The Travel Thread

[Clunge]

Has anyone travelled to Albania? I'm hearing good things.

Know lots of people who swear by it these days as a last bastion of affordable beauty in Europe/on the Adriatic. I'd go in a heartbeat.

Off to Tokyo for work this month. Can't wait. Managed to give myself and extra 2 days before and after the work stuff

Sounds like a ridiculously obvious thing to say, but I loved my time in Tokyo without condition. The bars at the Golden Gai are great fun near Shinjuku, I loved messing around in the arcades at Akihabara and I had an out-of-body food experience having ramen at Mutekiya. Ludicrously good.

[John Arne]

Know lots of people who swear by it these days as a last bastion of affordable beauty in Europe/on the Adriatic. I'd go in a heartbeat.

Sounds like a ridiculously obvious thing to say, but I loved my time in Tokyo without condition. The bars at the Golden Gai are great fun near Shinjuku, I loved messing around in the arcades at Akihabara and I had an out-of-body food experience having ramen at Mutekiya. Ludicrously good.

Awesome - thanks for the tips. Any more, just let me know!

[Yevrah]

JA - massive statue just outside of Tokyo. Can train it there. Worth seeing.

[Clunge]

Awesome - thanks for the tips. Any more, just let me know!

Handily, I kept a list of just about everything we did. Few other selected highlights:

- Nagi Ramen in the Golden Gai was excellent
- There's a bar in Shibuya called Good Beer Faucets, which we found hilarious, but was lively and had loads of random beers. There was a dirt cheap food place opposite which was one of those made ones you put cash in like a vending machine to build your meal token, and then some blokeys out the back make it for you. I remember getting some noodles, broth, katsu and some sake, I think, for about £3.
- The Tokyo kite museum was a diverting 30 mins en route to somewhere, got the same joy out of it as I did the Oktoberfest museum in Munich, which is equally odd
- Yakitori Alley / 'Piss Alley' is a must, think of any part of any animal and they're putting it on a stick and grilling it
- Tsukiji market is absolutely insane, worth going at like 6am to see all the madness going on around you. Watch out for crusty old fishermen chucking buckets of fish blood and guts at tourists
- Hamarikyu gardens were amazing, just a real oasis in the middle of all the crazy built up stuff

And that's before you really think about all the classic touristic stuff in Tokyo. You really can't go far wrong with anything.

[John Arne]

Handily, I kept a list of just about everything we did. Few other selected highlights:

- Nagi Ramen in the Golden Gai was excellent
- There's a bar in Shibuya called Good Beer Faucets, which we found hilarious, but was lively and had loads of random beers. There was a dirt cheap food place opposite which was one of those made ones you put cash in like a vending machine to build your meal token, and then some blokeys out the back make it for you. I remember getting some noodles, broth, katsu and some sake, I think, for about £3.
- The Tokyo kite museum was a diverting 30 mins en route to somewhere, got the same joy out of it as I did the Oktoberfest museum in Munich, which is equally odd
- Yakitori Alley / 'Piss Alley' is a must, think of any part of any animal and they're putting it on a stick and grilling it
- Tsukiji market is absolutely insane, worth going at like 6am to see all the madness going on around you. Watch out for crusty old fishermen chucking buckets of fish blood and guts at tourists
- Hamarikyu gardens were amazing, just a real oasis in the middle of all the crazy built up stuff

And that's before you really think about all the classic touristic stuff in Tokyo. You really can't go far wrong with anything.

Taaaaaaaaaaa

[Gray Fox]

Friend of mine told me of a chain of stores in Japan called HARD-OFF.

It's basically like a goldmine for your retro games/consoles. Apparently they all price everything differently so one store wont be the same as the next, but worth checking out if you're into that sort of thing. They also seemingly dont want to rob you blind for the stuff either, like your 2nd hand shops do over here.

[Spikey M]

Buzzing for Manc's thread on being used as an organ donor / drug mule by the Albanian Mafia.

[Shindig]

Friend of mine told me of a chain of stores in Japan called HARD-OFF.

