Travel Thread

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Re: Travel Thread

Postby Gwylan » Thu Apr 28, 2011 11:06 pm

kituvan_kiitos wrote:
Gwylan wrote:Bengtsfors, Dalsland. Capital of unemployment and mercury pollution. I haven't lived there for years though.


So I'm guessing that it isn't safe to eat any fish there?


Not from one of the lakes, but I think that's the only one that is badly polluted. I hope the others are alright, while my family keep fishing a lot. On the other hand there are plenty of mercury in the ground around the lake, so it might have spread.

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Re: Travel Thread

Postby Mats Sundin » Sat May 07, 2011 4:43 pm

Ah,theres mercury everywhere.We as a species eat more fish in the last 30-40 years than ever,and they are all full of iodine,mercury,etc from industrial runoff in all the oceans.I try not to think about it,cause it's out of my control.
on topic-i hope to go to the caribean this year at christmas,and avoid ALL family obligations ;)
it's just another in a lifetime's worth of lessons never learned

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Re: Travel Thread

Postby Ärväthyyll » Wed May 11, 2011 12:15 am

Off to London tomorrow. Meeting Aldhissla there on Thursday.

See you guys next week! ;)
One beer to rule them all.
One whiskey to find them.
One vodka to bring them all
and in the drunkness bind them!

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Re: Travel Thread

Postby Aldhissla » Wed May 11, 2011 3:54 pm

Off to Berlin soon, taking the plane to London tomorrow. If i don't puke myself to death on the way thanks to this virus, I shall see you guys next week as well.
Still to this day
I can hear the whistle blow
I can smell the sage burn
I may be as old and stubborn as a pine
But I am just as wild as the young.

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Re: Travel Thread

Postby Ärväthyyll » Thu May 19, 2011 10:37 am

London. Just a brief report, mr. Aldhissla might add something later.

London is freaking awesome. Beautiful city. Loved every inch of it. Well, except for their serious lack of trash-cans. You can hardly find any, I was surprised. Another thing about London is that it's great to avoid the main streets. They're packed with people, but if you just turn to one of the back alleys, all of a sudden peace and quiet and gardens and beauty.

So, what did we end up seing?

Being good tourists, both first time in this city, some main tourist attractions: The Buckingham Palace (the queen was at home), Houses of parliament with Big Ben (and a bunch of people protesting in front of it - camping in tents - about this and other war Britain's involved with), The Tower of London (ravens, yay - one of them was grumpy when I started quoting Edgar Allan Poe to him), The Tower Bridge (which is way more colorful than in pictures), The London Dungeon (shall not comment), Madame Tussaund's (I suspect the puppets of Justin Bieber and that Twilight guy need to be changed quite often, the girls are all over them all the time), Millennium Bridge (AAAAAAAAAAA, THE DEATH EATERS, RUUUUUUUN!).

Also seen: The Royal Court of Justice (I'd study law just to be able to work in those buildings); a shitload of famous statues (with Monty Python and other comic references), Trafalgar Square (which remains my favorite, and an awesome street performer was there, getting himself through a tennis racket), Hammersmith Apollo venue (for my soul - most of my fav comedians have performed there, including Eddie Izzard's Glorious), China Town, Downing Street (heavily protected), Soho, Hyde Park (in Speaker's Corner, there were two women lecturing about Jesus; nothing spectacular), Leicester Square was closed, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, The Mall Avenue, Oxford Street (way too many people, I can live without shopping if I can avoid THAT crowd), The Emirates Stadium (of Arsenal football club, because we were living in the neighborhood).

A bunch of churches/cathedrals: The Temple Church (a round medieval church of the Templars, one of very few buildings that survived the 17th century fire); The Westminster Abbey (freaking awesome, with tombs of Queens Elisabeth I. and Bloody Mary and their kin); St. Paul's Cathedral (my fav actually, huge, beautiful, and you can climb on its dome and see a spectacular view all over London; with tombs of Nelson (not Mandela ;)) and Wellington).

Then some museums - British Museum with great collections on prehistory, old Assyria, ancient Egypt, even some Native Americans etc. They have loads of collections, I think everyone can find something for their interest (unless you hate museums in general); Museum of Natural History - I wanted to see dinosaurs, the big kid I am. I've never been anywhere where I could have seen them.

We found the occult bookstore owned by a Crowley scholar (she had a lecture in Slovenia once, awesome old lady), and even better a vintage magazine shop with vintage comics, posters, artifacts etc. Other than that, not much shopping.

Metal-wise, we just visited this sweet rock pub in Soho, called Crobar. They didn't have any tap-beer, Aldhissla noticed. We also visited Hard Rock Cafe, but that was of course packed with tourists and expensive.

