Travel Meme, Gacked from Dave
Jan. 29th, 2012 08:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
heidiA: Age you went on your first trip.
I was about 20 months old when I went to Disney World for the first time, and about four when I first went to New York City. The first two places I traveled to are two of my favorite places to go in the world, even though both have changed so much since then.
B: Best (foreign) beer you’ve had and where.
I hate beer, but I had reasonably drinkable cider at this pub near the townhouse we stayed in the summer I was in London in 1991.
C: Cuisine (favorite)
I love Thai and Americanized-but-still-somewhat-culturally-accurate Indian. I hate hate hate pasta and will only eat it if it's the only thing available, or filled with squash.
And wherever I am, I will happy try your nation's cheeses and wines!
D: Destination (favorite and least favorite).
Favorite? London. If I had a ticket to return anywhere I'd already been, it would be London. I love NYC so much, and parts of LA, but maybe it's because I've been there so many times (although I've probably spent more time in London than LA, although it's a close call), but what I love about London is the food, and the walking. NYC is more than a city to travel to, since I lived there off and on for over five years; I can't ever be a tourist there. In London, I still can.
Last Favorite? If I never go back to Rome again, I will not care.
E: Event you experienced abroad that made you say “wow.”
Going to the Berlin Wall in July of 1992 and chipping my own little bits of stone and concrete from the remnants by Checkpoint Charlie, then going to see the renovation of a synagogue in East Berlin that hadn't been touched since it was almost destroyed by the Nazis over fifty years before. Cruising along the glaciers of Alaska. Watching my kids discover mammoths at La Brea Tar Pits. Taking 30 turns on the Teacups for my 30th birthday (well, the first 14 or so turns, before it got boring). And experiencing a July night in Stockholm, being 18 years old and out at a bar with friends I'd met a week before, at 2 in the morning with the sun still dimly shining.
F: Favorite mode of transportation.
I kind of love cruise ships but there's nothing groovier than being in biz class (as I've never flown modern first class) on a transcontinental flight.
Wish I'd gone on the Concorde once, though. Would have loved to see the curve of the earth.
G: Greatest feeling while traveling.
Quoting Stormwynd here as he said it perfectly:
And doing something that frightens you - for me, that's heights, like being at the top of the Colosseum or on the London Eye (I needed champagne for that).
H: Hottest place you’ve traveled to
Possibly Vegas in July. It was so dry, I couldn't breathe.
I: Incredible service you’ve experienced and where
I went on the QE2 when I was 16 - my dad knew someone in the General Counsel's office there and while we stayed in regular outside cabins sans balcony, we got to dine in the Queen's Grill. My parents ate caviar three times a day, I discovered that I actually loved scones with jam, and Mock Turtle soup,
J: Journey that took the longest.
In July of 1985, we left our London hotel for the airport so we could fly to Tel Aviv. It's maybe five hours, not too terrible, but when we got to the airport we learned that the plane we were taking from London to Israel had actually not left New York yet. So we had a six hour lunch somewhere in Heathrow Airport, and the flight left about nine hours late. When we got to Tel Aviv it took a year or two to get through customs, and then we had to get to Jerusalem to meet the rest of our tour group. And when we got to the hotel at about five o'clock in the morning our rooms were not ready because they had been given away when we didn't arrive with the group despite the fact that my dad had called when we were in London to explain the delay - we were with friends, and collectively had four rooms and only the one in my parents' name had been "kept" for us. I don't remember how we got into rooms but it was the first time I was in a hotel room that didn't connect to my parents' room. Oh, and the wakeup call from the Group still came in at 7 AM, about twenty minutes after we'd finally fallen into bed.
Until this summer, when I left San Diego at 6, went to LA, flew from there to DC, picked up Harry in Maryland and flew back to Miami, that was my longest travel day. It probably still is, but I was able to sort of just go with the flow and listen to cassettes on my walkman then; this summer I had to drive and stuff.
K: Keepsake from your travels.
