Where was it? What did you do there? Have you been back?
It depends on what aspect of a place makes me want to return to it. Was it nice for living in alone, or raising a family? Chilling? Being mind-blown every moment? Feeling connected to a better reality? Feeling like I could grow into a better person from surviving it? My all-time favorite place is Montreal. It's probably because I went there without any great idea what to do, and found that it was the perfect place to hang out cheaply while working on a language learning curve. Its very neurosis infected me with purpose. I had taken French in school for five years. I aced it, but then again I love languages. I also had nothing that made me think France was worth the effort. They'd play us bad music and have us read old advertising with terrible graphic design. They'd tell us we could never really get the accents right. Oh yeah, sold. You can keep your accordions. Then I wound up in Montreal after a train ride from New York City on Saint Patrick's Day, 1998. I dropped my bags at a hostel and found a drunken party about a block away. The next week was a blur of discovery. I walked around a lot, rode the metro all over, and saw a lot of trilingual bums. I also saw apartments for rent at really good rates. I couldn't read everything, but I quickly wanted to devour the place. Here was an alive francophone culture, making up words that beat the English ones. Here was a story of North America that seemed nothing like the one I grew up with only five hours away in upstate New York. I saw huge billboard ads for musicians that couldn't get arrested an hour down the road in Plattsburgh. Here were Nietzsche's Hyperboreans, the people beyond the north wind. They weren't afraid of winter, and they would fight every step of the way for a place most people didn't want. They had great junk food, writers, barristas... the works. I wanted to move there right away. I wanted to start traveling a whole lot more, to make I wasn't delusional. Eventually I got to travel a lot more. I went to Belgium twice, a place that has a similar story but is in hibernation. I spent a month in France, which was very different from its external reputation and very worth traveling but also trying to figure out how to accept the rest of Europe. I also went to Austin, Australia, a lot of the eastern seaboard of the US, Tucson, San Francisco, England, and the Netherlands. I drove from Boston (my home for a dozen years) to Los Angeles (where I have now lived for two years). Still, I've never felt more at home than I do every time I'm in Montreal. It just clicks for me. I've taken my dad there twice and he understood what I loved: that connection between language and the Canadian culture. (Canada, especially the ROC (rest of Canada), doesn't think it has a culture and drives itself nuts trying to figure one out. It's the anthropological and sociological version of a barely legal teen.) Too bad my wife doesn't speak French. Too bad I don't feel the same connection to the Hispanic culture of Los Angeles, much as I like it. It's like Navin's moment of whiteness in The Jerk: those are my people, and I want to see them prosper.
Vice-Principal: In the last two months, you've been away three Fridays and three Mondays. If this attendance record continues, you'll be expelled. Me: But then I'd be in school even less. Ahh, Montreal with its European heart, Michel Tremblay grittiness, and the big lions at the base of Mount Royal.They weren't afraid of winter
This is an inspired poetic read for a cold rainy Sunday morning. It reminds me of how I almost got thrown out of grade 12 for going down the highway so many Fridays to spend the weekend in Montreal back when.
The bit about the accent is the reason I skipped over French. I've taken a bunch of languages, Russian being the main and most recent one (my daddy being a Muscovite commie and all), but I wanted to learn French, too. When I overheard my 7th grade French and Latin teachers joking about how bad our accents were, the images of pretension and the French were merged. But that's right, French is spoken outside of France :) Would Montreal be worth a trip if you don't remember any French?They'd play us bad music and have us read old advertising with terrible graphic design. They'd tell us we could never really get the accents right. Oh yeah, sold. You can keep your accordions.
It's absolutely worth the trip. One of Montreal's secrets is that half the place speaks English, but the signs have had to be in French for so long that visitors think everything is only in French. Montrealais have a very intricate dance when it comes to language. I've studied it for years. Francophones are far more annoyed with a lifelong resident that still hasn't learned enough French to buy a bagel than they are with an American that isn't aware of the battle lines. Then again, francophones are not interested in letting you in the club. Deep down, Quebec is very northern New England... and you aren't of the body. They get annoyed that movies from Quebec gets subtitles in France, even though there are six million francophone Quebecois speaking what could be summarized as Ozark French versus sixty million French citizens wondering why these people haven't given up to the damn Irish already. Thus you get a plateau problem (especially in The Plateau, one of the nice parts of town). Either you're a total foreigner so we'll just speak English with you, or you've been in Montreal long enough that "keh ska zzi luh" should mean something to you. ("Qu'est-ce qu'il a dit, là?", "What'd he just say there?") Everything in between is "ça m'tente plus de practiquer la belle langue a'c cette tête carrée, hein?" (I'm fed up with practicing Molière's tongue with this block head, eh?). In summary: you're a tourist. Feel free to speak English. Just overdo your American accent. Oh, and "stationnement interdit" means no parking. They've changed all the "Attendez les clignotants feux verts" (Wait for the flahsing green light) signs into symbols. Oh, and a flashing green serves the job of a left turn arrow. Oh, and just like New York City: no right on red on Montreal island. I have a horrible problem that my English heads into the local anglophone accent when I'm there too long. All of the sudden I'm the kid from Ontario that I always wished I had been when I was a kid watching the CBC out of Kingston.
