Travel Talk: Where you been all your life?

Much has been posted in various threads about experiences with places around the world. Post your memorable jaunts and sojourns across the globe, good or bad, here. Bon voyage!

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I’ve been to Bielefeld!

A city that famously does not exist :slight_smile:

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I have SCUBA dived Media Luna Lake, just outside Rio Verde, Mexico, in the state of San Luis Potosi.

It is a mountain spring-fed lake with gin-clear water that remains a constant 88°F warm. No wetsuit or even skin suit required.

The ancient indigenous people used to offer gifts to the gods by throwing their most prized possessions into the depths: pottery and stone tools.

My group of divers did a night dive to over 80 feet to search for them. We found a few in the soft silt bottom.

Magical time under a moonless, star-blanketed sky reminiscent of Carlos CastaƱeda’s Don Juan books. Unforgettable.

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I’m not well traveled at all outside of the United States and a little bit of Mexico. I have gone to the northern border and looked across it at Canada. The United States is pretty big though, and I’ve been a lot of places here. I had a pretty rough childhood, and basically the day that I turned 18 I split. I went from California to Arizona with the shirt on my back and started over. I ended up bumming around the western side of the country for a while. There’s a lot of beautiful places. The desert is absolutely beautiful, and the Cascade Mountains are lovely. Everything in between I suppose. There’s a lot of places I didn’t get to though, I traveled around on the Eastern side of the country for work a few times a year for a while, but I’ve never been to New York and I’d still like to check that out someday.

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In terms of nature, I find the USA one of the most diverse and beautiful countries I’ve been to.
Everything seems to be bigger and unbelievably vast! I’m a desert fan, so I thoroughly enjoyed the Mojave desert.
And I felt right at home in San Francisco … except for Brighton/UK and Cuba this was the only time I had that feeling abroad…
The cities and the people are just like in the movies. You’ll experience every clichĆ© you’ve seen in the cinema or on the telly, so that’s very entertaining.

I do love the USA a lot … if it weren’t for [censored].

It’s an ideal country for a road trip … I always had fun, except when arriving at an airport after a long flight.
I can understand why so many Americans have never left their country or speak only one language … though I do think that getting involved in other cultures is great education … and a foundation for world peace :slight_smile:

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Oh man, I miss road trips. I used to just hop in the car with my boyfriend and we’d hit up the Pacific Coast Highway and just drive until we were too tired to keep going. Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo… I never made it to San Francisco though, always wanted to see the bridge and test my l’appel du vide.

One time me and my bestie drove from from Arizona to Montana with a pound of [really really censored] taped up in one of the tires lmao. The catalytic converter started giving us problems like 2/3 of the way there. By the time we got through we were driving with our heads out the window because there’s literally smoke coming out of the console which was already torn up, it was a crazy ass Camaro to be honest with you. In the rain. We made it to Missoula Montana though. Unfortunately that wasn’t our destination somebody had to drive another couple hours to come pick us up lol.

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Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

If you go there, be sure to put some flowers in your hair :slight_smile:

Maybe we should have a thread in this forum with everything [censored].
That’s where the best things happen :slight_smile:

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Good Lord I could bore you to tears here. So will try to summarise:

When in my twenties I did my first trip outside Europe to the USA. Got an Amtrak as-much-as-you-can-do-in-a-fortnight ticket. And went New York-Washington-New Orleans-Memphis-Chicago-Flagstaff. Worth noting in Memphis it was for Graceland (obviously!) but some folk we met insisted we stay an extra night as there was a Blues Festival that night and they put us up and fed us. Magical! Then after the Grand Canyon (just rolled up and pitched a tent - $2 dollars a night!) it was hitching over to LA and camping on Malibu Beach for a week. Doubt you could do that now! Worth noting that the lift we got across the Mojave desert was in a car with a bust air con! Seriously hot drive!

Then nothing significant for a while apart from a holiday in Turkey. Then I got into climbing. After an apprenticeship in Alps. I did several climbing trips to the Andes, one to Bolivia and two to Peru, and a couple in the Himalayas, one in Pakistan and one in Nepal.

Around 2000 I took my then 75 years old mum to Egypt and a cruise down the Nile, a week in Luxor and then over to Jordan to go to Petra. My mum never quite seemed to believe she could be doing that at that age! But she did great and had a fantastic time. She’d always been heavily into Egyptology but having lost my father when I was 18 months old she brought my brother and I up as a single mum so never had the money for travelling.

