Josiah and Lauren Part 10: First Look at the Wedding

[Audrey2]

5 hours ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

That said, I spend about 3-4 months prior to any trip to Europe with language podcasts so I can at least learn the basics of conversation (hello/goodbye/thank you/where's the bathroom). lol

 

LOL, we know you aren't a Duggar. Remember, Hola is the only word you every need to know to go to any other country, no matter the language. I'm guessing you also don't complain about the food and the different local customs, either.

[FundieCentral]

4 hours ago, nst said:

I don't like big cities plus I am a Canadian. I would rather go say like Portugal but Corsica opposed to Lisbon.

I am very confused. 

Corsica is a French island off the western coast of Italy. Or is there another Corsica that I don’t know of? 

[TatertotAsserole]

On 8/3/2018 at 4:09 PM, tabitha2 said:

It’s an extreemly wholesome move about God, and Family  with a strong family patriarch. Many elements that Fundies will enjoy. It would be amazing and very pleasing if she liked Something like Guys and Dolls or Grease or West Side Story OTOH

Or something really dark like Sweeney Todd, Company, Follies (basically the Sondheim oeuvre). But I wonder why more fundies aren't into "Joseph" or "Jesus Christ Superstar"

[SeekingAdventure]

23 hours ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

Those cities are great - but if there's any way you could swap Frankfurt for Munich or Berlin, I'd recommend that. Frankfurt is nice, but it doesn't have nearly the "draw" that the other two do.

 

Oooh - and Venice is lovely! OMG - I'm so jellyjell now! lol

@TatiFish9

I second swapping out Frankfurt. 

I've lived very close to Frankfurt for basic training last year for 7 weeks, and I wasn't very interested in a lot in the city, and I agree, Munich is WAY more 'german' than Frankfurt is. I suppose the plan is made like that because it is easy to do by plane/train, and I guess it depends on how you are moving, but I think substituting wouldn't make a big difference

There are train connections everywhere, but there actually is not a direct connection from Frankfurt to Innsbruck, but there are flights (only four directs a day, so it is not all too convenient, one is at 9, which would be ok, but is usually quite full, then at midday, which is stupid because you don't have time in either Frankfurt or Innsbruck to do a lot by the time you have to check out, manage to check in etc.. and then one in the later afternoon, and one late at night). There are trains from Munich to Innsbruck all the time though, also busses, and it takes about 2 hours, and both train stations are very central. So if you can swap that out, I'd totally do that! And getting to Frankfurt or Munich, if by plane, there are about the same amount of connections a day, so that wouldn't make a big difference..

I think if you want to substitute Venice, that would work as well, but it makes it a bit more complicated. Getting to rome is not a problem, there are direct trains from Innsbruck I think, or you'd have to change the train in Verona, which is not a big problem, but then you have to go all the way up back to central italy to get to Lucerne, whereas from Venice you just have to 'drive' over, I suppose?

 

I guess loads depends on how you would travel within Europe, if it is with train, and you have the time, then absolutely substitute Frankfurt and Venice. I haven't been to Venice or Rome, but I actually am not really drawn to Venice that much, Rome would be more interesting to me too, So I totally get that.

 

But I LOVE that you have Innsbruck. I feel it always gets overlooked and it is sooo pretty. I love it there. Hit me up if you have any questions. You're going to have a great time though, I'm sure!

[CarrotCake]

I get that you have nature and mountains as well, but they are so different. It is not just the countryside itself, it is also the small villages that give you the real culture. Even though Venice has some highlights, it does not feel like Italy. 

Of course I also visited some highlights when I was in the US but I also really wanted to see something outside of that. But maybe you still think of those things as highlights ;-) 

Maybe it is just that I really dislike Paris. And Venice. And Amsterdam. To me, they are not what defines Europe.

[SapphireSlytherin]

It took me three visits to get Paris to my "like" column from the "hate" column. It's still just barely above Chicago, which is my least-favorite city in the entire WORLD. lol

 

 

[nst]

2 hours ago, FundieCentral said:

I am very confused. 

Corsica is a French island off the western coast of Italy. Or is there another Corsica that I don’t know of? 