It's basically like a goldmine for your retro games/consoles. Apparently they all price everything differently so one store wont be the same as the next, but worth checking out if you're into that sort of thing. They also seemingly dont want to rob you blind for the stuff either, like your 2nd hand shops do over here.

I'm going to assume Super Potato is still in business. I'd love to get over there. I also kinda fancy Hong Kong.

[John Arne]

I'm going to assume Super Potato is still in business. I'd love to get over there. I also kinda fancy Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is, or at least was, awesome. Such an great place that managed to mix old and new - however, I've not been for about 6-7yrs, and it seems to have gotten pretty Chinese by all accounts.

[John Arne]

JA - massive statue just outside of Tokyo. Can train it there. Worth seeing.

Hey Yev, Googled and found a number of options - which statue specifically you go to?

[John Arne]

Did anyone head to Mt. Fuji? Found a 1 day tour including bullet train return for about $150...

[Yevrah]

Hey Yev, Googled and found a number of options - which statue specifically you go to?

Ushiku Daibutsu. It's a 120m ish tall Buddha.

[Yevrah]

Did anyone head to Mt. Fuji? Found a 1 day tour including bullet train return for about $150...

Yeah, I did the bullet train there with the Broom. We were staying with her brother and his girlfriend in a town on the outskirts of Mount Fuji and it was foggy as fuck when we arrived so couldn't see it. Fast forward 12 hours and a hungover Yev staggers outside his apartment to have a cigarette, lights it, turns round and there it is. Couldn't go up it due to the time of year I was there but an absolutely majestic sight nonetheless. Makes the Scottish mountain ranges look like small hills.

The hot springs at Hakone are nice too.

[John Arne]

Ushiku Daibutsu. It's a 120m ish tall Buddha.

Cheers.

[John Arne]

Yeah, I did the bullet train there with the Broom. We were staying with her brother and his girlfriend in a town on the outskirts of Mount Fuji and it was foggy as fuck when we arrived so couldn't see it. Fast forward 12 hours and a hungover Yev staggers outside his apartment to have a cigarette, lights it, turns round and there it is. Couldn't go up it due to the time of year I was there but an absolutely majestic sight nonetheless. Makes the Scottish mountain ranges look like small hills.

The hot springs at Hakone are nice too.

Nice, may give it a whirl.

[Clunge]

Did anyone head to Mt. Fuji? Found a 1 day tour including bullet train return for about $150...

We stayed in FujiKawaguchiko for two nights, although we were out of the Fuji climbing season so we could only go up to 'fifth station' (approx 2,300 metres). Was cool though, and we took a trail looping out into the wilderness on the side of the volcano. Fujikawaguchiko is a bit of a nothing place, but we also walked up into some of the hills around Lake Kawaguchi and actually walked around the whole lake (which took fucking ages). Spectacular views of the whole cone though with the lake in the foreground.

Also – 'bullet train return'. My recollection was that the bullet train didn't stop near Fuji. We took a regional train from Tokyo to Otsuki and then a mountain train up to Fujikawaguchiko (which in true Japanese style was themed on Thomas The Tank Engine, of all things). We might have been cheaping out though and didn't look at bullet options.

[hfswjyr]

Makes the Scottish mountain ranges look like small hills.

Because that's what they are...

Went almost 10 years ago now, but I remember any accommodation that faced Fuji was expensive even then. Must be ridiculous prices nowadays with the popularity of Japan.

[Waffdon]

Some ridiculously cheap holidays to Cape Verde and Mexico next month with TUI.

[John Arne]

[hfswjyr]

Wait, is everyone watching it on their phone?

[John Arne]

So many knobheads filmed every bout. I took 2 pictures then put my phone away and actually watched it.

Bloody tourists.

Edit: worth noting this particular bit was when all the wrestlers are introduced, so the time to actually take a photo.

[Shindig]

My sister's asked the question about New York next year. £900 per person in March sounds like a steal.

[-james-]

Got the day to myself in Paris, any tips? Getting the train to Austerlitz.

[phonics]

It's shit. Enjoy.

[Lofty]

Oddly I was about to come in asking for Paris advice, I went for a school trip as a kid and was underwhelmed but the wife has decided she wants to go thanks to Emily in Paris.

