The secret to the window seat is that you can also just wake the people sitting in the aisle seat, and go and walk around whenever you want
Being bothered is the price they pay for their aisle seat
(I'm a bit annoyed bc i had a window seat for the leg of the journey that wad at night and now i'm in an aisle seat when it's daytime and we're flying over SE asia and all of australia)
So, even with my general anxiety with talking to people, i feel like the window seat is still better than the ailse, not only because of the view, but also because everyone is inevitably going to bother everyone else when they get up, since pissing on an 8 hour journey is inevitable, and i would rather bother people at my own pace, rather than be bothered when i'm in the middle of something.
I like the window because I have the bladder of an titanium rhino and can usually hold it for 12-14 hours without a problem. Windows let me be completely uninterrupted
BUT I'm now mildly paranoid about blood clots, so I've been picking the aisle seat for long flights so I can stretch my legs without bugging anybody
aisle still sucks though.
Don't hold it for that long, said the person who has had two kidney stones before the age of 35.
I used to hold it that long all the time too, it's not such a good idea.
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Lost Salientblink twiceif you'd like me to mercy kill youRegistered Userregular
Under six hour flight, I don't care where I sit.
Over six hours, aisle seat or bust. I sleep like shit on planes anyway so at least I'll have the liberty of pissing and asking the attendants for a drink whenever I damn well please.
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
The aisle is certainly more convenient, but I really like looking out the window. It kind of bugs me when people close the window shades during a night flight.
My preference is an aisle seat next to a window seat. Perks of an aisle seat while close enough to still glance outside.
Booked a two-week stay in Tokyo six months from now. It's a comfy town. Unfortunately, it's not during baseball season, so I'm still trying to figure out what else will be available that I should book in advance during free days there.
It's much easier and makes perfect sense if you think of Australians as being repulsive (like magnets*). The problem is that Australia is filled with Australians, and therefore everyone in Australia wants to get as far away from their compatriots as possible; thus ending up spreading themselves as thinly as possible like a thin greasy film smeared over all accessible corners of the globe, making it harder and harder to find places that are actually genuinely Australian-free.
*You can also think of them as repulsive the other way if you want, too.
It's cute how much you guys think about us.
Real talk, I have never met an Australian that did not mention New Zealand, sooooo
your mileage may vary, I suppose...
Look, it's fucking lonely over here mate. There aren't that many people to make friends with.
On the plus side, i watched all of westworld and if i immediately collapse when i reach my house all my timezones and sleepcycles should sync up a bit easier
The aisle is certainly more convenient, but I really like looking out the window. It kind of bugs me when people close the window shades during a night flight.
I dunno, most flights I'm on these days they make you close the shades at certain points? But I guess I take a lot of long-ass trips.
Unless you're sitting in the window seat it's not like you can see much anyway.
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
I think they mainly make you close it if it's a long day flight, so people who wanna sleep can do so even if local time is the middle of the afternoon and there's bright sun coming in.
Most of my flying is done over oceans so there's nothing to see, but it helps me stave off motion sickness if I can look out the window during takeoff.
This draft has been saved in my TinyLetter's outgoing folder for almost two months now, but the only thing I'd actually written was "There are always Australians wherever you go," which is a much thinner premise than I thought it might be. I don't have much to say about the topic, except that whenever I have gone traveling, or whenever a friend of mine has gone traveling, no matter the destination, there have always been a statistically improbable number of Australians there. Were I to travel to the Moon, I have no doubt there would be a friendly Australian dude hanging out at the spaceport there, whose job description I would find curiously vague and whose source of income even vaguer. Think back to the last trip you took – whether it was a road trip to the nearest national park or an international orgy sponsored by Hedonism Bot. Did you encounter an Australian person there? Did they seem to have been on the fifteenth week of a vacation with no definable endpoint? Did they graciously offer you some Emergen-C or ibuprofen, which they seemed always to have to hand? I rest my case.
So this is self-evidently true. What's up with that?
Why would ya go to fucken Melbourne when It's only three fiddy to get to fucking Bali mate?
I can't imagine going onto a flight that's long enough to warrant someone legitimately sleeping without choosing an aisle. I'd love to see the views on those flights, I really would. However, I can't handle sitting through a movie without needing to piss. I also cannot *sleep* on a plane. I can definitely pass out for half an hour or so, and then come back covered in drool.
