Travel Addicts/Advice Thread

[Fossilkid93]

Couldn’t agree more with those, except 3. Every country I’ve lived (7 now) drives on the right side, apart from the year I spent in New Zealand. Renting a car there then being stuck in roundabout hell when it was the first time I’d ever driven on the left side of the road was an experience.

Trader Joe’s probably my fave store OAT, but I rarely get to see it except when returning home to visit (a couple weeks per year except Corona).

The size difference of the people after returning from Europe is shocking, Latin America not so much. I still haven’t seen an obese person after 6 weeks in Istanbul. 3 months in France/Spain I saw 2 obese people, and a handful of considerably overweight people. Everyone else, slender or normal.

Bidets are incredible. If I ever settle down in an apartment for awhile that will be one of my first purchases. The Japanese ones are probably amazing.

[Krayz]

When I went to England a few years ago, I was really nervous about the whole left hand drive thing. Turns out after like a half hour of driving my subconscious kind of got used to it and didn’t have any issues. Roundabouts were fine for me, they are common enough now in the US that I’m used to them.

The biggest issue was getting an auto instead of a manual. We got changed from a small sedan to some eurovan because they barely had any autos and ran out lmao. I’d like to learn manual but it didn’t seem like the right time to do so.

[TheHip41]

Going to be in Nashville Friday and Saturday. What can’t I miss. Wife wants some nice food as well.

[superuberbob]

Sucks ass. Every flight from Prague to either Georgia or Armenia that’s reasonably priced lands in the middle of the night.

Given that most of them transfer at Istanbul, it makes me think: why not just travel to Turkey? I mean it was on my list as a possibility earlier this year and it’s cheaper and shorter to fly there than to fly round trip Armenia/Georgia.

Not sure if I’ll get an answer to this here, but my Irish passport should grant me visa-free access to Turkey. However, it states (correctly) that I was born in America. I am not sure if this would disqualify me from visa-free travel. Anybody with some experience in this area?

[Melkerson]

@superuberbob

Sucks ass. Every flight from Prague to either Georgia or Armenia that’s reasonably priced lands in the middle of the night.

Given that most of them transfer at Istanbul, it makes me think: why not just travel to Turkey? I mean it was on my list as a possibility earlier this year and it’s cheaper and shorter to fly there than to fly round trip Armenia/Georgia.

Not sure if I’ll get an answer to this here, but my Irish passport should grant me visa-free access to Turkey. However, it states (correctly) that I was born in America. I am not sure if this would disqualify me from visa-free travel. Anybody with some experience in this area?

I can’t think of any visa situation where the location of your birth trumps the citizenship on your passport.

Maybe if you’re an American and you were born in Israel, they wouldn’t let you into Saudi Arabia (But you have to have a visa even if American, the last time I checked. So they just would reject the visa application). But I’m not even sure about that.

[zikzak]

I just booked a vacation in Newfoundland for the first two weeks of July, so if we are going to have a nuclear war that time period works well for me. Just in case anybody needs scheduling advice for doomsday.

[eyebooger]

@zikzak

I just booked a vacation in Newfoundland for the first two weeks of July

Probably belongs in travel thread, but what are you going to be doing there?

[MrWookie]

Chilling in a doomsday bunker, ldo.

[zikzak]

Visiting family, probably not much else. I’ve been quite a few times and have already done everything worth doing, which honestly isn’t all that much. It’s a big, bleak island with not a lot going on.

[DrChesspain]

In comparison to:

[CaffeineNeeded]

oh I thought you were going to New Zealand and thought ‘cool’ because I’m an idiot

[zikzak]

No kiwis, no Bob Denver. Just a cold rock full of moose in the north Atlantic.

[suzzer99]

Do they have a lot of these running around?

[zikzak]

I wouldn’t say a lot, but yes. And they are absolutely enormous.

[suzzer99]

13 Top-Rated Tourist Attractions in Newfoundland and Labrador

Have you been to the national parks or any of the other attractions on this list?

[zikzak]

A lot of it, yeah. Mostly as a kid. Never been to L’Anse aux Meadows though because it’s absurdly far away and it’s just a lumpy field with some replica sod buildings.

[Tilted]

Bearded Iris and Southern Grist for beer.

Sean Brock’s place for food.

[TrueNorth32]

My wife has a FB friend who lives near Gros Morne. She sees whales out of her back window all the time. The pictures she posts are just stunning.

[mosdef]

Jim Gaffigan’s bit on Newfoundland is pretty funny.

[Riverman]

Italy recap:

Our positioning flight to JFK was on time so we had like 3 hours. We needed it. The international terminal at JFK, and the security situation there, is a disgrace. Shout out to the most openly rude and unpleasant TSA agents I’ve ever encountered. Also, there is a form you have to fill out to get into Italy that’s like a 10 step online thing with endless annoying drop downs (“United States of America” = scroll all the way down, every time). Of course, zero prior notification from airline this was needed.

The flight to Istanbul was smooth except I was planning to watch the Masters and the TV didn’t work once we got to cruising altitude. Also, a crying baby.

The Istanbul Airport is absolutely massive. We were completely exhausted at this point and somehow made our connection, but my kid left his Switch on the plane. -$300 right off the bat.

Our Airbnb in Rome was great, right across from Piazza Venezia, which I highly recommend climbing for the incredible views.

Rome has absolutely insane drivers. These people do not obey traffic laws at all and drive at incredibly dangerous speeds. We were in constant fear.

We visited the Pantheon, Colosseum and Vatican along with a bunch of just walking around. Gorgeous city, truly one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. Was a bit dirty though and everyone smokes. Also, was not blown away by the food. Our family had an amazing time exploring this city. Some photos:

Next up, Florence. Italy has amazing high speed trains and they are pretty cheap. The train stations are super centrally located, especially in Florence. We had an incredible Airbnb about a 15 min walk from the Duomo with great views:

Food in Florence was better, definitely prefer the Tuscan cuisine. Went to a fantastic local restaurant called Pegasus. No English on the menu is a good sign.

We did all the obligatory tourist stuff like Uffizi Gallery and Mercado Centrale. Florence is small and it was super packed.

Finally, Venice. Unspeakable beauty but incredibly crowded and weirdly, not a ton of culture. But of a Disney vibe but again we had a great time. It’s worth doing a water taxi once, super cool experience. We didn’t do a gondola.

From there, train back to Rome and a frantic dash to get COVID tests done. We made it, barely. Overall a great bucket list trip.