[Shindig]

Just take her to Blackpool and see if she notices.

[Spikey M]

A friend went there in the summer and it's an even bigger shithole than London. Homeless people in tents and rubbish everywhere, going on his report. I wouldn't bother.

Paris, that is. But possibly Blackpool too.

[Waffdon]

You’d think Paris is some third world shitehole based off the forum.

It’s good, James. Just mooch around eating and drinking good food all day.

[Jimmy Floyd]

They should have done Emily in Strasbourg or something, that would drive all the useless tourists away.

[Magic]

You’d think Paris is some third world shitehole based off the forum.

It’s good, James. Just mooch around eating and drinking good food all day.

Only according to the Lish.

[niko_cee]

The zoo in Paris is surprisingly decent, for something that isn't one of the super established things to do there. And the whole park around the Chateau de Vincennes.

The Atelier des Lumieres also top notch I thought.

[Shindig]

Is there any of those big cities that don't carry a hint of shithole? I think it's just something you tolerate whilst you look at the cool stuff.

[Luke Emia]

I'm going to Copenhagen in December. Anything decent to do there that I shouldn't miss?

[niko_cee]

Is there any of those big cities that don't carry a hint of shithole? I think it's just something you tolerate whilst you look at the cool stuff.

Paris is probably the place you can insulate yourself against it the most, if you are selective about where you stay [George V] and where you go. I always think, walking the streets of 'historic' fancy Paris that you can see why they cut so many people's heads off. Few places have the same feel of historic inequality.

[Pepe]

Paris is class.

[Lofty]

Paris is probably the place you can insulate yourself against it the most, if you are selective about where you stay [George V] and where you go. I always think, walking the streets of 'historic' fancy Paris that you can see why they cut so many people's heads off. Few places have the same feel of historic inequality.

£1800 a night hotel, bargain.

[niko_cee]

No riff raff though.

Unless you count the Americans.

[Spikey M]

I do.

[-james-]

Jesus FUCKING Christ French trains are shit

[-james-]

I must've caught it on a bad day because fucking hell. Tickets wouldn't work for no apparent reason and it took half an hour to convince someone to let us through. Once through, the departure boards were straight up wrong and sending people in random directions. I'd have been sleeping in a doorway if I hadn't been with a French speaker.

[randomlegend]

I'm going to Copenhagen in December. Anything decent to do there that I shouldn't miss?

Alchemist

[-james-]

Only managed to get about four hours of mooching in before it started pissing it down but Paris seems pretty ace. Struggle to see how somewhere with that much food, culture and history stuff going on could be shit.

[Jimmy Floyd]

It's fine but I'd sooner go almost anywhere else in France. Brittany is an exception.

[Pepe]

Brittany's weather is grim.

[Baz]

So many knobheads filmed every bout. I took 2 pictures then put my phone away and actually watched it.

Bloody tourists.

Edit: worth noting this particular bit was when all the wrestlers are introduced, so the time to actually take a photo.

I know it’s a massive generalisation but apparently Japanese people have terrible teeth. Have you found that?

Meanwhile there’s a Polish woman at work with TREMENDOUS teeth so I now presume all of Poland has immaculate bright white teeth. Presumably Mahow can confirm it.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Poland is a very good country for dental care, it's cheap (I'm going to get a custom night guard next month as my dentist said I need one but it's double the price in the UK) and the quality of work is very good.

I'd imagine the universities are also quite good as there are a lot of Polish dentists in the UK I've seen.

Only problem with Poland and teeth hygiene is that they drink too much fruit juice not realising it's high in fructose and thus can damage your teeth.

[Manc]

Baz lining up his next victim.

[Spikey M]

Every Polish woman I know would knock him out. Don't fuck with Eastern European women.

[Luke Emia]

Alchemist

600 notes for the evening plus drink on top. I am reading that right yeah?

[John Arne]

I know it’s a massive generalisation but apparently Japanese people have terrible teeth. Have you found that?

Yup. Somehow worst than the Brits. Noticed a fair number of female (older)smokers, too.