FishmanPut your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain.Registered Userregular
One time I was flying Singapore-Heathrow and had stayed up all night watching movies and was somewhere in the early dawn over Europe when I had a bleeding nose and the girls next to me on the plane were still asleep, so I carefully stepped over them via the armrests and went to the facilities to clean up.
When I got back, one was awake and the other rousing, but neither had actually realised I had left by climbing over them so were quite bewildered when I was like"Oh, you're awake. Can I get back to my seat?" and they glanced over and saw the window seat was empty.
Also, once I sat back down I realised the whole time I was cleaning up my bleeding nose in the bathroom I hadn't actually gone to the toilet, because it just didn't occur to me. That was the only time I left my seat for that entire flight.
I dunno, I heard there were some fucking nerds going to be there or something.
Who wants to hang out with fucken nerds though?
As a more legitimate answer to the question, and this is answered assuming the asker speaks English, it is probably as travelers you are conditioned to ignore your own accents, so when you are doing your informal survey, you ignore all of your countrymen, then since you don't know a bunch of other languages you can't say, gee there 12 Swiss, fifteen mandarin speaking Chinese and seven canto speakers, so you spot easy to recognize languages, and Australians are loud.
And finally, most of my friends who are hardcore backpackers are very personable people, so they are more likely to talk to you.
So in summary, you spot Australians because on the whole, we are loud, and the people who travel are more likely to be friendly.
Lost Salientblink twiceif you'd like me to mercy kill youRegistered Userregular
Hey travel friends!
Who here has experience with bicycle rental?
My bestie and I are for real starting planning our B4 trip (Battlefields and Breweries of Belgium by Bicycle) and although I know it's possible, and the internet has lots of advice, I'm wondering if anyone has actually borrowed a bike in Belgium or the Netherlands already and has advice.
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
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Donovan PuppyfuckerA dagger in the dark isworth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered Userregular
i've been australian for quite a while now and i still have no idea how my countrymen pay for all their holidays
do they go into debt or something? i feel like everyone i know has at one point or another spent three months in europe on about a dollar fifty
Almost everybody I have known who flitted off on a trip around Europe/Asia/South America before they had gotten themselves a career and started making real money did it on their parent's dime. I know some folks who scrimped and saved all they could from teenager-level jobs and had themselves a beautiful holiday (hell, Anzekay's been to Europe AND Japan on a student's income), but they are outnumbered about 3:1 by kids with Dad's credit card.
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lonelyahavaCall me Ahava ~~She/Her~~Move to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
I dunno about others, but we're putting some money away for the baby once a month or so.
The idea is that it's going to be either for her university costs, or a freaking epic gap year for an OE.
Before i did my 8 month gap year, i was really lucky with getting a well paying pub job straight off the bat after finishing highschool and i held it for 6 months with basically all my income going into savings , and i still needed to rely on my parents a bit, and i saved a bunch of money by staying with family overseas
i've been australian for quite a while now and i still have no idea how my countrymen pay for all their holidays
do they go into debt or something? i feel like everyone i know has at one point or another spent three months in europe on about a dollar fifty
It depends on how you travel.
Buy in the low season, stay in the cheap places and eat cheap local food, you can have a holiday for 120 a week without really trying plus your own ticket.
If you want to do a bit of side work two or three days a week you can extend it out even further. Or you can be social and get free stuff.
I had some friends who lived in a campsite for close to a year, they had a big sign explaining they were cheapskate climbers and would appreciate any food donations, often they got a bunch of food on sunday from weekend campers who didn't want to bring back to the site.
A lot of my friends sacrifice a lot to spend time on holiday, and it's a great experience and is a lot of fun but it really isn't the glamorous life, that "going on holiday" sounds like.
My bestie and I are for real starting planning our B4 trip (Battlefields and Breweries of Belgium by Bicycle) and although I know it's possible, and the internet has lots of advice, I'm wondering if anyone has actually borrowed a bike in Belgium or the Netherlands already and has advice.
If I'm not mistaken, @Kochikens lives in the Netherlands and might have some info about bike borrowing?
Our honeymoon was 18 months travelling via a combination of saving up, working on the way, cheap means of transport, and staying in hostels and cooking our own food.
Saved up a lot, down from Canada along the west coast US to LA on the greyhound over a couple of weeks; Hawaii for a week, then cruise (wedding present) to NZ. Live and work in NZ for 6 months, see Auckland and surroundings, and save up; buy a van, travel around the rest of NZ for 3 months, sleep in the back of the van.
