Travel

[spahdfgo]

Did Yellowstone - Seattle in a day, if you can get past the boredom (which I found quite easy on US roads), it's not that complicated. Make sure that as soon as feel tired/eyes closing, change drivers or just make a 15 min stop, stretch your legs, get something to eat.

Take a walk in Griffith Park.

[L_Dawg]

Anyone on here been travelling/backpacking alone that could shed some light on how easy it is to meet people in hostels or on buses etc?

going to Peru for 5 weeks in 10 days time and a bit nervous

[vgtbls]

I haven't been alone, but if your hostel has a common room just sit and talk to people. Especially if there's a breakfast/coffee/tea service. Ask where they're from, where they've been. I've found that people are extremely nice and just as interested in meeting new people.

[JtotheWhat]

Anyone here spent much time in Indonesia? My girlfriend is designer/pattern maker/fabric sourcer for Uniqlo and they just told her they want her to goto Indonesia for a year to help oversea operations and some of their factories there, so it looks like I might be going there for a few months atleast.. was wondering what I / she should expect if we're staying there long-term.

[ramseames]

Preme

H.lorenzo

[anonomous]

Okay guys, i'm going to Japan tomorrow. Osaka to be specific. Any last minute tips? After some googling i've found out that the japanese might ignore you because they have bad english. I have not even packed yet, shit.

edit: Watching Anime since I'm young would probably help a bit, i'm guessing

[ramseames]

I only spent 8 hours in osaka but nether there nor anywhere else during my month in Japan this past Jan did i ever notice someone who i was trying to talk to intentionally ignore me.

Get a pasmo at the first train station and put at least 1000 on it, saves time every single trip.

Hit up the umeda sky building

Depending on how much time you have I'd say check out kyoto too, it only costs like 400 to get there.

Shinsaibashi suji isnt really that good tbh. Still check it out but i wouldnt spend a ton of time on it.

[starfox64]

osaka castle is cool but totally rebuilt.

i also didn't go inside

[fun_yunchables]

Going to California at the end of the month, flitting between LA, SD, and SF I want to go to Acne, Wildstyle, Union, Opening Ceremony, Self Edge, Maas.

Anything I am missing?

in san diego: stop by gym standard, acd gallery. stuff might not be exactly what you like but people are chill and stock excellent print media. any of the consortium holdings joints have excellent interior decor.

in la seconding ramseames suggestion on supreme, the bowl is definitely worth seeing if you haven't yet. the undftd store is down the street, and across the street is golden state burgers which has good craft beers and excellent burgers. also, the new APC store on Melrose, and don't forget muji!!

[starfox64]

what's good with montreal? would be like a weekend trip.

@exprof halp???

[starfox64]

@jtothewhat yeah i live in nyc now

@missrowan no french. would that be an issue?

[exprof]

when r u coming @starfox64? what do you want to do? jazz festival + JFL + fantasia film fest is on right now but there's other stuff in august. montreal has a festival going on every week all summer... lol

general stuff tho:
- old port is super adorable but very tourist-trappy (fireworks on wednesdays/sunday nights tho)
- plateau mont royal/mile end is hipster town but has cool stuff
- mount royal park is nice for a lazy day but idk if u wanna waste a day doing nothing
- montreal is super walkable or u can rent a bixi bike, lots of streets closed off for pedestrian use only, metro is v efficient as well
- dont worry abt not speaking french.... tbh 90% of ppl working retail/at restos are bilingual or someone will prob be happy to translate

food (rly try and visit these, i listed all the things that r ~montreal exclusive~ ... everything else is pretty standard here so like wtv)
- au pied de cochon is a must 4 foie gras poutine (or)
- tbh lots of ppl say to eat at la banquise, it's ok but usually super busy, best to get it to go and eat it at lafontaine park
- any st viateur bagel place
- get smoked meat at schwartz (even tho its kinda gone meh since mgmt changed..)
- au dieu du ciel for beers
note: lots of food trucks all over the place if u wanna eat smth cheap/weird

stores:
- everything is better in nyc. don't bother lol. unless u wanna visit ssense, which is ok i guess...

museums:
- DHC is hosting come and see by jake + dinos chapman
- Musee d'art contemporain is hosting the pulse room + other weirdo canadian art
- Musee des beaux-arts is hosting faberge eggs

[Iliam]

what's good with montreal? would be like a weekend trip.

