Hi all. I thought it might be good to have a thread where everyone can talk about their travel experiences. We could share pretty much anything - personal impressions, tips, odd facts, photos, even rants... ... Hopefully.
Lol, I remember the first time I traveled outside of the US was for a two week tour of Sweden, Finland, and Estonia with my singing group when I was 15. My luggage got lost at the airport on the first day and I didn’t get it back until day 10 of 14 on the trip. It had everything in it too since it was my first time really traveling and I didn’t know any better. All I had was my money, passport, cellphone, and the clothes on my back. I was somehow extremely tolerant and patient considering how tired and uncomfortable I was. I was so happy when I finally got it back.
In eighties I used to hitchhike. Mostly Finland but Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Swizerland, Italy, France, Spain.... No money or very little. (Like 60-70€ per 3 weeks.) I was very attracted to places & peoples that are not safe. It was escapism. I really liked Bavaria (can't remenber the name of the town) and Lliria. (Small town near Valencia.)
Grew up in the military.... In this order, places I've lived for at least a year: Puerto Rico New York State Delaware New York State (again) Nebraska Hawaii Florida ------------------ (I become an adult) Texas California Texas (again) Berlin, Germany Bedford, UK Back to Berlin Florida Georgia Pennsylvania Florida Puerto Rico I've visited the better part of Europe, all of the South US, Japan, the Philippines, Guam, Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala....
I hate travel. (Does this count as a rant?). I don't mind moving somewhere, and living there, but just travelling around? Awful. I'm a nester, for sure. If I go somewhere long enough to be able to build a new nest, I can relax and settle in, but it takes a week or so for me to do that, especially if I'm out and about all day being a tourist. So I'm pretty miserable for most of a standard week's vacation, and just as I'm finally settling in it's time to go home... Nope. If I'm able to retire while still young and healthy, I'd like to go live different places for months at a time (I'm thinking of selling my house, putting my stuff in storage, and living in rentals for a few years). But travel in the traditional sense? Not for me. I'm always looking for good places to go be an expat, though, so I'll watch the thread with interest!
I have definitely considered it! I'd be a bit geographically limited, but--this is a big continent! I could see a lot.
My great-uncle and his wife did this after he retired. They sold their home, got rid of many possessions, bought an Airstream 'trailer' —the kind of 1950s model that looked like a large silver beetle—and spent the first 10 years or so of their retirement just toodling around the USA at whatever the whim. They visited relatives, went places they liked, stayed in Arizona in the wintertime, etc. They loved it.
I once journeyed all the way to the back of the refrigerator to grab the last beer I had. It was perilous, but definitely worthwhile.
I'm single and plan to stay that way, which makes it a bit scarier to think about charging off into the blue (especially as I'm not all that mechanically inclined) but I've seen some groups of women organizing and travelling in convoys, which might be fun. Of course, all of this is in contrast to my desire to do lots of gardening, have a million pets including chickens and horses, etc., so... we'll see how it goes!
I identify with this very much. I hadn't financially been able to travel as I wanted to until early this year. Now I've done quite a bit of travelling within a few months, I realise how frustrating the shortness of the experiences is to me. In Berlin, and then Rome, which I both especially loved, I'd just began feeling I was actually experiencing the places when the time came to leave them. I think 10-12 days anywhere would be a good length for me, which I unfortunately can't afford. But I feel the same overall, I'm finding holidaying just to be frustrating. I'd love a life that would allow living in those places for a while. A wealthy writer's life, I guess. I probably would, too. And most probably be happiest doing it on my own.
Two things: What a great word, and... We call these people Snowbirds. It’s pretty crazy how a lot of marketing, especially real estate, is geared specifically toward them just before and during winter. There’s a noticeable difference in certain parts of the valley when the snowbirds flock in.