I have a friend who makes yearly trips in the summer to visit a group of friends she has. If she extends me another invite, I'll accept this time. Internet promise.
I completely agree. I don't love Madrid for the same reason I love Ho Chi Minh City. Wandering around Paris is not the same as wandering around Phnom Penh. Each have their appeal and their drawbacks. I've been to very few places that I wouldn't like to visit again. Sometimes I find myself craving an experience from a place I've visited. For example, I had a filetto alla griglia in Florence one time that made any food I ate for several days seem like it wasn't worth eating. To me, it was the epitome of what the experience of enjoying a steak should be. Likewise, I remember the rainy season in Vietnam. I'd look out the windows of my room and watch as walls of water advanced over the ocean, betting against my housekeeper about how many minutes it would be until the rain lashed the windows, how the rain was the only thing that quieted the constant flow of traffic on the street below and the sudden noise of heavy rain on a corrugated iron roof. For me (and I suspect many others) traveling is less about the place and more about the experiences one has had.It depends on what aspect of a place makes me want to return to it.
This summer, I visited Riga, Latvia and was really impressed and surprised by the architecture there. Here's a few pictures i took:
I was there for a bit less than 2 weeks so I obviously didn't have time to fully immerse myself in the culture there. Nonetheless, I had a great time and would like to return there in a couple of years to see how the situation evolved. They are making the transition from a communist society to being part of the european union and it has been a bumpy road. The crisis hit the city hard, but they are slowly dedication money to renovate the beautiful Jugendstil (art nouveau) buildings. They have an amazing market with fresh food, I think it's the best market i've ever been to. It's not far from the north sea with beaches and nice little towns like Jurmala. The old town is very touristy but still fun to visit and I think it's a city with a lot of potential for the future.
New Orleans, it's amazing. There's jazz and voodoo and shit, would recommend.
Got to Korean once and not get enough of it tho. I tried the apknite South Korea Top Tourist Places. The food recommended was excellent and the views were epic. I love Kpop and so much fun when watching the teenagers dancing along with the music on the street. Great trip for me.
When I think of great places to travel. I think of Turkey. Earlier this year my wife and I went to Europe, and Turkey was the most positive experience of our whole trip. We went to Selçuk, Pamukkale and Göreme (Cappadocia), finally ending our trip in Istanbul during Ramadan. Words cannot express the kindness of the Turkish people. Honestly way more accommodating than any other culture I've experienced. I was so impressed with the rich history and culture. This cornerstone where Eastern culture and Western culture have collided was just amazing. One fun experience is walking down a street crowded with restaurants/hotels/hostels and having the hosts try to convince you to come to their restaurant. One not so fun experience (although it did not ruin the trip) happened in Pamukkale. After visiting the travertines, my wife and I were walking back to our hotel. There are a lot of stray dogs and one came out of no where and started barking and growling at us. I didn't know what to do so I tried to distract the dog so my wife could get away. While I was doing this a local came by and started chasing the dog away by hissing and throwing rocks at it. It was seriously scary, and as a dog lover, an experience that would change the way I looked at stray dogs forever (not that I trusted them before, but now I actively avoid them). If you are reading this right now, and haven't traveled much, please take this message with you. I spent a lot of money this summer but I do not regret it one single bit. The memories I have will last with me for the rest of my life. The people and places I have seen were spectacular. I ask you to consider that one might regret a day of playing video games, but will never regret seeing something so grand an underground city, eating food that you'd never expect, listening to music that your ears have never heard, and meeting wonderful people, both traveling and local, who will change your outlook on life. Here is a picture of me at the travertines:
I did a 4 day hike to Machu Picchu in Peru a few years ago and it was by far the best place/trip I've ever travelled to. Here is something I wrote that talks about one of the greatest moments of my life that occurred on that trip. It may sound silly, but it was quite profound. I HIGHLY recommend the experience. Go. Now.
I love it! I absolutely love it. Look at those beautiful mountains. How can you look at a picture like that and not be motivated to move! I am thinking my next trek will be to South America to visit the Galapagos, but Peru definitely is going to be a stop now. Did you hike with a group or were you alone? Was this something an inexperienced hiker could do or would it require some experience?
