116 replies to this topic

[NewMarketSean]

I’ll save Brazil for another time and hope that things there get a little better in the meantime.

[Pedro Cerrano]

Chance Os play at San Diego next year.

Recommend all take advantage.

[You Play to Win the Game]

If I go back to SD I'm just going to hate it here even more than I already do. I've wanted to move there ever since visiting about 8 or 9 years ago. Didn't see the O's, but did go to Petco. Love that whole area.

[SportsGuy]

If I go back to SD I'm just going to hate it here even more than I already do. I've wanted to move there ever since visiting about 8 or 9 years ago. Didn't see the O's, but did go to Petco. Love that whole area.

Curious as to why you hate it here? (I tend to really dislike it as well..just curious your reasons)

[Pedro Cerrano]

My #1 reason that sucks about living here is the weather in the summer.

[You Play to Win the Game]

My #1 reason that sucks about living here is the weather in the summer.

Yep. The traffic/expensiveness is basically a wash but I don't love it. But MD summers and ther schizo springs are just fucking stupid.

I also don't like the people/mindset/attitudes here. But I'm not going to get into that.

[SportsGuy]

Yep. The traffic/expensiveness is basically a wash but I don't love it. But MD summers and ther schizo springs are just fucking stupid.
I also don't like the people/mindset/attitudes here. But I'm not going to get into that.

Just saw an article that rated Baltimore amongst the top 5 cities for rudest people.

I have no issue with the heat/humidity. The winters are what I can’t stand.

[You Play to Win the Game]

Just saw an article that rated Baltimore amongst the top 5 cities for rudest people.

I have no issue with the heat/humidity. The winters are what I can’t stand.

Yeah, well you're not 300 lbs. I'm winter made.

[NewMarketSean]

I’d like to see that rudeness metric they use to measure that kind of thing. Lol. I’ve been a lot of places all over North America and Europe and generally people are tempered the same. And they’re generally nice if you’re nice to them.

Oh and summers here are awesome. It’s the winters that suck.

I’d probably hate life a lot more if I lived in Baltimore County, though. 695 is just unbearable.

[SportsGuy]

Yeah, well you're not 300 lbs. I'm winter made.

Lol..not like I’m a small guy though.

I just prefer the heat..although I do have to say, the humidity does get on my nerves at times.

[SportsGuy]

I’d like to see that rudeness metric they use to measure that kind of thing. Lol. I’ve been a lot of places all over North America and Europe and generally people are tempered the same. And they’re generally nice if you’re nice to them.
Oh and summers here are awesome. It’s the winters that suck.
I’d probably hate life a lot more if I lived in Baltimore County, though. 695 is just unbearable.

http://www.businessi...more-maryland-5

[SportsGuy]

I’d like to see that rudeness metric they use to measure that kind of thing. Lol. I’ve been a lot of places all over North America and Europe and generally people are tempered the same. And they’re generally nice if you’re nice to them.
Oh and summers here are awesome. It’s the winters that suck.
I’d probably hate life a lot more if I lived in Baltimore County, though. 695 is just unbearable.

Big reason why I like being in Perry Hall..can use 95 a lot..not nearly as bad.

[McNulty]

Baltimore people are extremely rude.  I notice it right away whenever I go home.  Its a defense mechanism or something, because it usually goes away after a minute or two if you are chatting with someone.

[Miller192]

I can't deal with the cold winter to an extent.  10 Degrees and snowing in February? Fine by me.

 

What I can't stand is when it's 45 and raining in April.

[DJ MC]

I can't deal with the cold winter to an extent.  10 Degrees and snowing in February? Fine by me.

 

What I can't stand is when it's 45 and raining in April.

 

[McNulty]

I’ll save Brazil for another time and hope that things there get a little better in the meantime.

 

It was completely fine when I went last month.  The issues are really overstated in the press.

[BSLMikeLowe]

Thailand is, by far, the best place I've ever visited.  I can't more highly recommend it.  If it was up to me and not mostly up to my wife, every vacation we take we would go back.

 

Flights there were 14 and 7 hours.  Return were 5 and 12. Connected through Tokyo.  It's a shitty day, but totally worth it.  Let me know if you ever pull the trigger or if you want some help convincing yourself to do so.

 

Went to Thailand three times in my twenties. Loved it. Good thing I didn't stay there too long though, or I might not have lived to see my thirties. But even if I went back now, I'd probably still love it, just for the food and friendly people. Except for the heat and humidity. You all complaining about the heat and humidity during the MD summers haven't seen anything until you've visited SE Asia.

