You guys got me thinking about Cuban food now. Just pulled a pork shoulder out of the freezer. Gonna do something Cuban with it.
đź“Š Poll How many of you have been out of the country?
- Thread starter Mook
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and fyi some places on their national type airlines let you do stopovers/get tours; (non-covid of course) - istanbul is one of them. if you fly turkish airlines and are going through but have a 6 hour layover or more, they will take you out on a short tour. same if you are flying copa airlines through panama city, they will take you to the panama canal.
turkish is a favorito airline of mine, have a super nice biz lounge, and despite going to manila from san francisco next month, i'm still going east just so i can take turkish and bounce through istanbul.
turkish is a favorito airline of mine, have a super nice biz lounge, and despite going to manila from san francisco next month, i'm still going east just so i can take turkish and bounce through istanbul.
I was in Istanbul for several days, I enjoyed all of it. It would be cool to go again and explore more historical stuff.
where did you stay?
i stayed just off istikal both times. i think there were more cats in that area than by the sultanahmet, which is one of the things i found fun about walking around. only place i've been where it seems i could leave the house and just walk in any random direction and see some cool stuff. would enjoy visiting again, it's been a while.
the second/last time i was there, it was 41 days, and despite having global entry, when i entered the US i got pulled to the side and had to go through an interview process. took 2 hours, phone wasn't working and my mom came to pick me up and was wondering wtf was going on. i was the only white dude waiting and half the other dudes were named mohammed and most of the other people in this area were from iraq. they were trying to make sure i didn't bounce down to syria for some training. i'm like no dude look at all the geotagged pictures of cats on my phone, i'm american, let me in, i'll eat 2 whole pizzas to prove it to you right now.
Old part of town.
We checked out Topkapi Palace, Grand Bazaar, Spice Bazaar, Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, the Istanbul Archeology Museum, Basilica Cistern. Wife on days I worked checked out Dolembace Palace (might not be correct spelling) and Galata Tower. We also had a work dinner on the Bosphorus which was pretty cool.
We checked out Topkapi Palace, Grand Bazaar, Spice Bazaar, Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, the Istanbul Archeology Museum, Basilica Cistern. Wife on days I worked checked out Dolembace Palace (might not be correct spelling) and Galata Tower. We also had a work dinner on the Bosphorus which was pretty cool.
BTW, Allegiant is back on track with their Sun Seeker resort in my town. Pre booking now for opening next year for $219 a room discounted price. Water views with pools, restaurants and bars. Golf course, too. Might be cool to take off from Midway, spend a day or two and then head for Mexico.
why'd you like ireland and singapore so much?
been through japanese airports like 5 times now but have yet to see it.
didn't realize old work policy (accenture) even would have let me stay there a day for a break on a trip. a work colleague and i had some crazy itinerary once, i forgot the flights. was something like england (manchester) to somewhere to japan to new zealand (christchurch) in 2004. in 2022 (covid but seems there are flights enough to go to most places to have normal travel times) the google flights shortest duration routes are still minimum 32 hours. work policy was you could take a day somewhere in the middle if an itinerary was 24 hours, but we didn't know about it. i don't recall what our real itinerary was, but it was all in economy, i'm 6'2" (she was like 5' something) and we both turned into zombies, like not having a good understanding of day or time halfway through it, and just shuffling from one plane to the next in a mental fog.
Ireland is a really fun culture if you like bars/pubs and live music, and has outstanding natural scenery. There are pubs absolutely everywhere in Ireland, and the culture is extremely friendly and welcoming. People are not shy in Ireland, and won't hesitate to ask you to come sit at their table at a pub. Several times there I had a random person come over to my table with shots, and ask if we wanted to join them, or just come and sit down at our table and start talking. Its fun if you enjoy conversation, and I haven't experienced that in other places in the world. Many pubs have instruments set aside somewhere (drums, fiddle, guitar, harmonica, tambourines, etc.) and random people will just go grab one and start playing Irish songs. Someone new will walk in, grab another one and join in. Sometimes you end up with almost a full band playing Irish bar tunes (called craic, pronounced crack) together and they are completely random people.
Ireland is overall very rural (only ~5M people), so if you leave Dublin and head west....the natural scenery is beautiful. The Cliffs of Moher and the Ring of Kerry are some of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.....really awe inspiring. Most of the land with the best views, is owned by farmers, so instead of being blocked off and covered in mega mansions.....its all grazing land with roaming livestock. Its crazy to see land that has a similar view to something in Maui and instead of someone like Zuckerberg having a compound on it....seeing cows laying down enjoying priceless views.
Singapore is effectively just a major city that's its own country, but has a really cool mix of cultures, is the cleanest large city I've ever seen, has the Marina Bay Sands (the pool and casino blow away anything in Vegas), and has an absurd amount of rich people....so just walking through downtown is like seeing an exotic car parade........and lastly, everyone speaks English. Overall I found the culture very friendly, especially when compared to other countries in Asia, but maybe that is a language barrier thing. Everything in Singapore just seems to be over the top; the airport is like no other airport I've been to in the world, the Singapore Botanic Garden is out of this world, the aquarium on Sentosa Island is like nothing I've seen, the zoo has a night zoo attraction that is amazing, and the Marina Bay Sands easily tops every hotel/casino/pool in Vegas.
Where you at now, I’ve been chilling around the gulf coast panhandle in the RV.
I’ll be south of Tallahassee on the gulf next week. Not dipping that far South this year.
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