Mostly photographs, although I have bunches of programs from shows like Les Miz, Blood Brothers, random Josephs, etc.
L: Letdown site and where.
This summer, going back to Rome for three more days, which we didn't need, where I had a terrible earache and where the kids were relatively bored. And God, more fucking pasta, which I had so much hate for by then. I know how this sounds, but it's true: We should have gone to Paris and flown home from there.
M: Moment where you fell in love with travel.
Oh, I always have been. There was a time where flying... I was so terrified of it. I was a nervous flyer for bits as a kid, then got over it when flying weekly between DC and NYC to see Aaron (they had this Shuttle Package then that you could use on either Trump or Delta shuttle, and it cost $40 including tax each way; it was amazing!) but then when I had kids I got terrified again, but probably since 2007 I've been fine with it again.
I love visiting friends, seeing new places, and exploring with my kids.
N: Nicest hotel you’ve stayed at.
So my friend Stacey and I were taking the train around Europe, and we didn't stay in any hostels but we did stay in a lot of 1 and 2 star places; then we got to San Tropez where we were supposed to stay for four days, and she mis-booked us in a place about 15 miles from town where there was no public transportation to it and a cab would've cost about sixty bucks each way. So we spent the night at a bus station hotel right in town, and Stacey called her dad, who knew someone connected with a 4-star hotel two blocks from the beach in Cannes. We got some sort of Friends & Family Rate which included lounges on the beach, took off on the first bus in the morning and spent four days in this lovely, plush, dream hotel, resting, reading and eating a lot of strawberries. Probably not technically the nicest - I've stayed at the Plaza in New York, Shutters in LA and the W in London - but compared to where we'd recently been it was a palace.
O: Obsession. What are you obsessed with taking pictures of while traveling?
My kids. And one of my kids is obsessed with taking pictures of rocks, while another obsessively takes pictures of ancient signs in foreign languages because he wants to someday learn how to translate the Latin or Greek himself.
P: Passport stamps. How many and from where?
Only the UK, Spain and the US now, as my passport was new in July.
Q: Quirkiest attraction you’ve visited and where.
The London Dungeon? Random Pottery Company in Ephesus? A department store in Leningrad in 1989 where I got a pin that said (in Russian), "What have you done for Perestroika?" EuroDisney in 1992!
R: Recommended site, event or experience.
Obviously, every Harry Potter fan should go to the WWoHP at some point, and if possible, get to at least one Olympics, even if you only go to one random event, if it is at all convenient for you. What's the line from Everybody's Free To Wear Sunscreen?
S: Splurge. Something you have no problem forking over money for while traveling.
If I am traveling with the kids, we will pay extra to be in a family suite or place with two connecting rooms. The stress isn't worth otherwise.
Also, good cheese plates.
T: Touristy thing you’ve done.
Oh, Disney World, every single time! But really, I've done so many touristy things, from the London Eye to EuroDisney to walking around on Masada to taking a possibly-illegal photo of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatincan. I've gone to the tops of the Empire State, the Statue of Liberty and the World Trade Center, visited the Coca Cola Museum in Atlanta (twice), had tea at the Dorchester, walked the rim of the Grand Canyon, seen shows in Vegas, cruised into Manhattan on a foggy morning aboard the QEII and sat in the middle seat of a 5-across coach row from Miami to Munich while my sister and parents slept around me.
U: Unforgettable travel memory.
Since it's really the only travel memory I can never do with my kids, it's this: being six years old, and walking the corridor from the elevator in the World Trade Center to Windows on the World, past all the quartz crystals on display, with the marble and the mirrors, to have dinner with my parents while we watched the sun set on New York City, and then, twelve years later, taking my mom to lunch in the same place while I was working for CNBC at their American Stock Exchange studio.
V: Visa. How many and for where.
Possibly never - but I must have had something to get into the USSR when we went to Leningrad on the Vistafjord in 1989. The cruise company got whatever it was we needed, though.
W: Wine. Best glass of wine while traveling and where?
