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Travel 4: All Around the World Same Song

Still recovering from the 20-hour travel day yesterday, but more initial thoughts of the trip:

Prague was beautiful, the beer was great and cheap, but goddamn did it feel like Disneyland at times with the sheer number of tourists and tourist traps. I know part of that was simply based on what we did and where we went, but still. Wife and I both agreed we liked Berlin more since despite the 50,000+ people in town for the marathon that weekend, it still felt like a real city with a tourism industry rather than a tourism-focused city in and of itself. Having said that, being the picturesque European town and having the views to die for from the castle is still worth plenty in Prague's favor. Not to mention the beer.

The people working for KLM were nice and friendly, but the operations of the airline and Amsterdam's airport left much to be desired. Also, the security theater coming back into the US is plain stupid. Never mind that we went through a couple of layers of security and border control in Europe, upon landing in the US we went through customs, followed by checked baggage pickup in the customs area just to drop off the bag again 50 feet later, which then meant needing to go through TSA security again without any noticeable signage or warning. Saw several people get farked by their duty-free liquor that they had carried on but didn't put in their checked bag in the 30-second window between grabbing it off the carousal and giving it back to the airline for their connecting flight. TSA agents told them to either dump it or go find a way to check it. Never mind the same duty free shop selling the same liquor was found about 200 feet away on the other side of security.
 
Prague felt like Disneyland to me back in 2002. Thankfully I had a local to bring me around.

I love hearing someone with such a positive view of Berlin. ESP in comparison to Prague. So many Americans seem to have the idea that Berlin should look like Paris or prague and are disappointed it’s visually a different city
 
TBF, the bag thing is more of a customs thing than a security theater thing. Having to pick up and drop off bags again has been a thing even prior to 9/11.
 
didn’t get the Disney feeling while in Prague, but prolly due to mookie looking for hotels in neighborhoods and not in the middle of downtown and touristy places. We stayed at some Marriott middle brand spot which was near end of the tram and 8 spots out on the metro. We are at restaurants there where English was a drawn out exercise (out fault, yes for not knowing how to speak to locals). We went through the center to find pierogis (THAT was a fun order experience) and what mookie found via search was the so called best pizza- which was. Typical small shop with locals in line. Wonderful.
girl and mookie did visit the opera house for performances. Boys then had us search for two shops they had sought which sold hockey jerseys. We made purchases there. Guess we just lucked out since we do weird stuff.

think mookie we ruined how in Berlin we stayed in sevignplatz neighborhood. Westerners there we ran into were working expats. We of course went to checkpoint Charlie. Walker the Jewish memorial. But also went out to find some infamous pink record shop and spent a couple hours shopping. Then walked that neighborhood and found a decent Thai place. Berlin was the kats bottom!!

bow Vienna felt like Disney!! And there again we stayed outside in a neighborhood. Guess it’s all hit or miss
 
Granted, I have spent all of one day in Austria and in a very touristy town (Salzburg), but to me the difference in friendliness of locals even compared to Bavarians was palpable just a few kilometers over the border, and that's not a compliment. I stumbled my way through enough transactional German to get warmer responses from clerks and locals than most probably do, but Salzburgers were a particularly dour and rude lot that I couldn't crack.

So after that experience, not to mention the tourist prices, I moved a repeat visit to Austria a few notches down the bucket list.
 
mookie1995 said:
didn’t get the Disney feeling while in Prague, but prolly due to mookie looking for hotels in neighborhoods and not in the middle of downtown and touristy places. We stayed at some Marriott middle brand spot which was near end of the tram and 8 spots out on the metro. We are at restaurants there where English was a drawn out exercise (out fault, yes for not knowing how to speak to locals). We went through the center to find pierogis (THAT was a fun order experience) and what mookie found via search was the so called best pizza- which was. Typical small shop with locals in line. Wonderful.
girl and mookie did visit the opera house for performances. Boys then had us search for two shops they had sought which sold hockey jerseys. We made purchases there. Guess we just lucked out since we do weird stuff.

think mookie we ruined how in Berlin we stayed in sevignplatz neighborhood. Westerners there we ran into were working expats. We of course went to checkpoint Charlie. Walker the Jewish memorial. But also went out to find some infamous pink record shop and spent a couple hours shopping. Then walked that neighborhood and found a decent Thai place. Berlin was the kats bottom!!

bow Vienna felt like Disney!! And there again we stayed outside in a neighborhood. Guess it’s all hit or miss
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Haha we call Vienna “geriatric disneyworld.”
my school program spent a long weekend in Vienna. All of us were living and studying in Berlin at the time. The Vienna host kept going on and on about all the damage Vienna took in the war and we all just gaped at her. Then someone finally whispered to her that we weren’t agreeing because we came from Berlin.

just a picture perfect beautiful large capital city, full of old people.
 
unofan said:
Still recovering from the 20-hour travel day yesterday, but more initial thoughts of the trip:

Prague was beautiful, the beer was great and cheap, but goddamn did it feel like Disneyland at times with the sheer number of tourists and tourist traps. I know part of that was simply based on what we did and where we went, but still. Wife and I both agreed we liked Berlin more since despite the 50,000+ people in town for the marathon that weekend, it still felt like a real city with a tourism industry rather than a tourism-focused city in and of itself. Having said that, being the picturesque European town and having the views to die for from the castle is still worth plenty in Prague's favor. Not to mention the beer.
Click to expand...

I really really liked Prague, the overall look and feel of it. But I can also get your point, with some many other tourists there it gets to feel overly touristy in parts. To some extent, that's going to be the way it is for any great spot as more and more people in the world are able to travel. On one hand, it is a good thing more people can experience more cultures throughout the world, in theory that should lead to a better understanding of everyone; on the other hand, most of these places were designed for maybe 1/10th the number of tourists they get now, and we need to rethink how this works overall so places don't feel overly touristy and so that they don't get physically worn down.
 
Enough of Bavaria, Paris, exotic Thailand, and ancient Spice Road destinations: burd and Mrs are going to Toronto to see daughter for a few days. First time (anywhere). Suggestions? HHOF? Good paint thinner joints that don't have jacked up prices?
 
If you like wine, take a day to do the vineyards south of Toronto. They have spectacular wines. Loved Pillitteri Estates
 
On a 4-day visit to Toronto for the first time, staying downtown. So far, I'm struck by how diverse it appears on the streets. It's not just that Anglos are in the minority; the mix is so broad: Men in Sikh turbans, covered women, blacks, Asians in large numbers, east Indians, First Nations people, Latinos--even a few white men. And those white men I did see still had their front teeth--what's up with that?

I get that it's not January, but I think I could live here. What am I not seeing?
 
Toronto is great. My father in law lives there, and it is by far the best part of visiting if you know what I mean. Go a little NW and you’ll see frummers added to the mix.

I like what Bourdain said about Toronto. Something to the effect of him liking it more than Montreal because it is uglier. You had to dig a little bit to find the gems. And when you did, the extra effort made them more satisfying.
 
burd said:
On a 4-day visit to Toronto for the first time, staying downtown. So far, I'm struck by how diverse it appears on the streets. It's not just that Anglos are in the minority; the mix is so broad: Men in Sikh turbans, covered women, blacks, Asians in large numbers, east Indians, First Nations people, Latinos--even a few white men. And those white men I did see still had their front teeth--what's up with that?

I get that it's not January, but I think I could live here. What am I not seeing?
Click to expand...
The Maple Leafs, you know, the bad stuff.
 
I'll be in Thailand between December 23rd and January 16th following my wife who goes a bit earlier. The kids will join the next day from Minnesota. So far we've booked some time at the following:

Just the two of us will spend one night here, just like we did the first night of our honeymoon before moving onto one of the islands.

The next day the kids will meet us here for 3 days, during which we have some island hopping planned, snorkeling and more. The place we spent the rest of the honeymoon at no longer exists but this will do more than fine.

But what I'm most looking forward to is spending time at a place on a river or lake that will be a bit more rustic. We haven't chosen the exact spot yet but surely that will come soon.
 
Gonna be in MSP next weekend, sans wifey. After she had a girls' weekend last month, it's my turn for a quick getaway, and this is a trip I had planned to take 3.5 years ago, right as COVID hit.

I have one nice dinner reservation at Butcher & The Boar (I never got to eat at the original location), and I've got a couple of adopted haunts from my work trips that will require a revisit (like Runyon's), but I'm particularly casting around for suggested Vietnamese/Hmong restaurants. There are obviously dozens of good ones, I've tried a couple in the past - I'm looking for the standouts. I'm staying in Uptown, but I certainly don't mind an Uber and/or LRT ride, if need be.

When I head home on Sunday, I immediately board another plane for Boston and two days of internal work meetings at our HQ (ugh). But on the plus side, that means I'll be treating myself to dinner or a late lunch at Limoncello, whenever I can squeeze it in.
 
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