Holidays - The Bear and Badger

afgavinstan

Still trying to erase it from my mind. Thank you Hair, any goodwill towards here from Shug now totally erased, you freak.

afgavinstan

Aaaaaand that's us about to board our flight back. Once again, massive massive massive thank you to Shabs/Shaun for starting the whip round and to everyone who contributed. It meant the world to me and brought me back from a really dark place, and gave me the strength to get back on the horse. Other than a pretty bad anxiety attack on Saturday night, I managed to truly chill out and be care free for a week, generating memories with Shona that'll last a lifetime.

Couldn't find a kebab, and I'll have to just ask my mate to tattoo B&B logo on me back home, but again, thank you all. It's been amazing.

Right back at it in my first shift at Argyle St hooomve tomorrow morning. Lets get after it!

Much love,
Gav & Shug
x

Dark Soldier

No kebab?

we're done mate, done

cindemon

Glad you both had a great time & that the hol has put some wind back in your sails.

Dark Soldier

Aye, glad its given you ya va-va-voom back bro

ShabbyMcCrabby

Good to hear you had a great time mate. Sounds like the holiday has done the job a holiday is meant to do!

g.man

Great stuff.

Unlikely

Awesome.

Gremill

This just means that you have to find the dirtiest, most minging kebab you can get in Glasgow.

Cos

Arrived in Edinburgh last night. Sun is shining today and Toto on in the background, it’s gonna be a good trip.

I can’t remember if any of our Scottish contingent live here but if anyone does and fancies meeting for a few beers tonight or tomorrow then hit me up. Sorry about the short notice but it’s been a made few weeks and preparation for this trip has been poor.

Off to the castle!

bad_hair_day

#PreyforCosby

Cos

#hunternothunted

dynamiteReady

Has anyone here been to Romania?

cockbeard

My landlady moved there a few months ago with her job, she's pretty much loving the place apart from getting paid a local wage

Kow

My brother went out with a Romanian girl for years and said that he was shocked by how friendly and generous everyone in the country was.

dynamiteReady

Was asking as I was flying out to Bucharest last weekend...

Tbh, Bucharest is a bit of a dive, quite, quite dirty, and lacking restaurants if you're a tourist. It has some extremely unusual architectural juxtapositions though...

But the place is in dire need of... Something... And being one of the poorest countries in Europe, it's probably not going to receive that 'something' anytime soon...

The most memorable thing about the place was the smell, unfortunately...
Probably because of the longstanding issues caused by the mistreatment of these poor, cute bastards...

Things do improve greatly once you leave the city... We took a tour that headed out towards Sinaia, where the old royal castle can be found...

And the infamous Bran castle, upon which, the many renditions of Dracula's home are based, was also a royal residence...

For a Brit, the Romanian royal family has an extremely short, but fascinating history. Well worth a quick read.

Another thing... They really, really like Christmas over there...

Their Christmas market is like Notting Hill carnival, or something...

Other highlights included a tour guide who looked like the late Robin Williams, had the joke book of Robin Williams, and sounded like Borat... The peasant museum in the main park in Bucharest (very cool, and very large open air museum of economically inspired architecture). And the people... who were generally cool... Loads of Italian tourists, btw.

Oh... And the the women... O.O

Would consider going again, but most likely, to the mountains or the black sea...

g.man

"peasant museum " da fuk?

dynamiteReady

The exhibits looked like...

Some of the exhibits were truly striking, like the church made entirely from clay...
They take prominent examples of such craft from around the country, and reassemble them as part of a village.

Was really cool.

Looked like a videogame village in places...

The machinery was also very humbling...

Humans...

afgavinstan

The pups

Kazuo

Any badgers have experience in NYC? Potentially looking at a few days away in the summer and don’t know a thing about the place. Recommendations for decent areas to stay would be welcome.

yourfavouriteuncle

Kazuo wrote:

Any badgers have experience in NYC? Potentially looking at a few days away in the summer and don’t know a thing about the place. Recommendations for decent areas to stay would be welcome.

We were there last year and I’ve spent probably about 10 - 12 months there in my adult life. Just had a bit of a break from the place for a while. It’s a big old place. What do you want to do/see/eat?

Kazuo

Am open minded about what to see and do (though we’d likely avoid the most tourist-trappy stuff in favour of some good walkin’ and eatin’), Just thinking of booking soon to catch some decently priced flights, so mostly looking for a steer on which area to stay in so we can look for a decent AirBnB (or hotel if the price is right).

Nina

We stayed at Manhattan when we went there, so all the main things were withing walking distance. Also was because B went there for work and I just joined him later.
Might be worth looking into airbnb. (ah, you got that already)

Get a week pass for the metro, everything in Manhattan is walkable, but the metro is easy to use and will get you to a lot of places, including the Coney Island Beach and Boardwalk in Brooklyn. Which I found fun to go to. Didn't dare to use any of the rides though.

I also know people stay in Brooklyn and just use the metro to get easy access to Manhattan.