Lovely Proseco in Italy this summer, and I remember gorgeous red wines on the beach in Cannes in 1990 and 1991, but the best glass of wine I ever had while traveling was some crappy white in a Pizza Hut in London in the Spring of 1988, when I got to go on a school trip with our English teacher to see theater. He went to a play with some of the group that night, and my friend Jeremy and I were seniors and got to supervise the Sophs and Juniors because we wanted to see Les Miz, and we went for pizza beforehand and I ordered wine because I was 17 and looked 18 and was told that I could and it was ridiculous in retrospect, but it was the first time I ordered wine for myself in a restaurant, so it was very special that way.
X: eXcellent view and from where.
I can't find the one of me and Rachel on the London Eye, so I'll share this instead:
Y: Years spent traveling.
If you add up all the days so far in my life, and include my summers in London, NY and DC, it's probably over a year of my life. YAY!
Z: Zealous sports fans and where.
Um. In 1984, my dad had tickets to the LA Olympics with friends of his - they were going to basketball and some boxing. So my sister, my mom and I were home watching the Opening Ceremonies, and my mom started crying because she wanted to be there. She called Eastern, and we got a flight for five days later, she called a hotel near the basketball arena and we got a suite because they weren't filling hotel rooms as much as anticipated (possibly because of the Soviet boycott), and when my dad got there two days later, he started contacting scalpers to get us tickets. We never saw the gymnasts, or Greg Louganis diving, but the morning we arrived, we went straight to the Colosseum at USC (where my sister would later go to school) and dad paid $20 to a scalper for four tickets to the last twenty minutes of Track & Field; they were running (pun intended) late, so we got to see a few qualifying heats from the fourth row, including one by Carl Lewis. We stayed for over an hour, watching these amazing athletes run, and spent the rest of the week back and forth between the stadiums, the dressage competitions and finally, the closing ceremonies. An amazing week.
I was about 20 months old when I went to Disney World for the first time, and about four when I first went to New York City. The first two places I traveled to are two of my favorite places to go in the world, even though both have changed so much since then.
B: Best (foreign) beer you’ve had and where.
I hate beer, but I had reasonably drinkable cider at this pub near the townhouse we stayed in the summer I was in London in 1991.
C: Cuisine (favorite)
I love Thai and Americanized-but-still-somewhat-culturally-accurate Indian. I hate hate hate pasta and will only eat it if it's the only thing available, or filled with squash.
And wherever I am, I will happy try your nation's cheeses and wines!
D: Destination (favorite and least favorite).
Favorite? London. If I had a ticket to return anywhere I'd already been, it would be London. I love NYC so much, and parts of LA, but maybe it's because I've been there so many times (although I've probably spent more time in London than LA, although it's a close call), but what I love about London is the food, and the walking. NYC is more than a city to travel to, since I lived there off and on for over five years; I can't ever be a tourist there. In London, I still can.
Last Favorite? If I never go back to Rome again, I will not care.
E: Event you experienced abroad that made you say “wow.”
Going to the Berlin Wall in July of 1992 and chipping my own little bits of stone and concrete from the remnants by Checkpoint Charlie, then going to see the renovation of a synagogue in East Berlin that hadn't been touched since it was almost destroyed by the Nazis over fifty years before. Cruising along the glaciers of Alaska. Watching my kids discover mammoths at La Brea Tar Pits. Taking 30 turns on the Teacups for my 30th birthday (well, the first 14 or so turns, before it got boring). And experiencing a July night in Stockholm, being 18 years old and out at a bar with friends I'd met a week before, at 2 in the morning with the sun still dimly shining.
F: Favorite mode of transportation.
I kind of love cruise ships but there's nothing groovier than being in biz class (as I've never flown modern first class) on a transcontinental flight.
Wish I'd gone on the Concorde once, though. Would have loved to see the curve of the earth.
G: Greatest feeling while traveling.
Quoting Stormwynd here as he said it perfectly:
Seeing something awe-inspiring in person for the first time that previously I've only been able to admire in photographs or film.
