NationStates Jolt Archive

Ok, so Ive been gone pretty much all summer, and have returned to spin you an epic tale and ask everyone to tell similar epic tales.

So, after glorious amounts of working (if summer jobs can ever be described as "glorious") I went on a vacation that I had been saving up for for roughly two years. I spent about a month and a half in Europe "country hopping", while leaving my fiance back home in Dekalb to hold down the fort (apartment).

I flew into Dublin, Ireland, and spent about a week there. Afterwords I travelled into the Uk and spent a few days in Scotland, before making my way to London. I ended up spending about two weeks in London and the surrounding area because I loved it so much (had originally planned a week). Saw the sites, at least the good ones, did the obligatory American tourist thing and tried to get the guards at Buckingham palace to smile, and went and saw some of the castles closer to Wales. Spent my nights in this little pub drinking with a few regulars (who ended up dubbing me "yank") where many a good conversation about football (soccer), music, women, and day to day life was had. Drunk one of them under the table on my first night there.

Afterwords I went to France where I spent time in Paris (only a week, Paris is overrated), relying on my rather piss poor French as often as possible. Saw and toured the Louvre which was cool. Spent an obscene amount of money on a bottle of high quality french wine.

Afterwords, I went to Spain and spent time in Madrid and Barcelona, which was quite cool. After a little more then a week in Spain I traveled home. I had intended to spend some time in Italy, but because I enjoyed London so much and I spent more time there then intended I had to return stateside for school.

Next summer I plan on doing something similar and going to Germany (my second time there), Hungry, Romania, and Russia.

Anyway, enough about me. Lets make this less bloggish shall we? Lets here some vacation stories! Both recent and past, abroad and local. Anything from humours anicdotes to opinions on some great places to vacation for those who dont travel much.

Hi.

I thought this story was going to be about Kingdom of Loathing. :(

I love traveling, I find it much more satisfying to spend money on a trip rather than things. I usually go on SCUBA trips with my nuclear family as we are all certified and love it. I think the best trip so far was to New Zealand and Australia. New Zealand has some great natural beauty and the people are very small townish, which I enjoy. It also had blackwater rafting which is one of the cooler experiences that I've had.

Australia was great because we spent a week on a liveaboard diving the GBR. Basically all we did was dive, eat and sleep, it was fantastic. I love seeing sharks and I have to say while diving a reef wall and seeing two hammerheads swimming along out in the gloom was beautiful.

As for destinations, it depends on what you like, I enjoyed Western Europe but there was no diving. I plan on getting to Italy and Greece and diving the Med, I hear it has some great wildlife.

Get to eastern europe while its still (pretty) cheap.

Hi.

I thought this story was going to be about Kingdom of Loathing. :(

:( Me too.

I feel I'm obligated to post this when someone comes back to NSG.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=QVS3WNt7yRU

Welcome back.

I was in the Wisconsin Dells this summer. We saw Little Norway, and the Wollershiem Winery, and watched the fireworks on the 4th of July from a boat on the Wisconsin River. Absofarkinglutely wonderful.

and watched the fireworks on the 4th of July from a boat on the Wisconsin River. Absofarkinglutely wonderful.

Ive done that. Its rather cool.

My favourite vacation fact is that I've now skied on 3 different continents. I want to make all of them before I die. Antartica could be a problem, any suggestions on how you do this without being Randolf Fiennes would be appreciated.

Ok, so Ive been gone pretty much all summer, and have returned to spin you an epic tale and ask everyone to tell similar epic tales.

So, after glorious amounts of working (if summer jobs can ever be described as "glorious") I went on a vacation that I had been saving up for for roughly two years. I spent about a month and a half in Europe "country hopping", while leaving my fiance back home in Dekalb to hold down the fort (apartment).

I flew into Dublin, Ireland, and spent about a week there. Afterwords I travelled into the Uk and spent a few days in Scotland, before making my way to London. I ended up spending about two weeks in London and the surrounding area because I loved it so much (had originally planned a week). Saw the sites, at least the good ones, did the obligatory American tourist thing and tried to get the guards at Buckingham palace to smile, and went and saw some of the castles closer to Wales. Spent my nights in this little pub drinking with a few regulars (who ended up dubbing me "yank") where many a good conversation about football (soccer), music, women, and day to day life was had. Drunk one of them under the table on my first night there.

