GRcade Travel Topic

PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic by **Tomous** » Mon Nov 01, 2021 3:06 pm

Vermilion wrote:I booked a short break for next summer to Liverpool, never been and it looks really neat there (especially the beatles museum and stuff).

Might also look at maybe doing a european break of some sort, but at the moment i have no idea what.

Liverpool's a great city :wub:

PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic by **Vermilion** » Mon Nov 01, 2021 3:09 pm

Tomous wrote:
Vermilion wrote:I booked a short break for next summer to Liverpool, never been and it looks really neat there (especially the beatles museum and stuff).

Might also look at maybe doing a european break of some sort, but at the moment i have no idea what.

Liverpool's a great city

It does look really neat, might see if i can check out The British Music Experience there too.

The hotel i'm booked in to is a new building near the albert dock which should be a good location for accessing everything.

PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic by **Frank** » Mon Nov 01, 2021 3:20 pm

See if you can book into the pirate place to eat :shifty:

they do these ridiculous hanging kebabs. They're lush.

There's a cat cafe there too.

PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic by **Vermilion** » Tue Nov 02, 2021 7:59 am

Frank wrote:There's a cat cafe there too.

Will look into that.

PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic by **OnlyShallow** » Fri Nov 05, 2021 9:04 am

My gf is taking me to Zagreb for my birthday next week. Has anyone been and have any recommendations? I know a lot of things are still closed following the 2020 earthquake.

PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic by **Outrunner** » Fri Nov 05, 2021 9:48 am

Curls wrote:
Auckland has a nice ice cream shop, and is nice for running with plenty of safe jogging areas.
I found Auckland expensive and quite busy. THe most like a UK city of any of new zealands locations. Still a bit nicer though.
You can also jump on a boat and go to the wineries. Coramandle national park is also a stones throw away. Wellington is about a 6 hour drive, South island, you'd be better off getting a Ryanair to Christchurch and exploring from there.

Thanks Curls, that's really useful to know. I went to a meeting about the year abroad and it's put a question mark above my plans. The University is only offering one place at Aukland and I'm not sure if I feel strongly enough about it to apply there. The modules seem great and Auckland seems nice enough, I'm just thinking that maybe someone who really wants to go there should have the opportunity. I already have five options as it is and I'm willing to drop NZ if it means someone who really wants to go has the opportunity.

My current application list is

Seoul
Two Hong Kong universities
Singapore
Yeungnam

If they don't pan out I have summer schools as an option

PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic by **Grumpy David** » Fri Nov 05, 2021 10:24 am

Outrunner wrote:I wasn't sure whether to start a new thread for this since it's not really holiday related. If anyone would rather it not be here let me know and I'll start a new thread.

I'm hoping to be studying abroad next year. Japan (my preferred country) is officially off the cards now (thanks covid!) so I'm looking at other options. Has anyone lived or travelled to: Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore or Auckland (a bit out of left field but they have some great modules).

I have been to Hong Kong but was only there for just under a week. I'd love to live there but I am a bit concerned about the current political climate. When it comes to Singapore my main concern would be the heat and humidity but I figure big chunks of my day will be in air conditioned lectures and libraries. I think with both Singapore and Hong Kong I am a bit worried that I won't be able to travel as easily since they're essentially city states (yes, I know HK isn't really but I'm not sure how easy it would be to travel to the mainland) I've never been to South Korea or New Zealand.

Is your degree potentially risky to study in Hong Kong? The political climate would certainly worry me if I was studying anything potentially controversial.

I assume living costs are pretty much all equally expensive.

I'd be torn between Singapore and South Korea. Auckland for an academic term/entire year abroad would appeal to me far less.

PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic by **Victor Mildew** » Fri Nov 05, 2021 10:27 am

OnlyShallow wrote:My gf is taking me to Zagreb for my birthday next week. Has anyone been and have any recommendations? I know a lot of things are still closed following the 2020 earthquake.

I've not been or anything, just replying to say hi and hope you're ok.

PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic by **Tomous** » Fri Nov 05, 2021 10:31 am

OnlyShallow wrote:My gf is taking me to Zagreb for my birthday next week. Has anyone been and have any recommendations? I know a lot of things are still closed following the 2020 earthquake.

I don't know if it's still open but The Broken Relationships museum is an interesting novelty and worth a visit

PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic by **Victor Mildew** » Fri Nov 05, 2021 10:32 am

Tomous wrote:
OnlyShallow wrote:My gf is taking me to Zagreb for my birthday next week. Has anyone been and have any recommendations? I know a lot of things are still closed following the 2020 earthquake.