And doing something that frightens you - for me, that's heights, like being at the top of the Colosseum or on the London Eye (I needed champagne for that).
H: Hottest place you’ve traveled to
Possibly Vegas in July. It was so dry, I couldn't breathe.
I: Incredible service you’ve experienced and where
I went on the QE2 when I was 16 - my dad knew someone in the General Counsel's office there and while we stayed in regular outside cabins sans balcony, we got to dine in the Queen's Grill. My parents ate caviar three times a day, I discovered that I actually loved scones with jam, and Mock Turtle soup,
J: Journey that took the longest.
In July of 1985, we left our London hotel for the airport so we could fly to Tel Aviv. It's maybe five hours, not too terrible, but when we got to the airport we learned that the plane we were taking from London to Israel had actually not left New York yet. So we had a six hour lunch somewhere in Heathrow Airport, and the flight left about nine hours late. When we got to Tel Aviv it took a year or two to get through customs, and then we had to get to Jerusalem to meet the rest of our tour group. And when we got to the hotel at about five o'clock in the morning our rooms were not ready because they had been given away when we didn't arrive with the group despite the fact that my dad had called when we were in London to explain the delay - we were with friends, and collectively had four rooms and only the one in my parents' name had been "kept" for us. I don't remember how we got into rooms but it was the first time I was in a hotel room that didn't connect to my parents' room. Oh, and the wakeup call from the Group still came in at 7 AM, about twenty minutes after we'd finally fallen into bed.
Until this summer, when I left San Diego at 6, went to LA, flew from there to DC, picked up Harry in Maryland and flew back to Miami, that was my longest travel day. It probably still is, but I was able to sort of just go with the flow and listen to cassettes on my walkman then; this summer I had to drive and stuff.
K: Keepsake from your travels.
Mostly photographs, although I have bunches of programs from shows like Les Miz, Blood Brothers, random Josephs, etc.
L: Letdown site and where.
This summer, going back to Rome for three more days, which we didn't need, where I had a terrible earache and where the kids were relatively bored. And God, more fucking pasta, which I had so much hate for by then. I know how this sounds, but it's true: We should have gone to Paris and flown home from there.
M: Moment where you fell in love with travel.
Oh, I always have been. There was a time where flying... I was so terrified of it. I was a nervous flyer for bits as a kid, then got over it when flying weekly between DC and NYC to see Aaron (they had this Shuttle Package then that you could use on either Trump or Delta shuttle, and it cost $40 including tax each way; it was amazing!) but then when I had kids I got terrified again, but probably since 2007 I've been fine with it again.
I love visiting friends, seeing new places, and exploring with my kids.
N: Nicest hotel you’ve stayed at.
So my friend Stacey and I were taking the train around Europe, and we didn't stay in any hostels but we did stay in a lot of 1 and 2 star places; then we got to San Tropez where we were supposed to stay for four days, and she mis-booked us in a place about 15 miles from town where there was no public transportation to it and a cab would've cost about sixty bucks each way. So we spent the night at a bus station hotel right in town, and Stacey called her dad, who knew someone connected with a 4-star hotel two blocks from the beach in Cannes. We got some sort of Friends & Family Rate which included lounges on the beach, took off on the first bus in the morning and spent four days in this lovely, plush, dream hotel, resting, reading and eating a lot of strawberries. Probably not technically the nicest - I've stayed at the Plaza in New York, Shutters in LA and the W in London - but compared to where we'd recently been it was a palace.
O: Obsession. What are you obsessed with taking pictures of while traveling?
My kids. And one of my kids is obsessed with taking pictures of rocks, while another obsessively takes pictures of ancient signs in foreign languages because he wants to someday learn how to translate the Latin or Greek himself.
P: Passport stamps. How many and from where?
Only the UK, Spain and the US now, as my passport was new in July.
Q: Quirkiest attraction you’ve visited and where.
