I stayed with my friend in Heimerdingen, Germany for a few days. I absolutely loved being the only tourist in a town of 3,500. I’m going to seek out stuff like this in the future.
Haven’t been there in years, but Purple Pig has been my favorite restaurant in Chicago, one of two restaurants where I bought the shirt.
frontera is much more casual than topo FWIW, and more reasonably priced, and still excellent.
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Girl and the Goat is a better version of Purple Pig, imo.
I’m lazy. Purple Pig is more walkable from hotels the Magnificent Mile.
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Didn’t mean to suggest that locals here aren’t welcoming of visitors from abroad. They are. It’s just that pre-pandemic Japan became SO overrun with tourists that parts of the country (Kyoto, Tokyo) turned into Disney World Japan and these places lost their original charm.
I remember visiting Kyoto and thinking that if I was dropped in the middle of Kyoto Station and had to guess where I was just based on looking around at all the people, there’s no way I’d guess I was in Japan.
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The wife and I were eying a trip to Scotland in 2023 or 2024.
Now we we finding out she has a work trip to Dublin July 2023. So we’re definitely going to do that, as half our airfare and all our Dublin accommodations will be paid for.
What I can’t decide is: should we just do 5 days in Ireland and then 5-6 more in Scotland, or just do ten days in Ireland and do Scotland the following year. I guess what I’m asking is: is there enough to do in Ireland for ten days or so.
Things we’re interested in: day hikes, coastlines, national parks, maybe a boat ride, hole in the wall ethnic restaurants, dark pubs, historical sites (to an extent), a castle or two.
Things we’re not interested in: shopping (well maybe a little, but not much), expensive dining, nightlife, golf, sporting events, crowded landmarks.
I will be investigating some far-flung counties (the northwest corner looks like it might be our style). But does anyone have experience driving around the island? Overall thoughts? How is the train system?
I think I’m kind of over these types of trips I’m on now (resort in a country/area where a significant # of the people who live here are very poor). Kinda makes me feel like shit. I understand that my being here “helps” their economy etc but yeahhh. These people don’t want us here.
I don’t know about Ireland. But there is weeks upon weeks of stuff to do in Scotland, especially if you’re into nature and/or scotch
I never understood the appeal of those trips.
“Yay let’s go to a Caribbean island in a place where we are locked away from the poors. It’ll be like America but with the sun!”
The dominican. I don’t think there’s probably much better options though this is pretty low on the scale (likely with jamaica). May look into the USVI but yeah I’m good for a few years.
The appeal is very much the all inclusive part i.e. the patrons don’t have to pay for anything so they just load up at all times. This has several consequences: small food portion sizes, poor quality in general (mid to bottom shelf liquors you’d all recognize), and the funniest, when you ask for things like “bring me x, y, and z” you’ll almost always get just x and y if that due to the “language barrier” but this has happened too many times for it to a coincidence.
I guess this is a great deal if you’re a morbidly obese American who has zero shame about ordering brown people around to get free stuff. But what’s the odds of that happening?!
I did an 8 day tour around Ireland/Northern Ireland back in 2008. I think 5 days might be a bit rushed.
Things you might look into: boat trip to the Skelling Islands, boat tour of Aran Islands and Cliffs of Moher ex Galway, Giant’s Causeway, Rock of Cashel, Benbulben. Cities you will want to check out Dublin and Galway, and Belfast might be worth a look if you’re interested in The Troubles. There’s good coastal hiking along the Atlantic coast, I don’t know where exactly the best stuff is to be had. I know you said you’re not interested in crowded landmarks btw but in my experience nothing in Ireland was super crowded, not the way stuff gets in the US.
Ireland does tend to be all green rolling hills so it could be argued that 10 days is a little bit long if anything, but I feel like 5 is not enough. I also feel like, as Krayz said, it’s even clearer that 5-6 days is not much for Scotland. Edinburgh is an awesome city and I would (and did) happily spend several days there and there’s a ton else in Scotland. I think you’ll find enough to do in Ireland too.
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Who knew I’d find a Venezuelan restaurant in Prague of all places? Gonna see what their arepas are like for lunch.
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Thanks, yeah I am leaning towards 7-8 days in Ireland and then Scotland the next year, I don’t want to rush either trip, especially Scotland. The west coast sounds like it’s up our alley
We’re into nature and scotch. So I may just skip Scotland this time (boo) so we can do it right the following year (yay)
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If you end up doing both on the same trip, I once took the train from Liverpool to Holyhead and then took the ferry across the Irish Sea to Dublin. Super easy and convenient. I’d imagine they also have trains that run straight up to Scotland too.
My gf and I like to see what the “Mexican” restaurants serve in Europe. Often they have arepas and maybe one item that is actually Mexican.
If there are items that say Mexican fries/burger/pizza in a normal restaurant, usually it’s just a standard item that comes with a sauce that’s a little spicy.
Arepas were pretty solid there.
Only Czech thing on the menu was the beer, though they did have Polar beer in bottles.
Got to practice my Spanish while I was there.
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My girlfriend and I are like 80% sure we’re just gonna buy a 5-year Thai Elite Visa (for ~22k USD, yikes) and base ourselves in Bangkok for a good while. Idea probably sounds insane, but I think it could be worth it for us.
To be honest, I kinda just want to have an apartment to call “home” and not have to worry about any visas for awhile. Moving around every couple weeks or 3 months is fun, but can be exhausting. I figure I spend so much more on travel costs and short term rentals that I’ll make up the cost of the visa in 2-3 years.
Finally, I haven’t seen any of Asia (aside from Georgia and the Asian side of Istanbul) and Bangkok seems like an awesome jumping off point for basically every cool destination. Relatively quick and cheap direct flights to Tokyo, Seoul, Osaka, Singapore, China, SEA (obv), even India. I can focus on Asia over the next 5 years and see a ton of it.
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Toddlers 
in first class
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