Travel

[rublev]

Oooooh where you gonna be? I can give recs for food and things to see in Brussels and Antwerp and a few things in Ghent??? I'm sure Syeknom will prolly have lots to suggest and is maybe better qualified.

[Jay]

I think I might do an exchange next spring semester in Seoul. Anyone ever been? How is it? How easy is it to get around? (No knowledge of hangul or anything)

[sknss]

[MxmHrpr]

Going to a Greek island tomorrow in which the only description I've been given is that it's the kind of place wherein a live chicken is taken on a bus and nobody bats an eye. This is either going to be awesome or the worst idea.

[stappard_]

That could easily be central London

[Stingray Sam]

Going to be in portland tomorrow any recs for shopping, exciting activities and lunch? Oregon coast trip pictures on the way!

[starfox64]

street art and shit from sao paulo:

[pk!]

Anyone with advice on Denver? I've got about a week of down time here. Might try to get a gig together, but not too hard, really just looking to chill out. Budget mode is requested though, unfortunately enough.

[starfox64]

isn't weed legal there?

[pk!]

That it is, but I'm not a blazed 24/7 kind of guy, I'm more looking for music, art, cool shops, and the like.

[Kudegra]

Traveling to Montreal to visit flaxsisters. Very ready to get my poutine on

[rublev]

my message is just sitting in the outbox and not the sent folder so i'll just post it here. it might be useful to anyone else going to belgium

BRUSSELS (i'll do antwerp later today after lunch)

eating:

Boulangerie Charli (34, rue Ste-Catherine): go here for breakfast. it gets busy but the bread / cakes etc are wonderful.

C'est Bon, C'est Belge (14 rue du Bon Secours): good place for lunch. tiny and close to the square in the old town. only 5 or 6 tables, nice to sit outside if you can. simple basic belgian / french food but i loved it.

Fin de Siecle (Rue des Chartreux 9): went here twice last time i was in brussels. get there early if you want to avoid queuing out the door for 45 minutes (think it opens at 7). place was mobbed but a really great atmosphere. again just simple belgian food. next door to hunting and collecting too!

Aksum Coffee House (Rue des Eperonniers/Spoormakersstraat 60): cute little coffee place in the centre. go if you like coffee! run by ethiopian family, really lovely people. beautiful inside too (the ceiling!). also if you go you have to have the cake. amazing cake. there's a lime one and a passionfruit one i think... can't quite remember, they're all amazing.

Au Soleil (Marche au Charbon 86): belgian bar / cafe thing near the centre. decent lunch menu. good selection of beer. tables outside but when i was there it was raining so i sat by the window. nice place. pretty cheap, easy and relaxed

stuff to see:

wiels gallery (Avenue Van Volxemlaan 354): i love this place although when i went the first time i thought they could have used the space better. still worth a visit and one of the hubs of contemporary art in brussels. the building itself is worth seeing. you can get there by tram (i think it might be number 17 but i'm not sure) or if it's a nice day just walk. took me 20 mins from louise area, nice walk past a park etc.

Royal Museums of Fine Arts (Rue de la Régence 3): maybe depending on the weather but also go if it's sunny haha. the new Fin de Siecle exhibition in wonderful and the space is great. the long hall about half way through is beautiful. everything from ensor to bonnard to gauguin to rodin. if you're there it might also be worth go to the magritte wing as well. i think you can get a ticket that covers them both. 3 floors of magritte. lots of amazing painting but also lots of info about his life and art circles. old masters are there too, if you're into flemish art. (you could spend a whole day here btw)

if you're into art i can give you some more contemporary art galleries. honestly there are SO many and it maybe depends what you're into. Almine Rech, Xavier Hufkens, Office Baroque, Dépendance... lots more!

parks (everywhere): honestly there are so many beautiful parks and green spaces in brussels. 'Parc de Bruxelles' is right in the centre of the city and quite nice if you're looking for a quiet rest or some shade. there's also a beautiful small park near the jewish area but i don't remember it's name. i also found a dog park which was amazing but i don't remember it's name either :( for me brussels is really a great walking city so if it's nice and you have nice just walk! you can't really get lost

sablon district of the city: lots of antique / art shops etc, chocolate, winding streets, little restaurants etc. in fact this is where that park with the fountain above i mentioned is. just across the road from the big church which is opposite a le pain quotidien (another good place for a snack). there is also a market here (can't remember what days in the week) that is amazing, just down in the square area.

architecture (everywhere): art nouveau and art deco everywhere. Horta house is worth a visit if you're into this kind of stuff. no bags allowed!