The London Dungeon? Random Pottery Company in Ephesus? A department store in Leningrad in 1989 where I got a pin that said (in Russian), "What have you done for Perestroika?" EuroDisney in 1992!
R: Recommended site, event or experience.
Obviously, every Harry Potter fan should go to the WWoHP at some point, and if possible, get to at least one Olympics, even if you only go to one random event, if it is at all convenient for you. What's the line from Everybody's Free To Wear Sunscreen?
Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard.
S: Splurge. Something you have no problem forking over money for while traveling.
If I am traveling with the kids, we will pay extra to be in a family suite or place with two connecting rooms. The stress isn't worth otherwise.
Also, good cheese plates.
T: Touristy thing you’ve done.
Oh, Disney World, every single time! But really, I've done so many touristy things, from the London Eye to EuroDisney to walking around on Masada to taking a possibly-illegal photo of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatincan. I've gone to the tops of the Empire State, the Statue of Liberty and the World Trade Center, visited the Coca Cola Museum in Atlanta (twice), had tea at the Dorchester, walked the rim of the Grand Canyon, seen shows in Vegas, cruised into Manhattan on a foggy morning aboard the QEII and sat in the middle seat of a 5-across coach row from Miami to Munich while my sister and parents slept around me.
U: Unforgettable travel memory.
Since it's really the only travel memory I can never do with my kids, it's this: being six years old, and walking the corridor from the elevator in the World Trade Center to Windows on the World, past all the quartz crystals on display, with the marble and the mirrors, to have dinner with my parents while we watched the sun set on New York City, and then, twelve years later, taking my mom to lunch in the same place while I was working for CNBC at their American Stock Exchange studio.
V: Visa. How many and for where.
Possibly never - but I must have had something to get into the USSR when we went to Leningrad on the Vistafjord in 1989. The cruise company got whatever it was we needed, though.
W: Wine. Best glass of wine while traveling and where?
Lovely Proseco in Italy this summer, and I remember gorgeous red wines on the beach in Cannes in 1990 and 1991, but the best glass of wine I ever had while traveling was some crappy white in a Pizza Hut in London in the Spring of 1988, when I got to go on a school trip with our English teacher to see theater. He went to a play with some of the group that night, and my friend Jeremy and I were seniors and got to supervise the Sophs and Juniors because we wanted to see Les Miz, and we went for pizza beforehand and I ordered wine because I was 17 and looked 18 and was told that I could and it was ridiculous in retrospect, but it was the first time I ordered wine for myself in a restaurant, so it was very special that way.
X: eXcellent view and from where.
I can't find the one of me and Rachel on the London Eye, so I'll share this instead:
Y: Years spent traveling.
If you add up all the days so far in my life, and include my summers in London, NY and DC, it's probably over a year of my life. YAY!
Z: Zealous sports fans and where.
Um. In 1984, my dad had tickets to the LA Olympics with friends of his - they were going to basketball and some boxing. So my sister, my mom and I were home watching the Opening Ceremonies, and my mom started crying because she wanted to be there. She called Eastern, and we got a flight for five days later, she called a hotel near the basketball arena and we got a suite because they weren't filling hotel rooms as much as anticipated (possibly because of the Soviet boycott), and when my dad got there two days later, he started contacting scalpers to get us tickets. We never saw the gymnasts, or Greg Louganis diving, but the morning we arrived, we went straight to the Colosseum at USC (where my sister would later go to school) and dad paid $20 to a scalper for four tickets to the last twenty minutes of Track & Field; they were running (pun intended) late, so we got to see a few qualifying heats from the fourth row, including one by Carl Lewis. We stayed for over an hour, watching these amazing athletes run, and spent the rest of the week back and forth between the stadiums, the dressage competitions and finally, the closing ceremonies. An amazing week.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-30 04:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-30 04:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-31 07:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-30 07:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-31 01:56 am (UTC)What don't you like about Rome, aside from pasta? (And what don't you like about pasta?)
I'm envious of all the traveling you've done!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-02 01:09 am (UTC)