Travel

[His Eminence Lord Poppington II]

ITT: Discuss where you have been, where you would like to go, why would you like to go there, what are some interesting experiences you have had.

As an international student I've traveled a fair amount, but I have been in China for the past 11 years-ish after being born in Australia.

When I was a baby my family lived in Cambodia, the poorest country in the region and I've been told that my dad was held at gunpoint twice and subsequently relieved of his wallet.

However, a somewhat amusing event occurred when my dad contracted a company to demolish a building. On the day of the demolition my dad was waiting outside the site, he saw some guys roll up, somewhat confused at the lack of machinery he assumed they had some TNT or something. Instead, 100+ men spent the better part of the day with hammers whacking at the build to destroy it.

 

[internet]

i am currently in berlin, went there from the nether by train.

it's very german here

 

[Snkz]

I've been to Italy and a few states in america as a child, but my memory of all of those events are a bit (read: very) fuzzy.

I really want to check out Singapore though, not to sure why but it interests me and seems like a great place to visit.

 

[Diana]

I really haven't travelled around the world, but the US is big enough that I've been quite a few places. 48 states, actually.

I remember one time, we were at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, during a thunderstorm, and a few of us stupidly went to the top, when lightning hit a flag pole and almost hit us instead. We screamed and ran back down and they closed that area afterwards.

We stayed at a casino resort in Mesquite, Nevada once... Spent most of the time in the pool, parents never gambled, and the room was horrible. It was a heat wave too: 127 degrees Fahrenheit. The 100-ish at midnight felt nice. The same trip I got altitude sickness on Pike's Peak in Colorado.

The last vacation was out west again, in 2010. Note that Kansas, North Dakota, and Montana are all far too wide and boring. Anyway, weird things abound: A 12 foot tall pink elephant statue in Wisconsin, a haunted hotel in Colorado... Oh, and I found it weird that everything in Utah was closed on Sunday. I know why it's that way, but still, why close when you're Wendy's. I also passed Lady Gaga's tour bus east of Denver which was pretty hilarious, mainly because I can make her fans jealous though it's just passing a bus ._.;;

I could go into a lot more here too but I think that's good for now, I've been all over the country though.

 

[Zystral]

I live in the UK, and I've been to pretty much every single major city in the UK bar anywhere in Ireland.

I've also been to pretty much every single country in Europe, but most of it was when I was young, so I can't remember anything except Germany, Holland, France, and Italy.

I've also been to most of oriental asia, but that's mainly due to visit family. China, Thailand, Japan, and Malaysia are the main places. Occasionally S.Korea thoug.

I've visited bits and places in the US, the ones of note are; California (LA area), Virginia, New York, and Tenessee



I also plan on staying away from Africa.

 

[DM]

I am born and raised Buffalonian, so I've been to Canada plenty of times but I've never been outside North America. I'll be going to England/Scotland/Ireland with Fish in less than two weeks, SUPER excited about that. I've also been to Mexico, specifically Cabo San Lucas, 3 times.

Inside America, I've been up and down the eastern side of the country tons of times, staying in Atlanta/Orlando/Jacksonville/Jekyll Island/Charlotte/tons of other places. Also been to Boston a couple times, Vermont, and Connecticut up in that area. Out west, I've only been to Lexington, Indianapolis, and Las Vegas.

I would like to go: to the western side of the US. I desperately want to drive US Route 1 through the California wine country. As for worldly travels, this is a small fraction of the countries I want to visit: Australia, France, Germany, India, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, China, New Zealand...

 

[Xaqwais]

I was born and raised in a Chicago suburb (that's USA, if ya don't know). I've been a bit around the midwest as we have family in Detroit, which I visit quite often. I've been to both Orlando and Los Angeles when I was younger, but haven't done much in terms of "real vacationing" since.

As for out of the country, I've been to Canada randomly on road trips for various things. Never got too far in, but I've been to Windsor and Toronto both.

As for out of the continent, I've been to India three times in my life. Once as a baby, second time I was 5, and the third time was when I was 10. While being there is extremely boring, I think I'd enjoy it if I went again, as I'm older can appreciate the non first-world nature of it. I also went to Saudi Arabia for a bit, which was great in a religious and non-religious spectrum.


