Travel • Page 6

I'll be in Las Vegas tomorrow for the 7th time in 7 years. Can't wait.

 

I'd legitimately go anywhere (within reason) if an opportunity presented itself. Some places are higher on my list and I strive for those, but I'll take what I can get. Even new places in the state I live in are cool to me.

If someone woke me up tomorrow and said, "Pack your shit, we're going to a small town in the middle of nowhere," my first thought would be, "We're driving right?"

 

The one thing I want to do while I'm in San Francisco next month to visit extended family is to go to the MOMA museum by myself.

 

Looking at booking a week in Hawaii thanks to Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami. He makes it sound glorious and not touristy (which is "duh", i know, just gotta find the non-touristy spots and even so, it's fucking Hawaii).

Also want to visit any part of Japan, but specifically Kyoto.

Also Iceland.

And a million others.

If i do go to Hawaii, at any time in my life, the first song i'm listening to is "Killing Time in Hawaii" by The Money Pit.

 

I've watched way too many travel documentaries because I really want to take slow train trips through the UK, Japan, and Europe and just soak in every thing.

I feel guilty that I don't have a desire to go visit China again after my first time when I was eight, but to be fair, even my parents aren't really pushing to go back because they've left for so long that what the country looks like today is near unrecognizable to them and they keep up with their friends via WeChat.

 

Are any of those documentaries on Netflix?

 

I know Antarctica: A Year On The Ice, is a good one that I know is on there. Could never live there myself since I'm Floridian, but it was so fascinating to watch. Human Planet and Planet Earth were stunning. But those are the only ones I liked on Netflix that I know of.

A lot of the travel docs and shows I watched were downloaded and torrented. One that I really enjoyed is called All Board The Canal Trip which is a literal 2 hour canal trip in England. There's no narration or anything, just a slow and meandering canal boat trip. There's another one I liked, Canal Walks with Julia Bradbury is a four-parter up on Youtube about taking short hikes along some canals in Britain.

She also goes on hikes in Germany and I'm like, "I want to do that too."

Rick Steves's shows on PBS were also a favorite.
The Travel Channel one about the cruise ship that was a literal sailing condo building, I watched that every single time it came on tv, haha.

 

My next two trips are for concerts in June where I'm going to see Pup in Atlanta and then two nights in Cleveland for Against Me but in July I'm gone for a month with my mom to go on a river cruise in Europe. It starts in Amsterdam and follows the Rhine ending in Basel, then we're spending another week wandering around Switzerland then to Paris and ending in London. After that my mom goes home and I'll spend another month in London staying with friends. I visited them for a month at the beginning of the year and froze so I'm looking forward to better weather, as a Floridian unaccustomed to real cold weather I found that wearing everything I owned at all times was the only way to really stay warm. I think on that trip I ended up going to 2 plays and 6 concerts so hopefully there's some decent shows happening while I'm there this time.

 

I am having S O M U C H F U N

 

Holy shit, very jealous. Spent 5 days in Berlin last fall, and it's probably my favourite city.

How familiar are you with the city/what are you looking for?

I might not be an expert, but I did zero tours, had no guides and walked around 30KM solo a day, so I discovered so much and I could recommend specific spots if depending On what you're looking for.

Berlin is honestly such a big (size-wise) city that really requires a lot of solo travelling and personal discovery to find those hole in the wall places, because that's really the charm of the city.

For neighbourhoods, obviously Mitte is "where it's at", and you'll find so many bars and clothing stores and it's a generally hip (but gentrified) area.

Then there's Kreuzberg which I suppose is the Williamsburg of Berlin, but very ethnically diverse. Here you'll find a lot of hidden secrets for food, coffee, clothes and a lot of cool pawnshops. A little further out is Neukölln which is an emerging neighbourhood that i loved. So many cheap spots to party (don't know much about the rest; I only went at night.). If you get out st Hermannplatz station, there's a shopping mall to your left (behind the station). One night, I met up with some people, took the lift to the top, walked up two floors of parking garage, and there's a random bar with €3 cover, that nets you a free (mandatory) shot of schnapps. An electro county band played to a full house. It was nuts.

Another great neighbourhood is Wedding which I haven't gone to, but it's on the west end and apparently really cool.

