I AM OUTTA HERE BITCHES! Not permanently - sorry Tom Ato - but for the next two weeks I will be doing a Planes, Trains, and Automobiles trip all throughout the Pacific Northwest. Literally, it involves trains, planes, and a fuckton of automobile driving. Just booking the trip was a major engineering feat. It's amazing that with the Internet you can do from your living room what only the most skilled travel agents could have ever done a scant 10-15 years ago. Thanks to Priceline name-your-own-price hotels and Expedia's third-party rental car insurance, I probably saved $1000 on the whole affair. It's like living in the future. Worry not - the other mods and admins have agreed to take up the helm of the bumpage in my absence, and they all have extensive training using Mjolnir the Banhammer. FOCUS: Tell us about your great vacations - experienced, planned, or from your distant past. ANTI-FOCUS: Tell us about your worst vacations. Did your trip get ruined by a hurricane? Exploding volcano? Bitchy girlfriend?
My favourite trip as a kid was the grand Canyon, simpy because its the most incredible I have seen yet. It's literally a hole in the entire world, vast and incredibly mesmerizing to look at. My favourite trip since I left the nest was my Paris-Amsterdam-London trip, especially Amsterdam. What a city. If I wasn't tied here I would move there in a heartbeat. I was made for that city, it's completely filled with kooks. Like me.
In July, I'm going to my little Step-Brother's wedding (first time I've been home in 2 years or so), and I'm also going down to San Diego, not for ComicCon, but for the Nerdist Podcast live, and I'm taking a hot girl who has never heard of Chris Hardwick. Should be an interesting month. Seeing as how I may have to move in August, this probably isn't the smartest spending.
Someone please tell me I'm not the only one who sang the song in their head while counting the "oa"s to see if Frylock got it right.
I'm under the impression that contest was rigged. As in when it got to 299, net added code that would create frylock's 300th and 600th post. He is too good at what he does for it to be a chance.
By far, the best was our honeymoon. Two weeks in Ireland, driving all over the country on our own. Stayed in a castle our first night and an Irish manor our last, and B&Bs in between (except for 2 nights in Galway in a hotel). Love the country, the people, the culture, and the beer and whiskey. And I got to meet my relatives and see where my grandfather was born, where his father was murdered. The wife and I were practically celebrities at the pub. We'll definitely go back, and we'll bring our girls. Worst was a family vacation to Florida in 1972. DisneyWorld had just opened within the last year or so, and that was (at least in the kids' minds) the focal point of the trip. But, we ended up only going to Disney for one day (and didn't even stay til closing). We drove from NJ in dad's new Country Squire paneled station wagon (the minivan of the 70s). We were supposed to go for two weeks, but my sister (3 at the time) caught pneumonia, was miserable, which caused my parents to fight constantly, and we ended up going home a week early. It was just disappointing all the way around. Similar family vacation experience a few years later when my dad rented a cabin on a lake in Maine for two weeks. My older brother got to bring along a friend of his who was a douchebag, and after 2 days, my city-folk parents were bored out of their minds. Again, we came home a week early.
My best trip had to have been my solo several week European jaunt years ago. I was a fresh faced lad going to his junior year abroad, and I figured I would take in some sights around the EU. I had a large chunk of money that had to be spent on vacationing. Not legally, but morally. I had an aunt who was in the state department, and she had been all over the world. Something like 70+ countries, and had been stationed in I think 15 of them for more than a year. So when she died she left me a chunk of money that she wanted me to use on travel. No problems there. So I worked my ass off all summer to make extra money, and stopped first in Ireland. I stupidly figured I would start in Cork after landing in Dublin after a 10 hour plane flight. Cork is a ways away from Dublin, and I had to take a taxi through thick traffic just to get to the train terminal. Irish cabbies love to talk, so I was trying my best to listen to an Irish cabbie talk about his hobby pigeon racing with a famous IRA terrorist. What was so great about the trip though was that it was on my own terms. Growing up all our trips were rigidly planned, no deviations from anything. During the trip I could just cancel plans, and go somewhere else. Girl asks me to go to another town with her, no problem. Just cancel my reservations an move on. I did a lot of the typical cities, London for a week where I hit about every museum that I could find. Then I did Paris, where I was staying at an ex-girlfriend's family apartment in the really rich section of the city. I more or less starved for 3 of the days because I couldn't find a grocery store, and had to live off of a box of Special K and a jar of Nutella. I also saw the most beautiful woman in France in Normandy. She is a bus driver. I was invited by these 2 Belgian girls I knew up to a small town called Ghent, which is one of my favorite places on earth. Spectacular town, and Belgium really does have great beer. After that I had to go to Amsterdam, where my mother was meeting up with a family friend, so I tagged along for a few free days before getting into Berlin, where Jägerette flew down from Stockholm to hang out. While she was there she invited me up to Stockholm with her, so I took the train up. The train ride was hands down one of the best times I had on the whole trip. I was alone on it, and the train went through some of the most scenic parts of Germany and at one point the train drove into a bright white tunnel and stopped. I couldn't figure out what was going on as everyone was getting their coats. So I followed them into the white tunnel, and everyone was walking towards a small door. I was wondering if we had been kidnapped or something. I started walking up the stairs behind the door, and when I got to the top I realized that I was on a boat. I had no idea that they still ferried trains on boats. I had an awesome boat ride to Denmark. It was a shame there wasn't any good duty free booze though. The over arching theme of my vacation though was that I was on my own for most of it. I have always preferred the company of myself. Growing up I never had time to myself. I was at school, or at home where my mom was a stay at home mother, then my grandmother lived with us, and was always pestering me. Then I went to college and had a roommate. It felt like life was based around someone else always being there, and working on someone else's schedule. Being able to really have the freedom in a place where I knew nobody was a breath of fresh air. I don't claim that I "discovered myself" or had some epiphany about life like so many young Americans do when they travel to Europe and do the standard London, Paris, Amsterdam,Rome trips. I just got to revel in being left alone. (Except in Ireland. Those people love to strike up conversations with you)