As for where I want to go? Everywhere. I want to travel to different places of the US (though a lot of places are just for the food), I want to visit lots of Europe (not so much the eastern part though I'm sure it's great), I want to see Japan 'cause I'm a nerd, I want to see not so well off Africa in order to wake up my reality of life, I wanna see Australia 'cause it seems cool and I love the accent, and I wanna see a whole lot of places.

If I'm ever going to? I don't know, but I love learning about different cultures also accents are amazing. I wish I had the money to do so, we'll have to see how life turns out I suppose...

 

[Renosaur]

Born and raised in NSW (New South Wales) Australia with my parents coming from cambodia like OP and moving down here to escape the life of war. I've visited China mainly going to Hong Kong and Macau which the latter is a very cool place to go. A blend of Portuguese and chinese culture, Macau is a interesting place to go in terms of shopping and good styles

I also did in-country travels, we did this massive road trip from Sydney in NSW to Uluru (Ayer's Rock) all the way up in Northern Territory with a group of friends. So fun



Also p.s anyone travelling coming down to Sydney, Australia beware: we have one of the largest traffic and transport congestion in the world

 

[FlamingFighter]

I love how this thread popped up the day after I came back from a 3-week vacation in Greece.

Funnily enough, I arrived the day the taxi blockade-strike that blocked roads to just about everywhere started. Really long political story; I'll get into details if anyone's interested.

Thankfully, our family's taxi driver is actually part of the family, so he got around the strike with his Jeep and got to the Athens airport to pick us up.

I live in the USA, and have been around the states a little (mostly the New York Area and Florida). I once went to Quebec City. No offense to any Canadians, but besides some museums, it's boring as shit.

I really don't like going anywhere; it's too much of a hassle. My dad's name is Bob Smith. Our family has been stopped and searched by Customs so many times, my dad is on a first-name basis with 3/4 of the officers in Newark, LaGuardia, and JFK airports.

Damn paranoid Americans.

 

[Blkmage0253]

I haven't been anywhere "exciting." As an American, I've been to Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Ohio, Texas, New York (I live there), Puerto Rico, Antiqua, St. Thomas, and a bunch of other Caribbean islands. I've also been to Toronto.

BUT this coming semester (the end of this month) I am studying abroad in Hong Kong. I already have my visa to go to mainland China. Macau is a one-hour ferry away. I also want to go to Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. Hopefully most of those will happen

 

[Zacchaeus]

I live in Virginia in the United States. Lots of travelling in my family

Other states I've been to: Maryland, North Carolina, (DC,) Pennsylvania, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, South Carolina, Alabama, Florida, California, Nevada, Colorado, (Puerto Rico,) Alaska

Other countries I've been to (and islands that I don't know which countries they actually belong to or what): Mexico, Canada, Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland, St. Lucia, St. Martin, St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Dominican Republic, Nassau, Belize, Honduras

Places I want to go to: Japan, Australia, Antarctica (yes, the frozen continent, just so I could say I went there)

 

[Jaxx]

Alright lets see here.

I've lived in the UK most of my life, but I lived in Italy for a while because that's where most of my family live. I visit different parts of Italy quite a lot because I kinda miss it. England is great and all but I just feel more at home there. I've been to France a few times, mostly when on school trips when I was i high school. I had a friend in Spain that I'd often visit but I've never been to Germany although it isn't the top of my travel list.

I took the ridiculous flight over to Australia a few years ago where I visited both Brisbane and Sydney. Honestly it was worth the flight. Although on the way back it's a lot worse because you just wanna get home, ya know? What made it worse is some guy decided to have a heart attack as we was flying over India (how inconsiderate!) So we ended up being on the plane for another ~6 hours longer.

I've never been to America although I'm going to Florida this Christmas which will be a real treat. (I plan to act as English as possible and try to fulfill all English stereotypes for the fun of it). Hopefully I'll be able to visit the rest of America at some point as I actually find the country quite fascinating (although I'd never want to live there).

