The Travel Thread

My life story is 1 of travel.

In 1968-69 I spent in Ghana, taking in my first football matches including seeing Pele play for Santos vs the Ghanain national team.

From about 1978, I started travelling myself and with friends and sometimes with companions that I met, as I hitch-hiked all over Europe; working in factories, building sites, picking fruit and some others.

The late 1970s was a time when the EEC was opening up to the UK, and I took full advantage of what was available; learning the very bare rudiments of French, German, Italian and Dutch. I had left school with 1 o-level - I was a tearaway, not interested in school. Times changed with these experiences.

The EEC is not so fashionable these days, but people forget that it has held the peace in Europe since 1945.

Today, I am still travelling all over Europe - though no longer hitch-hiking, a lot better paid, and much doing much more skilled work; with much more enhanced language skills.

Personally I do not regret for 1 moment the experiences I had as a teenager, and continue to enjoy and exploit.

I will add a few words later on, when time permits.

 

Today, partly due to the emergence of Eastern European countries into the EEC, I meet a lot more people from Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and other countries. Whenever I meet people from these countries, I ask people to write down a few phrases from their language - to absorb the bare rudiments of their language.

In this sense not much has changed since I was 18 hitchiking on the Autobahn.

 

i've travelled a litle bit, myself, due to my dad's job.

i spent 8 years living in ciudad del este, paraguay, right in the triple frontier connecting paraguay, argentina and brazil. i will avoid commenting much on that because my experience was not overwhelmingly positive, to put it mildly, but the capital of paraguay, asunción, can be a rather more enjoyable place, particularly for nerds, as it has a rising population of them, with regular conventions and gatherings and something of a presence in the international cosplaying circuit (at least on a more regional level). additionally, much as i disliked most of the people i shared a city with there, the ones i met who were good people are among the best people i have ever personally met

brazil i can comment more favorably on, as i visited it numerous times for karate competitions and seminars (my own training starting under the brazilian branch of our style). i had good experiences there, met a lot of awesome people, and if i had to use one word to describe the general ambience of brazil, it would be "enthusiasm". brazilians, in my experience, will try to put 150% of themselves into what they feel passion for, and it shows, so it's definitely a place i'd recommend to high-energy, extroverted people who like intense experiences. for those who like slightly more tranquil places and beautiful landscapes, and particularly those who like apples, i have to give a special shot-out to the city of fraiburgo, in santa catarina, which is known for its orchards. it's a beautiful place, apples are very tasty, as there are both very good accommodations (hotel fraiburgo is excellent), and since this is MAP, it would be remiss of me not to mention martial arts training as well, for which i have to give a strong shout-out to hayashi-ha ****o-ryu karate teacher luiz coelho, an awesome person and awesome karateka of the kind you rarely find more than a handful of in a lifetime (on that note, são paulo boasts both the sensei who taught my first sensei -shihan paulo mota of hayashi-ha ****o-ryu-kai brasil, based in the jaboticabal municipality- and the sifu who taught my first sifu -chan kowk wai, head of academia sino-brasileira de kung fu-, so it's a pretty good destination for TMA training.

inside argentina i haven't travelled much, but i have been to one of the premier tourist destinations, san carlos de bariloche. it's basically known for skiing and other assorted snow activities, and for humongous amounts of really tasty chocolate (OMG THE CHOCOLATE :3). also for being the dream destination of most kids who finish high school (we have a tradition of organizing a big-ass trip upon graduating). i myself went, unsurprisingly, for a karate competition (they have pretty good shorin-ryu there).

