Restaurants near lake tahoe resort hotel

Sevierville, Tennessee

2018.09.10 04:55 AbsolutTBomb Sevierville, Tennessee

A subreddit for Sevierville, Tennessee

2023.05.29 04:05 redtullip Karni Mahal Jaisamand : Overall Guidelines

Karni Mahal Jaisamand, also known as Karni Palace Jaisamand, is a palace located near Jaisamand Lake in Rajasthan, India. The palace is situated on a hill and offers stunning panoramic views of the lake and surrounding landscapes.
Jaisamand Lake is one of the largest artificial lakes in Asia and is known for its natural beauty. Karni Mahal Jaisamand is a heritage hotel that provides accommodation to visitors who wish to experience the regal charm of Rajasthan. The palace has been converted into a hotel while retaining its traditional architecture and grandeur.
The palace hotel offers comfortable rooms and suites that are adorned with elegant decor and furnishings. The rooms are equipped with modern amenities to ensure a pleasant stay for guests. The hotel also provides facilities such as a swimming pool, spa, restaurant, and banquet halls for various events and functions.
Apart from enjoying the luxurious accommodations, guests can explore the nearby attractions including the Jaisamand Wildlife Sanctuary, which is home to diverse flora and fauna. Boating on Jaisamand Lake is also a popular activity for visitors.
Overall, Karni Mahal Jaisamand offers a blend of heritage, natural beauty, and modern comforts, making it a memorable destination for travelers seeking a royal experience in Rajasthan.
Contact - 8058917093 9694505744

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2023.05.29 04:04 Fabulous_Address_921 Pinoy's vacation culture

let me rant a bit. just came back from a week long vacation a few months ago. it was an international travel-vacation-work trip. had business to take of the 1st-2nd days and the rest of the week was for sigh-seeing and vacation.
went with a few friends who were also there although not for the entire week. so my rant is this - ganito ba talaga ang vacation ng mga pinoy? we spend the entire day going to places with famous landmarks - i.e. the dog, the tower, the temple etc - take pictures then off to the next landmark. when I think about it, past vacations with my family when I was younger were also like this. this feels like work to me. nagkamali ako at sinabi ko sa mga friends ko na naandoon ako that week kaya nagmeetup lahat. kung ako lang kasi mag-isa then I would have just gone to a single place, took pictures then have a leisurely stroll to all the places around the said landmark. eat at a restaurant and sit longer or until I see the place is full and people need my seat. then continue the stroll until tired and back to the hotel at night. I have been to these places before so I know the layout.
I have foreign relatives who take vacation trips to the Ph and they would stay for a month or several weeks and just relax in a resort for weeks at a time. no rush-rush to all the landmarks and take pictures and post on fb to show the world that 'they were here'. I know time is a reason for this but you will be missing the character of the place if all you do is go there to take pictures.
I think future vacations, I will go solo and take my time exploring the place and not be rushed. vacation means vacation!

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2023.05.29 01:19 Olbaidon [Race Report] Coeur d'Alene Marathon - My First 26.2

Race Information

Name: Coeur d'Alene Marathon
Date: May 28th 2023
Distance: 26.2 miles
Location: Coeur d'Alene Idaho
Website: https://runsignup.com/Race/ID/CoeurDAlene/nsplit
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9158648279/overview
Time: 3:58:17 (chip time)

Goals

Goal	Description	Completed?
A	Sub 4:00:00	Yes
B	Finish	Yes

Splits

Mile	Time
1	9:01
2	8:58
3	9:00
4	8:40
5	8:47
6	9:05
7	8:38
8	8:52
9	8:51
10	9:16
11	8:38
12	9:39
13	8:35
14	8:53
15	9:00
16	9:11
17	9:10
18	9:14
19	9:13
20	9:06
21	9:28
22	9:10
23	9:28
24	9:34
25	9:15
26	9:15
27	9:36 (pace)