Inside of the UK I've been pretty much everywhere, my favourite country probably being Scotland. Wales was miserable when I went, some people say its always like that!

I'm just rambling now so I'll stop here.

 

[Xav]

Born and raised in Brisbane, Queensland. I have never been out of the country, but we travelled around the East Coast when I was younger. In the coming holidays I am going to China for 10 days (school trip). I have been studying Chinses at school and it should be good. We are going to Bejing, Xian, Shanghai and Hong Kong. We get a free day to ourselves in both Beijing and Hong Kong, does anyone have any sugestions on what I should do?

 

[NatGeo]

Being in the United States we tend to go around our country which has a ton of variation. My parents work in the oil industry so I've had to move several times in my life, though I mostly stayed in Texas. I've been to many Southern states and some out west (specifically California and New Mexico), and I lived in Delaware for two years, giving me nice access to many things along the east coast. Upstate New York is really nice, I might add. I've been to North Carolina for three weeks at Duke, and that was a really nice experience being by the coast - Duke Marine lab is located on a small island in the harbor of a town named Beaufort, overlooking a bay which further goes out into the sea. Many of the barrier islands in the outlying area, including Shackleford and Carrot Islands, contain wild horses - they're hardy things, surviving in droughts and living off of the land. They're really beautiful animals.

Anyways, I'm really grateful for the fact that my parents are in the industry they're in, otherwise my life might not be as priviliged as it is now. They travel around the world like nobody's business for, well, business - it only takes them about 3 years to earn enough miles to give our family of 4 a nice European vacation for a week. I've been to Holland, Germany, and Switzerland so far, though my parents are thinking about our next vacation being in Rome, which I'm really looking forward to if we get to have it.

I would really like to visit Asia, especially Hong Kong and Singapore as well as the countryside - Asian culture is so different from Eastern America, and I am always supremely thrilled by a foreign experience. Japan is also on my list, not just for Pokemon too.

 

[Firestorm]

I was born in Montreal, then moved to Vancouver when I was 2. Lived there all my life up until this year. Been in Waterloo, ON which is just an hour or two from Toronto for the past 7 months and will be moving back to Vancouver this September.

I've also visited Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Calgary on family vacations. Passed through Regina. And been to Victoria on Vancouver Island as well as the Okanagan Valley on trips. Never been further east than Montreal in Canada though.

In the United States I've been to Seattle multiple times since it's so close. Penny Arcade Expo and Pokemon Video Game Championships being my favourite reasons. Also been to Portland a bit further down. That's about as south as I've been. Since spending time on the east this year, I've also been able to take the time to visit Buffalo and New York City which was fun. Oh and of course Indianapolis for Nationals this year!

In high school I had multi-day trips to Portland and the Toronto area for Robotics competitions as well as Victoria to learn about our provincial government. In one of my university courses we went down to Seattle to study the design of certain communities.

I've been to Sri Lanka with my family twice but was very young. I think one was before Kindergarten and the other was in 4th grade. We stopped off for a week or so in Singapore somewhere the first time and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia the second. I remember it being super humid in those places... Only visited Colombo in Sri Lanka as the city my parents are from (Jaffna) still had the war going on when we visited. We didn't feel like dying just then.

Also visited Western Europe with my family about 10 years ago just after 8th grade. Flew to London, got a ride to Paris, then rented a car to drive through Belgium and stay a day near Amsterdam on the way to Hamburg. After a few days there, we went to stay a few days in a village somewhere in Switzerland and then back to Paris for another few days. Then went to spend the rest of our trip in London before coming back. Good solid month in Europe when I was too young to appreciate its history!