Antoine Dansaert quarter: really cool area of brussels just north of the grand place and old town. lots of amazing little shops and things to look at. again, more little green spaces. here you'll find (amongst others) stijl which is run by an old friend of dries - there's a man and womens shop. go to both, there's cool spaces inside! i was in the mens for maybe 20 mins just chatting. off in different directions from this street you'll find more little shops, great buildings and little cafes. Boulangerie Charli (the cafe i mention above) is near here. on the edge of the area closer to the old town is hunting and collecting (you probably know the store already) with kenzo, etudes, lemaire, wijnants, opening ceremony etc. and this is also next to Fin de Siecle restaurant.

there's more but i don't know how long you're gonna be there and if i take any more time you might not have time to use any of my recs!! i'll do antwerp next but i thought i'd send this asap for brussels.

[frogosaurus]

Going to be in Oxford (UK) starting this weekend through mid-August. What should I expect weather-wise? Been a while since I've gone to England.

[stappard_]

It could either be cold, hot, dry or wet. Expect around 70F and mostly sun/cloud, but it'll definitely rain at some point.

[spahdfgo]

Here's some pics after my 5 weeks trip to the US, met some awesome care taggers, had some good fun, great experience all around.

http://imgur.com/a/B1M6t

[spahdfgo]

I used my brother's Pentax K200D, credit goes to the landscapes, my photography skills aren't the best.

As to where I went to :

Cities : Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Vancouver.

National Parks : Yosemite, Sequoia, Death Valley, Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce, Grand Teton, Yellowstone.

[Upas]

I'm going to Tokyo in about 20 days. Any reccomendations? I've been to Tokyo before, so I'd like to take day-trips out of the city to see other places. I've also already been to Kyoto and Nara. Where are some other good places within a day' trip distance?

I think I'll be climbing Mt. Fuji and hitting up the hot springs in Hakone as well this time around.

[Ques]

Ill be studying in strasbourg next fall semester -- one year from now -- and am thinking of backpacking around for a bit before and after the semester, probably north in the summer part and south towards greece or italy during winter. preliminary travel trajectory is looking like

oslo --> copenhagen --> berlin --> amsterdam --> rotterdam --> antwerp --> brussels --> paris --> luxembourg --> strasbourg

and winter plans could be strasbourg --> prague --> vienna --> budapest --> athens
or
strasbourg --> geneva --> milan --> venice --> florence --> rome

but I don't really know how cold it will be or really anything about those cities in the first list other than athens

advice from anyone else who has backpacked europe before or locals would be great, especially about trajectory or cool places to plan to visit that you wouldn't think of, since im still at the basic planning stage. im already planning on going to hostels, but past that no clue really yet

[smiles]

anyone have any experience with arbnb in Paris? which androssiments are cool? It's actually for my girlfriend, she likes arts stuff mostly. Sadly I'll not be able to go.

she'll be going to london at the end of the month. maybe I can get her to create an account.

[Suquida]

Went out to Californeeway



Remove the l from the link cuz the tiny version is boring :(

[missrowan]

I just got back from a summer europe trip zurich > vienna > prague > berlin > stockholm > oslo > antwerp > brussels. I was mostly staying in hostels so I wasn't completely roughing it but if you want some info from me about any of those cities or whatever, holla at yo gurl

I'd have to say that I adored all of the cities, but if I had to pick some to prioritise over the others, I'd go with prague, berlin, stockholm, and antwerp. Prague is stupid cheap and there's a lot of beautiful old looking buildings and architecture. Berlin is ... well, it's berlin, I don't think it needs an explanation. Stockholm is just a gorgeous scandinavian city, plus I have some nostalgic feels because I went there when I was ten and really loved it. Antwerp is crazy cool for creativity, with all the fashion and art and micro-communities.