I also suggest checking out the museum scene; they're mostly on this one specific island. I can find you the name of specific ones, but one museum has a full display of a 30-foot tall gate to an Assyrian marketplace from 1200BC, if that's your thing. In Mitte, some of the Nazis buildings still stand and are converted into museums. The holocaust museum is a not to miss.

I also took a walk down the Berlin Wall divider. Some stretches are really jarring, because on what was the east side, the apartments are very Soviet "concrete blocks" and across the street to "the west" you see these beautiful villas that look right out of The Sound of Music.

Anyways, if there's anything you're into, I'd love to offer some more specific recommendations.

 

Jesus, i knew Seattle was expensive but never really realized how much until comparing it to other things.

example: a 5-day trip to Hawaii - a good handful of their top rated hotels - costs LESS than a 5-day trip to Seattle. what the fuck. i love Seattle, don't get me wrong, but that's outrageous.

 

can't help it, Eurotrip ruined it for me...

 

Funny enough, the entirety of Euro trip (from the high school scene at the beginning, to every single city shot) was shot in Prague.

 

Yeaaaaaaah, seattle is pretty expensive. Were you looking to stay downtown? Shit gets super pricey.

 

Thanks for the great reply.

I'm honestly not too familiar with the city, but with five weeks I hope to see as much as I can. The design of the trip has me taking class Tuesday-Thursday at 11-1 every week. I'll pretty much have four days each week to explore and see the city (hopefully other parts of Germany too).

Our itinerary has my group seeing/doing: German History Museum, a boat cruise, a Cabaret Story, Topography of Terror, a trip to Dresden, Jewish Museum, Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz, Museum and Memorial Sachsenhausen, Berlin Wall, Reichstag, and the Gedenkstatte Berlin-Hohenschonhausen Memorial.

I love walking when I'm travelling so there will plenty of ground to cover. I'm getting a student pass which gets me discounts on museum fees, movie theaters, and transportation (not sure on this one yet).

I know Silverstein's playing a club in the city while I'm there so I'll definitely look into going to that. But I'm open to checking out a lot of night life that's going on. If you know of any good record stores I'd love to check those out. Any cool parks you know of?

What was your experience with the language there? Did you come across much English on your trip?

Thanks for replying once again.

 

In August 2013 I drove from Wisconsin to Seaside, OR and back. Loved it. It was a great time from start to finish. Numerous great stops and experiences in every state along the way, along with numerous National Parks. The only downside was I had to complete this trip in two weeks so some days were heavy on driving and not on taking my time.

The job I have now allows me to take more time off than what I have for vacation (which I don't have anyway since I just started) so while I've been debating going to Hawaii, Norway, Kyoto or Japan I'm wondering if it's time to recreate the 2013 trip with more time and leisure. To save on money, maybe camp for most to cut down on hotel costs. We'll see.

The original plan years ago was "Pacific Ocean one trip, Atlantic Ocean the next" but... the east doesn't interest me at all. Maine and Vermont do, but the drive to get there is filled with states that don't interest me much, so I'm think the Summer of 2016 will be a repeat trip of Summer of 2013. A lot has changed in the three years since that trip and I think it'd be a good (near) closure of my 20's.

 

I did Topography of Terror (amazing museum, I spent a good 4 hours there), the Berlin Wall, and I was in line for the Reichstag which I was really excited for, but the way it's set up, you have to book in advance, online, and I had no data, so I would've had to make it back to my hostel to book, and that would've been lame.

If you're into history, definitely take a trip out to Potsdam. I didn't do it this time, but it's a must see for anyone with an interest in WW2. Pretty sure you can get there on the U-bahn, although it might be a slightly more expensive fee. Either way, you'll be good to go with a student pass.

One cool, out of the way museum is the Ramones museum, that I had wanted to go since I was like 13. It's a small café, but it has a ton of cool memorabilia if you're into old punk, and for €4, you get entry, a pin, and a Beck's, which is a great.

My favourite museum (on museum island) is the Pergamon Museum I mentioned in my previous post. Some of their biggest and most amazing pieces are the Pergamon_Altar, the Market Gate of Miletus, the Ishtar Gate from Babylon, and a ton of Islamic art that is super captivating.