Close by Pier 15 / Pier 16 you can buy tickets for the water taxi, we took one at night and that was nice, as you'll see the skyline with all the lights.

Walk the Brooklyn Bridge
Check out the Highline
Row a boat in Central Park
Get World's Best Hotdog (doesn't matter where you'll get it, they're all the best)
Go to Nintendo World, then go up the Rockefeller
Bring good shoes and walk a lot.
Don't sleep

Only thing I slightly regretted is that we didn't look up any shows around Broadway.
Also had the best and cheapest Chinese food in NY, but I don't remember where that was. Couldn't tell what I ate either, as the menu was mainly Chinese. Could have been around Hell's Kitchen. I'll have a think.

Kazuo

That’s bril Nina, thanks! We both work in theatre so I do wonder whether we’d feel the pressure to check out broadway. We’d have maybe 4 days, so bit tight to pack everything in, but it’s potentially part of a wider trip also taking in San Fran and maybe a stop in Toronto, so we’d not be short of experiences!

Paul the sparky

Kazuo wrote:

Any badgers have experience in NYC? Potentially looking at a few days away in the summer and don’t know a thing about the place. Recommendations for decent areas to stay would be welcome.

Play The Division before you go.

Stopharage

Kazuo wrote:

Any badgers have experience in NYC? Potentially looking at a few days away in the summer and don’t know a thing about the place. Recommendations for decent areas to stay would be welcome.

I adore NYC. You can get decent Airbnb places in Brooklyn and just off Manhattan. Sure I did a write-up for Nina before about some really decent eateries. My favourite though is Totto Ramen. Not pricy at all and proper soul food. I'll try and find where my longer reply went.

Stopharage wrote:

Went to my favourite restaurant, Totto Ramen in Hells Kitchen. It's tiny, the kitchen area is tiny, you have to write your name on a clipboard outside and wait on the sidewalk, it's almost entirely frequented by Koreans, the staff are bat shit mental (one will only speak to you in the tone and style of a happy hardcore mc) but the food is sublime. Chicken Paitan Ramen Vegetable Paitan (not my digit) Spicy chicken ramen The bowls were deep, the broth unctuous and the food lifts the soul. This was the fairly minuscule cooking area. Amazing that such consistently great food was made in that space.

Nina

Think we had about 4 days too that we were there together, so it's possible.
If for example you decide to go to Coney Island, don't take the metro all the way back, but stop before the Brooklyn Bridge and walk from there. That's not too far from Pier 15 / 16 so you could get the water taxi. I remember some European style streets with some pubs / food in that neighborhood too, so you could do Coney, Brooklyn, buy taxi tickets, food, get taxi easily in the one day.

Might be worth having a look at groupon, fairly sure you can get tickets for quite a few things cheaper that way.

Nintendo / Rockefeller / Central Park are close to each other, so we did those in one day as well.

The Highline is the one that's a bit on it's own, but the thing I'd recommend the most.

The 9/11 memorial will have an impact as well, we were there on 9/11 two years ago. It's definitely something to experience, if you stand there between all those tall buildings you feel how incredibly scary that must have been for people living there.

Manhattan is very easy to walk around, and a lot of it is interesting. I remember Brooklyn not having that same vibe, as it's more where people actually live. So not every corner will show something that you'll know. We didn't really explore Brooklyn though, we mainly stayed on Manhattan as we didn't have much time either. I'd like to go back at some point. It is a city that will take a lot of your energy though, it's almost too much, but I loved it.

g.man

Paul the sparky wrote:

Kazuo wrote:

Any badgers have experience in NYC? Potentially looking at a few days away in the summer and don’t know a thing about the place. Recommendations for decent areas to stay would be welcome.

Play The Division before you go.

This is true. I negotiated the whole of Manhattan on foot using my knowledge of where everything is from The Division.

Nina

@Stoph, I remember that yeah, think there are two and we actually ended up going to the wrong one. I don't remember writing my name down though. I'm usually really good at remembering food but NY is letting me down a bit.

A lot of people will recommend Katz's Delicatessen (or however you write it), but you either need to go at a time no one else wants a sandwich, or wait in line for a long time. We didn't do it in the end, as with the time we had it was not worth it. Tried to do it on the last day, but we realized just in time we had to go to the airport during rush hour. Made it just in time. Missed the pastrami sandwich.

Get bagels.

Stopharage

@kazuo, just found the Google maps 'hotpots' that I did, which you may find useful. It's here.

There's a mixture of retail, sites, restaurants and bars. I spent a fair amount of time planning the best places to go and getting advice from New Yorker friends. I'd advise walking the High Line, having a drink at Death and Co, Please Don't Tell or Apotheke, try and find a dive bar to have a pint and a whisky, MOMA is well worth a visit if you're into modern art, grub at Katz Deli, Cafe Mogador or Joe's Pizza, finer dining at Print or Quality Meats, Rockefeller over Empire States (views better), Grand Central etc. But Totto Ramen (Hell's Kitchen) is a must.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories