A fashion board in which sometimes we'll remember to post spoiler warnings

[Adder]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

after all the fringster's been through, I bet she could make a knife out of a spoon.

Wait. You're saying she's been in prison all this time? I thought that was you?

[J. Fred Muggs]

Who around here is prenaturally young looking? Now we know why

[LessinSF]

Originally Posted by Replaced_Texan

My boyfriend's father is retiring at the end of the month as the administrator for a BIGLAW firm. His wife's retirement present was a ticket on the cross-country Canadian train from Toronto to Vancouver. I think he's really excited about it.

A friend of mine did the six-day Trans-Mongolian Railway - Moscow to Beijing - and loved it, but he likes trains. You are allowed to get off a couple of times and spend a few days in such hot spots as Irkusk and Ulan Bator, and the old babuskas sell you homemade food on the platforms:

[Gattigap]

Originally Posted by LessinSF

A friend of mine did the six-day Trans-Mongolian Railway - Moscow to Beijing - and loved it, but he likes trains. You are allowed to get off a couple of times and spend a few days in such hot spots as Irkusk and Ulan Bator, and the old babuskas sell you homemade food on the platforms:

Apropos of little, that map looks fun. I hadn't really thought about the logistical possibility of traveling all the way from London to Singapore exclusively by train.

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally Posted by LessinSF

A friend of mine did the six-day Trans-Mongolian Railway - Moscow to Beijing - and loved it, but he likes trains. You are allowed to get off a couple of times and spend a few days in such hot spots as Irkusk and Ulan Bator, and the old babuskas sell you homemade food on the platforms:

I think the only thing that could make a 6-day trip across Siberia tolerable is if the train came with its own orchestra.

Then, again, maybe not even that.

[Gattigap]

Originally Posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)

I think the only thing that could make a 6-day trip across Siberia tolerable is if the train came with its own orchestra.

Then, again, maybe not even that.

A writer friend of mine did something similar, taking a 3-week trip on a container ship from Seattle to Shanghai. The idea was that enforced solitude would convince him to write those scripts that he had been meaning to do. He did that, but had to deal with the other effects as well:

And I wrote. A couple of projects I've been meaning to finish, polish, get started. I was a flurry of productive, beard-growing, coffee drinking work. It's amazing how much you can get done in one day, when the iPhone doesn't work and you can't get email and no one's sending you tickles or pokes on Facebook.

And then, one night, late, asleep in my cabin -– propped up on one side by pillows to keep from tumbling out of bed during the pitch and yaw of the high seas –- I heard a familiar sound. Like a bell. What was it? I know that sound! A chime, a bell, a...text message. A text message?

We were sliding through the narrow pass between Hokkaido and mainland Japan. The iPhone had connected. It began to chime and ring and buzz and hop around the desk getting the two weeks' worth of voice-mails and e-mails and texts, downloading Facebook updates and Twitter messages, and I sprang out of bed like the sick addict I am, scrolling and emailing and texting and calling and checking Nikki Finke's blog, and in general taking the two weeks of Zen-like detachment and total focus and tossing them away so I could read Variety.com.

Through my cabin window, I could see the lights of the Hokkaido coast slipping by. They were thick when the phone started chirping, but now I could see them thinning out, getting fewer and farther between. We were passing through, into the Sea of Japan.

The phone went from four bars to three, then to two, then one. Mainland drifted away, but I kept tapping, kept sending useless signals: thanks for the funny joke, will call when I get back, on boat to Shanghai, FYI got this today, can't make it sorry am on a boat, weather cold, dinner when I get back?

And then, nothing. No service. But I didn't give up: I kept bouncing around the cabin –- maybe over here? No. Over here? If I hold it this way? If I press it against the glass? Junkies will ransack their hovels, searching for a few grains, a forgotten packet of whatever they're jonesing for. That's what I did, in the Sea of Japan, at three in the morning. For cell coverage.

And I sat in that cabin in my underwear, holding my iPhone, thinking, "This is what it's come to? Look at yourself. Look at yourself."

[Hank Chinaski]

anyone been to Vienna (austria burger, not Va.)? things to do/see?

Bratislava? I don't need be told to avoid the hostel.

[Adder]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

anyone been to Vienna (austria burger, not Va.)? things to do/see?

Bratislava? I don't need be told to avoid the hostel.

I have been to both. There isn't too much to do or see in Bratislava, although it was pleasant enough and quiet. There is a bit of an "old town" through which you can stroll, and there is the river, but that is about all I can tell you.

Vienna, on the other hand, is chock full of things to do. Are you vacationing or there for work? If the former, take a tour of the opera house (or see a show), stroll the walking streets, people watch from a cafe, spend a few hours or a few days in the Kunsthistrichses (art) museum, and generally just wander around and enjoy the beauty of the city. If the latter, I'm afraid I don't have any specific night-life recommendations.

[LessinSF]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

anyone been to Vienna (austria burger, not Va.)? things to do/see?

Bratislava? I don't need be told to avoid the hostel.

Both, but Vienna was in 1988 as a 21-year old backpacker and my memories are probably useless to you. As for Bratislava, here was my take - http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog...6340/tpod.html

[Sidd Finch]

Originally Posted by greatwhitenorthchick

Like 10,000 spoons, when all you need is a knife.

That's just cruel.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally Posted by Gattigap

Apropos of little, that map looks fun. I hadn't really thought about the logistical possibility of traveling all the way from London to Singapore exclusively by train.

Look more closely. You have to take a bus from Phnom Penh to Bangkok. My ass hurts just thinking about it.

[Flinty_McFlint]

Originally Posted by Sidd Finch

Look more closely. You have to take a bus from Phnom Penh to Bangkok. My ass hurts just thinking about it.

Too easy.

[greatwhitenorthchick]

Originally Posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)

I think the only thing that could make a 6-day trip across Siberia tolerable is if the train came with its own orchestra.

Kazahkstan is the number one exporter of potassium
all other countries have inferior potassium

[LessinSF]

Originally Posted by Sidd Finch

Look more closely. You have to take a bus from Phnom Penh to Bangkok. My ass hurts just thinking about it.

Yes, there are no working trains in Cambodia. And, having done half that trip - roundtrip Phnom Penh to Siem Reap - it is an interesting ride. The bus isn't so bad, but the road is, um, dubiously paved and quite the obstacle course. That said, neat roadside food, like fried spiders.

[Fugee]

Originally Posted by LessinSF

neat roadside food, like fried spiders.

Oxymoron.