Visiting somewhere other than Japan
 

In contrast to going to the "Visiting Japan" thread, here's one for the rest of the people.
(READ: If you want to visit Japan, use the Visiting Japan thread)

Why did I create it?

Animesuki is a great place for everyone in the world to gather around and talk about anime. Why not create a thread for people who want to go to other countries then?

Example:

Animesuki member A lives in Greece.
Animesuki member B lives in the USA and wants to go to Greece.
Animesuki member A gives him pointers about Greece, and perhaps might be willing to provide him with local info on cheap hotels and the like that most people outside of Greece won't know about. Or, if member A is generous enough, he may even invite member A to crash at his joint to save traveling costs.

So, carry on.


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Several places I would love to go visited places in red:

Athens, Greece Visited October 2007

Stayed near Syntagma Square, beautiful place though I was surprised how many racist youths are in Greece... Being able to see the Parthenon up close fulfilled my dreams ever since I fell in love with Saint Seiya as a little kid.

Went on a cruise out of Piraeus to Mykonos, Kusadasi (Turkey), Patmos, Heraklion, and Thira/Santorini. I especially loved the caldera view from Thira!!

I was supposed to go back to Mykonos on an airplane out of Athens, but a certain emergency prevented that from happening... I aim to get revenge and visit Mykonos and Thira/Santorini again, this time with my ever-non-existing fiancee.... [cries in corner]


Prague, Czech Republic Visited March 2008

Transited through here over-night while I was on a business trip. Since I had no intention of stay/sleeping at the airport, I went out of Praha Airport and bought a 24 day pass good for the bus and the Metro.

Checked out the cool Astronomical Clock in Old Town Prague, must've looked better if it were during the day. As luck would have it, there was a Smetana/Dvorak classical concert playing at the National Theatre so I bought it at the stand a treated myself to listening to Smetana's Ma Vlast and Dvorak's New World, two Czech musical composers being played in Prague by the Prague Royal Philharmonic!!! What a fantastic evening!

Went back to Old Town square, ate some nice Prague Ham, saw the Charles Bridge and the lightened up Prague Castle.

There, I befriended a group of American college students who snuck me into the hostel they were staying at. My first hostel experience, awkward, but interesting. Spent the night there with those students. I'm sure I wasn't supposed to be there!! www

After taking a short power sleep, I woke up at 5AM and took the tram to Mustek Metro station all the way to the end, rode on the bus all the way back to Praha Airport for my flight back home.

People think I'm crazy for doing such a thing, but I'd do it again if I had the chance! Hell yes, especially if it's Prague!



Cairo, Egypt (see the Sphinx and the Pyramids)
Cancun, Mexico (see Chichen Itza)
Barcelona, Spain (Sagrada Familia)
Stockholm, Sweden (I heard Japanese men are considered sexy there...might even fulfill my dreams of getting a blonde Swedish wife!)
Ljubljana, Slovenia (I've seen pictures of it at my local travel agency, and they were breathtaking!)
Lima, Peru (and Cuzco. One obvious reason: Macchu Picchu)

I live in Portugal, near Lisbon. I also have this city where I love to spend my holidays: Tavira, in Algarve, in southern Portugal, famous for its beaches and hot weather in the summer and also for its gastronomy. For some reason, if I where to draw a manga, my scenario would be in Tavira.

I wouldn't mind to visit most countries in Europe, the next on my list might be France or Germany. I've already been to Spain (duh :p), and England. London is an awesome city to visit, I strongly recomend it!

Hello!

I live in a City named Molde in Norway.
it looks like this from the place i work (when the weather is nice)
http://ventunoventi.altervista.org/immagini/Molde.jpg

anyway, I really love to travel.
I have been too about 20-25 Greek Islands and also on the mainland.
have been in Turkey, Greece, Croatia (really nice) , Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Spain and Tunis (in Africa)

The places I really want to travel too is: USA, Cuba, Thailand, New Zealand, Japan, China, France and Iceland.

Man isn't the world Great :D

Hello.

I live in Liverpool, UK. Don't come here. It is gay.