If you're into opera or classical music, I don't really need to tell you to go to vienna. Zurich is beautiful scenery wise, lots of good hiking and walking in surrounding areas. If there's one regret of my trip, I wish I had made it out to Bergen on the west coast of Norway for the Trolltunga hike in the fjords. I might even recommend that over going to Oslo. I know I want to come back to Norway for that hike.

As kind of an explanation of what I like and what I did to help you decide whether or not to take/disregard my opinions, I went to lots of art galleries, tried to scope out street art, had picnics in parks, and took pretty pictures of buildings and landscapes. (I didn't really go out/drink that much except in prague and berlin, so if that's what you're looking for, I am less help on that front.)

[nevergreen]

seattle recs? clothing (besides totokaelo) food destinations etc

[ramseames]

kuhlman, stussy, glasswing, barneys, ianshop, REI flagship

hit up pike place market if you've never been before, as touristy as it is

experience music project is cool.

lots of good coffee shops in the capitol hill area (i like victrola). presumably many good bars too but I'm 20 and its not worth the hassle of trying to underage drink when i'm down for the day so idk

[forestfeet]

[jvstnh]

just bought a ticket to the Philippines to visit relatives/volunteer/eat for 5 weeks. Really looking forward to it since it's the first time i'm going without the rest of my family. Should be fun.

sidebar, i've been to yosemite a handful of times this summer and I don't think its possible to have a place more beautiful

[eufemism]

fake canada people i'm gonna be visiting next week for a day or so. tell me what to do there. right now the only thing we have planned once there is to watch a fake canada FC game.

[ramseames]

going to Portland for a few days at the start of august. have a list of all the basic stuff like powells and self edge and stumptown and shit but please hit me up with any recs

[turbulencex90]

I will be in London early October. I've already done most of the touristy things (i.e. Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, British Museum, Westminster Abbey, Covent Garden etc.) so I don't have much interest in doing any of that again. Besides shopping and hopefully visiting Stamford Bridge, I would like to explore the city some more and am looking for any interesting place/event recs!

[Ques]

@ramseames

frances may is my favorite place to shop, and on the street over you have steven alan, self edge, and a stumptown, easy area to hit a lot of cool places, and pioneer square is really close

near that is brunch box, which has top-notch brunch food. im also partial to thai peacock for dinner

imo sizzlepie is a little overrated, i prefer the pizza food cart on 2nd street

the river is really nice to walk along, very pretty

voodoo doughnuts is near the river, and next to saturday market, which you should check out, lots of cool vendors. its also on sunday i think?

hawthorne is an incredible part of the city, great fun to just walk around and explore

salt & straw gets a great rep for ice cream but imo ruby jewel is just as good if not better. its right next to powells, whereas salt & straw is more of a walk

china town is kinda dumpy for the most part, but there are lots of good chinese food carts downtown

mother's is great for brunch, if pricey, and luc lac is amazing vietnamese food and open till 2am! pho is delicious there

edit: also, both the art museum and the cafe called the behind the museum cafe are real fun. the cafe has great matcha edibles

and the woodlands is another good shop, almost forgot about that

it's a really great city. i'd offer to show you around but i won't be in town. :(

[Stingray Sam]

feminist, a mutual friend of ours and i are going to try to road trip down to L.A. for a couple days. The basic idea is that her love interest/boyfriend/whatever that Feminist set her up with is currently at Camp Pendelton and as an alternative of him driving up to Spokane to visit her he offered to pay for a couple hotel rooms (maybe some other stuff idk) so that we could come down and they could hang out, meet irl and whatever. We aren't able to stay very long as Feminist has a family reunion that she has to be at by the the 7th at the latest. This is most likely going to be a hardcore road trip with over a day of straight driving (19 hours one way) and neither i nor feminist has done this sort of thing so some advice would be helpful. Also some recs as to what to do in L.A. for cheap would be awesome. I already spent way too much money on clothes in Portland. So i don't want to spend all my time shopping around at clothing stores. What'd be great is fun stuff to do as a couple or as a group of couples that is cheap and relatively unique to L.A. Also have any of you guys had to deal with driving for that amount of time? if so what's some good advice?