I did the Galapagos with my family a while back. To do it properly it's expensive but so worth it. We got on a boat that had 6 crew members and 16 people. It was such a fabulous small group and made exploring the island and learning about all the different animals so much better. We saw the massive cruise boats with groups of 100 walking around the islands or kayaking and it just looked horrible. We used Adventure Life and customized everything. They are great. But again...pricey. Let me know if you have any questions.
I like most places for a while, except Beijing because when I was there the year before the Olympics, there was no sky. Day in, day out, look up: smog, haze, greyness. I began coughing within a day of landing. I thought I had a cold, then I realized it was the pollution. Sad, because it's such an amazing place in so many ways. I've been back to a lot of places and would go back to in a heartbeat if there was time: San Francisco, Santa Fe, Paris, London, Haifa, Hawaii, Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, NYC, LA, Boston. I like going places where I have friends or cousins, people I love and long to see. But I confess, for many reasons I feel most happy and comfortable in Key West, FL.
What is it about Key West? I hear from many people that it's an amazing place and I've never really gotten a good answer as to why. I know Hemingway was a fan, right?
Thanks Swag and BlackBird for that vote of confidence for KW. Here's the thing: it's an island about a mile long. To the north is the Gulf of Mexico, to the south is the Atlantic. It IS very relaxed. You can cycle everywhere you need to go. So it's small, but has an intensely educated, cultural atmosphere. Educated pirates. There's writers, awesome music, theatre, seafood fresh from the ocean, diving, and chickens running around. The first thing you notice though is the quality of the light. Important for me, is that while it's Caribbean, I feel safe there. I've been to a Caribbean vacation resorts where all along the beach are guntowers.I'd describe it as Florida-meets-Cuba-meets-Spring Break
Yes there's the Springbreakitude of it, if you hang around on Duval Street.
As Swag said below, it's extremely laid back, and the weather is amazing. I only spent one day/night there, but I'm determined to go back and really cut loose. I'd describe it as Florida-meets-Cuba-meets-Spring Break, all wrapped into one. Also amazing is doing the drive from Ft. Lauderdale across all of the Keys and bridges, you basically drive off the edge of America, into the ocean, and finally land a stone's throw from handrolled cigars and mojitos. Oh, and the haunted Robert The Doll was also a major drawcard for me, but then again I really dig the paranormal.
I've been to: - Frankfurt, Germany - Kuwait City, Kuwait - London, England - Cairo, Egypt - Dubai City, Duabi - One other country Cairo is definitely the coolest place I've been to. Went twice, and it gives me the warm fuzzies just thinking about it. I also went to Alexandria, Sharm El Sheik, and Taba while I was there. All beautiful places, especially Taba. Saw the pyramids, went to all the different markets, etc. etc...one thing to take away is that I'm of the mind that you should dig deep when you go traveling. Go for the smaller hotels and try to integrate yourself within the culture as much as possible. It gives you a more down-to-Earth view of where you've been and an idea of what the people are like. I love traveling, haha.
One of my favorite places I have been is (or was) Damascus. I have yet to visit Cairo, but I wonder how the two stack up. I'm a big city person, so I loved the narrow alleys, crazy traffic, even crazier taxi drivers, the awful smells and the delicious food, and the businesses that are open all night long. And even though you have all this, you can feel history all around you.
Hard question to answer, regarding 'favourite' place. I've been to a few places, and certainly have many more places to get to. One of the things that draws me into a place is the architecture. I love wandering around a new city or area and taking in the finer details. Places like San Francisco and NYC/Brooklyn have left me yearning to move and spend weeks on foot, camera in hand. In terms of natural affinity though, I'd have to say Germany. I went on school exchange well over a decade ago, and have been wanting to go back like crazy. I can't explain it, but I just felt more 'at home' there then I ever have here in Aus. With any luck, I'll be moving/living/working there in about a year's time.
I was on a trip along the Oregon coast at about 16. I had just got my learner's permit to drive, and highway 101 was one of the hardest roads I could have driven. Nonetheless, I was just driving along stopping at town to town with my family, and it was just so beautiful. It rained the entire time I was there which gave the coastline a sad yet beautiful personality. We didn't do much but enjoy the sights to see, like the sealion caves. By the end, I had seen all that I wanted to and wanted to go back home.
This is a great question. I think it greatly depends on what you aim to do in the locations you visit. To answer simply, I would say Zermatt, Switzerland. I lived there for a few months back in 2010, and it really gave me an opportunity to see what sorts of things go on behind the scenes of a large tourist town. It's a beautiful place with wonderful people, and my time there certainly inspired me to more seriously take up filmmaking and mountain climbing. Definitely the most influential place I've been to say the least. However I would say the place matters less than what you do to form a connection to where you are.
I haven't been to a ton of different places around the world, but I've been lucky enough to do a bit of international travel. It's a difficult choice, but my favorite was probably Cambodia. When you get out of the excessively touristy areas, it's really a beautiful place, with really great people. I'd like to go back someday.