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The Travel Thread

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Lyrebird

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THE TRAVEL THREAD!!!



For those lovely globesetters or those that go domestic. This is the thread for you. Basically simply put this thread is for your experiences, advice, future plans and all that.

Same Rules apply and also:
- Keep it PG - Don't want to know what you did in Madrid with....well you get the drift or what you did in a club in Ibiza.
- Don't bag on a country. If you don't like it, don't like it but don't go all insulting on a country. Also avoid racism. Racism is not your friend.


So yeah travel away people!
 
Back in January 2015, I went on my first mission trip. I went to El Salvador. It was my first time ever going abroad/flying on a plane. Flying scares the mess out of me, but the trip was amazing. I got to utilize my Spanish skills (I've been learning the language for almost a decade now). I really loved the country. Life is very slow paced there compared to the US. The food was so rich and amazing. There were murals painted everywhere! I'm an artist so that really spoke to me. I miss El Salvador so much! We got to go to the beach! It had black sand. It was my first time ever going to the beach. We got to see the sun rise and set all in the same day. I want to go back there, but I also want to travel to so many other places. I hope to travel more when I get older and get a more stable income.

I have other travel trips too. I will share them more later. This is such a great idea for a topic! I love talking about my traveling experiences.
 
My last main travel was back in 2006 when my grandma and I went to visit my grandma's home town in Mexico.
Leon, Guanajuato.
For me was great visiting a new place for the first time as an adult and more experienced with life (last time I was there I was only 4 years old around 1989).
So much different from the way I'm used to it in USA.
Getting used to using Mexican pesos was such a struggle for me,
Buses where fun at least, every 3 or 4 homes there was street vendors which was new to me, and
The all the 'Mexicanize' food made in the USA wasn't as good as when I had it in Mexico.
The streets where always crowded with so many people socializing, something I seen rarely in Seattle or Portland.
Lots of strange Ice Cream flavors I had not heard of I got a chance to try out.
I would love to return to Mexico again!

Did saw many similarities too, drive on the right side of the road
Couple of fast food places I was familiar with, different food names - didn't go to any though
Did miss not having internet in Mexico, or my current phone
Loved walking during a downpour rain. I do like doing the same here in USA at times.


Most other places I been to have been inside USA.
 
stella said:
Back in January 2015, I went on my first mission trip. I went to El Salvador. It was my first time ever going abroad/flying on a plane. Flying scares the mess out of me, but the trip was amazing. I got to utilize my Spanish skills (I've been learning the language for almost a decade now). I really loved the country. Life is very slow paced there compared to the US. The food was so rich and amazing. There were murals painted everywhere! I'm an artist so that really spoke to me. I miss El Salvador so much! We got to go to the beach! It had black sand. It was my first time ever going to the beach. We got to see the sun rise and set all in the same day. I want to go back there, but I also want to travel to so many other places. I hope to travel more when I get older and get a more stable income.

I have other travel trips too. I will share them more later. This is such a great idea for a topic! I love talking about my traveling experiences.
Click to expand...

Did you see El Chulón? It's a very famous, very LARGE mural we have in San Salvador. Also, fun fact: the sand is black because we have like a bazillion volcanoes. We had to clean the veranda every morning when I was growing up there because the volcanoes still spit up ash all the time. (they are also the reason why we have so many earthquakes there)

As for my own stories, I don't know that living in various countries for years counts as travelling? I will be going to Japan in Dec though so I suppose I'll post about that when I get back. ^^;;
 
dragon_nataku said:
Did you see El Chulón? It's a very famous, very LARGE mural we have in San Salvador. Also, fun fact: the sand is black because we have like a bazillion volcanoes. We had to clean the veranda every morning when I was growing up there because the volcanoes still spit up ash all the time. (they are also the reason why we have so many earthquakes there)

As for my own stories, I don't know that living in various countries for years counts as travelling? I will be going to Japan in Dec though so I suppose I'll post about that when I get back. ^^;;
Click to expand...
El Chulón is amazing. I was in San Salvador for a weekend or so when I was there. Our mission house and everything was in Ahuachapán. We went to La Libertad when we went to the beach.
The day before we were coming back to the US our professor was worried because he saw on the news that there was a possibility that one of the many volcanoes would erupt that day. We all were having so much fun that we wouldn't have minded staying a few extra days.
We hiked up a dormant volcano! I don't remember the name of it though. It might be in my travel journal...
We also walked through a lava rock field. We collected lava rocks and placed them in our check bags so that we wouldn't lose them. :D
It is a beautiful country, but I understand if it's tedious having to clean up after volcanoes all the time hehe

@HeroicSylveon OMG I had ice cream in El Salvador and felt like I went to heaven! It wasn't overly sugary, but the flavors were pure.
 
