Travel
If you were in a position where you had no responsibilities, a job that is likely to become redundant and, following a house sale, you had a few quid in the bank and really fancy a chance of scenery, where would you go?

Dubai was (previously) a consideration, but the experiences recorded here don’t really enthuse me. I have been tentatively offered a job over there, I’m not sure if it will make for the best experience, or put it another way, for a borderline alcoholic with an uncanny ability to fuck everything up monumentally on a regular basis, I could do with somewhere a bit more liberal.

I’ve never travelled (bar the odd two weeks in some European holiday resort) so everything is a consideration at the moment.

What are you experiences of life overseas? Where would you avoid and where would you go?
( JeffTheDogFucker Can you dig it?, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:08, 45 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

I wouldn't go to Dubai
It's one of the biggest shitholes in the world.
It's not quite as bad as Cairo, Coventry or Harlow though.

I'd go to Paris or Bordeaux - those are cool cities.
Berlin or Cologne are also cool, but I don't know them as well.
(Richard Earl of Cambridge Cruel, Savage, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:11, Reply)

I've been to both, as a tourist
I loved Paris but thought Bordeaux was a shithole.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:14, Reply)

Compared to Paris it's not all that
but in it's own right I think it's pretty cool.
I bet the nightlife is pretty strange.
(Richard Earl of Cambridge Cruel, Savage, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:15, Reply)

Agreed on Harlow.
I fucking wish I hadn't been born there.
( Cawl, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:24, Reply)

This explains so much.
I bet your pram was made from concrete and you cried when you saw your first tree becuase you thought it was an alien's lung.
(Richard Earl of Cambridge Cruel, Savage, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:35, Reply)

Hahaha!
If this was true I'd be happier, as going back there ever week would be less painful.
I was born there, then swiftly removed to middle-of-fucking-nowhere for 18 years.
( Cawl, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:36, Reply)

Your realise of course that being born in Harlow makes you
a chav
(Richard Earl of Cambridge Cruel, Savage, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:47, Reply)

He's a knife crime statistic
waiting to happen.
(PsychoChomp, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:54, Reply)

waiting to happen
(wellgroomedwookiee is a filthy-minded hobgoblin, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:55, Reply)

I'm not just any chav.
I've got the Adidas Three-Stripes in birthmarks down my legs.
That makes me the King.
( Cawl, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:55, Reply)

see
that's why my child is not being born in Harlow.
*unashamed snob mode*
( ascorbate, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 12:00, Reply)

did you know
that Harlow is twinned with Havirov in the Czech Republic?
doesn't stop it from being the most depressing town I've been to in the UK outside Peterborough though.
( ascorbate, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:54, Reply)

I did not know that, nope.
It's a horrible, concrete bastard.
Really good music-gear shop there though.
( Cawl, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:59, Reply)

I grew up in Paris
I didn't burn my neck and I liked it.
(PsychoChomp, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:11, Reply)

I cycled through Bois De Bologne on a velib at 3:00am on Saturday
I have never seen so many trannies. It was awsome.
One looked like this
www.corrieblog.tv/CRAIG_CHARLES.JPG.jpg
(Richard Earl of Cambridge Cruel, Savage, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:16, Reply)

I left when I was 6ish so I didn't get much experience of the trannies.

(PsychoChomp, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:23, Reply)

Read spimf's Ominous blog
and then see if you fancy Dubai...
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:14, Reply)

Provence is the alcoholics dream come true
if you like wine.
(bazmorningstar efil4nat3b, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:17, Reply)

the USA
is suprisingly good, I've found.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:20, Reply)

States
I'd love to hear more about your US adventure.

I'm thinking somewhere between 6 and 12 months away from blighty would be just the ticket.

That should give me ample chance to be completely irresponsible and then to hopefully come home and do something more productive with my life.

Are the Americans as thick as you would imagine?
( JeffTheDogFucker Can you dig it?, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:31, Reply)

The States would be a good choice.
Quite a good range of different types of landscape and lifestyles to experience.
( girlinthehole, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:34, Reply)

Care to offer further suggestions?
Based on the UK, I hate London and love the South West and the North East.

Where should I head?
( JeffTheDogFucker Can you dig it?, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:41, Reply)

Hmmm...
Colorado.
( Cawl, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:48, Reply)

Vermont
much nicer and less right wing nut jobs
(MichaelS wasn't picked again, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 12:37, Reply)

no no no
states are BAD.

I was in Georgia, and hated every fucking second of every fucking minute working for a bastard who thought he was god's gift to the human race, and the rest of us should be content to lick his boots when not working 24/7. the holiday time over there is nonexistant (friend's husband had no holidays for his first 5 years in a job, then 5 days, at his manager's discretion for the next 5 - if he performed well. they got married and were not allowed a honeymoon, and have never had a day off together. this is not considered unusual), working hours are shit, and outside of major cities, there is fuck all to do except watch pigs squeal and rednecks drool.

as you may have gathered I did not like my time there.