aside from that, there only other places here that i know well are the city of buenos aires proper (avoid at all costs ), where i reside, and the city of san pedro, part of the province of buenos aires, which is a pretty tranquil and nice small city also having its own tourist attractions (the sculpture park "el sueño del tano" is pretty good), and good for martial arts (the head of the argentina hayashi-ha, sensei hector barcala, lies and teaches there, and is also an awesome person and a top notch karateka), and merlo, in the san luis province (not to be confused with the merlo in the buenos aires province), where half of my family comes from, and which is easily one of the most beautiful places in the world. it's a small rural city (only having become one in recent years, and at least nominally still considered a village), located within easy driving distance of an absurd amount of natural attractions and other places of interest (as well as containing several of its own), and being likely one of a handful of places in argentina where the environment is still undeniably healthy (it's even a commonly recommended destination for people with cardiovascular issues, as the air itself helps improve their condition, although i'm betting the lack of metropolitan stresses also helps a ton ). if anyone visits argentina, it's worth noting that magnetic bus/subway cards net you lower ticket prices than if you pay with physical money (which for buses you can do only with coins), so getting hold of one should be a priority. language-wise, we speak spanish, but you can find english speakers easily enough in buenos aires if you know where to look; hotel staff will pretty much always have some command of the language, of course, and many places cater to international clientele, so you can always pop into a starbucks or similar near the city center (which ironically is at the far east end of the city just before the coast) and try your luck there.

the only other place in the americas to which i've been for any appreciable length of time is uruguay, and my observation remains that it's essentially a miniature canada to argentina's USA (ie they're the more polite and more socialist cousins who we insist are simply another province, but they just don't know it yet ). definitely a good place to visit if one's in the area, as it's easily accessible by boat or plain from buenos aires.

outside of that, i've been to england and to norway twice, and to sweden, poland, iceland and finland once.

i'll start with iceland first, since i was only there one day, and it's the easiest one to summarize. when i went to iceland, the first thing i found was ice. a lot of ice. that alone makes iceland the best country ever. more seriously, i found icelanders to be, collectively, the nicest people i have ever met in my entire life. i don't know how that observation would hold up in the long term, but everything i saw and heard there simply strengthened my resolve to try my hardest to eventually settle there. i didn't have the chance to explore much, but i can also confidently state that reykjavík is one of the most beautiful cities i have ever seen. it's basically a smaller almost semi-rural version of norway's capital, oslo (i would say it's like oslo mixed with villa de merlo), where, as with most places i've seen in the nordic countries, most things are super clean and fully functional, and, interestingly, a fair amount of the city is located in a small peninsula, so there are places where you can stand at an intersection and literally see two opposite coasts, with frozen mountains on the horizon on either side (which are still burned right into my eyes). if it weren't such a small country, i'd become planetary emperor and order everyone to move to iceland. they also have excellent english, from what i've seen, so language should not be an issue, at least in the capital.

sweden i didn't see much of, but i can definitely recommend the hard rock café in the vasastan region in stockholm (which incidentally is near the city's main library, if memory serves). i've also been to täby, which is slightly north of stockholm proper, and is also a pretty cool small, semi-rural city. i went there to train with jesse enkamp (who writes the well-known karatebyjesse blog), so anyone fancying some of the most legit karate you can find should definitely consider going over to täby's combat academy (they also have okinawan kobudo, MMA, muay thai and probably some other stuff). for public transportation my memory's a bit fuzzy, but iirc, you can get day passes and magnetic cards. accommodation-wise, i stayed in 2kronor hostel vasastan, which was pretty good (and is half a block from the hard rock café :3). swedes also speak pretty good english

in poland i visited kraków, where MAPper rand86 and i alternated lifting weights, beating the crap out of each other, and getting lost. kraków is an absolutely beautiful city as well, with plenty to see and explore, so it's an excellent destination for people who like walking and either can use a map or don't mind getting lost . i stayed at atlantis hostel when i was there, and can recommend it to anyone who fancies a visit. a quaint thing about kraków is that apparently many buildings have rooms that are much better conserved than the hallways and staircases, so you'll occasionally go into a building and think it's a mess, but then go into any room and go "WHOAH, this is awesome!"

in finland i visited two cities: helsinki and turku (or helsingors and åbo in swedish, since finland kinda sorta maybe uses both languages*). helsinki, the capital, is pure distilled awesome.it has many old-looking buildings that look like castles and gave me nostalgia for the good old days when i played warcraft 2 on my dad's pc before school (i was in first grade :3). many areas of the city are an absolute beauty to look at, so it's also a good place to go if you like wandering around and looking at stuff. what really sold finland to me, though, was that they have chocolate milk with extra protein in it (you can probably tell i don't usually visit places for regular tourism ). for excellent martial arts training and really friendly people, hit up lu baochun's baji association. i also saw a little bit of nurmijärvi up to the north, but i only visited a friend's house and a gym, so not much i can tell about it (they have stables there, though, so there are horses, and horses are cool ). accommodation-wise, i was in stadion hostel, also very recommendable.