@starfox64 in addition to exprof's recs, I would say:
- Patati Patata on Boulevard St Laurent: order some take-away poutine (best poutine in montreal imo), walk a block to Parc Jeanne-Mance and have a picnic. It's far better experience than that la banquanise stuff which is overrated, and a bit... tacky? i am deeply committed to Patati Patata.
- if you want a good/nice meal L'Express is great. It's got all the benefits of eating in france without the french people. Recommend the bone marrow. I haven't tried to because i don't put charred carcass in my mouth but my friend ordered it and it seemed/ looked/ smelt incredible.
- beautys lucheonette is an old montreal dinner that looks pretty unchanged since the 50's and its a "montreal institution". good 4 brunch but get their earlier or later as there's always a queue on the weekend.
- BAGEL PLACES: there is a long rivalry between NYC and Montreal for the best bagel which New Yorkers seem unaware of. There a GREAT bagel places. In addition to St-Viateur, some people talk up Fairmount. The best thing to do in montreal hands down is to go to both bakeries and eat these delicious dough-y circles straight out of the oven. if you want to mail some to australia i would be incredibly grateful.
-tim horton's (obviously)

OTHER (of the top of my head):
- Bar Tokyo is nice, maybe a too nice.
- Drawn and Quartered is a really interesting book store that is also the main outlet of a very cool comic/ graphic novel publishing house so its mostly focused on indie comics but also has a good range of novels, poetry etc. HIGHLY RECOMMMENDED

BONUS: the band Purity Ring's guide to Montreal http://www.pedestrian.tv/travel/north-a ... ee87e0.htm

[donut_milk]

I went to Joshua Tree over the weekend. Really hot but pretty cool seeing all the trees and rock formations. At night it was amazing because the sky was clear of light pollution. Saw a ton of stars, shooting stars, and the Milky Way galaxy.

Some snaps I took:





Definitely go if you've never seen parts of the CA desert before.

[bouquet]

Hoping this is the right thread, but I'm going to Chicago with family tomorrow and was wondering if anyone has any must-visit suggestions? Could be food, clothing, completely random whatever just general cool things. It will be my first time there and just thinking about how big it will be is semi-overwhelming. I'll probably end up wandering off on my own to do stuff, and I think we are going to mainly be around Michigan avenue but unsure there as well. Anything is appreciated

[rjbman]

I'm sure others can add on here:

Shopping:
Oak St. just west of Michigan Ave. has a ton of fantastic shops. There' s Independence, Jil, old Y-3 (now just stocks high end Adidas), Gallery Aesthete, Barney's. Michigan has some cool stuff on it too, the Nike store is pretty neat, heard good things about Ralph Lauren store, also lots of fast fashion (Zara, H&M, Topman, All Saints). Also consider checking out Haberdash, Patagonia, and Suit Supply.

Food:
Chicago is known for deep dish, there are 4 places within a 2 block radius on Michigan that are great. Pizzaria Uno's/Due's (same place, just two separate locations), Gino's East, and Giordano's. If you're looking for some fine dining, head north on Rush and you can find a couple of nice restaurants (Tavern on Rush is great, albeit $$$).

Stuff to see:
Bean in Millenium Park is pretty standard tourist fare, with a distorted picture. In the area, you could see the Sears (not Willis) Tower, but IIRC it's like $20 to go to the top. There's a couple of cool museums in the area. Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium are both a bit south of the "downtown" area, but they're both fun. Art Institute and Museum of Contemporary Art are both pretty close to downtown Chicago; MCA is a lot more reasonable though ($12 for adults, $7 for students).

[Rosenrot]

This is waaaay overdue but I figured well, why the hell not.