Over to Australia, pick fruit for 6 months, save up, bus up the east coast from Brisbane to Cairns, down to Sydney, Melbourne, then SE Asia for 3 months, where it's cheap enough that fruit-picking income could cover it. (and finally we could afford to stay somewhere that didn't have cockroaches in the knife drawer (hawaii) / the can opener chained to the kitchen counter (a surprising number of hostels))
(fruitpicking income can go one of two ways -- you can hang out and party and have a lot of good times but come out pretty much where you started, or you can work as much as you possibly can and save; we did the latter and built up AU$10,000 in that much time by keeping things very low-budget)
I dunno about others, but we're putting some money away for the baby once a month or so.
The idea is that it's going to be either for her university costs, or a freaking epic gap year for an OE.
More for the kids thread, but if you have any history of crooked teeth at all in your family, I would strongly suggest putting money aside for that as well, unless it's already covered by government/whatever. A dentist suggested that to us when one of our kids was four, and a few years later we were very happy they had done so.
My bestie and I are for real starting planning our B4 trip (Battlefields and Breweries of Belgium by Bicycle) and although I know it's possible, and the internet has lots of advice, I'm wondering if anyone has actually borrowed a bike in Belgium or the Netherlands already and has advice.
If I'm not mistaken, Kochikens lives in the Netherlands and might have some info about bike borrowing?
this is accurate!!
Are you looking to take it across borders tho? You can rent one in the cities pretttyy easily, but TBH I don't know jack about taking one across borders, especially if you're dropping it off in another country. I can ask though?
Lost Salientblink twiceif you'd like me to mercy kill youRegistered Userregular
I think the current plan is to rent it in the Netherlands, cycle through there and Belgium, and circle back up to drop it off. But this is super preliminary planning so I'm really just curious about options.
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
I think the current plan is to rent it in the Netherlands, cycle through there and Belgium, and circle back up to drop it off. But this is super preliminary planning so I'm really just curious about options.
I think as long as you're dropping it off in the same place you got it, there shouldn't be any issues. What are they going to do, follow you?
So I'll have about 2 weeks that need to start and end in amsterdam in late august/early september. I've never been to europe before (from the southern US). Hit me with those hot hot tips. Going with the partner, I treat vacations as eating and drinking tours, she treats them as chances to buy some (affordable for grad students) arty things. Castles would be cool? Weird cultural stuff. I'm super ignorant when it comes to the EU, but I've got a passport and a will to take some trains around. So hit me with those hot tips I think.... @tynic@Kochikens might know things about places? We were thinking just to save travel time hit amsterdam and maybe 2 more cities? Probably stick around the northern half and do another EU trip some day to italy etc?
Amsterdam <--> Paris is a pretty straightforward train trip, and from there you could probably head to either Switzerland or the south of France as your third location. Or even London, if you're willing to blow more cash. That would give you 3-4 days in each place. For me Amsterdam, Paris, Tolouse (or Nice) would be really nice trifecta, especially food and art-wise - but i'm a little biased against the grey flat north. If you've got something against sunshine, then starting from Amsterdam you could hit up Cologne or Hamburg very easily.
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Also it's in part psychological but I like having a free(ish) space next to me rather than a wall
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Being bothered is the price they pay for their aisle seat
(I'm a bit annoyed bc i had a window seat for the leg of the journey that wad at night and now i'm in an aisle seat when it's daytime and we're flying over SE asia and all of australia)
Steam // Secret Satan
Don't hold it for that long, said the person who has had two kidney stones before the age of 35.
I used to hold it that long all the time too, it's not such a good idea.
Over six hours, aisle seat or bust. I sleep like shit on planes anyway so at least I'll have the liberty of pissing and asking the attendants for a drink whenever I damn well please.
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
I am currently in an "over it" period, but I will probably swing back around to "holy cow that is the motherfucking SKY outside" pretty soon.
Booked a two-week stay in Tokyo six months from now. It's a comfy town. Unfortunately, it's not during baseball season, so I'm still trying to figure out what else will be available that I should book in advance during free days there.
Look, it's fucking lonely over here mate. There aren't that many people to make friends with.
On the plus side, i watched all of westworld and if i immediately collapse when i reach my house all my timezones and sleepcycles should sync up a bit easier
Steam // Secret Satan
I dunno, most flights I'm on these days they make you close the shades at certain points? But I guess I take a lot of long-ass trips.
Unless you're sitting in the window seat it's not like you can see much anyway.
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
None of them, if the plane explodes you are not making it even half way to the ground alive.