For parks, the Großer Tiergarten is an absolute must see. It's basically Berlin's Central park, and you could probably spend an entire day just checking it out. Some of my personal highlights are the Soviet War Memorial, the Beethoven-Haydn-Mozart Memorial (what's cool about this statue is that if you look closely, it's full of pock marks, which I found out were bullet holes from one of WW2's final battles between the soviets and the nazis), and the Victory Column. That last one is a must-see as well, although it's a climb up around 200 feet on a single-file stairwell. I had walked up the Arc de Triomphe in Paris the week before, and this climb up was worse. But worth it. you get a great view of Berlin.

Another park area, is if you travel to Kreuzberg, just walk along the canal, and you'll see a lot of cool/weird spaces, especially as you approach the former limits between east and west berlin. Can't give you exact places because I was lost myself, but there are a ton of markets, bars, and public green spaces.

For record shops, I can't remember any names, but in Kreuzberg, check out the area surrounding Heinrichplatz, specifically Oranienstaße and marrianenstaße. I hung out in a skateshop (Search & Destroy) there that was playing tigers jaw & basement, and there were a ton of record shops, cheap places to eat, general cool stuff and cheap things to do. Also, a lot of apparel stores sell stuff cheaper than what you'd get in North America. Found a Fred Perry polo for like 30 euros there.

Definitely check out the nightlife there, it's known as one of the best, if not the best in the world. People don't really care how you dress; I got into a club wearing skinny jeans and a band T, and was not out of place. If you can get into Berghain, definitely do that; it's probably the most famous club in europe, although famously tough to get into. My friends from Berlin told me some really crazy stories about what goes on in there.

Also, turkish food is your friend if you're into partying at night. Rock the döner as often as you can, it's the best.

For the language, there's an expression I've heard a few times that's along the lines of "one of the most surprising things about Berlin is that you might even meet people who don't speak English!". That is to say, around 95% of Berliners speaka anything from passable to excellent English, and are super accommodating (more so younger people, but generally this is true) to foreigners who can't speak much German. You could theoretically spend your entire time in Berlin without even speaking a single sentence of German, but of course, it's always polite to at least try. If you don't know any German, the words are very similar to English, so you can translate around a quarter of what you read just by knowing English. the Grammar and sentence structure is very French which helped me, and if you know any french, you'll be a step above. But it's good to learn know how to order basic food, coffee, beer, so on, how to ask for directions, and any sort of basic, entry level phrases.

 

Really hoping I'm able to go to LA next month. I'd like to take an actual trip before starting work again.

 

The one big thing I wanted to do on this family visit to San Francisco is to go to the Museum of Modern Art. I did and it was so enjoyable, I loved the photography, sculptures, and typography exhibits.

 

At the Frankfurt Airport waiting for my connecting flight to Berlin. Can't wait to get these five weeks started

 

That's awesome. Have fun!

 

I'm going to spend a couple days up in Detroit next month, hanging with a good friend, and seeing Julien Baker while I'm up there. (I don't necessarily count this as "travel" per se, as it's only a few hours away, but still)

Then going to LA in August to finally meet one of my best friends I've known online for years, when she visits from Australia.

 

I've road tripped with friends for the last few years, almost exclusively for football purposes. We did 2 days in Barcelona a few years back taking a match and exploring the city. The next year we did Pisa for a day before heading up to Milan to watch AC play in the champions league. Then last year we spent a night in Amsterdam before heading on to Liepzig to watch the German national team play.

Hopefully once European leagues announce there fixtures we can look at sorting another trip. These are fantastic trips but 2 lots of 24 hour drives in 4 or 5 days really take it out of you.

I'm also hoping to do another Florida theme park holiday with the family this year too as last minute flights regularly go down to as low as £195 return.

I came in to this thread feeling under travelled so it's good to list things like this.

 

I'm spending 5 days in New York, and then a week in San Diego next month and I can not wait.

Just by myself in New York, but visiting family in San Diego. Did the same trip last year, but only had three days in New York which wasn't enough.

 

I have a prescheduled dinner tonight around 6 and Explosions In The Sky is playing a show that starts at 8. I would love to make that if possible.