I am probably wrong 

I must have meant something else. 

carry on...:)

 

[AtlanticTug]

7 hours ago, Carm_88 said:

Speaking of said beach! I said to someone once, I live close to the beach. They said "Oh me too! I'm only about a 2 and a half hour drive from the beach." My response was "It would have to be the best beach in the frigging world for me to drive 2 and a half hours. I'm a 10 minute walk." Perspective, I guess! 

I grew up next to the beach and I'd fly all over the world to other beaches, and drive hours upon hours. I'm a water baby, always have been.

[feministxtian]

Beaches: No thank you. Tourists, sand, jellyfish and swimmy thingies that may or may not decide to take a chunk out of you. I lived within 15 minutes of two rivers and a bay and 25-45 minutes from the ocean. The only thing I miss from there is the fresh seafood. I'll live. 

Mountains: The Rockies are INCREDIBLE...just gorgeous, magnificent, slack-jawed amazement. The Appalachians/Blue Ridge are beautiful, so lush and green. The mountains around our valley are a whole 'nother color of awe-inspiring. Desert colors, unlike anything elsewhere. I mean, have you EVER seen blue in nature (besides the water)?

Big Cities: No thank you (funny that I live in one)...I'm talking NYC, Philly, DC, Chicago...umm...just no. Too many damn people. 

Foreign travel...I won't apply for a passport right now, I really don't need that level of scrutiny pointed to my ancestry right now. Maybe if the climate in DC changes 

[Carm_88]

45 minutes ago, AtlanticTug said:

I grew up next to the beach and I'd fly all over the world to other beaches, and drive hours upon hours. I'm a water baby, always have been.

I'm a water baby!  I just don't see the sense in going away from the beauty that is my own beach. Nothing is going to be as good as that! 

[Runningfromreality]

22 hours ago, MarbleRainbow said:

I think a US honeymoon would be fun - the United States is HUGE, and you could still have the "things are so different here" bit. Have one of the couples go to New York or California or Alaska. 
  
I will be honest and say that I don't even own a passport and don't have plans to travel internationally anytime soon, if ever. Having chronic health issues is a big part of that (flying is NOT fun for me for many reasons), and I just really, really love road trips. I have been all over the country with my family growing up, and still have only seen a fraction of the US.
I really want to take a road trip with my husband to Moab, Utah. I got to take a spring break trip there during college and absolutely fell in love with the landscape in that area. There is just miles and miles of open country and natural wonders - it really made an impact on me at the time. 

My post bar exam trip last summer was to Moab. Instead of the European vacations a lot of my friends took, I went to the beach in North Carolina with my best friend and a road trip to Moab with my husband. It was so much better than I expected and will likely be a place we take our family regularly. My list of places I want to go in the U.S. is still really long! 

[JDuggs]

5 hours ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

It took me three visits to get Paris to my "like" column from the "hate" column. It's still just barely above Chicago, which is my least-favorite city in the entire WORLD. lol

 

 

Huh. I’m from Chicago (suburbs) and I thought most tourists “love” Chicago. I think most people who live here actually like it a lot except for the bad winters, lots of traffic and high taxes. But most Chicagoans think our city is awesome. How didn’t it meet your expectations?

[Iamtheway]

I love water. Lake over ocean, but both is great. My husband loves mountains. We both found exactly what we wanted in Interlaken in Switzerland. So pretty. That’s where we’re buying our holiday home when we become millionairs. 

We like to move around when we travel. Long trainrides, long drives, short stops and long walks is our type of holiday. So this summers interrail trip through Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Slovenia and Austria was perfect. Very different to travel with a 4yo though. I don’t remember our earlier travels being quite so focused on finding the best playgrounds.  

A few years ago we drove from Perth to Sydney and back again. We took different roads and three weeks each way (and there is still SO much to see in Australia). We slept in the car and stopped wherever we wanted. We visited Adelaide, Melbourne and Canberra on the way but it was the small towns, the coast, and the desert that were the real highlights for me. Such an awesome trip all around though. I am so happy and thankful we were able to go on it.

[Shadoewolf]

Lived in Key West, FL for 3 years and I still absolutely love the beach. Miss it terribly! Not the sand so much, but closing my eyes and listening to the waves, feeling the water rush over my feet, smelling the air. 

My mom's ashes were scattered near the Fontana Dam in North Carolina, and the scenery (what little I had time to see) was incredible and breathtaking. I want to go back now that my heart has had some time to heal and explore it for a week or so.

Hubby was born in Germany so he wants to take me there and as a chef he'd love th o go to Paris someday. My mom's bucket list was Ireland and Scotland so my brother and I are trying to find a way to go in her memory. I'd love to just travel the world. Paris, Rome, Japan, Australia, Alaska.

[victoriasponge]

11 hours ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

It took me three visits to get Paris to my "like" column from the "hate" column. It's still just barely above Chicago, which is my least-favorite city in the entire WORLD. lol

 

 

Paris is still in my ‘strongly dislike’ column. I showed my American friend around England (London included but also lots of old smaller cities/towns) and she went on to Paris. She wanted me to come because ‘it’s not that far or expensive’. Not that far maybe, but just travel would have been £100, add a hotel to that and Paris isn’t worth it in my view. 

If the Eurostar was cheaper I’d do it on a day trip no problem. But it wasn’t my cup of tea. 

Favourite places in approximate order: London, Berlin, NYC, Milan, Toulouse and Copenhagen. 

Would like to travel to Cape Town, Cairo, Dubrovnik, New Zealand, Warsaw, Florence and many other places. St Petersburg is getting crossed off the list next summer. 

I get why Americans do the big cities though, I lived out in the US countryside and in a lot of ways it was nicer than the cities, especially Vegas... that wasn’t worth it. But it was so much more impractical. I’d like to stay on a ranch sometime but that’d be a nightmare. Most brits seem to go to NYC or Disney and both aren’t exactly the typical American place. 

[just_ordinary]

Husband and I try to do both- city and countryside. I get the attraction of „must see sights“ and love to explore the vibe of a big city with its opportunities for culture (architecture, art, music, history, bars and restaurants) but the smaller cities/villages and the nature is what really leaves us in awe of a country. That is when you realise you might have seen the Colloseum, the Eifeltower or the tower of St. Stephens but you haven’t gotten any idea at how diverse the country really is. How very different the regions are (from dialects to customs to nature to food). The Perigord is very different than the Bretagne, Schleswig Holstein is nothing like Bavaria, the Toskana feels like a totally different country than Apulien and the north and south of England are universes apart.

Also I have made the experience that most people would say that the capital city is never a good representation for the country itself. I still like to visit it but it’s like saying I can tick of the USA from my bucket list because I was in Washington DC and had a look at the White House and the Capitol.

I get that this kind of travel I prefer needs time and money and we definitely cannot afford to have regular trips to the US (it is hella expensive from Europe too) to give the country the time it deserves (especially as it rather down our travel line) and we will most definitely have to decide which big city to visit (NY/SF/Washington ?) if we want to spent time to explore at least one National Park (Utah/Everglades/Redwood?).

So I get only visiting the official big attraction in one big city but I wouldn’t say I have experienced the country. It is a difference to have traveled to Amsterdam compared to have traveled the Netherlands.

[CarrotCake]

@just_ordinary That is exactly what I mean! If I was an American going to Europe I would choose maximum one country per week and experience that. You might not see 'the whole Europe' if you only visit Italy and France but at least you have experienced the two of them instead of just some capital cities. It also helps if you rent a car and make it a roadtrip instead of taking a plane or a fast train from one capital to the other.

 

Also, I like how you write Toskana and Apulien, shows your native language 

[just_ordinary]

1 minute ago, CarrotCake said:

Also, I like how you write Toskana and Apulien, shows your nativie language 

What can I say.... too lazy and way too hot to look up the English spelling today (well Tuscany should have been possible)  

Another few days of this heat wave and my posts might be useless gibberish.

 

[TatiFish9]

I am huge on getting the cultural experience versus the tourist experience. The tour I picked placed emphasis on culture, but this will be my very first time to Europe. I have no clue if they're just saying that or not.

@SeekingAdventure @SapphireSlytherin @just_ordinary Thank you so much for your input about the tour. Gives me confidence going in asking questions. The descript says something about Germany's Romantic road and Rothenburg. Maybe that is why Frankfurt is on the tour stop? But it seem you all suggest Munich. I will find a good tour once I talk to the agent.

 

[CarrotCake]

9 hours ago, Runningfromreality said:

My post bar exam trip last summer was to Moab. Instead of the European vacations a lot of my friends took, I went to the beach in North Carolina with my best friend and a road trip to Moab with my husband. It was so much better than I expected and will likely be a place we take our family regularly. My list of places I want to go in the U.S. is still really long! 

I loved Moab, it was my favourite place we stayed in my four week road trip.

Unfortunately we only stayed for 4 nights.

[Iamtheway]

1 hour ago, just_ordinary said:

So I get only visiting the official big attraction in one big city but I wouldn’t say I have experienced the country. It is a difference to have traveled to Amsterdam compared to have traveled the Netherlands.

I’ve spent five days in the US on a stop-over. I flew in to San Francisco and had an afternoon and night there. Then I took the bus to LA to visit a friend. So I have been to the US. Have I seen the country? No. 

I did go to a fraternity party, a basket ball game, a tour of a studio, the beach, the movies, and Disney land, I ate donaughts, saw a celebrity and was interviewd for a tv show. So I still feel pretty happy with my american experience but there is so much more to see.

[SapphireSlytherin]

8 hours ago, JDuggs said:

I thought most tourists “love” Chicago.

They do. I know I'm an anomaly. I had zero expectations about the city, at all, so nothing about it didn't meet my expectations.

 

2 hours ago, victoriasponge said:

If the Eurostar was cheaper I’d do it on a day trip no problem.

We've done this and it was fine, but we ended up in Paris on a day of protests over train schedules, so there were lots of people throwing smoke bombs/flares/marching through the streets near the Champs Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe - it was a bit unnerving. 

 

1 hour ago, TatiFish9 said:

Rothenburg

One of my FAVORITE small towns! It was an easy drive from Nürnberg (where I used to live), and is just beautiful. The shops are amazing - but it truly is a HUGE "tourist trap" with most store signs written in German/French/English/Japanese.

 

39 minutes ago, CarrotCake said:

I loved Moab, it was my favourite place we stayed in my four week road trip.

We're doing Moab in September on a road trip. We're flying into Vegas and renting a car to take in Moab, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite.... Yes, it's a lot of driving, but we are road trip people. lol

 

19 minutes ago, Iamtheway said:

So I still feel pretty happy with my american experience but there is so much more to see.

I've lived in this country 51 years and still have stuff to see! I've been to 46/50 states, but there are a lot of places still on my bucket list. You got a good taste of California life, in general, though! You hit a lot of high spots.  

[CarrotCake]

23 minutes ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

We've done this and it was fine, but we ended up in Paris on a day of protests over train schedules, so there were lots of people throwing smoke bombs/flares/marching through the streets near the Champs Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe - it was a bit unnerving. 

This is not very rare, it think there are protests in France every other week 

[JordynDarby5]

If I had enough money I'd love to explore just about every country and completely. Like Italy see Rome, Venice, Milan, Florence, Naples, Sicily, Siena, Tuscany, explore the museums and history along with the fun stuff and see what I find or places I hear about when I'm there.  Hit the beaches, visit ancient Roman ruins and temples and the pathway Patton took when he and his troops landed and made their way to Rome (my grandpa served under Patton), go to the opera, hit the nightlife. And visit places where movies were filmed at. Go to some festivals. Eat and drink. Explore France and the rest of Europe completely. Travel all over China, India and Japan. There's so many awesome countries to explore. 

[seashell1025]

14 minutes ago, JordynDarby5 said:

Like Italy see Rome, Venice, Milan, Florence, Naples, Sicily, Siena, Tuscany, explore the museums and history along with the fun stuff and see what I find or places I hear about when I'm there

I would Love to go to Rome and other places in italy, it has always been a place with so much history and beautiful pictures and scenery, that I hope I can visit there some day.  I also would love to go to Greece (those dang Duggars and their honeymoons.. LOL, so not fair!) 

Currently however, I am sitting in an airport waiting to fly to San Francisco-- Mini vacation visiting my BFF in the Bay area of California.  I worked out there the past two summers, so it will be fun to visit not only her, but also my past co-workers.