl (and Kiev, to ask about that chicken thing)

Trans-Siberian Railway could be fun, and fairly affordable.

Also wouldn't mind a jaunt around Israel, Fair chance of seeing history going on there.

buzzmong · Post by **buzzmong** » March 24th, 2010, 2:38

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:Trans-Siberian Railway could be fun, and fairly affordable.

No it's not. It's really rather expensive, my brother looked into it, said brother is the one earning quite a bit above the 40% tax bracket and spends normally around £2-3k per holiday a couple of times per year (record is 4 holidays in one year, bastard), and the price put him right off. Which is saying something.

Of course, this could be a different version of the TSR he's looked at, but iirc it's in the thousands just for the whole train trip per person, let alone adding in cost of flights to and fro.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » March 24th, 2010, 2:53

I think it depends if you're being flash or not, not super cheap, but different and interesting.

I've been looking at this for a fair while, Every time I've looked properly, it's seemed complicated, but doable for less than a decent week in merka.

buzzmong · Post by **buzzmong** » March 24th, 2010, 3:45

Hmm, like that site says though, the prices change for the seasons as well, summer being more expensive and the ones quoted on there being winter (Feb) prices.

Certainly doable and certainly different, not something I'd be interested in doing though, I can't imagine there would be much to do on a train while travelling nor to see while traversing semi frozen scrubland, which isn't what I look for in a holiday. I like to go do things, sitting on a train for a week isn't really doing anything, so I'd be looking at doing something at either end, and with time at a premium, frittering it away on a train journey seems wasteful.

Which was why I turned down the idea when my brother suggested it.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » March 24th, 2010, 4:00

I'm not a summer person anyway, so I'd go during the winter.

For me it'd be an interesting way of travelling, I could spend the same money and sit on a plane for 8 hours, or I could spend a week actually seeing bits of the world I wouldn't otherwise, without having to commit to actually going anywhere but the places at both ends.

Also, I'm not sure time is at a premium, You're likely to be alive for something like 25,000 days. I think most of us could safely spare a couple of weeks.

And that's assuming time actually exists

buzzmong · Post by **buzzmong** » March 24th, 2010, 9:31

Time's at a premium when you're on holiday though. The more time spent over there normally equates to more day to day expensises, and don't forget that some people arn't in the position we're in that we can take a month off if we wanted.
If you're working, you might only be able to have a 2 week paid holiday or be risking your job, in which case, time is indeed at a premium.