Vacation 2023

[Harold Jones]

2 hours ago, urbanoid said:

Anniversary and birthday on the same day? If yes, well played indeed.

No birthday is in Jan and wedding anniversary is in Oct. But the round numbers apparently demand a special celebration.

[Sardaukar]

I could start with this...

 

[Josh]

I raise you:

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/travel/article/vilnius-g-spot-europe/index.html

[Angrybk]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/experience-regina-ends-1.6809256

Quote

The relaunch on March 13 received substantial fanfare with Mayor Sandra Masters and Reid being joined by the federal Tourism Minister Randy Boissonnault as he announced nearly $6 million for tourism in Saskatchewan.

However, quite a few people raised concerns about the decision by a city-funded organization to employ a crude joke as its name.

The newly named Experience Regina continued to retreat as attention focused on the use of sexualized slogans such as "Show us your Regina" and "The city that rhymes with fun."

 

[rmgill]

11 hours ago, Sardaukar said:

I could start with this...

 

Finnish Brutality? 

[bojan]

On 8/21/2023 at 3:44 AM, Stargrunt6 said:

I've been watching the youtuber "Living Ironically in Europe," and I saw his vid about Montenegro.  The countryside looks like something out of LOTR.

Pretty much. It looks even more impressive in june when it is green:

Komarnica canyon at the dusk:

View down the canyon:

Black lake (part of it at least):

Devil's lake:

View from a part of my property:

Bridge on the Tara river:

View from it, 172m to the water:

View from a Sedlo pass (1950m):

Snake lake:

Stone from a 9th/10th century graveyard:

Quote

I heard Slovenia is underrated as a tourism spot. 

It is nice, looks a bit like Austria, but  both Croatia and Serbia have better food, people are friendlier (well, it might be stereotype, but Slovenians are considered more "cold" than Croats and Serbs) and both countries are somewhat cheaper, through not that much anymore. OTOH they have really nice armed forces museum with nice collection of ex-Yugo exotics, and nearby army barracks usually have open day during summer where you can crawl through some of the Slovenian army armored vehicles.

 

[urbanoid]

Croatia was already expensive (food, drinks) when I was there in 2021, before they adopted the euro. Heard it's even more expensive now.

[bojan]

Depends if you go in the mid of tourist season or not.

[urbanoid]

Early September IIRC 

[sunday]

Well, if Croatia was only expensive compared to Poland, then it is not a big deal. If expensive compared to the Netherlands, on the other hand...

[urbanoid]

The quarters (an apartment with kitchen annex) were cheap, but I found a good 'almost last minute' deal on booking. IIRC the prices in the restaurants were comparable to those in we had in Poland* this month, but I'm not completely sure, after all 2 years have passed.

*prices of everything in Poland by the Baltic during the season are another matter, they're absolutely outrageous. It's literally cheaper to go somewhere to southern Yurop, flight included.

[sunday]

12 minutes ago, urbanoid said:

The quarters (an apartment with kitchen annex) were cheap, but I found a good 'almost last minute' deal on booking. IIRC the prices in the restaurants were comparable to those in we had in Poland* this month, but I'm not completely sure, after all 2 years have passed.

*prices of everything in Poland by the Baltic during the season are another matter, they're absolutely outrageous. It's literally cheaper to go somewhere to southern Yurop, flight included.

When I mentioned to her that I went to Warsaw, coworker of mine tell me she had heard Polish beaches are beautiful, so perhaps there is the reason for the outrageous prices.

[urbanoid]

Yeah, those that I've seen were nice - when they were empty. In the high season they are battlefields where vacationers fight for a good place to occupy and separate themselves from the other beachgoers with privacy screens:

Also crowded as hell:

And the certainty about the 'beach weather' is... well, less than in southern Europe. 

Spending time on the beach isn't my cup of tea anyway, unless I can do walks on the empty(ish) beaches in the evening, like I did Cyprus (off-season, in November, when the weather was bearable). 

[sunday]

Then there is the Baltic wind...

[Ivanhoe]

6 hours ago, urbanoid said:

Yeah, those that I've seen were nice - when they were empty. In the high season they are battlefields where vacationers fight for a good place to occupy and separate themselves from the other beachgoers with privacy screens:

 

 

That looks like some sad board game; Beach Risk.

 

[Angrybk]

On 8/26/2023 at 6:18 AM, bojan said:

It is nice, looks a bit like Austria, but  both Croatia and Serbia have better food, people are friendlier (well, it might be stereotype, but Slovenians are considered more "cold" than Croats and Serbs) and both countries are somewhat cheaper, through not that much anymore. OTOH they have really nice armed forces museum with nice collection of ex-Yugo exotics, and nearby army barracks usually have open day during summer where you can crawl through some of the Slovenian army armored vehicles.

 

Ljubljana was my first trip to Eastern Europe except for Kiev, so I can't compare it to neighboring countries (although a coworker went to Split afterward and said it was f*cking amazing). I thought the food was quite good and the people were slightly on the friendly side, although it very much had "generic nice European city" vibes. I probably wouldn't go there intentionally as a destination, but had fun for a week. Lake Bled was gorgeous though.

My big culture shock was flying through Frankfurt and having aggressive women shouting "Ver Are Zee Papers!!" and stuff at me (I'd never been to Germany and every German I've met in the US has been chill as hell, very unstereotypical).

Of course if you'd never been to the US and flew into JFK, you'd assume that the US is a third world hellhole with indoor pigeons everywhere and exhausted violent people, when it's actually atypically f*cked up and we're embarrassed that it's the first thing a lot of foreign travellers see. I flew through there last year on way to Barcelona (which is amazing) and got to witness the aftermath of a brutal fistfight between two of the female security guards -- EMTs showed up, one of the participants was unconscious, scraps of hair extensions scattered around...

Edited August 27, 2023 by Angrybk

[urbanoid]

8 hours ago, Angrybk said:

Ljubljana was my first trip to Eastern Europe except for Kiev, so I can't compare it to neighboring countries (although a coworker went to Split afterward and said it was f*cking amazing). I thought the food was quite good and the people were slightly on the friendly side, although it very much had "generic nice European city" vibes. I probably wouldn't go there intentionally as a destination, but had fun for a week. Lake Bled was gorgeous though.

My big culture shock was flying through Frankfurt and having aggressive women shouting "Ver Are Zee Papers!!" and stuff at me (I'd never been to Germany and every German I've met in the US has been chill as hell, very unstereotypical).

Of course if you'd never been to the US and flew into JFK, you'd assume that the US is a third world hellhole with indoor pigeons everywhere and exhausted violent people, when it's actually atypically f*cked up and we're embarrassed that it's the first thing a lot of foreign travellers see. I flew through there last year on way to Barcelona (which is amazing) and got to witness the aftermath of a brutal fistfight between two of the female security guards -- EMTs showed up, one of the participants was unconscious, scraps of hair extensions scattered around...

The old city in Split is nice indeed, especially the main attraction - the Palace of Diocletian.

[Germanor]

I also want to find some cool spot for my vacation although there may be some details i need to deal with before i go somewhere. Specifically we need to buy clothing for our winter vacation. Well at least my wife could find something for herself at Inlower shop. I am glad that Online shopping is continuing to grow in the EU women's boots she could find are really good. Then, the only one without clothing for vacation is in fact - me

Edited November 18, 2023 by Germanor

[sunday]

1 hour ago, Germanor said:

I also want to find some cool spot for my vacation although there may be some details i need to deal with before i go somewhere

Try this:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g2435356-El_Escorial-Vacations.html