UnorthodoxY Archive It's wasn't what you thought

March 12, 2008

EU 2008: Paris, France

Filed under: Life,Photo,Travel — Tags: , , , , , — SpaceDog @ 9:51 am

Right, I promised ‘country’ posts to accompany my tour of Europe. I’m not going to do a diary style thing dealing with what I did day to day — I still have a vague idea of writing all my travel notes up and making some sort of travelogue one day. But this is not that, these posts are more my quick-and-dirty reflections on the countries I’ve been to.

Eiffel TowerAnd so: Paris, “The City of Lights”. To be honest I’m wasn’t really here to do the tourist thing, it was more of a stop off to visit friends, and there should be plenty more tourism coming up.

Arc de TriompheI knocked off a few main sites anyway, the picture to the left is one of the rare ones with me in it to prove that I was really there. We didn’t go up the Eiffel Tower, instead we climbing the Arc De Triomphe so we could see the Paris skyline with the tower in it. You can get a pretty good idea of the layout of the city from the top, if you’ve not had a heart attack from the stairs. Sadly my pictures from the top aren’t that great, so you get one from across the road instead.

I also got a chance to go round Notre Dame which is probably more impressive from the outside, it’s not that the inside isn’t impressive but one gothic cathedral is much like another and when you’re part of a shuffling line of tourists it kinda loses something.

Snails We didn’t eat particularly French stuff, in fact the best meal I had was in an excellent Sushi place, but I did make a point of getting a plate of snails. Just getting them out the shells is a bit of a challenge, even with the special tongs they give you. Once you get them out they’re kinda small, they have a texture not unlike a mussel and a taste I can only describe as earthy. Not bad, but not something I think I’d seek out again.

The problem with Paris is that it’s huge with a shedload of things to see and do, even if I hadn’t been spending a significant part of my trip knocking back Jagermeister I’d still not have seen a fraction of it. Paris is expensive too, a few more days could have easily broken my budget. Fortunately it’s only a short hop away so I can always go back and see more of it.

Effiel Tower in the distance

My advice for Paris is to plan ahead, now that’s true of anywhere but having a proper plan and a knowledge of where the attractions are relative to each other is going to help you get the best out of the place. As with anywhere the cheaper places are off the beaten track, but the sheer size of the place makes finding them difficult.

Would I go back? Yes, in fact I’ll almost certainly be back this year. There’s so much else I could do and it’s so easy to get to that there’s really no excuse for not returning.

But still, Eiffel Tower, Norte Dame, Arc de Triomphe, Snails? I think that means Paris counts as done, more pictures in the Flickr set.

March 3, 2008

Late Thoughts …

Filed under: Life,Site,Travel — Tags: , , , — SpaceDog @ 8:53 pm

I meant to write this much earlier but apparently a week of traveling, too much booze and too little sleep isn’t good for you — I’ve felt pretty rough for the last few days.

I’m back from my travels and I will get round to posts for individual places (promise) so this is just a collection of thoughts.

Glance up and you’ll see one of the first of set of all new header images for 2008. It was pretty disturbing going through my photos to find images to use — there’s a handful of photos with me in them and I look progressively more haggard as you the week goes on. Scary stuff.

Anyroads, some advice after the jump.
(more…)

February 13, 2008

Resolve

Filed under: Life,Travel — SpaceDog @ 6:29 pm

It’s been a few weeks since I declared my 2008 Resolution , so it’s probably time to revisit it.

First, I wanted to address a couple of questions people have asked.

Isn’t this whole idea a bit shallow?
Oh yes, it’s incredibly shallow. But then aren’t most holidays unless you’re trekking for charity or building mud huts in the Congo? At least doing this will force me to travel to places I would never have visited, and probably travel via methods and routes I would normally have ignored. Is it any better or worse than returning to the same sun-drenched beach for two weeks every year?

It’s still a fair comment, so I’m going to try and not just go to places to tick the box, but we’ll see how possible that is.