Afterwords I went to France where I spent time in Paris (only a week, Paris is overrated), relying on my rather piss poor French as often as possible. Saw and toured the Louvre which was cool. Spent an obscene amount of money on a bottle of high quality french wine.

Afterwords, I went to Spain and spent time in Madrid and Barcelona, which was quite cool. After a little more then a week in Spain I traveled home. I had intended to spend some time in Italy, but because I enjoyed London so much and I spent more time there then intended I had to return stateside for school.

Next summer I plan on doing something similar and going to Germany (my second time there), Hungry, Romania, and Russia.

Anyway, enough about me. Lets make this less bloggish shall we? Lets here some vacation stories! Both recent and past, abroad and local. Anything from humours anicdotes to opinions on some great places to vacation for those who dont travel much.

The last (major) trip I went on took me to Pennsylvania, where I played paintball at EMR during the Celebrity Paintball event in 2003, with William Shatner and Mancow (radio celebrity) leading one team, versus Tom Kaye (from Airgun Designs) and Glenn Palmer (from Palmer's Pursuit). I was on Tom Kaye's and Glen Palmer's team, and although our team lost, we helped raise a lot of money for William Shatner's charity. The day before the event, I took a (long) side trip to Hershey, just to say I went there (and to get lots of chocolate). On the ride home from PA, my roommate was driving my truck (I was exhausted), and hit a guardrail, causing $4500 in body damage, plus front end damage (the dealership never told me how much it was, but the insurance took care of it all except the deductible, which my roommate covered).

The last (major) trip I went on took me to Pennsylvania, where I played paintball at EMR during the Celebrity Paintball event in 2003, with William Shatner and Mancow (radio celebrity) leading one team, versus Tom Kaye (from Airgun Designs) and Glenn Palmer (from Palmer's Pursuit). I was on Tom Kaye's and Glen Palmer's team, and although our team lost, we helped raise a lot of money for William Shatner's charity. The day before the event, I took a (long) side trip to Hershey, just to say I went there (and to get lots of chocolate). On the ride home from PA, my roommate was driving my truck (I was exhausted), and hit a guardrail, causing $4500 in body damage, plus front end damage (the dealership never told me how much it was, but the insurance took care of it all except the deductible, which my roommate covered).



I would pay absurd amounts of money to play paintball with Captain Kirk.

I would pay absurd amounts of money to play paintball with Captain Kirk.

"Set phasers on stun!"

"Ehm... Keptin? We don't have phasers..."

"Bugger!"


Sadly enough, I haven't been on vacation in years.:eek:

I would pay absurd amounts of money to play paintball with Captain Kirk.

IIRC, it was $110 per person (it was back in 2003, so I'm not 100% sure), and you got a team jersey (I was a bandito serving under Tom Kaye and Glenn Palmer, and Shatner's and Mancow's team was the law). The first Shatnerball game was a Star Trek theme, though (Starfleet, Klingons, and Borg).

I think what raised the most amount of money for the charity was the auction afterwards. People were paying $3,000+ for paintball markers worth $1,000, just because they were autographed by William Shatner. I got a PPS hat autographed by Glenn Palmer for $20, and my roommate got a 140 round pod autographed by William Shatner for $50 (the pod sells by itself for maybe $4, so my roommate paid $46 for the autograph). One thing I got for free though, was Tom Kaye's autograph on my game ID badge. :D

Which castles?

I haven't had a real, honest-to-goodness vacation in many, MANY years. :(
But I DO plan on being at The Gathering next year. :)

My favourite vacation fact is that I've now skied on 3 different continents. I want to make all of them before I die. Antartica could be a problem, any suggestions on how you do this without being Randolf Fiennes would be appreciated.
I know you can visit Antarctica; some octogenarian friends of mine did two years ago.

http://www.coolantarctica.com/Travel/antarctica_travel_home.htm

I think the only skiing you're likely to be able to have is cross country.