The czech republic on the other hand... cheap beer, work hours fairly flexible, people are lovely, and cheap beer. need I say more?
( ascorbate, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:51, Reply)

oh
and healthcare is SHIT over there - if you're not employed, you're unlikely to be insured, and then you'll end up in massive debt if anything goes even slightly wrong.

stupid fucking country.
( ascorbate, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:53, Reply)

surely
With annual leave, you get what you negotiate from the outset?

As for the health care, I think it's fair to assume that everyone knows you need medical cover for the States and it's not something the dole out based on your taxes, as your taxes are used to buy bombs to drop on the innocent.

I'll look at the states in more detail.
( JeffTheDogFucker Can you dig it?, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:59, Reply)

you would think so
but it's all at the discretion of your boss. mine was a cunt of the very highest order, and although I was told at the outset that I could have 20 days holiday a year, it turned out that I was actually only allowed 10, and then only if he let me. I took 8, and got so so much shit for it, you'd have thought I'd slaughtered his firstborn or something.

a good friend of mine lives in San Francisco, was told the same (oh, 20 days, yup, fine), then got there, and now has 0 days a year. She is looking for another job. apparently, even having it in writing is useless.
( ascorbate, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 12:02, Reply)

There is virtually no white collar worker protection.
Unless there is a union, vacations are a joke. Sometimes you get great bosses who treat you like humans, other times you get shit on. With the economy right now, don't count on getting much in the way of benefits. The 8 hour day is long gone and 10-11 hrs (on salary, not hourly pay) are becoming the norm.

Its embarrassing to live here most times.
(MichaelS wasn't picked again, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 12:42, Reply)

It may be shit to live and work in the States but travelling over there would be Ok surely?

( girlinthehole, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 13:15, Reply)

A lot of the old money southerners, love the English
If you go to the deep south (Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi) and speak to the rich, old southern family people in a posh accent and act like minor royalty, they will love you and treat you like a queen (or king as the case may be).

Whatever you do, don’t say anything nice about New York or our present president.
(MichaelS wasn't picked again, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 13:32, Reply)

very true
even mentioning Obama's name without spitting was a bit dangerous in Georgia - and I was living in a hippy univeristy town, which is traditionally 'blue'. god alone knows what it's like in the sticks.

and travelling in the US is great fun - no problems there - it's just working there is shit.
( ascorbate, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 13:54, Reply)

Galicia or Asturias in spain
Or anywhere in italy. Northern spain as it's as pretty as ireland, but without the horrific weather, and italy because every time I've been there, I've loved it. And the food is awesome in both places.
( DarkSon a time and date will follow this username on, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:22, Reply)

I've always liked the look of Prague......
Although there's something about Eastern Europe that screams ***UNHYGIENIC AND SHIT FOOD*** at me, like a tramp outside McDonalds.
( whenanimalsattackhumans clad in global hypercolour, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:23, Reply)

Prague was excellent.
Food was fine, nothing to worry about there.
Beautiful city for wandering around.
I went there in the winter though, so hardly any tourists.
( Cawl, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:26, Reply)

I went last summer, and there weren't that many tourists.
Few doyles on nights out, mostly stag do's (along with the one I was part of), but I completely agree with the wandering. Beautiful.

Can't imagine living there though.


One of my goals is life is to travel round the south coast of France playing crappy bars in exchange for a bit of munch and a few pints.
(TheColonel, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:31, Reply)

How come you can't imagine living there?

( whenanimalsattackhumans clad in global hypercolour, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:49, Reply)

It's like the whole
"could you imagine living opposite the Tower Of London" thing.
( Cawl, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:52, Reply)

Too many blacks.

(TheColonel, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 13:43, Reply)

I had what was far and away the worst food
I have ever eaten, in Romania.

*shudders*
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:31, Reply)

The worst thing I ever ate was ym's
rosebud
(Richard Earl of Cambridge Cruel, Savage, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:35, Reply)

really?
I found it inordinately palatable last time I 'dined at the Y'....
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:46, Reply)

It had a spaghetti hoop stuck to it.

(Richard Earl of Cambridge Cruel, Savage, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:48, Reply)

THAT'S where I left it......aaah, all becomes clear
I was convinced I was embroiled in some kind of 'Bermuda Triangle' situation...when the only triangle was on me old ma's mons pubis...
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:51, Reply)

prague
is a bit of a dump, but outside of prague - Brno, or Ceske Budejovice for example - is lovely, and easy to travel around europe from. plus cheap beer. always a bonus.
( ascorbate, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 11:52, Reply)