Isn’t all going to be a bit rushed?
Aye, some countries are going to get shortchanged. But I’m going to make an effort to spend a decent chunk of time in each country, or at least the ones I’ve not been to before. I don’t want to do a ‘stand on the border, foot over, tick the box, move on’ thing, but on the other hand if I do want to get to all the countries then some places will get more time than others.

And I don’t think it’s a bad idea to visit places quickly to get a feel for them, I’d rather spend a day in three different cities and want to return to them all than spend three days somewhere I’m bored of after two hours. Plus I know that given more time I just get too laid back, but under a deadline I’ll make the effort to get out and see things. I’ll have time to relax when I’m travelling between places.

Can’t I just visit less places?
Of course, but it wouldn’t have the same ring, would it?

Plus I’d just pick ‘easy places’, by aiming for a set of countries that’s defined by something else I’m forced to stretch a bit.

So with all that said, how’s the progress looking? I’m going to resist scoring off the UK, because of my comments above about not just ‘ticking the box’, so the list looks like:

With 125 non-working days left I still need to visit 20 countries (27 to do then in all ’08.)
Countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom.
Countries I’ve visited pre-2008 are in grey, countries visited in 2008 are scored out.

Eeek, that’s not looking good. I’d better do something to improve matters.

December 31, 2007

2008 Resolution

Filed under: Ideas,Life,Travel — SpaceDog @ 8:00 am

I liked last years resolution but it was a bit wishy-washy. So, what for this year?

I could do something sensible like resolve to save some money, get fitter or lose some weight. But everyone does that, and most of them end up abandoning it after January, just like I would.

I’ve resolved to do something that’s not too easy, but is at least plausible and fun. Since I’ve already decided not to do a several week holiday this year I might as well give me a target to get me out of the flat, and the country.

So, here goes:

By the 31st of December 2008, I resolve to have visited each of the 27 member states of the European Union.

I’ve had this idea in the back of my head for a few months, and it was originally ‘visit each capital city for a day.’ The version above allows more wiggle room (notably allowing me to count the seven countries I’ve already visited if I need to, even if Greece is a stretch since it was over fifteen years ago.)

Still, it’s going to be interesting if I really commit myself to doing it. And, barring any disasters, I plan to give it my best.

At least it makes the progress post easier, here’s the first one:

With 134 non-working days left I still need to visit 20 countries (27 to do then in all ’08.)
Countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom.
Countries I’ve visited pre-2008 are in grey, countries visited in 2008 are scored out.

December 30, 2007

Final Progress

Filed under: Life,Travel — SpaceDog @ 7:00 pm

One final progress for the year …

People Visited: 22 (4) [Last: 20/4]
Places Visited: lots… (4) [Last: 11/3]
Countries Visited: 10 (5) [Last: 6/2]

So, what do I think? Well I made up for my lack of travel in the last few months of the year. I don’t think I’ll do another ‘big bang’ trip anytime soon, little and often next year. Still it was excellent.

The important part of the resolution was to visit people, to get in touch more. I can honestly say that I’ve made the effort to see more people this year than I might otherwise have. And I’ve managed to get in contact, even if only electronically, with almost everyone that I really wanted to, and that certainly was encouraged by this resolution.

Check back tomorrow morning for my 2008 resolution …

See the Original post for the details and the rules.

November 28, 2007

Aftermath

Filed under: Life,Travel — Tags: , , , — SpaceDog @ 5:56 pm

Well, I’m back. After travelling around fifteen thousand miles in 31 days, using 9 planes, 5 boats, 4 trains, countless cabs and a whole bunch of buses my carbon footprint is almost as big as the hole Vegas left in my bank balance.

I’ve only glanced at my statement (and quickly glanced away) but it looks like I spent as much money in three days in Vegas as I did in the four weeks leading up to it. And even though luck wasn’t with me I only lost a fraction of that money gambling, the rest seemed just to evaporate as part of the cost of eating, drinking and just being in the place. I’m glad the exchange rate is favourable.