Joined my family on a houseboat on Lake Cumberland in Kentucky last week. It was a week filled with doing nothing at all...well, besides swimming, reading, eating and drinking. And sleeping. Lots of that. It was pretty pleasant, a low stress vacation (except when the thing ran aground, but no damage was caused, and I was able to push it off using a small tree as a lever). Best part was I didn't have to spend any money.

Next year, I think the fam is going to Mexico, not sure though.

Ah man...I envy you...I wish to take that Vacation...:hail: lol

Ok, so Ive been gone pretty much all summer, and have returned to spin you an epic tale and ask everyone to tell similar epic tales.

So, after glorious amounts of working (if summer jobs can ever be described as "glorious") I went on a vacation that I had been saving up for for roughly two years. I spent about a month and a half in Europe "country hopping", while leaving my fiance back home in Dekalb to hold down the fort (apartment).

I flew into Dublin, Ireland, and spent about a week there. Afterwords I travelled into the Uk and spent a few days in Scotland, before making my way to London. I ended up spending about two weeks in London and the surrounding area because I loved it so much (had originally planned a week). Saw the sites, at least the good ones, did the obligatory American tourist thing and tried to get the guards at Buckingham palace to smile, and went and saw some of the castles closer to Wales. Spent my nights in this little pub drinking with a few regulars (who ended up dubbing me "yank") where many a good conversation about football (soccer), music, women, and day to day life was had. Drunk one of them under the table on my first night there.

Afterwords I went to France where I spent time in Paris (only a week, Paris is overrated), relying on my rather piss poor French as often as possible. Saw and toured the Louvre which was cool. Spent an obscene amount of money on a bottle of high quality french wine.

Afterwords, I went to Spain and spent time in Madrid and Barcelona, which was quite cool. After a little more then a week in Spain I traveled home. I had intended to spend some time in Italy, but because I enjoyed London so much and I spent more time there then intended I had to return stateside for school.

Next summer I plan on doing something similar and going to Germany (my second time there), Hungry, Romania, and Russia.

Anyway, enough about me. Lets make this less bloggish shall we? Lets here some vacation stories! Both recent and past, abroad and local. Anything from humours anicdotes to opinions on some great places to vacation for those who dont travel much.

make sure you check out Zurich next year! been once and its lovely

you might have also checked out Southampton while you were in the UK... its where the Titanic and the original pilgrims' ship (forget the name now) sailed from. bit o' history for ya ;)


i don't have too many holiday stories. the best one i've been on was a two week tour of California with my dad when i was about 16 or 17. we hired a soft top car, middle of summer, and travelled from LA to Sacramento and back. also had a great time with my lovely g/f in Amsterdam last year - saw the sights, took big long walks around the city, had just one joint (after two years not toking it was enough :tongue: )... happy times :)

Oh, crap...

Kidding of course. Good to see you back.:D

*snip*
My vacation consisted of staying at your house while you were away. Be sure to leave more food next time.

Just got back last night from a road trip to California. Drove across the country (I like long drives: a lot of people, even those who know me well, find that surprising, but it's not my weirdest attribute). Took four days going west, including a 24-hour stop near Denver to do some hiking in the Rockies, spent ten days in the Bay Area (some time pursuing job leads, seemingly successful, knock wood, I should be moving out permanently next year), three days hard drive back. I got excellent gas mileage, from 430 to 490 miles (depending on terrain) per gas tank (about 12 gallons); just for a challenge I streaked the state of Utah: I've never liked Utah, so I try to gas up in east Nevada and west Wyoming to avoid stopping there at all, and for added anti-Mormonism I drove without any pants on across the whole state.

I once went to Zanzibar, where I met a man who claimed to be called "Captain Fruit". He didn't have a boat, only a melon and a bunch of bananas. He seemed offended when I asked him where his boat was.

I also met a "Captain Zappy" who did have a boat, but disappointingly was not an animated lightning bolt.

I'm about to go on holiday. 2 weeks in a little village in the south of France, 1&1/2 weeks in Denmark & Sweden and a couple of nights in Singapore on the way home. I'm looking forward to it very much.