I still keep dreaming about riding a motorbike down the length of the Andes. Worried I’m going to be too old soon as it would be mostly on unmetalled roads.

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That sounds like an amazing trip. Can you believe I lived in Arizona half my life and never saw the Grand Canyon?

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That sounds amazing. Like a natural bathtub that never cools down

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If you are afraid of heights, you can always visit the ā€œGrand Canyon du Verdonā€ in France.

It’s much smaller, but very beautiful!

Perfect for hiking, biking, canoeing, horseback riding and enjoying french food!

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When I was a senior in college I did a study trip (only for a week) to Athens, Greece with a day trip to Turkey.

A few years after that I went to Constanta, Romania with a group from church and helped out a church there. Met some really great people and it was a wonderful experience.

I went to Copenhagen in 2021 and loved every minute of that trip.

I also went to London and Amsterdam for long layovers on those trips.

I’d like to see more of the US, and I’d love to visit Germany and the south of France.

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I’ve been a lifelong traveler/adventurer so it may be easier for me to list where I haven’t been. LOL
We bicycled through 1,000+ miles of wilderness in Alaska. My wife and I bike toured dozens of locations around the world, usually 1,000 miles per trip (or 1 month a year). Cycling is a great way to meet people and we were often invited into new friend’s homes to stay a day or two so they could hear our stories.
We’ve loved getting out in the wilds and have backpacked around Mont Blanc, 110 miles and over 35k of elevation gain/loss in 7 days. We’ve backpacked many mountainous locations. This includes down into the Grand Canyon from both sides, the Four Pass Loop around the Maroon Bells, here in Colorado, and many other trips of that scope.
I retired in 2008 at the age of 42, and I’ve volunteered since.
I was part of an elite search and rescue team based near Vail Colorado, which sent me and my team all around the Holy Cross Wilderness(and beyond), year round, to rescue the injured and lost.
In 2013 we moved from Colorado to Port Townsend WA, for many years, to explore that area of the US and Canada. Then moved to Southern Arizona where I was asked to be the president of a large cycling club with over 150 scheduled rides each year. It was interesting being in charge of a large organization with hundreds of members…during Covid. Today there are people squarely on every side of anything, so guiding any ship in these circumstances is interesting, to say the least! During my time with this club, it seemed like we biked just about everywhere in southern Arizona.
We’ve been back in Colorado now for several years. Cheers all!

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I’ve been climbing there a couple of times. Fantastic place but you have to watch out for some pretty severe afternoon rainstorms.

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I have seen an awful lot of the US as a kid in the 60’s and 70’s… but it was from the 3rd seat of a station wagon looking backwards. :joy:

I’ve BEEN EVERYWHERE but I’ve never BEEN TO SPAIN.

I have seen many of the typical touristy stuff (e.g.: Grand Canyon, Disney World, Acadia National Park, Corn Place, Devil’s Tower, Jersey Shore, Niagara Falls, coal mines & caverns, oceans, mountains and sands etc…) literally crossing the continent with all in between. The military took me to place I would not have seen otherwise. :united_states:
I have ridden a motorcycle across country once and learned alot about myself and how to cope with things. Not quite a Neal Peart Ghost Rider journey, but more of a single version of seeing both sides in a Zen perspective on two wheels.

But I like best where I am at now… I can hike out my backyard for days and not see another soul if i don’t want.

I don’t envision myself traveling much anymore but am so very glad to have had the opportunity for what I have seen… I have mom & dad to thank for my well worn traveling shoes.

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Same here. When I was young and stupid. Always climbed alone, as I did not trust anybody on the rope. Got to UIAA 7 (maybe 8) once there, and was called (rightfully) ā€œLe Hollandais Fouā€ by some climbers that took the same route.
I must admit that I was quite scared, having reached a certain hight and noticing that I lacked stamina to go on. The only way was up (or down … very fast) … and I stopped climbing soon after that. My body is not made for climbing & I had reached my limit…

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Several of the states, live in California.

Belize, Mexico, Honduras, St Thomas, St Maartin, Victoria BC, all on cruises.

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Collegiate Peaks?

That’s out on the Denali Highway in Alaska, Frank. Probably around 500 miles into that ride, give or take.

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Woah, that’s remarkable! I bet you saw some crazy situations.