[chat]rel to Europe

Organichu

Welcome, hooligans

Nexus asked me to make the chat as his backup so of course it’s about my nascent plans to travel to Italy (and elsewhere????)

I don’t want to rent a car. I do want to go to Florence. What other cities should I go to? What should I eat? If I’m already spending the money to fly to Europe, should I travel to other countries while I’m there? Which ones? What is an optimal trip length, assuming I can get whatever span I want off from work? Will anyone ever love me again?

zepherin

I'mma let you finish chu, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time!

Six

Apparently I was told my bags didn’t make the flight last night and they showed up at the baggage claim 30 seconds after I arranged for them to be delivered. Joy! Here’s to hoping they actually show up today.

Winky

Good morning The Jokers

amateurhour

Hello Chu

- train sounds fun
- go to Florence
- Tuscany?
- Noodles
- Yes
- I do not know, maybe Spain?
- 1-2 weeks
- Yes

nexuscrawler

My main issue with an Italy tour is my preference for beer over wine

wine just gives me a headache

amateurhour

Six wrote: »

Apparently I was told my bags didn’t make the flight last night and they showed up at the baggage claim 30 seconds after I arranged for them to be delivered. Joy! Here’s to hoping they actually show up today.

you got this boo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rJ4Y-VD3_0

Tav

i just have no motivation to do things today

shit sucks

NEO|Phyte

It is my day off, I am at work because a bunch of people have gotten sick, and the most recent one has tested positive, so now everybody else that was sick has to check whether they got it too. Which leaves me to cover opening manager today.
:Edit: I was already at a scheduled 42 hours this week

Organichu

Is all Italian pizza amazing or should I especially make a trip to Naples

nexuscrawler

I'll be in Belgium drowning in a pile of beer, chocolate and my own filth

Weaver

I can't really name anything specific about Italy from my childhood vacation, except for the leaning tower being a big disappointment, but swimming in the Mediterranean was a blast.

CaptainBeyond

Are you after lashings of culture or do you want to chill out? Or both? Any of the capitals are worth going to IMO, but you need to be aware of what a tourist trap is and what you might be confronted with there. Rome was equal parts delightful and so stressful it nearly ended a relationship when I went.

Abdhyius

Organichu wrote: »

Is all Italian pizza amazing or should I especially make a trip to Naples

all italian pizza is amazing and you only really need to be withing SRBM range of italy to be able to find some

within italy, finding good pizza will be easier than finding literally anything else

so for regional specialties, seek out the more obscure stuff

Athenor

The idea of travel seems so foreign to me. I can't believe I took my trip to Virginia last April, which means we're approaching 1 year...

Hakkekage

1) Florence is amazing. My favorite. Beast proposed to me there after we ate steaks the size of a small baby.

2) Venice is good to visit at least once and I am glad I did, but it is kind of like Italian Vegas. Mostly touristy. Boats are fun.

3) Rome is intense. Wish I had spent more time there / had been younger and there hadn't been a pandemic, so we could have at least experience one "nightlife."

4) Wish we had time to do Tuscany/Amalfi coast. Maybe in our next trip in 10 or 20 years

5) Italian pizza is like cheap takeaway and better than any pizza you have had in the states. There is a fancy Italian pizza place by me in Crown Heights that sells for $25 a less good version of what we ate in Italy for 8 euro. However -- you must affirmatively ask for that pizza to be sliced. Otherwise you will end up like us, late night in our hotel with a medium unsliced pie and no utensils, ripping into it with our hands like savages.

nexuscrawler

Athenor wrote: »

The idea of travel seems so foreign to me. I can't believe I took my trip to Virginia last April, which means we're approaching 1 year...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK_FiRm6ZK8

Hakkekage

oh and 6) Italian high speed rail rules and they are v careful about COVID

Organichu

CaptainBeyond wrote: »

Are you after lashings of culture or do you want to chill out? Or both? Any of the capitals are worth going to IMO, but you need to be aware of what a tourist trap is and what you might be confronted with there. Rome was equal parts delightful and so stressful it nearly ended a relationship when I went.

