I want to fly! I plan to visit various places once I can afford to do so. I think Italy is still at the top of the list.



..........................................................................................

That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

I'm off to Romania in October, a wolf watching, hiking holiday and Bran Castle too, I'm off to sharpen a steak and eat some garlic in preparation

I'm sure I read something about TATU having bought Dracula's castle...but I can't find anything about it in Google, so I may have dreamt it. Which would be disturbing.



:--

Do something pretty while you can...

Am now curious which is further, Detroit to Seattle or England to Romania.

Using my Times Atlas of the world, England-Romania (Dover to western-most point) is roughly 950 miles. Seattle-Detroit is 2300, according to [usembassymalaysia.org.my]. Even allowing for an awkward fold in the atlas reducing the apparent distance, it seems that Seattle-Detroit is at least twice as far. Still, we're about the same size if you multiply recorded history by area...



PSD

==========

This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

I seem to recall reading that less than 50% of Americans own a passport. Quite a high proportion (over 20% IIRC) have never left their own state.

I've been to California three times, Denver and Chicago twice but never to the east coast.

Dante: Why "er, Leeds" ? It's a great place. Nothing to be ashamed of !

I've been to Portugal, Spain, England, Scotland, Ireland (no Wales yet), Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Egypt...

Just once outside of Europe... But then again, the places I've been to I know quite a lot (loads of places in Germany, loads of places in Italy, most more than once and so on)

AAC - yes made lots of sense.

It was a fantastic trip we did over 15000 miles driving through 31 states (just counted up). I have also visited Florida on a previous trip which makes my state tally 32.

NB - I haven't counted Washington DC as a separate state (I guess it's not really one)



Post Edited (05-29-03 12:24)

awww, count it anyway, it'll make the Washingtonians happy!

Sounds like a fantastic trip! How long did it take you? It always amazes foreigners how vastly different all the regions are topographically as well as how different yet the same (LOL) the people are.

Oh and Rob, I do not have a passport as of yet, but will be getting one soon because we plan on visiting my in-laws in Stuttgart and doing a little touring through Europe. Anyone have "room at the inn" somewhere in England? <grin>

I think the reason most Americans don't have passports is because we don't need them in daily life or to do short weekend trips like most Europeans do. We don't have border checkpoints every 100 miles. Our states are bigger than a lot of countries and we have an open border with Canada and don't need a passport to go there, just some form of government issued ID, like a driver's license. We simply just do not need them for the most part. Plus, they're rather expensive just to keep if you're not actively using it.

It took us about 4 months - including a 10 day trip to the Dominican Republic :)
We saw all kinds of sights and all kinds of weather from 100+ temps in Palm Springs to Blizzard conditions at Crater Lake (Oregon) in June!
Driving over the Rockies was awesome, got a picture of me in shorts and t-shirt at 14000ft+ (highest point in Britain is Ben Nevis at 4409ft), it was quite warm even though there was snow on the ground.
As for the 'open' border with Canada we could get into Canada OK but every time we tried to get back into America we got the third degree from the border guards even though we were in an American car and had long stay VISA's!

I've never had a passport, I've travelled all over the UK and have even been to Jersey and Isle of White and a couple of years ago I went across to Eire, that was wonderful, I loved the money, and missed all the post boxes, they are identicle to ours but are green so I just didn't see them, I brought all my post cards home.



---
Sylvester says.... *plock*




actually he says peep, cheep, chirrup, squalk,muttermuttergrumblegrumble, oh and now he falls off his pirch whish is followed by a sheepish peek round to see if anyone was looking and a quick scramble back up

I don't travel much, because (a) I would rarely have enough money left (after essentials, such as books or Vivaldi CDs) to get very far; and (b) I get nervous about going to anywhere from whence I couldn't walk home if the public transport system stopped running. (Oh, and (c) I'm no good at foreign languages). One day-trip to Dieppe back when I was in high school, and a few trips to Scotland (twice) and Wales (about eight times) for various reasons since then, are the only times when I've been outside of England.

The fairly recent admission by (physicists? aircraft designers?) that the usual reason they had previously been giving for why airplanes stay up (i.e. due to the 'Bernoulli Effect') had actually been wrong hasn't made me any less disinclined towards risking air travel, either. Now if I could only fly, MYSELF, without any technological assistance....

___________________________________________________________

"This was willed where what is willed... can get rather silly."



Post Edited (05-29-03 19:06)

Well, I'm one of those Americans without a passport. I've been through a good portion of the country, 18 states to date. Not being able to fly puts a bit of a wrinkle in most travel plans.

Most of my travel has been up and down the East coast. My only excursion out of country was to Bermuda. Made it through the triangle and everything!

I don't have a passport either. Haven't been able to afford to travel anyplace where I'd have needed one, and the portion of the US and Canada that I've travelled would probably cover most or all of Europe.

BTW, even as a US citizen, crossing back into Michigan from a day trip to Canada, with a car with Michigan plates and a Michigan drivers license, it still takes longer to get back into the US than it does to get into Canada. Especially now with all the 'Homeland Security' hype.

I only know one US citizen who ever had trouble getting into Canada. He had been arrested for a felony when he was a teenager, because he'd broken into a high school to call 911 for an ambulance after a friend was severly injured (it was the only place nearby with a phone). 20 years later, he tried to go into Canada with his dad, who was moving there, to help with the move, and was told he couldn't enter the country.



--------------
&quot;I've often said that the difference between British and American SF TV series is that the British ones have three-dimensional characters and cardboard spaceships, while the Americans do it the other way around.&quot;
--Ross Smith

Magda,

I've heard stories like that before. I work with quite a few Canadians who travel back and forth regularly and have been complaining about how long it takes and the intense scrutiny. I would think that your friend would have had his record cleared, after all he was a teenager.

I was in Michigan a few years ago, about 30 miles north of Muskegon. Beautiful country!

Dante: I'm glad to hear you say about not greatly wanting to travel. I like visiting new places and doing different things but I hate this kind of pressure to 'travel'.

When I broke up with a long term girlfriend (7 years) a few years back loads of people suggested I travel. I didn't quite understand how three months in Africa or South America or wherever would help ??

It'd help because you seem exotic to people in other countries, making it easier to pull. And when you get bored of any relationship you can always claim to be 'deported'.



PSD

==========

This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

I don't understand this fascination in the UK for going to Australia or South America for a year or whatever. I like to go away on holiday, I like to visit new cities and see new places, but for 1 week or 2 at the time... Not 1 year or something...

It probably stems back to the Regency (and earlier times but I cant remember the names) when we did the grand tour (well *we* rich folk did, *we* poor folk just worked)

Though I gather all they did was party with other grand tour folk and wear wool vests



---
Sylvester says.... *plock*




actually he says peep, cheep, chirrup, squalk,muttermuttergrumblegrumble, oh and now he falls off his pirch whish is followed by a sheepish peek round to see if anyone was looking and a quick scramble back up

yes... Room with a View and girlies going to Tuscany and so on with old chaperones...
:-)