I'd really like to do the following sometimes - might do one next summer once I'm done school:
- road trip with friends across Canada from the beginning to the end of the Trans-Canada Highway - especially as I'd love to visit the Maritimes which I've never been to
- jump on a bus and wander the United States from Smogonite to Smogonite and checking out the sights
- trip to Japan and Hong Kong
- see Europe right and not just visit family as well as check out the Mediterranean area

 

[monkfish]

ive applied for several bar jobs in the french alps this winter, and ive got 3 interviews coming up in the next few weeks. im super excited, always wanted to work a ski season and now im gonna do it!!! (fingers crossed)

 

[His Eminence Lord Poppington II]

Born and raised in Brisbane, Queensland. I have never been out of the country, but we travelled around the East Coast when I was younger. In the coming holidays I am going to China for 10 days (school trip). I have been studying Chinses at school and it should be good. We are going to Bejing, Xian, Shanghai and Hong Kong. We get a free day to ourselves in both Beijing and Hong Kong, does anyone have any sugestions on what I should do?

i haven't lived in beijing in 7 years, so i don't really know. however, hong kong i went to two summers ago and it was cool. you can rent a bike for the day and go on the bike paths, which is super fun. if you're there with some like minded people and are interested in games the internet cafes are always there. street food is good, markets are good.

i'm in barca on hols atm, anyone know anything cool to do for a hip young soul like me, barring nightlife / drinks, parents are here.

 

[DM]

I forgot to mention how badly I want to visit the Scandinavian countries, as well as Iceland. It just looks absolutely gorgeous in that area, and I'm dying to see the Aurora Borealis. Definitely Alaska too, I love the cold.

 

[Layell]

I was born in the little Grimsby Ontario, lived in B.C. Alberta and now I'm back in Ontario. I visited Quebec a few times also.

I've been to the US a few times New York city/state mostly as well as Florida. Three years ago I also visited Japan during Christmas with my dad which was a load of fun.

If anywhere I want to visit Chile and Greece, they are both cultures I have taken an interest in. In two years at the end of uni I will probably also go to Prague and some areas of Europe for a theatre desgin festival with my uni department. I'd also like to see more of Canada which my parents never seemed to want to do but soon I'll be able to just go myself.

Also I'd like to go somewhere to practice my french more, maybe live there for a summer who knows.

 

[Shiki1335]

Lets go with states in the US first.

Maine- I live here.
Massachusetts- Moved there with my sis didnt like it went back to maine.
New york- Usally go there due to buddies of mine.
North Carolina- For basic
Florida- Vacation
Cali- Was station there
Hawaii- Greatest state to be in ever wish I was back their.

Now countries.
Rome- Went on a senior trip was AMAZING love the food.
Japan- Station their had my fun, Mis the nightlife.
Bermuda- Got tricked by gf into agreeing on a cruise (hate boats.)
Aruba- Vacation junior year with the same gf her parents invited me.
Afghan- Did my tour hot as hell at daylight cold as shit at night time. The location I was at the time was somewhat conflict heavy but people that supported the effort was some of the nicest and most generous people I meet.

Moscow Russia- Friend of the family died went for the funeral and to see past friends.
Hopefully soon to be china or Australia depending on airfare.

 

[Fishy]

my first trip outside of the country was japan, summer of 2009. talk about culture shock! it was everything I could imagine it to be - busy, full of japanese people, and absolutely gorgeous. everything you see is an epitome of japanese culture, and I was obsessed with some of the architecture I was able to see, from shrines to residential housing. otherwise, i went to scotland last summer for two weeks, and mainly stayed in Glasgow. was in dublin, ireland's airport for a tic, which was cool! lots of shopping centers.

IN country, i actually just returned home last night from ocean city, maryland. family has been going there every other year for a while now, and it's always a great trip. the only time i see the beach, really! i've stayed in nevada when i was younger, and was also in georgia for the past two months.

I really want to visit Canada, and other parts of Europe. I'd love to go on a safari somewhere, like Madagascar or some other african country that has a lot of singular and diverse wildlife. would love to go scuba diving off some tropical islands, too. my family is actually going on a cruise next summer somewhere south past mexico, i forget which islands though. this past summer i did more traveling than i've done ever, and though it was fun, i am very happy to be home now for as long as i'd like. traveling can be very taxing!

 

[More Cowbell]

I live in the Netherlands, and in my life I've visited the majority of western Europe, Scandinavia and the USA (New England, so the north-east). Next year I'll probably visit America again, this time probably NY and either Florida, California or Jamaica.