Honestly idk

Surely some part of me wants to see the colosseum and the British museum and German castles

But also i have seen many pictures of like, the Mona Lisa zoomed out so you can see what a sweaty, overloaded slaughterhouse it is (same with hundreds of tourists trying to pose with the tower of Pisa in the background)

Part of me asking is me looking to be convinced, since i haven’t traveled internationally as an adult (excepting trips to my home country where i stayed in my family’s home, which hardly seems like travel)

bloodyroarxx

I know it’s too early for this but


….wat….

https://i.redd.it/sh0927epusc81.jpg

RMS Oceanic

The Louvre is worth visiting even if you skip the Mona Lisa entirely. Lots of art.

Organichu

That dirty fingernail so close to a sex toy

The mind rebels

amateurhour

Whoever bought that vibrator needs to clean their Honda Civic

also I'll bet that thing would actually work pretty well in a wood shop

Abdhyius

Organichu wrote: »

CaptainBeyond wrote: »

Are you after lashings of culture or do you want to chill out? Or both? Any of the capitals are worth going to IMO, but you need to be aware of what a tourist trap is and what you might be confronted with there. Rome was equal parts delightful and so stressful it nearly ended a relationship when I went.

Honestly idk

Surely some part of me wants to see the colosseum and the British museum and German castles

But also i have seen many pictures of like, the Mona Lisa zoomed out so you can see what a sweaty, overloaded slaughterhouse it is (same with hundreds of tourists trying to pose with the tower of Pisa in the background)

Part of me asking is me looking to be convinced, since i haven’t traveled internationally as an adult (excepting trips to my home country where i stayed in my family’s home, which hardly seems like travel)

genuinely do make an effort to avoid proper full-on tourist traps.

they can be actually awful, not in that joking "oh tourists" way

some places are just way, way too popular for it to be any fun to go there. Which will be the extremely popular places, so the mona lisa, the leaning tower, etc. But of course the vast majority of tourist sites aren't like that.

Echo

amateurhour wrote: »

also I'll bet that thing would actually work pretty well in a wood shop

In case you got both hands busy with other tools.

Bogart

Some things, like viewing the Mona Lisa from behind fifty other people, all of whom are saying "Kinda small" in various languages, are a disappointing experience. But, like a disappointing wank, these are far outnumbered by the good ones.

Besides, you don't go to the Louvre to see one painting, you go to see the other thousand, none of which are in a room as crowded as the Mona Lisa. And there are smaller, less crowded galleries like the Villa Borghese in Rome or the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice that will take your breath away if you want to stay away from the hoi polloi. Though basically any gallery in Europe will be less crowded than the Louvre.

And every European city will have hidden treasures like the Sir John Soane's museum, which is like a huge museum's worth of stuff crammed into a single house.

Hakkekage

Abdhyius wrote: »

Organichu wrote: »

CaptainBeyond wrote: »

Are you after lashings of culture or do you want to chill out? Or both? Any of the capitals are worth going to IMO, but you need to be aware of what a tourist trap is and what you might be confronted with there. Rome was equal parts delightful and so stressful it nearly ended a relationship when I went.

Honestly idk

Surely some part of me wants to see the colosseum and the British museum and German castles

But also i have seen many pictures of like, the Mona Lisa zoomed out so you can see what a sweaty, overloaded slaughterhouse it is (same with hundreds of tourists trying to pose with the tower of Pisa in the background)

Part of me asking is me looking to be convinced, since i haven’t traveled internationally as an adult (excepting trips to my home country where i stayed in my family’s home, which hardly seems like travel)

genuinely do make an effort to avoid proper full-on tourist traps.

they can be actually awful, not in that joking "oh tourists" way

some places are just way, way too popular for it to be any fun to go there. Which will be the extremely popular places, so the mona lisa, the leaning tower, etc. But of course the vast majority of tourist sites aren't like that.

