GRcade Travel Topic

If they ask you your opinion on guns, say that they're necessary to protect yourself.

(Apologies I don't actually know, but I needed to make a below the belt joke at how dumb that country is).

Anyway, I'll have a week to spend in South Africa in October. Any tips, I'll likely be solo so I'm swaying more towards Cape town than Joburg, but I'm not a city break person really so I think i'd be done with the city in two days. Any advice would be most welcome!

Just booked the ferry for the end of August. Exciting to be planning a European road trip again. Hoping to make it down past Split.

I'm spending a week in Nijmegen in August, for a conference, but hoping to see some sites. Not sure what yet, but it looks generally like a nice place to wander round.

I don't normally post my travel vlogs here, but a huge amount of time and effort has gone into this one, really hope you like it.

Thinking of doing a solo trip to Los Angeles for a week in late September with half the time in LA and half in Palm Springs.
But the hotels are so expensive in LA like literally £300 a night. So I'm planning to stay at an LAX hotel that I've stayed at before (Four Points by Sheraton) for £120 a night. It's only 9 miles from Santa Monica so I don't think the commute each day is that bad.
A few days relaxing in Palm Springs would be nice with a day trip out to Joshua Tree national park.

Anyone else got any solo trips in mind?

No:1 Final Fantasy Fan wrote:Thinking of doing a solo trip to Los Angeles for a week in late September with half the time in LA and half in Palm Springs.
But the hotels are so expensive in LA like literally £300 a night. So I'm planning to stay at an LAX hotel that I've stayed at before (Four Points by Sheraton) for £120 a night. It's only 9 miles from Santa Monica so I don't think the commute each day is that bad.
A few days relaxing in Palm Springs would be nice with a day trip out to Joshua Tree national park.

Anyone else got any solo trips in mind?

Have you tried Air BnB? There are usually lots of good options in Venice if you like being near the beach. Silver Lake and Echo Park are also great neighborhoods and usually cheaper accommodation options.

karl_fletcher wrote:

No:1 Final Fantasy Fan wrote:Thinking of doing a solo trip to Los Angeles for a week in late September with half the time in LA and half in Palm Springs.
But the hotels are so expensive in LA like literally £300 a night. So I'm planning to stay at an LAX hotel that I've stayed at before (Four Points by Sheraton) for £120 a night. It's only 9 miles from Santa Monica so I don't think the commute each day is that bad.
A few days relaxing in Palm Springs would be nice with a day trip out to Joshua Tree national park.

Anyone else got any solo trips in mind?

Have you tried Air BnB? There are usually lots of good options in Venice if you like being near the beach. Silver Lake and Echo Park are also great neighborhoods and usually cheaper accommodation options.

Thanks for the recommendations. I'll have a look at those neighbourhoods. I did look at Airbnb but mainly around Santa Monica and Hollywood and it was basically the same price as hotels.

My student visa has come through, my flights are booked, just waiting to hear back from the hotels in Hong Kong about my quarantine booking. It all finally feels real! Hong Kong here I come!

Trying to book on the Table Mountain Half Marathon Trial run in October.

'International runners ' - click

'South African ID number' - do not fill N/A (and also tried my passport number)

'SORRY YOU NEED AN ID NUMBER TO PROGRESS.

Oh do one.

Outrunner wrote:My student visa has come through, my flights are booked, just waiting to hear back from the hotels in Hong Kong about my quarantine booking. It all finally feels real! Hong Kong here I come!

Cool what are you going to be studying? I'm waiting until they drop the quarantine rules before I go for a holiday there.

No:1 Final Fantasy Fan wrote:

Outrunner wrote:My student visa has come through, my flights are booked, just waiting to hear back from the hotels in Hong Kong about my quarantine booking. It all finally feels real! Hong Kong here I come!

Cool what are you going to be studying? I'm waiting until they drop the quarantine rules before I go for a holiday there.

I'm doing East Asian studies in this country so my modules for the year abroad are (mostly) all connected to that. I'm taking the opportunity to study the things I'm really passionate about that my home uni doesn't offer

Autumn Semester

Japanese Culture and Thought: the Buddhist Impact
Introduction to Pre-Modern Japan
The Buddhist Conquest of China
Introduction to Video Game Studies
Globalizing Japanese Food

Spring Semester

The Influence of Zen Buddhism on Japanese Aesthetics
Understanding Popular Culture in Japan
Japan in the Tokugawa Period
Politics of Contemporary Japan (particularly excited for this since my home university yoinked a similar module from me last semester)
Triads and Organized Crime

There were some other Hong Kong modules I was really interested in but they were taught in Chinese so I couldn't take them

Sounds like you're really making the most of it dude!