 

[Scrafty Fella]

I've only been to 3 states: California, Arizona, and Nevada. I'm not sure if this counts, but I was made in Germany XD

Anyway, one of these days I really want to visit all 50 states and Japan.

 

[Stylish Interval]

I've lived my entire life here in Lexington, Kentucky and as a child I never really wanted to venture anywhere else. I'd been to other states and none were as endearing as my sweet home town, and I continued to fool myself into believing that no matter where I went, there would never be a place as great as my hometown. Well, I was right, although I did enjoy the trip out to Europe anyway.

This past summer I went on a mission trip to France and we spent a few days in other countries as well. I'm not a Christian by any stretch of the imagination, but I go to a private Christian school and they have these trips out of the country and I like doing work for those in need, so I took advantage of the opportunity to do some traveling and do some good work while working on my French at the same time. This is going to be my sixth year in a French course so I wasn't totally in the dark (and I also served as a primary translator for my team with another friend also going into his sixth year of French).

The group, consisting of me in the middle (striped blue, stylish or what) surrounded by a collection of people I'm not fond of.

We visited Champfleuri, a small Christian retreat camp for teenagers (and also younger children now!) just outside of Grenoble. It's really old and we were mostly there to perform maintenance work (and endure nightly chapel sessions, in which I was the only person to debate the speaker as everyone else in my group just took what he said as Word of God). I did most of the heavy work while everyone else just sort of painted or something. I had to move furniture, sand down walls, carpet an entire room with only one other person and other such tasks that you can't expect a group of rich children to indulge themselves in (or even know how to do 9.9). We only spent two days there, but by the end the camp had been reinvented. They treated us to several "French" dishes over the few days we were there, and I use the quotes because I'm not sure how French they were. Types of chicken and fish prepared in ways that I'm not that unfamiliar with didn't seem too out-of-culture for me, but I went with it; it was good food :)

the camp? yes the camp

Not a big place, however I did sand the fuck out of that last wall you saw, as well as fixing it up to the point where it didn't look like it was the sight of a drive-by.



After we finished at the camp however we went touring in Paris, which wasn't something I was looking forward too. I don't have any pictures of anything that isn't a landmark you already know. We visited the standard places (Louvre, Eiffel Tower, etc.) and then moved on.

I stayed a day in Amsterdam, which was cool. Everything sounded like gibberish and the food was awesome. There was some stuff that I didn't know what I was eating (meatball-like things?) but it tasted really good. I would have loved to stay there longer but alas, my people suck. Afterwards we went to Geneva. (does it seem like we're traveling in the least efficient way? it's because we are.) Reformation Park (? I call it that because it was near the Reformation Museum and had the people who influenced it as giant statues) was amazing! Tons of families showcasing some culture, there was a festival or something going on the entire time we were there with music and food and games! They had a life-sized chess / checkers and a huge Go board, which I had been learning for nearly three weeks before we left. Needless to say I showed everyone how to play just so I could crush them. We went on a gondola (sp?) or whatever those things are that you ride around on through rivers i don't even know i'm an ignorant American.

---

So after that spill out of America I'm actually quite determined to save up and visit several other places in Europe and Asia. I want to visit India especially, and of course the generic places everyone wants to go to. However the place I'd like to visit most is going to have to be Mozambique. It's an amazing country that I've been fascinated with since I did a school report on it a few years ago. I haven't felt the need to particularly go there until I realized how cool it was to leave the country! (Not as cool as staying in my bed browsing the internet, at least not until I've matured and begin to understand how important understanding culture really is :P) I'm particularly interested in the music and dance aspect of their culture, so I'm mostly wanting to go just to experience some tribal dances, ceremonies, and some of their parties haha. It just looks like absolute fun.

/story

 

[Exarius]

Lessee... I have lived 7 years in Norway, born Finnish. I have visited my sisters in Germany a couple of times, and on one of those trips we drove through Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Estland and Latvia. I have also visited England for a few days.

I really want to visit England again on my own (classtrip sort of thing last time), and German again, especially during the christmas period. Japan is also on the plans, and maybe America too, although it's not that high on he list.