Colosseum is worth it, just be smart. You've lived in NYC, Chu. It be like that. Politely avoid the barkers, and book everything and anything ahead of time online.

Rome is amazing for one thing: enter any random church and you are likely to find some incredible art and very few people. Just dress semi-modestly and have a euro on you so you can drop it in the box that lets you turn on the lights to view the art in the apse.

Hakkekage

Bogart wrote: »

Some things, like viewing the Mona Lisa from behind fifty other people, all of whom are saying "Kinda small" in various languages, are a disappointing experience. But, like a disappointing wank, these are far outnumbered by the good ones.

Besides, you don't go to the Louvre to see one painting, you go to see the other thousand, none of which are in a room as crowded as the Mona Lisa. And there are smaller, less crowded galleries like the Villa Borghese in Rome or the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice that will take your breath away if you want to stay away from the hoi polloi. Though basically any gallery in Europe will be less crowded than the Louvre.

Villa Borghese is fab though you only have 2 hours so you have to be strategic.

And it's in a nice, out of the way public park that's just lovely to stroll around in.

TTODewback

you have to see the mona lisa so you can break out into panic at the disco and get escorted out by security


also chu
you must visit you the southermost portion of the heel of italy and take a video laying down saying step on me daddy italy

Elendil

tourist: it's like her eyes follow you
exhausted italian man looking through the scooby doo eyeholes in the painting: mama mia

Hakkekage

TTODewback wrote: »

you have to see the mona lisa so you can break out into panic at the disco and get escorted out by security


also chu
you must visit you the southermost portion of the heel of italy and take a video laying down saying step on me daddy italy

Italy is the mommy, the pope is the daddy, you heretic

JebusUD

Protip: Italy is the one shaped like a boot! Make sure you fly to the boot and not to the not boot.

amateurhour

TTODewback wrote: »

you have to see the mona lisa so you can break out into panic at the disco and get escorted out by security


also chu
you must visit you the southermost portion of the heel of italy and take a video laying down saying step on me daddy italy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D3NN6M_DYk

Organichu

Idk if France is on the agenda for this trip. On the one hand, it has some culinary stuff I really want to try (like tartare, in France! And super nice pastries! Bread. Etc), plus the louvre which i actually do want to see.

There’s so much to research 3_3

Grudge

If you're in Italy you also need to try the gelato, it's amazing, cheap and everywhere. For Rome, Colosseum was cool, and I also really liked the Vatican museum - lots of bling and weird artifacts and art.

Abdhyius

Grudge wrote: »

If you're in Italy you also need to try the gelato, it's amazing, cheap and everywhere. For Rome, Colosseum was cool, and I also really liked the Vatican museum - lots of bling and weird artifacts and art.

oh yeah but also, that's not something you need to research

you will find great ice cream just walking around completely aimlessly

Abdhyius

italy has ample supply and availability of all the major food groups

that being gelato, espresso, pizza and wine

Bogart

You really should have put holiday options into a poll, chu, so we could vote on them and treat your life like some sort of reality show where we decide where you go.

Echo

Bogart wrote: »

But, like a disappointing wank, these are far outnumbered by the good ones.

This is poetry.

JebusUD

JebusUD wrote: »

Protip: Italy is the one shaped like a boot! Make sure you fly to the boot and not to the not boot.

When you get off the airplane make sure to go to the nearest person and ask "am I in the boot shaped one?" Just to make sure the pilot didn't get confused.

Abdhyius

Bogart wrote: »

You really should have put holiday options into a poll, chu, so we could vote on them and treat your life like some sort of reality show where we decide where you go.

what if we do it live in a "twitch plays pokemon" like system

chu finally arriving from his harrowing train trip from ceuta to the amalfi coast gets a text notifying him that the system has chosen his next destination to be minsk, train leaves in 45