I don't know if it's still open but The Broken Relationships museum is an interesting novelty and worth a visit

God damn son

PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic by **Outrunner** » Fri Nov 05, 2021 10:42 am

Grumpy David wrote:
Is your degree potentially risky to study in Hong Kong? The political climate would certainly worry me if I was studying anything potentially controversial.

I assume living costs are pretty much all equally expensive.

I'd be torn between Singapore and South Korea. Auckland for an academic term/entire year abroad would appeal to me far less.

It's not particularly risky. I'll be studying whatever modules are on offer in the Hong Kong universities. The majority of the modules I'm interested in are about pre-modern Japan, East Asian religions and modern East Asian cultures in general. I know it seems odd to travel all that way to study Japanese modules but I'm not allowed to go to Japan and, as much as I love my degree in this country, there is very little pre-modern Asian content. The only (mildly) controversial aspect to my degree is a 500 word mini essay I wrote arguing that there is no such thing as a Chinese civilisation dating back thousands of years and that the idea of such a civilisation is a modern invention. I think if there was any real risk then the university wouldn't let us go. We've been warned about not getting involved with protests and stuff like that.

Do I think there are risks? Maybe. But I'm not concerned enough to not go. I'd be happy in HK, Korea or Singapore tbh. Moreso Japan but that's just not on the cards :cry:

PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic by **OnlyShallow** » Fri Nov 05, 2021 10:47 am

Victor Mildew wrote:
OnlyShallow wrote:My gf is taking me to Zagreb for my birthday next week. Has anyone been and have any recommendations? I know a lot of things are still closed following the 2020 earthquake.

I've not been or anything, just replying to say hi and hope you're ok.

Oh cheers Ad. Yeah I'm doing fine. Life is pretty settled, starting a new job end of the month, the kids are now well into their teenage goth/metal phase. Managing to get away on camping road trips. The ex is still mental, but I'm no longer the brunt of it.

My Audi A4 is still in the game and proving useful at lugging everything I can cram into it and hauling it all across countries plus ripping the gooseberry fool out of unsuspecting hot hatches.

How are you?

PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic by **OnlyShallow** » Fri Nov 05, 2021 10:50 am

Victor Mildew wrote:
Tomous wrote:
OnlyShallow wrote:My gf is taking me to Zagreb for my birthday next week. Has anyone been and have any recommendations? I know a lot of things are still closed following the 2020 earthquake.

I don't know if it's still open but The Broken Relationships museum is an interesting novelty and worth a visit

God damn son

I was planning that, followed by the Museum of Hangovers.

PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic by **Victor Mildew** » Fri Nov 05, 2021 11:02 am

OnlyShallow wrote:
Victor Mildew wrote:
OnlyShallow wrote:My gf is taking me to Zagreb for my birthday next week. Has anyone been and have any recommendations? I know a lot of things are still closed following the 2020 earthquake.

I've not been or anything, just replying to say hi and hope you're ok.

Oh cheers Ad. Yeah I'm doing fine. Life is pretty settled, starting a new job end of the month, the kids are now well into their teenage goth/metal phase. Managing to get away on camping road trips. The ex is still mental, but I'm no longer the brunt of it.

My Audi A4 is still in the game and proving useful at lugging everything I can cram into it and hauling it all across countries plus ripping the gooseberry fool out of unsuspecting hot hatches.

How are you?

Alright cheers. I don't really have anything to actually complain about in life at the moment, so I just make stuff up to have something to complain about 8-)

Work is good, I'm still running a free sweets and choloroform distribution empire from my van, so its all good.

PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic by **Grumpy David** » Fri Nov 05, 2021 11:17 am

Outrunner wrote:
Grumpy David wrote:
Is your degree potentially risky to study in Hong Kong? The political climate would certainly worry me if I was studying anything potentially controversial.

I assume living costs are pretty much all equally expensive.

I'd be torn between Singapore and South Korea. Auckland for an academic term/entire year abroad would appeal to me far less.