Budapest

Spoiler:

Antwerp

Spoiler:

Rome

Spoiler:

Florence

Spoiler:

Oslo

Spoiler:

Cambridge

Spoiler:

[UnwashedMolasses]

Hey y'all, been meaning to post this for a few weeks but what can I say, I've been busy / lazy.

I went to Alaska late July with @iDoMolasses to visit her brother and, you know, be in Alaska.

I'll put the bulk under the spoiler so it doesn't clog the thread.

Spoiler:

Here we are at the airport, much more excited to be there than anybody else apparently. About 7 hours of flight total. I'm a fairly regular flyer so I knew what to expect. Kristina, on the other hand, has only flown a few times. When I told her to be prepared for quite a long time sitting she was annoyed with me for damping her excitement. And to be fair, flying with her was very cool - first time we'd done it. I believe the next photo sums up what happened next fairly well.



We didn't need to land to know we were in for some nice views - we got this shot in on the approach.



First night in we went to a pretty cool mexican-ish bar with her brother and some of his friends.



Very strange sensations abounded. We finished our meals and sat around drinking and chatting for what only felt like a bit till someone said they had to go home, it was 11:00. It was still bright as it'd been since we landed. That took a while to get used to, and then to stop being used to after the return. Sunset was round midnight and it came back up at 4 AM. Sleep felt much more like a choice than a necessity.

At her brother's place I got to meet THESE TWO FLUFFBALLS





Japanese akitas, extremely guard dogs but sweethearts once they got used to you. Their heads were probably double the size of mine, which can be slightly intimidating.

The fact that those two were so lovable made it crazy difficult to leave the next day, but we had places to be. Kristina's brother had the weekend planned (again ish) and we were gladly along for the ride.



Coupla roadside views for ya:











We drove something like four hours down to a beach inside a lake, what was called The Spit. Essentially a single dune elongated into the center of the lake. A good amount of it was pretty touristy, but we weren't there for commerce, we were camping out.







Being from a state that is mostly rolling hills and flatlands interspersed with metropolitan areas and suburbs, there's always a subtle sort of awe that creeps in on you in places like this. My family and I've gone to Europe a few times, and Ireland and Scotland had the same effect (I'll see if I can scrounge up some photos of those to post later). When you first land obviously you're struck by the splendor of what's around you, but it quickly numbs as you get wrapped up in activities. It never goes away, though. It inches its way back into your consciousness with an endearing insistence, whispering "hey. hey, look. stop. look around. you're here. this is real."

Quick pic of the bar on the spit:



And one more with a new friend. For frame of reference, this was probably taken around midnight.



Saturday found us driving another few hours to Ninilchik, a reserved little town with a population of 833 (as of 2010). We were there for Salmonstock, Alaska's riff on Woodstock, which had been described by everyone we'd met as a "hippy festival".

There was some pretty great music as it got later on in the night. No pictures of that, so here's the mainstage in the day:



And some excellent Pad Thai from one of the many food trucks at the venue:



Socially it was a bit of a mess, really. The friends that had come with us got pretty blotto and had to be found and rescued, one of them thought Kristina's brother was annoyed with her so she repeatedly asked if she was "nagging" him but kept messing up the first vowel. There was a group of unabashedly friendly what-can-only-be-described-as mountain folk next to us, that unfortunately also started hitting the sauce (and a few other things) pretty hard. One actually ended up arrested for revealing himself on the main stage.

We had to sate ourselves on some of these bad boys:



[Warning: not actually bad boys. Despite hyper-masculine marketing, these are basically alcoholic apple juice.]

I don't mean to make it seem like it was all bad though. The music, booths, food trucks, and general atmosphere were all extremely positive. We also did end up making some friends that didn't get sloppy.



This dude came to chill with us so we gave him some fries and some pettings. He also had an excellent tag on his collar:



And then there's this angel.



The friends that were driving separately from us actually picked him and his female companion (wife? girlfriend? traveling friend? never really confirmed) hitchhiking on the way in. They turned out to be godsends. Kristina and I are both unexperienced camping and they were unendingly helpful, offering advice, expertise, snacks, and liquor. At one point he just started indiscriminately throwing Rollos into the tent at me. Definitely wasn't complaining. Oh yeah, and the wig was from a Dorothy costume someone else brought.