Sadly I don’t have much else to say about Vegas, I went to wind down and spend a few days on my own and it served it’s purpose admirably. It’d have been nice to at least break even, but the city is built on people like me losing a few dollars over a weekend. I’ll go again, but I think it’d be better to have a few more people so there’s a group of you to do stuff with if (when) the gambling funds run out.

I’ll hopefully take time to write about the rest of the holiday when I get a second, but I’m sure I’m still due a few posts about Russia from last year so it may take a while.

Looking back I can say that it was fun, a bit more hectic than I expected but worth doing and with some notable highlights. I realise that I had no idea what the trip would really be like. Now that I’ve done it — and had the chance to talk to people who’ve been on dozens of other trips — I’ve got a much better idea and I’ll be more informed if I’m picking another trip like that. But I’ve already decided not to do something similar next year, it’s too much time and money in one go, better to spread out my time off for a change. I have a faint idea of what to do instead, hopefully it’ll should take shape over the next few weeks.

Having said that I’ve already caught myself looking at a couple of tours on the web this morning, and one of the other guys on the tour pointed me to a site that searches multiple tour companies, so maybe I’ll change my mind.

However, it’s time for a few days of relaxation then I’m going to plunge forward and get the kitchen and bathroom finished before the end of the year.

November 24, 2007

[AutoPost] Las Vegas

Filed under: Travel — SpaceDog @ 11:07 pm

At the end of my last long holiday I ended up in Hong Kong, it was a brilliant three days. More by luck than judgement I’d found the perfect place to end a long trip.

Today should, hopefully, find me having the same great time just in a different city, Las Vegas. It’s been a few years since I’ve been to Vegas and I’ve wanted to return since the moment I left.

My plan for Vegas? Gambling, food, booze, maybe some shopping in some order or other. I also have a ticket for Penn and Teller at the Rio which should be fun but I’m mostly here to try and get in some decent sized poker tournaments and see if I can’t make some money.

And in two days, I start the long journey home, almost twenty-four hours of travelling, good excuse to stay up all night …

November 20, 2007

[AutoPost] Piste

Filed under: Travel — SpaceDog @ 11:06 pm

So today finds me in Piste mainly because it’s one of the closest places to Chichen Itza.

Some of the descriptions of Chichen Itza describe “busloads of tourists” visiting there each day so I’m not sure what the place will be like. But it’s considered one of the seven new wonders of the world (although that whole site is a bit dubious) and it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site so I thought it would be silly not to go see it when I’m in the area.

November 18, 2007

[AutoPost] Caye Caulker

Filed under: Travel — SpaceDog @ 11:06 pm

I’ve never considered myself to be a ‘sit on the beach holiday’ person but, in truth, I’ve never tried it.

So today is my chance as it should, all being well, find me on the Caribbean island of Caye Caulker in Belize. Hopefully I’m going to sit on the beach, with a book and drink something suitably tropical. Of course it might decide to rain all the time I’m here, in which case I’ll just have to find a bar to sit in instead. And considering it’s possible to walk round the island in an hour or two I should be able to thoroughly explore and still spend most of the day relaxing.

I might even overcome my general dislike of water and go snorkeling.

November 16, 2007

More thoughts …

Filed under: Life,Travel — SpaceDog @ 10:43 pm

It’s occurred to me that my previous postings did focus somewhat on the staying-up-and-drinking aspects of this holiday. Perhaps this gives a bad impression.

The holiday, so far, has been great. I must admit that I didn’t quite expect the 8 am departures why it’s done that way. They manage to pack a lot of stuff into the time there is. We’re also getting some excellent local guides to show us around places, which is the sort of thing you’d not be able to sort out on your own.

The early nights/early mornings are still a bit strange to get used to but I may as well make the most of it. This last week is an optional extension and is supposed to be a bit more laid back so I should get a chance to relax a bit more. We’ve also lost almost half the group that aren’t doing the extension which is a bit strange, it also makes me one of the youngest people here — although I was always the youngest guy on the tour. Previously we’d all been kinda getting used to each other, but now with the smaller group it almost feels like a new tour.

It’s a bit to hot for me to sit here and think of anything else to write, a few days of rest, then a few more things to see and then off to Vegas.

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