I want to visit Singapore. Who will let me sleep in their bed?

Well I'm in Edinburgh Scotland right now visit my sister who's attending the University of Edinburgh, it's rainy and gets dark really quickly but all in all its a pretty nice city. I'll be leaving for home on monday and returning to my normal abode of Detroit Michigan, and if you're ever going to go on vacation to Detroit I would suggest you seek professional help.

Well, Detroit isn't much a city I would want to visit, none other than passing through it as a major Northwest Airlines hub... And the last time I went through there, the airport personnel were down right obnoxious!!! Must be the sagging US automobile industry has gotten on the nerves of everyone working there...

But as for Scotland, count me in the next time you are going!

Prague certanly is a great city to have fun in (at least I always had), although there are scary places with run down apartment blocks too in contrast to the old city.

As for germany, my favorite place has always been Rothenburg ob der Tauber. A medieval style town, complete with old houses, city wall, museums with old knight stuff, all kinds of fortifications. (well see the link)
They`re also doing a medieval festival once every year I think, where many people dress up in medieval costumes ("real ones"), great to watch.


My grandmother was born there, so when I was a child, we visited the town sometimes. For children, running around in the city wall and fortifications (you can enter most of them) is the best. :D


On a sidenote, its also the place they took as Hazukis hometown in Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase (well, at least they obviously used postcards of it ;) ).

Hello! I'm from Malaysia. It is a country of many different cultures.

If you would want to go to Spain I recommend you going to Madrid instead of going to Barcelona. It is overall a more interesting town as Barcelona's museums are far less interesting and you can easily go to the beach one day cheaply by taking the train to Valenia from Madrid (Around three hours time). And the Sagrada Familia is not as interesting as it may seem (I found it dissapointing) and probably you'll find it full of cranes and support strcutures since it is still being built. Note that this is my opinion and if you really like Gaudí go ahead but Velazquez and Picasso beat him every day.

Finding acomodation in Madrid should be easy, I recommend a package that includes either Breakfast-dinner or Breakfast-lunch because you'll want to go to restaurants since going to Spain and not eating it's food is a crime. The localitation of the hotel is meangiless. There are very few things that all the madrileños agree on and one of them is that the metro transport is excellent. It has the best ratio Population/Stations of all the world so that basically sums up. And it has been rebuild and new trains are being used so I can guaranteee an extraordinary service (Except for the really, really old stations that are still narrow but nothing can be done)
I bet you'll never need to take a Taxi or a private car to go where you need. After landing just take the metro. If you want to go to Toledo or Alcalá de Henares take the train. If it is not well comunicated it was not a good place to go in the first place.

So after your 14 hours flight the first thing you should do is take the metro (Barajas) and go to your hotel. Be sure to buy a tourist ticket for one week that allows you to use it as many times as you choose. There are combos for bus too but just stick to the metro as you'll probably not need it.

If you arrived during the morning and you are not tired you'll probably eat at the hotel and have all the afternoon free. You would not want to be sat for any more time so a walk for the center of Madrid would be a wiz choice. I recommend going by metro to the famous Plaza del Sol (Sol), in the very middle of Madrid. Go down La calle Mayor. This part of the town is known as El Madrid de los Austrias (Austrias' Madrid, the Austrias were a very important monarchy that reigned in the Spanish Empire and in Austria, hence the name (They were also known as the Habsburg)). This part of Madrid has a Barroque/Neoclassical stile and is perhaps one of the most beautiful parts of the town. Be careful so you don’t miss the Plaza Mayor, ask a pedestrian if you want to be sure.

Down the same street you’ll find the Almudena Chatedral. It has gothic style and is the biggest chatredal in Madrid and between the biggest of Spain. A must see for sure.