What I wanted to see but couldn't: Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross/St. Pancras. We got to the station, but you can't enter any platforms without holding a train ticket. For my next London, I will pay for one ticket just to get there as well :D Some paintings in Tate gallery, but they were landed to Madrid so I will go there at the next occasion, when they get them back.

That's pretty much it. You have to admit it's quite a lot for 4 days ;)
One beer to rule them all.
One whiskey to find them.
One vodka to bring them all
and in the drunkness bind them!

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Re: Travel Thread

Postby Aldhissla » Mon May 23, 2011 10:26 am

Now, with a week having past since my Odyssee back from London to Leipzig, I finally get to add my share...even though there's not much to add, really. Ärväthyyll, well-organised and prepared as always, had it all layed out beforehand, so all we had to do when we were there was to decide what to see when, really. We first were not sure wether we should go and see only Madame Tussauds OR London Dungeon but in the end decided to see both, since we were there. Being in London, one couldn't help but to giggle a bit silly here and there ("This is a Picadilly Line service to Cockfosters") and get Monty Python associations every two minutes (for instance, looking at the station sign of South Kensington made me think of Gervaise Brook-Hamster of Kensington, upper-class twit of the year --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqObJtGrKaA). Besides that, I simply have to agree with Ärväthyyll that London, as crowded and loud as it is, is a truly beautiful city and well worth more than one visit. Be sure to pocket enough pounds if you want to see a lot (and not just from the outside), since the entrance fees quickly munch quite a big hole into your wallet. Trafalgar Square is free, tho :D - and it's indeed a great place. I made some videos of the street performer that Ärväthyyll mentioned, and I shall put it on YouTube and post the link here somewhere.
We were very lucky with the weather, tho - one raindrop on each cheek and that was it. I even managed to get a little sunburn in the face.
I didn't get to check out Whitechapel (walking on Jack the Ripper's path), Campton Town (where there's supposed to be a lot of nice record stores etc.) and the Old Bailey (only saw the back of it from St. Paul's), but I'm sure we'll be back some day. Then off to see more London. Looking forward to it already.
Still to this day
I can hear the whistle blow
I can smell the sage burn
I may be as old and stubborn as a pine
But I am just as wild as the young.

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Re: Travel Thread

Postby RavenStarr » Tue May 24, 2011 1:39 am

You know that whole jealousy thing you guys were talking about on page one? Yeah... The only other country I've been to is Canada, where I experienced nothing exciting. You know what I did for fun? I went to the ketchup festival. THE FREAKIN' KETCHUP FESTIVAL.

Hmph. :|
Jag funnit sanning i kvistars sång
Jag lystrat visdom i vindars gång
Mitt skri nu eka mellar häll och fura
Jag funnit sanning i kvistars sång

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Re: Travel Thread

Postby Aldhissla » Tue May 24, 2011 10:21 am

RavenStarr wrote: You know what I did for fun? I went to the ketchup festival. THE FREAKIN' KETCHUP FESTIVAL.


That DOES sound fun :) At least more fun than the Erdbeer(Strawberry) or Spargel(Esparagus)fest that we have in some places arouund Germany (I actually might go to the Spargelfest just for the heck of it, but that's a different story). So what's happening at the Ketchup Festival then?
Still to this day
I can hear the whistle blow
I can smell the sage burn
I may be as old and stubborn as a pine
But I am just as wild as the young.

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Location: Moominland

Re: Travel Thread

Postby Megrimmtroll » Wed May 25, 2011 12:37 pm

Arvathyyll I agree about The British Museum and The Natural History Museum, both are really good and the Dinosaurs are impressive!! :D Do they still have the reconstructions of the dinosaurs with all the sound effects? :)
It was nearly twenty years since I was last there, but both have really neat collections :D
You mentioned The Crobar I have heard of that from Terrorizer looks like a good pub 8-)

On the subject of Museums Oxford has The Ashmoleum and The Pitt Rivers Museum both are very good and The Ashmoleum has really good gallery too :ugeek:
The Turf Tavern is a great pub and its only about 40 minutes outside of London on the train :)
"Or perhaps they had invisible writing unknown to ordinary trolls?"

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Re: Travel Thread

Postby kituvan_kiitos » Sat Jun 11, 2011 6:08 pm

Right now I'm in Japan. Since the board has been down, I wasn't able to mention that. I arrived here about a week ago and stay until the 23rd. I'm here mainly for studying (I'm on a scholarship), but I have done a little bit of sight seeing. I visited Meiji Shrine, Hirata Shrine, and Harajuku today, and yesterday I went to a hot springs resort for the first time. As is typical of a foreigner, I could barely stay in the water. I can stay in saunas for a very long time, but I'm so weak when it comes to hot water.

I'll have some pictures to post after I get back!

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