Also, there was this dude doing flybys.



And waffle sandwiches for breakfast!



Saturday found us on our fishing charter, going deep sea for some halibut. Didn't know it was gonna be six hours so we didn't eat, which wasn't ideal, but it was a blast.

Here's Kristina reeling one in:





Gap x EG (mine) x XTRATUF

Wanted to give a quick shoutout to XTRATUF boots for being excellent at what they do (waterproof, essentially) although apparently they recently outsourced production and quality's gone to shit. Oh well.

Kristina's brother had the biggest get of the day:



And a sampling, probably a quarter of the total catch (we were there with five other people):



Filleted and vacuum sealed, back in the fridge:



We basically just hung out the last day. We'd camped for three days straight and at that point it was just nice to have a shower and a change. Thanks for listening care-tags, much love from us to you.

[UnwashedMolasses]

BACK TO BACK POSTS whaaaaaaa? Aw yeah content.

These photos are of my family's Scotland trip, and were taken by my sister, who does photos. Again spoiled as there's quite a few of them. No commentary on these, pretty self-explanatory. Shoutout to @ramdomthought for the mac, he posted it in a You Should Buy thread years ago, worn me well so far. Also this really is a lot of pics, so don't unspoiler if you can't afford the load.

Spoiler:

[can-]

[stappard_]

Just been to South Carolina. I found out South Carolina looks like this




everywhere

[donut_milk]

Went to Yosemite for my birthday on Friday:


Tunnel View


Half Dome


El Capitan - Hazy from the fires around 3pm






Tunnel View before we left...the smoke from the fires started coming in heavy.

[rublev]

best budget hotels in london that won't make me wanna hurl ??????????

[slappa]

So I moved to Paris in August on exchange and while class participance is mandatory it still leaves a little spare time to explore the city. Despite only living here for 1 month I've already lived in 3 flats in different areas (14th, 13th & 2nd arrondissement) each with their positives and negatives. I brought my camera with me and invested in a new 35mm lens, which all the pics has been shot with.

Friday afternoon at Place des Vosges in the 4th arrondissement




Taking a break at the Seine


Butte-aux-Cailles in the 13th arrondissement

[breakadawn]

If any of you are in Walthamstow (North London), you should head out and check out the Wild Card Brewery, there's a bar there too. Also across the street from it, there's a fantastic shop run by a guy who designs neon signs for movie sets, called God's Own Junkyard. Have a look.

[starfox64]

went to Jeju this week for a company workshop thing.



(Pardon the IG filter on this one)





Really beautiful. Kinda bummed that I didn't go during the summer at all while I was living here, since it was too cold to go to the beach or hike to the top of the mountain.

[starfox64]

@ramseames about a week. went to tokyo for like 48 hours on the way here, hence the visit to the Nintendo® Pocket Monsters™ center

[seth83292]

I'm going to Prague for 4 days around christmas time!

Anyone who's been, plz, suggestions are open.

[sknss]

Prague is super touristy but if you get out of the beaten path it's nice.

Traditional cuisine is pretty meh imo (potato+pork all day). I had excellent food in Lehka Hlava tho. I also highly recommend Dobra Cajovna to enjoy one of their 300 teas ( and awesome snacks). Also Ebel coffee, Cream and Dream for ice cream, Jan Paukert if you're feeling fancy.
The zoo is pretty awesome. You can also visit Speculum Alchemiae, the museum of alchemy, and see a real (?) wizard lab!

[WHAT_A_BEAUTIFUL_DUWANG]

I'm going to Hong Kong for a couple days over the new year. Would like to do some shopping but probably won't have a whole lot of time. I'm thinking of checking out: delstore, incredible, I.T, kapok, fil, monocle, and the one mall (for journal standard and beams). Possibly also take5, joyce, and ink?? idk though...is there something I should strike off the list? (for reference, I'm from the US, so would prefer to look and rub my face in clothes from designers/labels that aren't readily available in the US)

Any other general recommendations for cool (cheap) things to do/see? Thanks!