in turku i visited mapper boris the blade, who i drove insane with my rampant indecision . it's also a pretty nice place to look at, and i believe it's a university city, but both boris and my friend in helsinki seem to hate it . not a whole lot more to comment about it because i'm the lousiest tourist ever.

also, the finnish language is awesome (although fewer people seem to speak english in finland than in the other nordic countries)

*has to do with sweden's past history of being viking warmongers and going around conquering everything. see also: the convolutedness (totally a real word) of the norwegian language.

norway's the place i've spent the most time in, having spent 11 months there two years ago, and more recently 3 months visiting my parents (who currently live there). most of my time's been spent in oslo, which is simply an awesome city, generally speaking. very nice to look at, the people tend to be really cool, and as is typical of the nordics most things work perfectly well (except for the damn subway delays... *grumble grumble* ). transportation-wise, you have day passes and magnetic cards, same as in sweden. the magnetic cards you charge for a certain time period (usually one month), and have unlimited travel in buses, subways and trams for that time period. it's also pretty awesome that you can take well-behaved animals on public transportation, so it's not too uncommon (and entirely fricking COOL) to find people with their dogs inside a bus or a tram. obviously i can't help with accommodations there, but as far as training goes, frontline academy is awesome for combat sports, and for more laid-back TMA training, you can find an awesome environment with my friends at nofødra (they train primarily northern mantis and some yang taiji). gyms are also a dime a dozen, and even the big gym franchises are legit, even to the point of having lifting platforms and bumper plates. most norwegians in oslo will speak good english (some, amusingly, being almost indistinguishable from brits), and there's a huge amount of expats and tourists, so you can probably find someone who speaks your own language somewhere in the city.

i've also been in moss, which is a small rural city in southern norway, which has norway's american college and is also a nice place to visit, although apparently with fewer people who speak english (very awesomely, however, the one i did find who spoke it was going the same way as i was, and basically took me to where i was going so she could also practice her spoken english. best old lady ever).

and england, well, you're all british or escaped-british anyway, so you can give better info than i can (although i'll say the D-day museum in portsmouth is always worth a visit if you like WWII stuff)

 

I was in a state of panic and confusion...two indecisive people trying to organise stuff?!?! I would say it's a recipe for disaster but nothing much can happen when two such people meet, no disasters for sure.

Me, your friend and the rest of the nation (outside of Turku). It's not called the Arsehole of Finland for nuttin'.

I actually like the city...the city...

 

given what i remember of what frodo posted here about her experiences with anti-foodie, we should have brought the two of them along and seen if she managed to ban us IRL

 

given the relative density of "i dunno" in my vocabulary while i infested monsieur lily sunshine's house, i wouldn't bet on that

 

I spent over a year in Hong Kong (working in TV/Films), not much of a jump for me as I'm Chinese (British born). But it was still a bit of a culture shock as I spent majority of my life in London.
Those who want to go, its a lot easier than people think to get about, very metropolitan city. Most signs are in English and lots of English speakers anyway.

A must do trip is to Lantau Island to see the giant Buddha statue and walk the 268 steps, as well as the tranquil wooded area and if you follow the signs you get down to the seaside and try to spot Albino Dolphins.
Note on that...the boats you get on are like elongated buckets. When I sat down, my arm was pretty much at water level. Doesn't help when the water is also very very choppy. And no life jackets...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tian_Tan_Buddha

Hong Kong is also a 24hr city. You can easily wake up at 3am and go out and find a place to eat.

Ladies Street, **** Kok for all your shopping needs. Its an entire street of market stalls selling everything from Clothing to Electronics and fake luxury goods.
Prices are negotiable and it does need quite a bit of haggling. Especially when you're a tourist.
So do not feel uncomfortable in "putting on a performance of dis-interest". You can get some real gems there.
(Mao Zhi Dong themed leather wallets and watches are awesome)
Its also littered with street food and you can easily eat your fill for the day there.
Can't recommend any restaurants or anything as Hong Kong is a constantly changing city...there was a dessert place that had "toilet" themes but thats gone now.


