Author Topic: The General Chit Chat Thread 3 (Read 325823 times)

flyawave · « **Reply #4260 on:** July 18, 2013, 06:28:25 AM »

Whoo, +1 Scandinavia and the world

AceHigh · « **Reply #4261 on:** July 18, 2013, 11:25:30 AM »

So I was thinking of taking a small trip somewhere. After looking for places I wanted to visit, I found 2 good destinations. Barcelona or Venice. Never been in either, so having trouble deciding which one to choose. What do you guys think?

Saras · « **Reply #4262 on:** July 18, 2013, 11:29:03 AM »

My vote goes for Venice. I simply find it unusual and beautiful.

1000mAh · « **Reply #4263 on:** July 18, 2013, 11:56:17 AM »

Ace, go either to Finland or Barcelona.

AceHigh · « **Reply #4264 on:** July 18, 2013, 12:03:56 PM »

I have been in Finland, Rovaniemi more specifically. All I saw was Finns, Sami, drunken Finns and Sami and reindeers... all of them probably fornicating behind my back. Other Finns told me that it was not the best part to represent Finland, but my priorities to visiting Finland again are not that high.

froody1911 · « **Reply #4265 on:** July 18, 2013, 12:09:15 PM »

I say Venice.

1000mAh · « **Reply #4266 on:** July 18, 2013, 12:31:12 PM »

Ace, the palaces to visit in Finland are Helsinki, Turku and Hämeenlinna.
Tho, if you're moving at night, be aware of the drunks.
Finland has some cool looking castles/forts that really are worth seeing.
We even have Russian monuments predating soviet union.
Rovaniemi is one of the placed we have a lot of drunks and drug addicts.
Not the best palce to visit in Finland.

But my statement still stands; Barcelona or Finland.

gits · « **Reply #4267 on:** July 18, 2013, 12:52:10 PM »

Quote from: AceHigh on July 18, 2013, 11:25:30 AM

So I was thinking of taking a small trip somewhere. After looking for places I wanted to visit, I found 2 good destinations. Barcelona or Venice. Never been in either, so having trouble deciding which one to choose. What do you guys think?

I've been to Barcelona this January, If you choose Barcelona you won't regret it

In London right nao.

ThePlaneJet · « **Reply #4268 on:** July 18, 2013, 01:12:57 PM »

Venice sound cooler.

AceHigh · « **Reply #4269 on:** July 18, 2013, 01:30:42 PM »

Quote from: 1000mAh on July 18, 2013, 12:31:12 PM

Ace, the palaces to visit in Finland are Helsinki, Turku and Hämeenlinna.

Turku? Holy shit this reminded me of this "travel" program.

Seriously though the mentioning of castles piqued my interest. Will keep it in mind for later travels

lololitas · « **Reply #4270 on:** July 18, 2013, 01:57:43 PM »

Personally I recommend barcelona over venice. If you want to go to the adria, you should start a road trip in venice and follow the coast down to greece.

AceHigh · « **Reply #4271 on:** July 18, 2013, 02:28:09 PM »

I will visit both eventually, just picking one to go to first.

On my list I have following places to go to within 5 years (I will call by region in some cases when I plan going outside cities):
Parts of Iberia: Catalonia, Aragon, Andalusia and Madrid
Italy + islands of Mediterranean: Tuscany, Venice, Corsica, Sicily and Rome (since all roads lead there)
Continental Europe: Bordeaux (a trip straight into a wine cellar), Prague, Transylvania, Croatia (coastal part of it, those fortified cities look lovely), 2 out of 3 baltic countries (already visited Estonia) and the list goes on... now with Finland making a possible re-appearance.

JoonasTo · « **Reply #4272 on:** July 18, 2013, 02:49:58 PM »

Finland's castles are pretty dull. I've lived most of my life in cities with castles and they're all pretty boring. Sure, there are some nice stories and the castle in my hometown is one of the latest real castles built in Europe but it's still boring. You go to Finland, you should go to the lakes or the woods. And you have that in Norway already so, meh.
I can take you fishing if you come though.

I'd say Barcelona. Venice is pretty awesome in it's unique way of design and history but Barcelona just has that feel to it.

1000mAh · « **Reply #4273 on:** July 18, 2013, 03:05:31 PM »

^ castles are never dull.
....if you're with Children or know how to have fun in childish way.

But Suomenlinna is definitely worth visiting.
their new cannons became old while they were building it so the swedes lost Finland to Russians.

and still: Barcelona.

Burkingam · « **Reply #4274 on:** July 18, 2013, 03:10:43 PM »

Yeah, I guess now would be a pretty good time to visit Venice. We don't know how much and how quickly it's gonna be affected by the raising sea level.

Saras · « **Reply #4275 on:** July 18, 2013, 03:10:52 PM »

Quote from: AceHigh on July 18, 2013, 02:28:09 PM

I will visit both eventually, just picking one to go to first.

On my list I have following places to go to within 5 years (I will call by region in some cases when I plan going outside cities):
Parts of Iberia: Catalonia, Aragon, Andalusia and Madrid
Italy + islands of Mediterranean: Tuscany, Venice, Corsica, Sicily and Rome (since all roads lead there)
Continental Europe: Bordeaux (a trip straight into a wine cellar), Prague, Transylvania, Croatia (coastal part of it, those fortified cities look lovely), 2 out of 3 baltic countries (already visited Estonia) and the list goes on... now with Finland making a possible re-appearance.

Since I'm Lithuanian, I suppose I can give you out some of the tips what concerns that.

Most of the colour in the Baltics comes from the plant life, not the cities themselves. Hell, our capital city is basically a third forest. So I'd be very wary in choosing the dates of travel. If you come here during the start of summer, it will look wonderful. If you do that during March, it'll just look grey, wet and depressing.

For Lithuania, I'd personally go on a trip by our main river, Nemunas. It holds a lot of fortification structures by it and most of them are abandoned. So, if you're feeling lucky, it's a good place to go about exploring old abandoned ruins.

AceHigh · « **Reply #4276 on:** July 18, 2013, 04:25:59 PM »

Oh, I love ruins, castles, citadels and other medieval fortifications. Shamefully I know probably the least about Latvia and Lithuania out of European countries, somehow Estonia comes up more often both as a destination and in other subjects here in Norway. I only know that you guys have language from it's own group unlike others and that your country was the last pagan in Europe before it got tainted by Christianity. Isolated by forests much?

As for the river fortifications, it's not hard to believe. After all Swedish vikings used them to get all the way to Kievan Rus and Byzantine empire back in those days. Nice tip.

Burk, while I have no doubt that Venice will sink one day, I doubt we are talking of such a short timeframe like months or years. More like our grand children won't see it, but we will in our lifetime.

RasMuX · « **Reply #4277 on:** July 18, 2013, 04:33:53 PM »

Well, since you like/love old buildings and history. I'd say you should head to Venice.
To me Barcelona is way too overcrowded and exploited by now. Well, the same thing applies to Venice, but I think it's the lesser of two evils.

AceHigh · « **Reply #4278 on:** July 18, 2013, 04:41:09 PM »

Hey I was even thinking of Madrid because any city that is not on a Mediterranean shore is not littered by all those hotels next to beaches. Anyway as far as I see it both are exploited to death, that is why I wrote that I want to visit Catalonia, not nessessarily Barcelona. That means I am looking at places and towns outside the city that might be a hidden gem.

It's like when I went to Hungary and Budapest was your typical capital and sure it had a citadel, which was cool. However the real jewel I found there was the town of Eger in the northeastern part of Hungary. Surrounded by whineyards and featuring a fortress that back in it's time halted the invasion of Ottomans. So yeah I will look further than just the famous cities.

JoonasTo · « **Reply #4279 on:** July 18, 2013, 04:48:11 PM »

Wrote this originally on the wrong thread...

Totally agreed on that. You should rent a motorcycle from Barca and take a look at the other cities around. And small towns too if you like them. The coast line to Valencia is pretty much all "new" stuff instead of the old architechture but there are some nice views to be found.