EN World's Travel Thread :)

Jon_Dahl · Jun 26, 2012

In this thread we can suggest great destinations, talk about our travel plans, shamelessly advertise our own country (or state) and ask questions.

Personally I love traveling but money is always an issue. This year I only visited Tallinn, Estonia. [sblock]Plusses: Olde Hansa is a nice medieval restaurant. Their food and theme were satisfactory. It was just a bit hard to pee in the candlelight. They have nice historical buildings and the arsenal of medieval weapons in the House of the Brotherhood of Blackheads was very impressive; it's a very good attraction for any roleplayer. Estonians have decent command of English. Minuses: I found it annoying that I had to pay to visit a church (Holy Spirit Church).[/sblock]

So far my favorite destination has been Brazil. [sblock]<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:HyphenationZone>21</w:HyphenationZone> <w

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oNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>FI</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w

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ontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]-->[FONT=&quot]My friend, who has traveled a lot more than I have, also considers Brazil as his [URL=http://www.enworld.org/forum/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=1]#1 [/URL] favorite[/FONT]. Brazil is an interesting combination of old and new. Basically there is everything for everyone. Ouro Preto and its architecture, gazillion beaches, mindblowing cuisine, low prices, pure nature, sunshine... Maybe the only negative thing is that English is not widely spoken in Brazil (they have no need for it) so it can be challenging to get your message through unless you can speak Portuguese. Spanish doesn't work. The most appealing aspect was the kindness of Brazilians. It surpassed everything else that the country had to offer. Visiting Brazil made me want to be one of them. [/sblock]

In the future I'm thinking about visiting Portugal and Turkey. Portugal is rather expensive but there are many historical buildings and nice beaches. Also Portuguese language is close to my heart. My friend wants to go to Turkey and it's not nice to travel alone so I could join in. See the dancing dervishes, Istanbul... We have been talking about this for so long that it's bound to happen. It's just about money and time.

Please tell me great travel tips and make me book a flight to your country

Umbran · Jun 26, 2012

I'm in the process of planning a trip to Italy this autumn - hitting Rome and Venice, specifically. I'm happy to hear recommendations...

Mercutio01 · Jun 26, 2012

Caveat - most of my "travel" was courtesy of the USS Cape St. George (from Oct 2001 - Dec 2004), but not all of it.

Marmaris Turkey stood out as one of my favorite places to visit.

Gdynia Poland and Kiel Germany were fun and entertaining (particularly Kiel during Kiel Week).

Malta was interesting, but I'm not much of a gambler and the main thing to do vacationwise was gamble.

Edinburgh and Glasgow Scotland were a blast. Even the tourist trap like stuff along the Royal Mile in Edinburgh (the ghost tours through Queen Anne's Close and around the castle were kind of fun, with the best part being the shot of whisky and conversations with the guides and other tourists at the end of the tours).

In the US, Pensacola Beach was pretty nice, and Daytona at Spring Break (which also coincided with Bike Week the year I went) was awesome. The Florida Keys were great, but the best experience was the two days we rented a boat and camped out on some unnamed mangrove island key. Savannah Georgia during St. Patrick's Day was the most uninhibited (read: inebriated) I think I've ever been.

But the all-time greatest vacation I went on was one that was actually a vacation--St. Lucia. We stayed at Anse Chastanet in Soufriere when a friend had a destination wedding. The entire experience was awesome. Personal cabin near the beach, food and drink on demand, boat rides and snorkeling along coral reefs, etc. And the food was excellent. Not to forget the tour and free unlimited tasting session at the rum distillery.

My favorite times in all of those places, though, was going away from the tourist locales and hanging out where locals hung out. There was a nice little bar near the beach in Gdynia where I drank vodka and beer with Poles. Walking through the open air market in Castries in St. Lucia mirrored some of the awesomeness of the bazaars in Turkey.

Herschel · Jun 29, 2012

Glasgow and Edinburgh were a blast in Scotland but one place I really enjoyed was Oban. It's a small town on the West Coast where ferries can take you out to Mull and Iona. I sat in The Wine & Cheese Shop and we talked Scotch as well as sampling a few. Not like in a touristy way, just chatting. There's the Dunollie Castle ruins, which was actually a small keep, but the first castle ruins I ever walked through. It was a town I hadn't thought anything about when it ended up on the itinerary, it was just the place to catch the ferry, but spending teh afternoon and evening there was a great time. There's a pub down by the docks that had a neon Schlitz sign in the window, which is an American beer I don't think had been made in 20 years when I was there.

Iona itself was not something I had originally planned on seeing but was part of the motorcoach tour I took to help fill in teh gaps while I was there. I'm glad I went because it was very cool.

Inverness was also a lot of fun. It's kind of quaint and I just went in to a pub and struck up conversations with teh locals who were all friendly and had a great time. Most people were friendly (just like most places) but it was nice coming from an urban area that can sometimes feel pretty "closed". People were dancing to karaoke (one of the things I most detest on this planet) but I saw perhaps my view of the most beautiful woman on the planet at Johnny Fox's and thought 'when in Rome' and danced the night away anyway. When I tell friends that story they're amazed I even went in a bar that had karaoke, let alone stayed the night and had a blast.

EN World's Travel Thread :)

Jon_Dahl

First Post

Umbran

Mod Squad

Mercutio01

First Post

Herschel

Adventurer

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