Next to it you can see the Royal Palace. You have to be blind to fail to see it because it is HUGE (The biggest palace in western europe) and you can visit almost all of it.. It isn’t only an incredible building but it contins a great number of pictures from famous artists like Velázquez and El Greco, antique armours hand-made carpets, etc. Here are some pics:



Around the palace there are two enormous gardens that are an ideal place to eat and to visit with a friend (Read: A person of the oposite sex which you are atracted to and you want to go steady with ;-) ). At this point you would be exhausted because of the long flight and the walking so unless you are not tired return to the hotel and sleep. If you do not fain returning yet to the hotel try walking around. The metro sytem closes at 2AM and you should get it before the one o’clock if you want to be sure.

Day Two:

There are three important museums in Madrid. The Thyseen has an high quality private collection of all epochs, the Reina Sofía (Reina=Queen, BTW) is a modern art museum and then there is the Prado. El Prado is big, and good. Some experts even say that it's importance as a museum is only below of the Hermitage in Rusia and even is amply superior to others as the Louvre.

Go first to the Prado. Probably it could be a good idea to visit the Prado on Day two and Reina Sofía and Thysen in day three and if you don't plan to go to Valencia leave the Thysen for day four . If you can wake up at seven and half sharp and get there at eight you will only have to wait an hour to enter or maybe even less (In a short way, be in front of the museum an hour before it opens or you'll face the joy of being in the same place waiting for 3 or more hours). Go right to Atocha by either train or Metro (Atocha the metro station is in front the Station and Atocha Renfe is inside it so don't get lost). Looking from teh Station to the left you can see the Reina Sofía where you should go later. Go up the Street (Paseo del Prado) and soon you'll see the Botanic Museum and crossing the Street you'll see the Prado. It is a really beautiful building of the XVIII century plus other anexes used to hold all the pictures and art that the old building couldn't contain. Walk a bit more and you'll see the Thyseen (At the oterh side of the roundabout).
This zone is full of important building such as the Congress, the National Bank, the Stock Market, almost all the gubernative offices, etc .I cannot explain it well enough so just come to this site and look around.

http://www.hot-maps.de/europe/spain/...id/homees.html.

Those three museums ahave full explanations and guides in Spanish, English and Japanese for Sure and I bet there are German and French guides too.

After going out from the museum, perhaps at around one or two o'clock try to go to a restaurant and eat authentic Spanish cuisine. The restaurants around Prado are going to steal all your money so maybe you should go down the street again and go to a less Tourist directed Restaurant, Unfortunatedly I don't know this area well enough to recomend a certain restaurant without sky-high prices and tourist-raping methods but probably going down Ronda de Valencia you'll see somee. Try asking to a pedestrian, the older the better, and follow his advice. If you find a group of old people you can surely find really good advice, trust me. Don't ask young people as they will direct you to the first place they can think of.

Some thoughts about dishes:

*Entremés (Random cheese and chorizo or similar to eat while your food is being cooked)
*Primer Plato (First dish) Soups, salads, and otehr light dishes
*Segundo Plato (Second dish) Fish and Meat. Normally wine is drink with those. All Spanish wine is going to be good but if you want for something really good ask for a Rioja though it could be expensive (And I mean REALLY,REALLY, expensive)
*Postre (Dessert)
*Café (Coffee)

Typical dishes:

-Cocido Madrileño
-Paella (Note: It doesn't costs 60 Euros or something similar. Hell, Paella is composed of rice and random ingredients like some meat or fish. Anything a countryman of the XV century could have around)
-Gazpacho
-Jamón (This is like wine, there are a lot of variety from the cheap one to the astronomical high price)



more to come....

I'm from Holland wich is imo a decent country ^^;;

places i definately gonna visit: Las Vegas, Tokyo :)

Spectacular! This is the type of info I wanted! Say if I were to go to Espana for five days...what would the budget be like? Would €1,000 be enough to visit Madrid and Barcelona?


Anyone from Athens, Greece?

I live in Singapore. Don't come here. It is boring.

...but I'm not interested in visiting Liverpool (I do want to go to the UK though, some day).

OK, sorry for being evil.