It's not particularly risky. I'll be studying whatever modules are on offer in the Hong Kong universities. The majority of the modules I'm interested in are about pre-modern Japan, East Asian religions and modern East Asian cultures in general. I know it seems odd to travel all that way to study Japanese modules but I'm not allowed to go to Japan and, as much as I love my degree in this country, there is very little pre-modern Asian content. The only (mildly) controversial aspect to my degree is a 500 word mini essay I wrote arguing that there is no such thing as a Chinese civilisation dating back thousands of years and that the idea of such a civilisation is a modern invention. I think if there was any real risk then the university wouldn't let us go. We've been warned about not getting involved with protests and stuff like that.

Do I think there are risks? Maybe. But I'm not concerned enough to not go. I'd be happy in HK, Korea or Singapore tbh. Moreso Japan but that's just not on the cards

Problem with that particular modern invention is that it's created by the CCP but I doubt they're reading a 500 word mini essay written in the UK. I was more thinking about seminar discussions or more substantial essays written whilst in HK.

If it was anything to do with Taiwan I'd say you'd be mad to study it in Hong Kong but sounds like your modules would be relatively benign to study. Still a risk though since arbitrary arrests can happen. If you had any modules in HK taught by Frank Dikötter that would be great but you'd almost certainly end up on a watch list!

My assumption would be the Korean Universities would have more professors and overall knowledge on Japan compared to Singapore just due to geographical proximity leading to more people studying Japanese specific modules. Getting by with just English for day to day life is probably much easier in Singapore compared to Korea.

PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic by **Outrunner** » Fri Nov 05, 2021 11:31 am

Grumpy David wrote:
Problem with that particular modern invention is that it's created by the CCP but I doubt they're reading a 500 word mini essay written in the UK. I was more thinking about seminar discussions or more substantial essays written whilst in HK.

The narrative of a united, continuous Chinese civilisation was initially formulated towards the end of the Qing dynasty. It was later adopted/co-opted by the CCP but I take your point.

If it was anything to do with Taiwan I'd say you'd be mad to study it in Hong Kong but sounds like your modules would be relatively benign to study. Still a risk though since arbitrary arrests can happen. If you had any modules in HK taught by Frank Dikötter that would be great but you'd almost certainly end up on a watch list!

If I was studying anything on Taiwan I'd want to go there, Taipei was great. Pre-covid the University was in negotiations with possible partner universities in Taiwan but I'm not sure where they are with that. I know Taiwan isn't available this year.

My assumption would be the Korean Universities would have more professors and overall knowledge on Japan compared to Singapore just due to geographical proximity leading to more people studying Japanese specific modules. Getting by with just English for day to day life is probably much easier in Singapore compared to Korea.

You'd think. Seoul has a lot on Japan, the other Korean university, not so much. Singapore and HK both have a surprising number of Japanese modules. It's all very exciting and I'm hoping to somehow get over to Asia after my degree but I know my age may make that difficult/impossible so I'm really keen to take the year over there so I can say I've lived over there for a little while at least.

PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic by **Rocsteady** » Fri Nov 05, 2021 1:31 pm

Victor Mildew wrote:
Tomous wrote:
OnlyShallow wrote:My gf is taking me to Zagreb for my birthday next week. Has anyone been and have any recommendations? I know a lot of things are still closed following the 2020 earthquake.

I don't know if it's still open but The Broken Relationships museum is an interesting novelty and worth a visit

God damn son

That was going to be my recommendation too. Other than that it's a nice city for a couple of days to just wander around in.

PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic by **Tomous** » Fri Nov 05, 2021 1:40 pm

Zagreb is a very nice city but not very cosmopolitan. I didn't see a single non-white person while we were there and my non-white wife felt very uncomfortable at times, as she was started at a lot.

PostRe: GRcade Travel Topic by **Rocsteady** » Fri Nov 05, 2021 2:28 pm

Tomous wrote:Zagreb is a very nice city but not very cosmopolitan. I didn't see a single non-white person while we were there and my non-white wife felt very uncomfortable at times, as she was started at a lot.

Aye think that's the case across a lot of central/eastern Europe. My (black) mates had the same in Poland.

Probably mentioned it before but I remember feeling so bad for a random black guy in Belgrade. Was going the same way as him for a couple of minutes and folk were literally stopping and staring all over the place - was making me feel uncomfortable so strawberry float knows how bad it must have been for him.

At the airport flying home from Rome now. Had such a great time seeing all the sights. Was a bit overwhelming all the history here. Even did a day trip to Pompeii.
But I just realised that when I went to the Vatican City I totally missed the museum and the Sistine chapel... all I did was St Peter's Basilica...I climbed the 500 steps to see the view and that was it.

GRcade Travel Topic

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