I feel like traveling again. I always wanted to check out Eastern Europe, mainly the Baltic States.
 
I spent a week in Portugal when I was 6 since my mother had a boyfriend there. It was different there, the roads were made of cobblestone rather than asphalt. They had different channels compared to where we lived, only one I recognized was Cartoon Network. I once ordered a burger there and they put a deviled egg on it. I went to Spain for a day and saw some roads built by the ancient Romans. I was very young then and I feel that I couldn't truly appreciate it at that age, so I'd like to go back to Spain and Portugal.
 
Oh, travelling... I really like it. I've gone through lots of Europe when younger (my parents could afford it much better back then). Beware, this is pretty big.
Summer 2001: Bari, Italy (by ship). My father had some conference to attend in Bari, not sure why. We actually took a ship from Patras, Greece to there. No rental car for this one.

Summer 2003: United Kingdom. First journey by plane. Mostly London and a few nights of staying close to York. Visited Oxford and Scarborough (which I think is the furthest I've been from home so far).

Summer 2004: France. We only stayed in Paris. But we did visit the Loire Castles and Mont Saint-Michel. I was joking about this one when the Kalos map was released "I went from Lumiose to Shalour without going through Geosenge or Coumarine, how is it possible?!"

Some summer in between, not sure: Turkey. Boat from the Greek island of Samos (east of the country, in the Aegean Sea, really close to the western coast of Turkey) to Kusadasi (which is a tourist town that's actually based its tourism on people visiting from Samos). We were back in the same day, though. I can claim I've been outside Europe with this (it's technically Asia).

January 2008: Germany - Austria - Italy - Switzerland. Stayed in Munich. Went to Saltzburg and Insbruck. We decided to also visit Bolzano, Italy since it was close and St Gallen, Switzerland another day.

April 2008: London. No rental car for this one. We did attend a family member's graduation ceremony there, they were studying in London for a master degree. I have much better memories of London thanks to this visit, as I was very young in the first one.

Summer 2008: Italy - San Marino - Switzerland. Yeah, 2008 was my busiest year when it comes to journeying abroad. This one was a tour of Italy (feat. a few hours in San Marino) with a bit of Switzerland towards the end. We started from Milano's airport, went to Genova, then Florence, stayed there. From there we did visit Pisa (the tower is indeed leaning), then Sienna then Rome. We did stay there and went around the city for an entire day. From there we did go to Asizi and Perugia, then to Urbino (another stay there). Then north, towards San Marino, onwards to Venice. We stayed there too. Back to Milano (another stop there), then north to Como and Lugano (Switzerland). Final stay was there, then we went back to Milano.

Summer 2009: Bulgaria - Romania - Hungary - Austria - Czech Republic - Slovakia: This one.. there was no plane or rental car involved. We did start from Greece. North to Thessaloniki then straight into Bulgaria all the way into Sofia (Bulgarian capital). Stay there. And then... due to a miscalculation, we missed a stay and were on the road for 24 hours, with my father and his friend driving in shifts. Anyways, that day was Sofia -> Bucharest (Romania, capital, southeast), checking it a bit, then to the northwest... Romania's roads were difficult to traverse. Onwards to Sibiu (located almost in the exact center of the country) and Oradea (northwest, borders with Hungary) which were two of our stops. Then we finally reached Budapest, Hungary (capital city). Stayed there... toured it a bit. Next day, northwest to Austria, we made it to Vienna. Stopped there to tour it around a bit. Northeast towards Prague, Czech Republic. Stayed there. We also checked the nearby towns of Karlovy Vary and Czeski Krumlov. Anyways, after all that, we did get back to Budapest but through Bratislava (Slovakian capital) this time, which we also toured around a bit. Knowing better than taking the LOOOOONG route again, we avoided Bucharest completely and thus most of Romania, instead going through the westernmost route possible to minimize the time spent in the country's roads. This way, we made it back to Bulgaria's Sofia in much less time. Last stay before we got back to Greece.

