Help me plan my trip around the world!

[Sandstone-Shadow]

Aw man. This sounds so cool and I wish I could do something like this! :) Definitely go see Italy if you get a chance - so many cool places. I highly recommend Cinque Terre - it's five little towns connected by hiking trails (or inexpensive trains if you get tired/don't like hiking/etc) and it's absolutely gorgeous. There was some kind of lemonade thing going on in one of them when I went - all sorts of different lemonades and baked lemon bars and tons of stuff you would have never thought of (I think that was in May or June? I don't remember but I could find out if that's appealing). The hikes were beautiful and you're right by the sea, so lots of lovely lovely views.

I stayed in Turin (I can't not call it Torino though, so much prettier) and that has some really great museums (a cinema museum for one, and they had a really extensive Egyptian museum when I was there, but that might have been a traveling one; I'd have to check). It's a big city but it doesn't have a touristy feel as much as places like Rome or Venice do. Also if you go, you have to go up the Mole (which is on top of the cinema museum, and has an incredible view of the city and mountains) and go up to see Superga (which is a castle on top of the hill and once a plane crashed into it and apparently they left a lot of the damage alone as a memorial, and I didn't get to go see it so you should). And the best gelato and pizza in the world can be found there. Also there's interesting monuments/buildings/castles/statues everywhere. Torino is my favorite place.

Other Italian places: Venice and Rome are pretty touristy but wonderful to see if you've never been. Florence is beautiful and Bologna is pretty cool too - there's something like the first ever university there. (It's a little bit of a fuzzy memory because apparently we were standing in it and didn't realize, I dunno.)

In summary, Italy is great and you should totally go! There's museums everywhere and gelato everywhere and it's great.

As a side note: will you still largely have access to the forums when you're on your trip? In case I suddenly quit my job or something and want to go travel too?

 

[opaltiger]

Superga

This is very funny to me because Superga is an Italian brand of shoe that lends its name to the Slovenian word for sneakers. Ahem.

July and August are actually the two months this year I'm mostly /not/ going to be in Australia (instead I will be in Helsinki attending the World Science Fiction Convention. You win some, you lose some.) But if you're in Canberra(ish) in early July or late August (dates tbc), definitely look me up. (And feel free to hit me up for general Australia info, my family has some experience with extensive Australian roadtrips. :p) Also, be warned that July and August are not great for some parts of Australia. It's peak season for NT/the desert generally, but the south-east can be pretty dreary in winter.

Slovenia is quite pretty if you're into idyllic alpine landscapes with lakes and whatnot. Perfectly pleasant to visit. And I will genuinely vouch for Ljubljana. It's a beautiful city. Like Prague but smaller.

 

[Stryke]

Wish I could take part in this vacation, but I live in a not-very-notable small town in Michigan, and also I'd only be 14 by the time you swing around, so...
But if you for some reason do come here, sometime during February would be ideal, because that is one of our biggest festivals, with ice-carving, horses, food, and all the stuff you'd probably find in a festival.

Same here; I'm in a relatively big Michigan town, but we're right near and dwarfed by Detroit, so if you went out of your way to come to Michigan for some reason, then you should go to Detroit; it can be pretty awesome and way better than people give it credit for if you stay closer to the downtown area.

Also I'd also only be 14, so...

 

[Ether's Bane]

Unfortunately, [June] is the high season for Europe, which is not good for crowds or for my wallet... idk, I guess I could leave from Africa to SE Asia instead and then re-cross the Atlantic at the end of my trip to enjoy lovely Sweden in... January? See below for more on that dilemma, I guess.

If you can make it here in June, that would actually be pretty great for you, because this year, it's during Ramadan, with Eid on the 25th, so it would make it even more interesting as a tourist.

 

[Negrek]

Wish I could take part in this vacation, but I live in a not-very-notable small town in Michigan, and also I'd only be 14 by the time you swing around, so...
But if you for some reason do come here, sometime during February would be ideal, because that is one of our biggest festivals, with ice-carving, horses, food, and all the stuff you'd probably find in a festival.

Same here; I'm in a relatively big Michigan town, but we're right near and dwarfed by Detroit, so if you went out of your way to come to Michigan for some reason, then you should go to Detroit; it can be pretty awesome and way better than people give it credit for if you stay closer to the downtown area.

Also I'd also only be 14, so...

I actually lived in Michigan for most of my life, so I'm not particularly looking to go for another visit. Suggesting somebody visit in February, though, holy crap, that definitely wouldn't be my personal recommendation. XD

Sandstone-Shadow

Cinque Terre was actually my prime motivator for visiting Italy, heh. But then... we talked about that before, so I guess that doesn't need much elaboration. Venice was another place I figured I definitely ought to see, if only because global warming's probably going to mess with it pretty hard. =/

Thanks for all your suggestions! I haven't plotted out what I'm going to do in Italy in too great detail yet, so this gives me a lot to work with!

July and August are actually the two months this year I'm mostly /not/ going to be in Australia (instead I will be in Helsinki attending the World Science Fiction Convention. You win some, you lose some.) But if you're in Canberra(ish) in early July or late August (dates tbc), definitely look me up. (And feel free to hit me up for general Australia info, my family has some experience with extensive Australian roadtrips. :p) Also, be warned that July and August are not great for some parts of Australia. It's peak season for NT/the desert generally, but the south-west can be pretty dreary in winter.

Ah, too bad! We'll see, the dates on that part of the trip are very fuzzy at this point. And I'll definitely ask once I'm looking for more info on that part of the trip.

Yeah, I've consistently had trouble scheduling Australia optimally concerning the climate... waaaay back at the beginning when I was planning this I wanted to do it near the beginning, which at the time meant Jan/Feb a.k.a. BURNING DEATH TIME, according to the Australian people I know. Ultimately I'm probably going to have to deal with suboptimal weather conditions in some of the places I visit, and Australia just might end up being one of them.

If you can make it here in June, that would actually be pretty great for you, because this year, it's during Ramadan, with Eid on the 25th, so it would make it even more interesting as a tourist.

I almost definitely won't be able to, due to the timing of my Africa trip and wanting to see stuff in Europe before I leave for Asia, but thanks for the suggestion! I'm sure I'll have other opportunities to go travelling, so I'll keep this idea in mind for later.

 

[Sandstone-Shadow]

...huh we did talk about Italy somewhere then! I vaguely remembered talking about it but I didn't see it in this thread; I assumed I thought about writing it and didn't or something! Maybe it was a different travel thread haha.

 

[Negrek]

Yup, this thread right here. XD Don't think you ever mentioned where you ended up going, but I hope you had a good time!

Also, I realized I didn't actually answer your question... I will have internet for most of the trip, yes, and so access to the forums. I'll be cutting back my fandom participation significantly while I'm abroad, but I'll definitely still be checking in here now and again. :)

 

[RNP]

dude, this year in michigan was bonkers. It was, like, warm for most of winter but now, in march, it's cold, and we had zero snow during the holidays and it rained a lot and i think someonr broke michigan

 

[Stryke]

dude, this year in michigan was bonkers. It was, like, warm for most of winter but now, in march, it's cold, and we had zero snow during the holidays and it rained a lot and i think someonr broke michigan

I can confirm this. It's colder now than it was in February and that disturbs me.

 

[Keldeo]

This is very late and I'm not sure if you plan to travel within the US - but if you don't currently live in an area with In-N-Out Burger and you end up traveling to one (I think most of California has a nearby location) I'd definitely recommend checking their stuff out!

 

[Negrek]

dude, this year in michigan was bonkers. It was, like, warm for most of winter but now, in march, it's cold, and we had zero snow during the holidays and it rained a lot and i think someonr broke michigan

Yes, the weather has been unseasonably warm (and now getting unusually cold) throughout most of at least the eastern/central US.

This is very late and I'm not sure if you plan to travel within the US - but if you don't currently live in an area with In-N-Out Burger and you end up traveling to one (I think most of California has a nearby location) I'd definitely recommend checking their stuff out!

Never heard of that! Must be a west-coast chain.

 

[sanderidge]

Never heard of that! Must be a west-coast chain.

!!! it is definitely a west coast thing; actually I think it's only a california / parts of Arizona thing. they have amazing burgers that are actually fast food and not that new gourmet thing. get a milkshake if you go~

 

[Zero Moment]

!!! it is definitely a west coast thing; actually I think it's only a california / parts of Arizona thing. they have amazing burgers that are actually fast food and not that new gourmet thing. get a milkshake if you go~

Can confirm, In-N-Out has amazing milkshakes.

 

[Negrek]

Sooo I realized I never actually followed up on this ever. But in case you couldn't tell, I survived, I had a great time, and I've been back in the US for, uh, a while now. I got to meet a few of you along the way, which was fantastic--huge thanks to everyone who hosted me or otherwise met up with me. I really enjoyed getting to see you, and I hope we'll be able to do it again sometime.

Anyhow, if you're interested, I did post some pictures here. These cover about the first half of my trip and have not, uhh, been updated in a while, but this fall I am totally going to push for finishing up and posting the rest because dear lord I need to get this photo album finished and out of my life.