Steam // Secret Satan
Why would ya go to fucken Melbourne when It's only three fiddy to get to fucking Bali mate?
Satans..... hints.....
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
if you are in the aisle seat you get woken up, because that is the price you pay for sitting in the aisle seat
Steam // Secret Satan
When I got back, one was awake and the other rousing, but neither had actually realised I had left by climbing over them so were quite bewildered when I was like"Oh, you're awake. Can I get back to my seat?" and they glanced over and saw the window seat was empty.
Also, once I sat back down I realised the whole time I was cleaning up my bleeding nose in the bathroom I hadn't actually gone to the toilet, because it just didn't occur to me. That was the only time I left my seat for that entire flight.
Who wants to hang out with fucken nerds though?
As a more legitimate answer to the question, and this is answered assuming the asker speaks English, it is probably as travelers you are conditioned to ignore your own accents, so when you are doing your informal survey, you ignore all of your countrymen, then since you don't know a bunch of other languages you can't say, gee there 12 Swiss, fifteen mandarin speaking Chinese and seven canto speakers, so you spot easy to recognize languages, and Australians are loud.
And finally, most of my friends who are hardcore backpackers are very personable people, so they are more likely to talk to you.
So in summary, you spot Australians because on the whole, we are loud, and the people who travel are more likely to be friendly.
Satans..... hints.....
Steam // Secret Satan
do they go into debt or something? i feel like everyone i know has at one point or another spent three months in europe on about a dollar fifty
Who here has experience with bicycle rental?
My bestie and I are for real starting planning our B4 trip (Battlefields and Breweries of Belgium by Bicycle) and although I know it's possible, and the internet has lots of advice, I'm wondering if anyone has actually borrowed a bike in Belgium or the Netherlands already and has advice.
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
Almost everybody I have known who flitted off on a trip around Europe/Asia/South America before they had gotten themselves a career and started making real money did it on their parent's dime. I know some folks who scrimped and saved all they could from teenager-level jobs and had themselves a beautiful holiday (hell, Anzekay's been to Europe AND Japan on a student's income), but they are outnumbered about 3:1 by kids with Dad's credit card.
The idea is that it's going to be either for her university costs, or a freaking epic gap year for an OE.
Democrats Abroad! || Vote From Abroad
Steam // Secret Satan
It depends on how you travel.
Buy in the low season, stay in the cheap places and eat cheap local food, you can have a holiday for 120 a week without really trying plus your own ticket.
If you want to do a bit of side work two or three days a week you can extend it out even further. Or you can be social and get free stuff.
I had some friends who lived in a campsite for close to a year, they had a big sign explaining they were cheapskate climbers and would appreciate any food donations, often they got a bunch of food on sunday from weekend campers who didn't want to bring back to the site.
A lot of my friends sacrifice a lot to spend time on holiday, and it's a great experience and is a lot of fun but it really isn't the glamorous life, that "going on holiday" sounds like.
Satans..... hints.....
If I'm not mistaken, @Kochikens lives in the Netherlands and might have some info about bike borrowing?
Saved up a lot, down from Canada along the west coast US to LA on the greyhound over a couple of weeks; Hawaii for a week, then cruise (wedding present) to NZ. Live and work in NZ for 6 months, see Auckland and surroundings, and save up; buy a van, travel around the rest of NZ for 3 months, sleep in the back of the van.
Over to Australia, pick fruit for 6 months, save up, bus up the east coast from Brisbane to Cairns, down to Sydney, Melbourne, then SE Asia for 3 months, where it's cheap enough that fruit-picking income could cover it. (and finally we could afford to stay somewhere that didn't have cockroaches in the knife drawer (hawaii) / the can opener chained to the kitchen counter (a surprising number of hostels))
(fruitpicking income can go one of two ways -- you can hang out and party and have a lot of good times but come out pretty much where you started, or you can work as much as you possibly can and save; we did the latter and built up AU$10,000 in that much time by keeping things very low-budget)
More for the kids thread, but if you have any history of crooked teeth at all in your family, I would strongly suggest putting money aside for that as well, unless it's already covered by government/whatever. A dentist suggested that to us when one of our kids was four, and a few years later we were very happy they had done so.
this is accurate!!
Are you looking to take it across borders tho? You can rent one in the cities pretttyy easily, but TBH I don't know jack about taking one across borders, especially if you're dropping it off in another country. I can ask though?
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
I think as long as you're dropping it off in the same place you got it, there shouldn't be any issues. What are they going to do, follow you?