May I ask, why on earth do you want to come to Singapore? I might be sounding self-deprecating here and I'll probably get hit on the head by some other Singaporeans here, but frankly speaking I think there isn't much to do here compared to other countries. It can't be helped that we are a very small country. Anyway, the thing is when you come here there are a lot of so-called attractions and features, but I personally find that a lot of them are so touristy that I just give up on recommending them. And I think a lot of people are turned off by the very plastic sort of face we show everyone. There have been more than enough comments that we are a 'sterilized' country... And it can't be helped that we also don't have much in terms of a rich/long history like the European countries. So nope, not much in the way of "wow" landmarks...

No matter what the Singapore Tourist Board says I still cannot stop thinking that Singapore is ultimately a place to work rather than... play. But anyway...

---
(I put in spoiler tags so that this doesn't look so much like some gigantic rambling monster post - which it really is.)


Personally, I have fantasies of going to...
North Canada
UK (I've been to London once, I'd like to go there again... But I *really* want to go around large chunks of the UK on train!)
Spain (Just out of curiosity, and to see its culture and artwork. I want to see what it was that inspires so many artists to make nice works there.)
Japan (Yeah yeah, but that's for another thread)
New Zealand (If there's some kind of Geography Tour thing that takes you around all the Sounds and various other amazing natural locations then I would love it!)


...And the Kingdom of Bhutan.

Spoiler for Why I want to go to Bhutan (More fantasies.):

It's always been so closed up and there's so many parts of it that are apparently living like it was still the 50s or 60s. I'm very fascinated by that sort of thing.

And I've always felt drawn to the incredible mix of facial features in that area. I don't know why, I just like looking at them a lot. I guess it's all thanks to this documentary I watched on BBC about Bhutan... They made the leaders out to be the type who were very careful about letting outside influence in but didn't seem like Evil Jerks either.

They just quietly maintained the culture and peace of the country - but at the same time they knew it couldn't stay closed forever, so if I'm not wrong, the next time they're having democratic elections for the first time and are loosening their control on foreign influence. I would like to see Bhutan like this before it changes beyond recognition.

But I heard they also are very stringent about how many tourists they take in. You *must* go with a travel program because independant touring is strictly not allowed. That's both daunting and exciting at the same time... I guess I find there's a certain allure to seeing such a rich and carefully kept culture that has to be protected before it's broken. Kind of reminds me vaguely of 1800s Japan and people being afraid of losing their unique Japanese culture to outsiders...

I want to see its natural scenery very much too. I think you can figure out by now that I'm hungry to see undeveloped, raw nature (maybe with small human settlements) after being in Singapore for so long....

So what if it's isolationist and doesn't have a bustlign economy? I'm not interested in the economic success of Bhutan. I'm interested in seeing its people as they are, and to see whether they really are the content and happy society that they are said to be. I want to believe that there still is a peaceful and beautiful country that doesn't have to be caught in the neverending modern race of money-making and development - even if it comes at the price of it being a tightly controlled country. If the citizens do not mind... (And dare I say, it's not like us "developed countries" are necessarily a better alternative, if you look at it in a certain way.)

...Ah, but whatever I say is just a bunch of fantasies, I don't even earn my own salary yet! I haven't even done my A-levels. Sheesh. There is very little chance I'll get to go *anywhere* as a tourist for the next few years... So I'll just hang around here and read the other fascinating things everyone else has to say about their countries.

Amazing city :D Theres plenty to do (the Easter and Xmas markets especially are worth checking out if you go around that time) and the alcohol is cheap :p Theres a bone cathedral around somewhere, just outside the city iirc, which was definitely the highlight of my trip, but hell if I can remember what its called. It should be in tourist info though. Anyway, heres a pic:

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/6...7355jj1.th.jpg

So next on my travels are (probably) California, Florence/Italy, Iceland and Thailand (Iceland and Thailand are a long long way off yet lol). Anything I should look out for? :heh:

EDIT: Oh and I'm from the UK. If you come here check out London (obviously lol) but make sure to check out Devon and Cornwall if you have the time. Lots of countryside, you can do surfing there, lots of National Heritage sites, just a really nice place I guess. I was born in Portsmouth; don't go there its a shithole. Bournemouth is a nice city, but theres not a MASSIVE amount to do there if you're not into beaches, nightlife, etc. Winchester might be worth checking out, it has a lot of medieval architecture and such if you're interested in that kind of thing