I slacked off massively in my year abroad as my home uni didn't care what modules I took. I was finished with classes by 11am each day and then just strawberry floated about with mates.

Still had a great time, just wasn't academically fulfilling!

Outrunner wrote:

No:1 Final Fantasy Fan wrote:

Outrunner wrote:My student visa has come through, my flights are booked, just waiting to hear back from the hotels in Hong Kong about my quarantine booking. It all finally feels real! Hong Kong here I come!

Cool what are you going to be studying? I'm waiting until they drop the quarantine rules before I go for a holiday there.

I'm doing East Asian studies in this country so my modules for the year abroad are (mostly) all connected to that. I'm taking the opportunity to study the things I'm really passionate about that my home uni doesn't offer

Autumn Semester

Japanese Culture and Thought: the Buddhist Impact
Introduction to Pre-Modern Japan
The Buddhist Conquest of China
Introduction to Video Game Studies
Globalizing Japanese Food

Spring Semester

The Influence of Zen Buddhism on Japanese Aesthetics
Understanding Popular Culture in Japan
Japan in the Tokugawa Period
Politics of Contemporary Japan (particularly excited for this since my home university yoinked a similar module from me last semester)
Triads and Organized Crime

There were some other Hong Kong modules I was really interested in but they were taught in Chinese so I couldn't take them

I'm genuinely interested in some of the course material for some of those modules man, especially the Introduction to Video Game Studies and a couple of the Contemporary Japanese politics and society modules. Chuck the reading lists in here when you start!

aayl1 wrote:Sounds like you're really making the most of it dude!

I slacked off massively in my year abroad as my home uni didn't care what modules I took. I was finished with classes by 11am each day and then just strawberry floated about with mates.

Still had a great time, just wasn't academically fulfilling!

I'd argue pretty strongly that this is both a perfectly acceptable and, if I'm honest, entirely appropriate use of a year abroad. What's the point in spending a year in [whatever country you went to] if you're doing a 30-40 hour working week at uni, unable to actually appreciate the culture you've been sent to take in?

aayl1 wrote:Sounds like you're really making the most of it dude!

I slacked off massively in my year abroad as my home uni didn't care what modules I took. I was finished with classes by 11am each day and then just strawberry floated about with mates.

Still had a great time, just wasn't academically fulfilling!

I'm really excited to be going! It doesn't count towards my final mark for my degree, as long as I pass everything I'm all good. With that in mind I'm going to strike a balance, I'll attend lectures and do my best but at the same time I'm not going to let the work take up all my time. Like Cora said, it's a shame to go all that way and not make the most of it! I'm lucky that I'm studying stuff I'm interested in and in a city that I love

RetroCora wrote:I'm genuinely interested in some of the course material for some of those modules man, especially the Introduction to Video Game Studies and a couple of the Contemporary Japanese politics and society modules. Chuck the reading lists in here when you start!

No worries mate, I'm more than happy to send you stuff!

(sorry to everyone else, I feel like I've hijacked the travel thread and made it into the further education thread )

Looking to visit Seattle in September. Any recommendations? I'm thinking of 5 nights.

I'd recommend getting to a Seahawks game if you can score a ticket - the atmosphere at their matches is supposed to be the best in American sports. Beyond that, try and get out into the Pacific Northwest a little bit, maybe even schedule a day in Vancouver if you can fit it in.

No:1 Final Fantasy Fan wrote:Looking to visit Seattle in September. Any recommendations? I'm thinking of 5 nights.

Definitely rent a car on a clear day and drive around mount Rainier National Park, the scenery is spectacular.

In town, there are amazing Italian sandwiches at Salumi which you can eat at the nearby park. Canon is great for interesting cocktails. The fish market is very touristy but still worth a visit. Salt and Straw is a west coast ice cream chain which has a location in Seattle and is strawberry floating delicious.

In the end, my holiday this year has consisted of a couple of nights in London which allowed me the time to visit the Olympic park.

Might do another couple of nights too at some point as it worked really well despite the 34c heat on the first day I was there (stayed at a premier inn hub by Westminster abbey).

I've just been to Lisbon for a stag-what a wonderful city.

While it was great for a stag (lots of areas full of bars you can bounce between) I'm really keen to go back and do it properly. Seemed like there was lots to see and do and I enjoyed walking round it and taking in the architecture by day despite the hangovers...