[BSLMikeLowe]

Not 2018 but next year I think I've narrowed down my 40th birthday trip to Buenos Aires, Mendoza wine country and Santiago & wine country. Probably do two weeks total. I'd love to go to Patagonia but I need to look into how much time and money that'll add to it.

 

Those are Bucket List places for me, especially Patagonia....along with Peru (want to do the full trek to Machu Picchu before I'm too old) Bolivia (Lake Titicaca) and Ecuador (Galapagos). Maybe Colombia too, just to admire the women....Colombia and Venezuela gotta have the best looking women in the world, but think I'll avoid Venezuela for now.

[Mackus]

Those are Bucket List places for me, especially Patagonia....along with Peru (want to do the full trek to Machu Picchu before I'm too old) Bolivia (Lake Titicaca) and Ecuador (Galapagos). Maybe Colombia too, just to admire the women....Colombia and Venezuela gotta have the best looking women in the world, but think I'll avoid Venezuela for now.

 

Machu Picchu was amazing.  Lake Titicaca was ok.  If you have to debate between doing a longer trek to Machu Picchu or more time in Lima at the expense of not spending time in Puno to visit Titicaca, do the longer trek.  If I could do my Peru trip over, I'd replace our time in Puno with more time in Lima, really amazing city with fantastic food and super cool bars.  I wouldn't change anything about the Cuzco/Machu Picchu part, we did two nights in Cuzco, then a four-day/three-night trek to Aguas Calientes (city right outside the temple) and then hiked up to Machu Picchu for one day. 

 

Our trek started with a shuttle from Cuzco to the top of a snow-covered mountain which we biked down (on the road), at the bottom of the mountain we then went white-water rafting.  We had two days of backpacking, one day about 6 miles and the other about 11, IIRC.  On the shorter day we went ziplining.  At the end of the longer hike we went to a natural hot spring pool, which had the electricity go out while we were there so everything got dark and we could see every star ever (plus we could spot lots of satellites going overhead) while laying in what was effectively a huge natural spring hot tub.  I can't get high because of my job, but chewing on a few coca leaves and relaxing in the hot tub looking at the stars was a damn fine alternative.

[Mackus]

Got back from my European vacation earlier this week.  Started with 4 days in England (near Salisbury) visiting my wife's sister and her family. 

 

Then we flew to Genoa and took some trains to Cinque Terre.  We stayed in Riomaggiore but we visited all 5 towns over our 3 night stay.  Was really beautiful.  Food was pretty good but not amazing.  We didn't do this intentionally, but as we were leaving we realized that every meal we ate while there was outside, overlooking the water.  It was rather touristy, we could easily get by on English.  But it wasn't too terribly crowded, especially at night.  We were there on weekdays, though, when we took the train out on Saturday morning, the station was an absolute zoo.  I'm guessing it would have been insanely crowded had we stayed there on a Saturday or Sunday.

 

Then we drove up to a town called Pallanza, which is a small town on Lake Maggiore in the north of Italy, where my sister was getting married.  This was an amazing week.  The town, first off, was basically only Italians, I didn't hear English from anyone besides wedding guests or servers (and only about half the servers spoke English).  My wife took a couple semesters of Italian, so she had a good time speaking Italian with everybody, and did a good job of filling any language barriers we had.  I like traveling to places that aren't touristy so you get a feel for the real place, and this was super legit.  She had about 70 guests overall, 50+ or so of which were my family.  The villa we (wedding party and immediate family) stayed at was absolutely incredible.  It was on top of the lakeside mountain, probably 2000 feet elevation, looking over the entire town and miles and miles of the lake and surrounding towns/cities.  Every inch of the villa was meticulously gardened, flowers, hedges, palm trees...just ridiculous.  The whole town really had that going for it, gardeners there must make more money than surgeons.   Below is the view from the balcony outside the room I was sleeping in.

 

Catering at the wedding was probably the best food I had the entire trip.  Cocktail hour was over the top.  They had a guy with a giant cured leg of pork slicing off pieces of prosciutto.  Probably about 25 or so apps to choose from, my favorite was a slice of grilled octopus over pureed potatoes.  They had a table of just great cheeses, including amazingly fresh mozzarella and burrata.  A big fry station where they were frying shrimp, veggies, and other stuff and serving in those little paper cones.  Dinner was risotto with shrimp and tiny pieces of candied lemon and then a plate of cheese ravioli in fresh cherry tomato sauce.  Both really good, I'm guessing that the tomatoes in the sauce were probably still growing on the vine the morning of the wedding.  Homemade tiramisu for dessert, I'm not much of a sweets guy, but damn it was good, I had seconds.