I know this sounds geeky, but the underground tube system is awesome in Hong Kong. Its super efficient, cheap and lots of air conditioning.
I would however avoid the Mini Bus systems, but if you are with a local and can get on one, then its an experience.

They are essentially buses, which look like they are made out from a chop shop, there are "seats" and if you're really lucky, you can sit on a big fluffy thing on the floor.
They do have a route to which they at times follow and the locals will ask for stops in between stops or to have a slight diversion to make their own journey easier.

MA RELATED

Every Sunday, throughout the day, you get performaces from different schools doing their thing. Cool to look at.
Sculpture Walk, Kowloon Park, 22 Austin Road, Tsim Sha Tsui


Saying that, Hong Kong is a super easy city to get around and is very walkable..

The only negatives, crime is relatively low in Hong Kong but it is well known for Pick Pocketing (more than in London). I've pretty much never heard of any street robberies but clutch onto your bags and money people!
HK'ers tend to stare at things that are "unusual" to them, its not meant to be offensive but more out of interest. Years ago if you were a towering White or Black person you would most likely would have a couple of "oohs" and finger pointing, but generally doesn't happen as much anymore.
Although, also very tourist friendly, (as mentioned previously above) stall market folk do tend to try their luck and charge Tourists more than whats advertised on their walls. Sometimes as much as double, so when you "haglle down" its probably back to what they were selling it in the first place.

 

Traveling is everything to me. There are 3 things in this world left that give me genuine joy and happiness. Travel is one of them

Norway has always been a second home for me. When my mother left, my dad and I moved to Norway. I lived there from 1 year old to 3 years old until I was brought back in Finland. Later couple of years ago I lived there for some time again.

Norway is everything for me. But dammit is it an expensive place. My dad moved back there again few years ago from Finland, I visit him sometimes. Now he lives near Swedish border. He actually went to Norway alone from Finland when he was 17 and lived there for a while.

The nature there is astonishing, especially mountains. It has been one of the best experiences in my life; climbing to mountain alone, having a backpack full of soda & water, food, camera, mp3-player etc. In the end, at the top, just sitting down and watching sun going down while listening something beautiful like this

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PEGDGxZdzA"]Emancipator - Anthem (2006) - YouTube[/ame]

That moment right there, is total peace.

I also been in Swedish numerous of times (mostly when traveling to Norway or back to Finland), visited some tourist spots (Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus etc.)

I am nowadays more interest in different kind of traveling, something that would include me adventuring a bit.

I have great interest in going to both Koreas, Malaysia, Argentina, Czech Republic, Vietnam, New Zealand, Israel, Japan, Kenya, China, Mongolia and Maldives. And lots and lots of more, but those come to my mind first. Of course, traveling is expensive... I try and try to save, but its a slow process.. After years of saving, I still can only pick one place... Sigh, if I would win eurojackpot lottery, first thing to do would be to travel to many locations in the world...

Well, that was long and pointless text, but here are few pictures from my travels to Norway. In spoilers so I wont fill up too much of this page with my pictures

Spoiler

 

When I was young I read alot on Buddhism. They said you dont have to go anywhere to find the truth, it is found within. So i have never traveled except my arrival to Norway from Iraq.

 

Frodo you are awesome!
I would crap myself considering travelling to sierra leone

 

More please!

I'd love to go to Iran. I've wanted to go to the Syria for some time now...I guess I'll have to wait a little longer.

 

These are awesome.

 

When I was 9 my dad was posted to Hong Kong and I lived there for 2 and a half years. While I was there I visited the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. As an adult I've been to Canada and the US a lot for training, and I've done the usual western European stuff. In 2008 I went to China and studied at Wudang for a month which was pretty epic. In 2010 I went to Kerala which was fantastic and I can't recommend enough.
In terms of retrospectively dangerous holidays I have stayed at the Royal Kenz in Tunisia