What about trying Saarenmaa in Estonia outside the main tourist season? It is beautifull. People are nice. Not expensive. Inspiring place for a writer. http://www.cottage-estonia.eu/saaremaa/
I love traveling! The preparation part I don't much like cos I want to be super prepared, so packing takes a while. Like, give me a zombie apocalypse while I'm in Thailand and I'm ready. But when I get on the move, it's fun to see the sights, meet new people, taste new foods and just imagine what it'd be like to actually live in the given destination. One of my most memorable experiences didn't happen in an exotic place and it wasn't even super exciting, but there was something special to it. Hubby and I stayed in London for about a week and our hotel was almost neck to neck to the Brompton cemetery. We went there for a walk almost every day, and one evening met a lovely British lady by the grave of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst. The lady had come there to bring her flowers. Spoiler: Emmeline's grave She said we looked like foreigners, but couldn't place us in any country. This comment led to a long conversation and a free tour around the cemetery. Something about meeting her stuck with me. I also really, really love cemeteries so I guess it became something of magical an evening. ETA: I'll add one more picture. This has been filtered, but I thought it intensifies the beauty of the cemetery, so I guess I can live with that. Spoiler: Graves at Brompton Cemetery
Have you been to New Orleans? I guess they're a bit of a tourist cliche, (and I haven't been since Katrina, so things may have changed) but they've got some really nice cemeteries down there. High ground water table, so a lot of sarcophagus-style graves rather than buried ones.
I haven't, but it's definitely on my bucket list. I've been fascinated by it ever since I read The Awakening by Kate Chopin, so I really, really want to visit.
I grew up military and have made around 10 moves in my life. I lived in Italy as a child where I got to visit Venice (one of my earliest memories is using one of the holes in the ground toilets there. After that we moved to the states where I've lived in every corner except for the NE (though I've visited middle-of-nowhere New York). My longest trip was a drive from California to Virginia, where I got to see six legged cows and a bunch of other neat critters at a place in Kansas. I've been to England, which I declare as home even though I don't have the chance of moving (permanently) there yet. We went to Stonehenge for the Winter Solstice celebration (which also fell on my birthday that year) and I promptly tripped and busted open my knee in the parking lot. One of my first pictures of that night is me sitting on the back of an ambulance as the medics fixed me up. That morning is still one of my fondest memories. Unlike the one where I was sitting in a German airport and ate a green banana. Anyway, someone mentioned New Orleans and I've been a couple of times. I fell in love with the Garden District and the French Quarter, which is the only place I'd consider living if I had to stay in the US for the rest of my life. Places I've lived: Florida, Italy, Illinois, Washington, California, Virginia, Mississippi, Texas, Wyoming, and back to Virginia. The next move will either be Canada or England (depending on circumstances). In between I've literally driven through all of the states in Midwest, Western Coast, Southwest, and South. Hawaii and the part of the NE I haven't been to (Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Jersey). Traveling and moving is really in my blood; I have a hard time settling permanently anywhere and there's only one place I can imagine spending the rest of my life.
It was big. I was little, very little. It was huge and open and the horizon was a fuzzy thing a million miles away, one's line of sight unbroken over vast distances. It was cows and corn. It was Peony Park in the summers (no longer there), and fishing on the Platte River with my dad. It was bitterest winters and uncounted snow-days where my brother and I watched cars slide down the hill where we lived, smashing into the cars that were injudiciously parked along the road. It was Westroads Mall (at one point in the past one of the largest in the U.S.) and the book kiosk I dragged my parents to every time we went, pleading for a new book. I still have the C.S. Lewis books that were bought for me there as a child. It was teachers who couldn't pronounce my name and my deep envy of pretty blond girls and sandy-haired boys named Lisa and Tina, Greg and Micheal, respectively.
My dad was stationed at Offutt, but we lived off-base in a little matchbox house on South 41st Street. It was the only time we lived off-base while my dad was active duty until we moved to our last stop in Florida. It's really strange to be able to see the house as it is today via Google... It was green when we lived there.
I'm trying to think of the cross streets for my apartment. I was a little farther west. Maybe like 114th street and Center? Right off the 680. In these, actually. Westwood: I don't know if this is the same building or a different one in the complex, but if it is the one, my apartment would have been the low balcony on the farthest left side of the picture.
I was an Army brat so... Ft. Huachuca (on post) Karlsruhe Germany, somewhere near post. Springfield Virgina, off post in an avocado green nightmare townhouse. I mean like damn near everything was avocado green inside. Snowflake, AZ, out in the middle of nowhere (current) Spokane, WA an apartment right off the freeway and Argonne, and more in the middle of town when we bought a house, a about a mile or so from the Mall off Division. That and I have been to a lot of the 48 states in general, and we apparently count driving 100 ft into N Dakota as having been there.
