Vacation Thread

[OldRetSWO]

I love traveling. I love visiting countries and cultures all over the world. But vacation??

No contest... My best vacation is heading down the Jersey shore. I've been doing since I was born, and nothing is more relaxing. Even Bruce agrees... Down the shore everything's all right...

Sure there are prettier beaches in the world. And MUCH nicer people. But I can get to my fave Jersey beach in 75 mins and have a cold beer in my hand and a crab trap in the water no longer than 30 mins later. No flight required...

Literally just walked in the door from two days at Sea Girt/Manasquan. My days were occupied with stuff but the nights/overall ambience/etc are always a treat.

 

[Old Navy BGO]

And then some intrepid birdman was skilled enough to get qualified as Patrol Plane Commander (?) and thus bought the bar for the night so each drink was $0.00.

My recollection is every visitor was our guest, and drank free .. we didn't get all that many guests except for visiting aircrew (usually foreign). It was a great system, and I can claim I was a bar owner for 6 months.

 

[cb7893]

Back in '97, DW and I did a Central European tour: Munich, Vienna, Budapest, Prague. Budapest was the highlight, so much so that we extended that portion two days, at the expense of Prague. A huge part of it was that we stayed at a family-owned pension, where the proprietors were so gracious and kind. They were grateful to be rid of communism and fawned over their Western guests.

We mentioned to them our desire to visit the Gellert Baths, probably the best-known, most-visited thermal baths in Hungary. The 30-something daughter of our hosts said, "Oh, I never go to the public baths. They're beautiful. But have you seen the pictures of the old men who lounge there, playing chess along the poolside? It looks very relaxing and nice. But those old men are in there all day. They never once get out. Do you know what I mean?"

It took a minute. But yes, we got her point. We all had a good laugh. She then directed us to a smaller, lesser-known bath. We went, enjoyed a good soak and a vigorous massage. There were no old men playing chess in the pool. Very memorable.

If you want to try something a little different, consider a "Baltic" Tour. We started in Vilnius, are chilling in Riga and will be going to Tallinn.

The region is an amalgam of local traditions, German, Russian, Polish and Swedish cultures. At one time or another since the 12th century Northern Crusades, each one of those countries was dominant enough to leave a lasting mark to this day.

The three countries together are roughly the size of new England with three very distinct languages, cultures and sense of identity. What they have in common is their history under Soviet colonial rule and their struggle reestablish their identities since the breakup.