Well what I really I want to do is explore all of East Asia before I die. (Probably won’t happen) I just said Singapore because it has a nice blend of all the countries cultures I wish to visit. Thanks for the post though. +

P.S. So can I sleep in your bed or what? (Top and tail, of course!) :p

Edit: Also, if Liverpool doesn't tickle you're fancy you should maybe try Chester. That is were I'm working atm and it's pretty cool. Lot's of Roman history/buildings, pretty decent night life/restaurants etc. Nice parks and a river, were in the summer many people jump off the bridge into. The only down side is that it is right next door to Wales...

:p

Dont visit Southern France, the Hotel prices give me seizures.
Unless you really wanna come here 0-o

The Sedlec Ossuary. It's one of the places I would love to visit in the Czech Republic.

Yep thats it. Something else I just remembered, when I went they charged for entry and they charged an additional fee if you wanted to take pictures, and that photo fee wasn't cheap, even with the £'s strength over the Czech currency at the time. And they have all kinds of freaky souvenirs for sale too, so remember to take lots of cash there :p

You need way more than five days to visit Madrid leave alone both. Ummm, the travel from Japan to Madrid is going to be really expensive, i checked Brithis Airways for London-Tokio and it costs around 650+ Euros alone so expect at least that money. One day in a three star hotel cost around 50€, with food or not i'm not sure, so taht makes 250€ more. We have a total of 900€ by now. Add transport fares ( 20€ at most,maybe even less), museums (There is a day in every week when they're free but probably it will be Sudnay and thus will be crowed tod eath adn you don't want that), a maximun of 5 euros for each and the must-visits are Prado, Reina Sofia or Thyssen and the Royal Palace which makes a total of 15 Euros. Now we have 935€. You should have at least another hundred or two for extra expenses as evrything is always more expensive that you thought at first.

You'll want to buy some goodies so be prepared. I will add more info later

I'm from Hong Kong and you'll shouldn't come because nowadays the pollution in Hong Kong is so bad. Everytime you take a sniff of the air is just like smoking a cigarette already and you'll get very tired easily. but Hong Kong has it's good points and bad points, not to mention that everywhere is airconditioned and you can jump from shop to shop. Everything here is cheap like dirt. the food here is excellent and you can get any type of food you like depending on your tastes and the shopping here is the best. Hong Kong is known for its shopping, and it doesn't cost tax and retail here is cheaper than anywhere in the world. the clubs here are fun and the chicks here are hot. but other than that the pollution is bad and is health-hazardous.

US $ 1 = HKD $7.8

No, you can't, because I don't live in my own house :P Try convincing my parents to let some dude I met on the internet stay over here...

And what's wrong with being next to Wales? (I don't know anything about it aside from the fact that I find the Welsh language very amusing)

Going to Europe itself is not a problem - I basically have enough frequent flyer miles racked up on my airline to go to anywhere in Europe twice in first class (which normally goes for an outrageous price of USD$10,000!!). If I were to go Economy, I can go to Europe four times. It's just finding the time to do so that bothers me.

So, I was asking whether or not 1000€ was enough to physically spend time visiting places in Madrid and Barcelona. Judging that I pay zilch for the airfare, I guess 1000€ is more than enough?

Also, any one from Greece to help me on pointers there as well? Like I said previously, Athens is actually the top of my list on places to visit.

They do accept Visa and/or Mastercard right...? Whenever I fly out of the country, I try to stick on using my credit cards instead for the fear of carrying loose cash around.

If you don't have to pay travel expenses then of course you can. However you better choose either Barcelona or Madrid as each city and surrodings takes at least one week.

In my humble opinion, of someone who knows quite a bit of Europe, Spain is most certainly not the first destination for someone who has never been here.

In a historical perspective, Italy, Greece and France would be on the top of my list, especially Italy. After that I would choose England.

Regarding budget, even not counting the airfare, if you think about Scandinavia, a 1000 euros (and remember that Sweden uses the Swedish crown as currency, which is currently quite strong) would be the lower limit since hotel and food can be quite expensive here depending on your standards.

Perhaps I should tell you that in the UK, trains are absolutely dire. They are always late and/or delayed/break down etc. I think the only feasable way that you coud get around the country easily would be to hire a car...

Anyway, I live near both Cambridge and London, both of which seem to be popular tourist destinations... Cambridge especially seems to have as many Japanese tourists as local inhabitants... :p

Heheh.... no one is interested in Malaysia? It is a nice place....... Well, maybe not as nice as all the countries mentioned by you all, but still, I think my country is nice.

But, there are many social problems here too...... Still I think it is nice.

I was born in Wales. O_O

Well, there aren't that many places left that I really want to go visit. I've been around nearly all of Europe, I'm not so interested in places just outside of Europe because they're slighlty dodgey. (I mean to say that they usually have some kind of conflict going on).

Next summer I move permanently to Montreal. Right now I'm living in Ottawa, but I have to go back to London soon for a short while. :P

My uncle lives in Singapore, he has told me I can visit for free any time. That's awesome! :D:D

Wow! I want to go there!... :D

It depends of what you want to see.

Some humble thoughts:

Greece and Italy are for Greeks and Romans mainly. Italy has a renaissence feel but if you want that it is better to head to Spain (Since in that epoch Italy was under the control of Spain and other historicals reasons that I don't feel like to explain right now). In some ways Rome and Madrid are dissapointingly similar and I'm serious.

Spain, France and Portugal are somewhat similar. Portugal is more sea-oriented/north oriented , France more XVIII centurish and Spain more XV centurish.

The British Isles are a weird case in Europe as they are isolated. They constitute a diferent group on it's own.

Unfortunatedly I don't know enough about East europe to talk about it but they have a very nice architecture as far as my model railroading experience can tell me.(Prague is really nice!)

To be frank I didn't even know what the capital of Malasya is. "Sell " your country to us (or I) ignorant foreigners. Youa re the one who lives there.

I will update a bit the Spanish tour because i'm bored. :eyespin:

Wow! Lots of people miss that! But who would have guessed that the capital of the Roman Empire would be so similar to Madrid?


Anyway, if someone wants to crash in here I could offer some help, depending if I'm around and not too busy.

I've been there twice on business, and it's is a very hot and humid place. The capital of Malaysia is Kuala Lumpur. It is a country in South East Asia, with a bustling economy and is considered to be one of the new tigers of Asia along with Thailand and Indonesia. The country is very heterogeneous, with a mix of Malay, Chinese, and Indian ancestry, with the majority of the populace practicing Islam.

Several cool sites to see is the Berjaya Times Square, Chinatown, the Petronas Twin Towers. Obviously since the past two trips were on business, I didn't get to see much around.

Portugal and Spain are very similar, but France isn't as much, I think. At least that is how I feel when I go to Spain. The fact that Portugal and Spain (the "Iberians") have a history of invasions could add to that. :p But that's in the past (economicaly, that is :p).

The construction of both countries is similar, the mediterranean-type. Of course that Spain has a lot more monuments than Portugal, due to their more superior wealth over the centuries.

Portugal is sea-oriented, obviously, since it was the Portuguese who commenced the "Discoveries" in the XV century. Açores, Madeira (now part of Portugal's territory), Brazil (or "Terra de Vera Cruz", at the time), the western/south/eastern coast of Africa (S.Tomé e Principe, Angola, Mozambique, Cabo Verde (Cape Verde), India through sea, Indonesia, even Japan were first discovered by the Portuguese. The Cape of Good Hope was first crossed by Vasco da Gama on route to India.

Spain was more into conquering than discovering. After the Tordesilhas Treaty that was signed by Portugal and Spain kings, all the land that was to the west of the imaginary parallel that crossed Brasil in its west side was to Spain: all Latin America exclueding Brazil, basically.

Good explanation. I only wanted to note that the Portuguese broke the Tordesillas Traty because they got too inland. If you draw the imaginary circle of 1550 kilometers you'll see that the portuguese you'll see that Portugal should have only "received" a very small part of the Americas but as Portugal and Spain were united by Philip II a bit later it had no importance until both kingdoms got divided again in 1660 (1640?). The Spanish-Portuguese empire was the biggest of all History of Humnity by the way.

Of course Portugal and Spain are more similar between them that with France but I still feel them similar. (I think my english skills have dissapeared. What the hell I'm writing?!)



What I would like to do is going to London this summer (Well, next year's summer) for three months, probably working in some random jobs. I need to practise my English and get a nice British accent.

I was in Lima last July on a mission trip. Now, I love the place because of the people there, being a missionary, and all, but if it weren't for them... I'd have to wonder why a person would want to go. There must be something that attracts all those Japanese folk to Lima!

Cuzco, of course, needs no justification! It's a beautiful place, and I'm headed to Lima/Arequipa/Cuzco in January. I'll probably be making pretty regular trips out there for a good while.

Wherever you go in Peru, you can get by cheap. If you eat where most of the population does and you spend about what you would for a meal where you are, you're eating VERY well!

There is one thing I recommend spending extra on, and that is a hotel. We spent nearly what a hotel would cost in the US to stay in a rat's nest hotel with no hot water in some rooms, frequent unavailability of toilet paper (pack some extra), and drive-by shootings. While little else there costs much, to get a good hotel room in a good part of Lima will probably cost a good bit. It's probably not anything you would hesitate to pay for, though.

Do not--DO NOT--plan to drive! Traffic in Peru is crazy in general, with unexpected road hazards, nonsensical road layouts, and people, shops, and animals scattered across half the roads. And the traffic in Lima is beyond insane. Here is a video that will give you just an inkling. The video was from the Cebu in the Phillippines, but the people, sights, and traffic are all things you'll see in Lima, though--on the BEST of days. It's normally far worse. And if you don't know exactly where you're going, it's easy to get into a bad part of town, since Lima's a compact town and the bad parts are found right beside the good parts.

If you want some advice on what to put on an itenerary, or some personal recommendations for interpreters, let me know what kind of things you like and I'll try to get some information for you. I know people in Peru I can ask advice of or recommend personally for help.

Also, seeing your other desired visits, might I recommend Havana, Cuba? I've been there, and it's an amazing place, full of history. I can give some advice on if you or any one else here ever decides to vacation there.

Well, I'm from Poland, so if anyone want to come here ask about anything.;)

Poland is very uniqe, we are the only country on the world, which has brothers for president and prime minister (twins!) :D

Anyone here have visited Poland? :)

Well, I can volunteer info on Sri Lanka and Canada if necessary.

Well..Ill love to go to New Zealand and Mexico, those would be my first choice.

Im From Dominican Republic...I nice caribean island..anyone up to some of the best beaches in the best weather???? and its really cheap.

1 USD = 33 Dominican Pesos.

I can talk about Vancouver and a bit about the rest of Western Canada. Its a big country afterall.

Thanks! That will be greatly appreciated! Havana, Cuba? I'm willing to try.
English, I'm pretty confident. Spanish...I learned two years but I'm sure it's degraded to a point of no return.

Warsaw looks pretty interesting too!

Hmm...maybe I can go to Santo Domingo to Havana to Lima/Cuzco then! That'll be a very interesting trip!!





But alas, no one here is from Athens, Greece? C'mon, I know I saw someone from there on this board!!

What?!!! I thought I'd never see another person from Sri Lanka on this board :twitch: Granted I have never lived there (though I have gone there a number of times for visits since most of my extended family live there), but...

Coincidentially I find it amusing how a lot of old discarded Japanese vehicles are refurbished and reused in Sri Lanka, and they sometimes don't bother removing the tags... so you see these random food outlet vans cruising along here and there. Actually I think a lot of people there drive Japanese cars, come to think of it - my uncle himself actually drives a car directly imported from Japan, I helped him translate the funky control panel thing so he knew exactly what he was messing with.

And Cracow (or Gdansk)) even better :p but that's only my opinion :heh: