Yeah, it's safe. Do you feel safe in your city? It's just as safe in an other country (though I guess that depends). Spent some nights in the streets (parks, unlocked buildings), did urban camping, slept on the beach and the only hiccup I got was in Porto (hot-dog vendor didn't want to give back my change on a 20 euro bill and we got in a fight).
I like to switch between traveling with friends and solo. I'd spend 2 weeks with friends, a few days solo, then a week or 2 with people I'd meet, then meet back with friends, share experiences, then switch to solo, etc. There's some stuff that I'm glad I did with friends, while some stuff that I feel I would've missed out had I been with them. Comes down to your personality, who you meet, the vibe of your trip, etc.
Fancy ur boy Mic rang me up with a hundo million $ + tab on my quick stop to Jost. Consumed years worth of pineapple to make my jizz taste great for Arkadin and Lou Holth :/ )
So Seattle is nothing short of the ripe titties. Fancy Gin Buckets we went here for about two hours last night, may be the best bar I've ever been to. Was rated as the #6 bar in the World for 2014. http://www.canonseattle.com http://seattle.eater.com/2014/10/10/6957177/canon-takes-6-among-worlds-best-bars
You could be traveling back and forth to South Korea like a friend of mine instead. Definitely worse places to go to.
Seattle write-up: I give it an 11 out of 10. So tight. Top places: -Canon -Taylor's Shellfish Farms -Pike's Place---seriously, for like 3 or 4 meals I would just get silly and walk around the market and eat whatever I came across. And it was amazing every time. Best brewery I went to was probably Fremont Brewing Co. or Stoup's. Stoup's had the best beer, but Fremont had the coolest drinking area. Weather was awesome, high 60s during the day, around 55 at night. No rain at all, but it was overcast. Love that you can walk almost anywhere and not sweat. Was surprised at how many homeless people there were downtown. I've been to NY, DC, NOLA, lots of big cities, but Seattle had more homeless people than any of them. Maybe they were just concentrated in the downtown area where I was, but it was interesting. Didn't feel threatened or anything, but can see how it would get old if you lived there. Seattle's pretty damn expensive, too. Cost of living is very high, and while the food everywhere was awesome, it was not cheap. Granted, I splurged and went to mostly top-end places, but still a pretty expensive city. Now going to look for jobs up there.
Currently looking at going to St. Lucia in August. Any recommendations on travel plans? I'll be coming from DC and right now it looks like $550 for flights. Any other suggestions on a different place to go to?
write-up on Seattle man. Glad you liked the reccos. Fremont Brewery is fun as shit sitting outside on those tables when the weather is nice. Love that city, and I'll be back for the first time since moving in a month.
Glad you had a good time, man. City gov't is lax with homeless population so they just swarm to downtown Seattle. Shit sucks tbqh
Just got back from a 11 day road trip with the wife. Down to Key West and back from North Carolina. Spoiler We try to do one big trip every year but due to finances this year couldn't really swing any overseas trips. We made stops in Hilton Head (sister is getting marries there, so we met them to look at the venues and do other wedding stuff. Definitely would not have made that stop otherwise as Hilton Head is pretty boring), Orlando to do Epcot for the day, Miami, Key West, Saint Augustine, Savannah. Was an awesome trip, had a ton of good food, laid out on some beaches, drank a bunch and generally just relaxed. Was really nice having the car as well, never felt overly rushed as we could just kind of make up our own schedule. Key West was the high light for sure, went once in college for spring break so this was a much different, and honestly much better experience. We got an airbnb place a little north of Duval that had two bikes. We would just bike everywhere which was awesome. Only downside is the sweating, they have some serious humidity down there so I just basically sweated nonstop. Only specific things we did were the conch train and went snorkeling one day. Conch train is a really touristy thing to do but was really interesting to get all the history about Key West. Snorkeling was fun too. I have done snorkeling trips several times in Cancun, Bahamas, Virgin Islands. This was one of the worst for actually seeing things but would still recommend it. Miami was cool. Probably will never go again but glad I got to experience it for a couple of days. We stayed right in the middle of it on South Beach, while that location was great for getting anywhere it sucked at night with all the loud music and dealing with all the people. Ate a bunch of awesome Cuban food, laid on the beach. Saint Augustine was very interesting from a history standpoint. Pretty cool how Spanish the historic part feels. Don't know how to quite describe it but everyone that was visiting that place was fucking weird. Just nothing but families of really awkward people. Hard to describe but it kind of killed the vibe for sure. I know lots of people in here have been to Savannah but somehow I never had. Really awesome city. The history, food, drinking, and just scenery were all top notch. We were only here for a couple of days but I'm looking forward to getting back.
I just was in Rome for three nights, I was at a hotel about three blocks from here. I first arrived and was transiting at Rome for a flight to Malta, I had to get in a line for ~90 minutes to pass customs even though I was just transiting. Otherwise no major problems in getting around. I didn't see this place mentioned in a quick search, stopped by here and had a few drinks and light food, really nice atmosphere and good mix of locals and travelers when I was there. Ai Tre Scalini, http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaura...Scalini_Bottiglieria_dal_1895-Rome_Lazio.html If you like live music, The Druid's Den has it on Friday and Saturday night, also not too far from where you are at. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187791-d2375031-Reviews-Druid_s_Den-Rome_Lazio.html
Officially a week away from my trip . Don't have many plans for Budapest or Copenhagen. Any advice on things to do for either of those places? Jean-Ralphio I hear you're the one to speak with regarding Copenhagen. Could actually use some more info on Krakow as well.
Arrive June 14, leave June 17. 23 years old. Will be me and 2 buddies same age, one of which works like 30 minutes outside of Copenhagen.
I just checked my credit card statements for the first time. I spent a lot of fucking money in Seattle. Vegas in 1 month
So our program director brought 27 large frank pepe pizzas into work today. It was pretty freaking good.
well nightlife is probably pretty dead those days. There is this place called papirøen where they have booze and streetfood. its p cool and im sure it'll be pretty great if the weather is with you guys. http://copenhagenstreetfood.dk i'll ask around for more recs as im mostly there on weekends and spent a lot of time being drunk and not much else. Christiania is also worth a visit. its probably the exact opposite of America.
A lot of people in this thread, myself included, have stayed at Wombats. I liked it a lot. Built more like a hotel than other hostels, but it has a really cool rooftop bar that makes it easy to meet people.
Wombats is the SHIT. One of the best hostels in Europe, probably mostly because they have an amazing rooftop bar. Highly recommend.
I think I've given most of my reccos. The Budapest hostel/party scene is the best in Europe. They have sick pub crawls 7 days a week. The biggest is the Turkish Bath party, which takes place on Saturday night (or used to when I was there). That city also has a very strong walking tour. Krakow will be awesome... The reccos at the hostel are as good as any I could give you. Get a doner at that place I posted in this thread a while back. Eat at that one milk kitchen -- I'll have to look up which ones later. When at the milk kitchen make absolutely sure you order bigos, because that is awesome. I'll defer to Jean-Ralphio on Copenhagen. I thought the locals there were nice as shit -- they literally introduced us to the entire bar on one of the nights. The hotdog street meat isn't as good as it looks. That's all I got. Great city though. Play some foosball before you go, because Europeans fucking love that game.
Yea hotdogs here are shitty imo, but thats probably mostly because i dont like half the shit they put on them.
How'd you like the atmosphere at Taylor's Shellfish? It's kind of cool, right? Did you scope Pine Box after? Like I said, Taylor Shellfish were the best oysters I had the entire time I lived there.
Taylor's was awesome. Just sat at the bar with my buddy and shot the shit with the bartender. Seriously had like 3 down oysters. Didn't check out Pine Box after, we stayed until like 10:30 and went straight from there to Shorty's.
GoPro pics uploaded. Fremont Brewery Spoiler Sounders game @ Century Link Spoiler Folklife Festival @ Seattle Center Spoiler Canon Spoiler
Guys who went to Thailand did you take Malaria pills? I got notification today that my insurance company denied to cover them which I guess is pretty standard. If so is there a generic kind (i.e. Costco) that would be a good way to go?
They'll make you craaaaazy Edit: I've not been to Thailand, but have been to places that required malaria meds. I think I got shots when I was in 'Nam. South Africa: pills didn't make me that crazy, but the dudes I was with had some serious nightmares and shit from them.
Never took them in Thailand or Afghanistan. The ones they tried to give us, you have to take at the same time every day and continue taking them for awhile when you get back home too. Doubt you need them in Thailand unless you are going to be living in the jungle or some shit.
Sounds good yeah we aren't going to the jungle or anything just wasn't sure how prevalent that stuff is in Northern Thailand (Pai/Chiang Mai). I would guess not very but wanted to check.
I think BamaNug spent time in Northern Thailand. I don't think it's a big deal, use some bug spray and don't sleep with the windows/screens open in your hotel room. But he might know more about that area than me. I stayed in Patteya and Phuket.
I honestly don't think I was bitten by one mosquito while over there. I spent almost my whole trip in Chiang Mai/Pai and it was never a concern. EDIT: Not to mention, I slept outside in Pai every night. Like everyone else said, crazy fucking nightmares. The only 'ailment' I had was adjusting to the time-change. I've never really suffered from jetlag going to Europe, but it took like a week for my body to fully adjust to being in SE Asia. Just felt weird for a little while until I got my feet under me.
Nice to hear so I am guessing it isn't necessary even though sounds like you took them (although maybe not in Thailand).
No, I never took them. But it's common for people to take them, and was a regular topic of conversation. Almost everyone I spoke to had scary shit to say about the nightmares they gave you. A friend took them when going to Honduras and thought he was losing his mind. He's already a weird dude as it is, though. I don't think Malaria is nearly as big a concern over there (Thailand) as it's made out to be. Thailand also has a state of the art medical community with some of the best hospitals in SE Asia, so it's not like a 3rd world country where they won't really know what to do if you get diagnosed. Cambodia/Laos/Myanmar on the other hand...I wouldn't even want to catch a cold there.
I'm usually a mosquito magnet and haven't taken any malaria meds for anything. Wouldn't unless I'm going somewhere super risky like deep amazon or Africa. If you're that concerned, get something with >20% deet. Usually the nicer smelling bug sprays are around 10-12% and don't work well. I was told by a travel doctor 20% was the key number before going to Brazil.
Curious, what do you guys do for jet lag? I've been seriously considering preparing for my trip with some wonky sleep changes to get ready
Don't get drunk on long flights + ambien + forcing yourself to go to sleep at normal time of place of destination to get on schedule (if you get into your destination at say 4pm, force yourself to stay up until like 10 or 11 pm). Not exactly jet lag related, but make sure you walk around a lot during your flight. Those long flights in coach are brutal, and your ankles will be like cankles if you don't get up. After going from Dallas --> SF --> Hong Kong --> Bankgok, then to Phuket, then to Maldives then home, ALL in coach we came to the conclusion that you have officially made it in life when you travel business class or 1st class internationally. Game changer and man did I envy those people.
Definitely figure out what the time is of where you're going and start being on that time 24 hours before. Use some sort of pill if you can to help. I usually take triazolam (halcion). It's a much shorter half life than other benzos so its out of your system quicker, and it will actually knock you out more than just relaxing you like a xanax. Definitely drink lots of water and no drinking alcohol on the flight. Then avoid the temptation to nap when you get to your destination until its time to sleep for the night. Having a flat bed for the flight definitely helps, so save up those miles.
Get a solid mileage card and start working on it for the next trip. I'm flying business to Seoul, first back from Tokyo in september for basically free thanks to amex miles. It's totally worth spending the extra miles for business/first. If I'm going coach I don't waste my miles and just pay for it.
I never had a problem drinking alcohol on the long flights affecting me in a negative way with jet lag. I mean I don't get hammered but I would always have a few drinks and nap on and off on the plane. Then when I landed I'd stay up until bed time local time. Definitely get up and move around, and if it's been a few hours since you've stood up, don't jump up too fast. You'll wind up like I did and get like 3 steps and then all of a sudden be on the floor in the aisle of the plane. That shit freaked me out too. I've never passed out before and the first time I do it is 35K feet over the Atlantic. I was freaking myself out till the flight attendants calmed me down. I did get one of those bomb ass first class pillows for the rest of the flight though.
How many miles was it for your trips to Seoul/back from Tokyo? All Skymiles, or are you in their medallion program too?
My remedy.... Set alarm to destinations time... On a short Euro flight go to bed after a movie and then try to make yourself sleep for 3-4 hours/until they start handing out breakfast. Upon landing (almost always it will be in the morning on Euro flights) do not take a nap (there are exceptions, depending on when you land and when you normally wake up). Drink coffee, take adderall, do whatever you need to do to stay awake until you'd go to bed as if you had never missed any sleep at all. I still don't like going to bed early on these days TBH, because I think it's recipe for a like 8 or 9 PM crash every single freaking day. If you can manage that, and it's not as hard as it sounds, then you'll be good to go after that first day. First nights in Asia, South Africa, and New Zealand I got there around 4PM... Partied until 2-3AM. Europe is a little tougher with the shorter flight and early ass arrivals.
I used 140k miles I transfered from my amex platinum to Al Nippon frequent flyer program.I can transfer to about 15 different airlines. The only domestic ones are Delta, Virgin, Jet Blue and Hawaiian. 140k was more than normal because one of the legs is first class in a 3 cabin. Normally I would just book business bc the flat bed is what matters to me the most, but it wasn't available. The domestic airlines tend to have more and lower mileage reward flights but the quality of everything on an real international carrier is much higher. You have to have a card that gives you actual miles into a frequent flyer account to book business/first tickets, not a points card, which, as far as im aware pretty much narrows you down to any airline credit card or chase sapphire, or the upper level amex's.