Summer 2010: Germany - Czech Republic - Denmark - Sweden - The Netherlands: Flight to Berlin, rental car. Toured it around. Southwest to Dresden, then we decided to pay Prague another visit. We still have those "Before - After" photos, there was a year difference since our last visit. Back to Berlin at the very same night. Later on, north to Rostock (ferry port). Ferry boat to... some random town in Denmark starting from G whose name I don't remember. Further north to Copenhagen. Stay and tour. We also made it past the bridge that connects it to Sweden and visited the nearby city of Malmo for a day. After we were done with this all, we took the long route to the southwest, getting back to Germany, through Hamburg and Hannover, then west straight into the Netherlands. Stayed in Amsterdam. In Amsterdam, we did [REDACTED]... nah kidding I was young, truth is the stereotypes about Amsterdam are just stereotypes, there are many other cool things to do there. Anyways, after that all we took the long way to the east back to Berlin to get a flight back to Athens. Last journey abroad with parents.

January 2014: Germany - France. This one was a school trip to Strasbourg (I have even blogged about it but the old blogs are gone). Flight to Frankfurt (HUGE airport, apparently it's the second biggest in Europe after London's Heathrow), southwest to Heidelberg and Baden-Baden, then to Strasbourg, in which we did stay for all the nights. We toured the city a lot and visited the European Parliament (that was the whole point of the school trip). Then we just went back to Frankfurt (it is quite close to Strasbourg) to take the plane back.
TL;DR
Italy, United Kingdom, France, Turkey, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, San Marino, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Denmark, Sweden, The Netherlands
 
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I've done a lot of traveling in my country (the US) but have only had the opportunity to leave the country once for a short-lived vacation. My family took a lot of road trips when I was younger, so while I didn't get to stop and experience the different sub-culutures of each state, I've been/driven through 30 of them, which is fairly cool to say, and I'd like to visit the rest too.

I'm saving up money right now so I'll be able travel in a year or so, but where I want to go first I really have no idea. There are so many interesting places and lots of things I want to learn and experience, so it feels a little unfair to rank them tbh. Since I haven't done much out-of-country traveling though I'd probably start somewhere easier to go (and by that I mean not having to deal with a language barrier), but who knows.
 
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Pretty much only been to Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana (very briefly), and South and North Carolina.
 
I've been to quite a few places. I've been back to Lebanon several times to visit relatives, and I've also been to several Middle Eastern countries. I've been to Mecca because my family is Muslim and we're supposed to go there at least once in our lifetimes. Trust me, it's not as exciting as it sounds - you're literally swarmed by millions of people from every corner of the globe (but I did have a good time at the hotel). Going to the Middle East can be a little scary since there's the ever-constant threat of terrorists, but there are soldiers there to protect you (don't worry, the soldiers are the ones fighting the terrorists). Egypt was probably the best since I got to see the pyramids (and I nearly fainted when I saw them up close!). Plus it's very hot and usually very dry. But the food's pretty good, and non-radicalized people there are usually very nice. They actually don't hate Americans. Heck, there's even American products you can get in the Middle East that you can't get in Australia!
 
Harshness. You got any other country instead like Greece or Kazakhstan?
 
I would like to visit both those places! The top countries I want to visit are Germany and Japan.
To be honest tho, Id visit any country if I had the means to just go.
 
Germany is boss. I stayed there for a long time. Great country. Japan is somewhere I want to go.
 
I'd like to visit Japan as well. Would also like to visit USA (New York, Miami, Las Vegas and Los Angeles come to mind as well as several places where good online friends of mine live). Instanbul too (it's really close and has a history I'm interested in, but this point in time isn't the best to go there...) and Spain/Portugal maybe as it is one of those parts of Europe I haven't gone to.

... did I forget Russia? Moscow or St. Petersburg, please!
 
Going to Tokyo in December, as mentioned previously. Already bought my tickets, still figuring out where I'm gonna stay (probably hotel for the first day, then Airbnb). I might hit up Kyoto while I'm there but I'll only be there for nine days this time so plans are still up in the air. I'll sort of be there with a friend of mine (in that he and his army buddies will be arriving in Hokkaido maybe two weeks before I get there, and then heading to Tokyo a few days before I do, so they'll be going home a few days into my stay). For some unknown reason (perhaps because he's a weirdo) my friend wants to go to the Suicide Forest (Aokigahara) but I'm not even sure he knows of it as "The Suicide Forest." He is also a big huge weirdo so that might be why. We're also going to Zao's Kitsune Mura (Zao Fox Village) because foxes. are. ADORABLE. (Here's a vid a friend of mine recorded when he went there).

Of course we're also going to buy a craptop of stuff in Akihabara, and there's a few clothing stores I want to hit up (although I will probably have to take all the clothes I buy to be taken in when I get home because latina body shape is much different than Asian body shape so I will have to buy like extra large size for everything ^@__@^;; )
 
I would really love to ski in St. Moritz or go surfing in South Africa. That would be the dream.
 
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