Background

Feel free to skip this section if you don't want to read my sappy stuff.
I began running in March of 2022. In December of 2021 I was in the ER for what I thought was quite possibly a heart attack, luckily that was not the case! It did open my eyes to my health though and my wife and I began seeing a personal trainer, and a few short months later I fell in love with running. I really began this journey because I have two young daughters (7 and 2 currently) and the thought of continuing to ignore my own health seemed extremely selfish as it could lead them down a similar lifestyle path, or without a dad earlier than they deserve, ultimately I want to be on this earth as long as I can for my kids.
I live in Spokane Washington which hosts Bloomsday, one of the biggest races in the world (4th in the US and 12th in the world I believe), so running Bloomsday became my goal. Since I started in March I didn't have much time to train so just finishing the virtual was my main goal, once I completed that I was hooked. I signed up for my first 10k (The Coeur d'Alene Marathon 10k nonetheless) and set my goal to finish in 1 hour. I missed that goal by 1 minute and 1 second! After that I kept training working further and faster through reading tons of posts here and following mostly LSD training methods. I made my goal to qualify for a Bloomsday "yellow bib" by 2023 in any race I could (essentially a 9:40 pace or better in any race 5 miles or more).
I ran many 5k races in the subsequent months while deciding to begin training for my first half marathon in October of that year. I followed Hal Higdon's beginner half marathon training plan, and low and behold I finished my first half in October of 2022, and under 2 hours which qualified me for my Bloomsday "yellow bib" for 2023 which I ran with a pace of 7:45/min last month! (a lot better than my 9:40 goal from the previous years, I thank my marathon training for that really).
During all of this I have lost 50lbs, and am resting solidly in a "normal" BMI range.

Training

Due to my success with Hal Higdon before I opted for the Intermediate Marathon plan. I followed it pretty dang closely with a few moved or missed runs due to vacation and other races.
I knew CDA was hilly at around 1,300 ft of total gain and fall so I trained on lots of hills, luckily leaving my house in any direction is immediately met by hills, it just depends on how severe you want them to be. I also genuinely enjoy running hills, call me weird. Ther is a 800ft total elevation gain 8 mile route I take quite often near my house.
That was until 3 weeks ago Saturday. The day before Bloomsday I was getting my daughters some food and stubbed my toe on a bag of dog food...lol. I immediately knew I had broken and/or dislocated it because it didn't feel correct. If you have ever broken or dislocated a bone you know what I mean. I looked down and sure enough 4 of my toes we facing south like the rest of my body, and my left pinky toe was facing south-east. I put it back in it's place and headed to urgent care where xrays showed it was indeed broken. The doctor I saw advised me to skip Bloomsday and maybe even the marathon but he said "my wife is a marathon runner, 3x Boston runner, so I know you wont listen to me...just please listen to your body."
I decided to do Bloomsday the next day and use that for my basis on whether or not I would do the marathon. Luckily I had next to no pain during Bloomsday so I decided to do an extra extra hard and long taper and go for the marathon as well.
The last three weeks of my training consisted of no running for a week, 7 miles the next week, and 9 miles the week of the marathon. The goal being to just let my toe heal as best I could.

Pre-race

The week leading up to the race I began eating more carbs and attempting to drink more water (which I am notoriously bad at still), I did one medium length run, and two super short pace runs just to get my legs feeling right since it had been few weeks since I did any serious running.
The night before we ate a pasta dinner and I attempted to go to bed early.
As life would have it my oldest daughter was coughing all through the night, which would wake my younger daughter up causing her to cry, my wife tried to do the best she could to quickly calm them, but this was an all-night ordeal and unfortunately I only ended up with about 5.5 hours of decent sleep total.
I woke up at 4:30, had a shot of coffee with a glass of water, and a couple of honey stinger waffles with some peanut butter before getting ready and making the 40 min drive to CDA.
Once arriving I used the restrooms one last time, checked my bag, and headed to the starting gate to find the 4:00 pacer.

Race

My goal was to stay near the 4:00 pace runner for the first half, then negative split my way to just under 4:00 hours. This didn't work at all for me, although in retrospect it probably still would have worked about the same given my finish time. I stayed somewhat close for the first 3 miles, but once we started hitting hills I was able to keep my pace fairly consistent with little rise in HR or effort, like I said I love hills.
I honestly felt freaking fantastic for the first 15 miles, and don't have much to say, I was fairly consistent with my pace given the constant ups and downs, around mile 12 though I did cost myself 1 minute by stopping to pee, but you gotta do what you gotta do right. With the first half behind me it meant the three steepest climbs were too, and it was mostly jut rolling hills until mile 21ish.
Around mile 16 is when I started to really notice it getting tougher to keep a steady pace and I had to actually "work harder" to stay at a desired pace instead of running comfortably. The sun popped out for a couple of miles around this time too, but luckily dipped back behind the clouds. Again not really a whole lot to say from mile 16 to 22 either, I could definite tell I had to try harder, but I was still going strong, just a little slower.
Around mile 21/22 is when the last decent rise in elevation came and that's when I really had to start pushing, my mind started telling me "hey man, based on your pace you could slow it down to 10min/mile and happily finish right at 4:00:00." I tried to argue with myself "good call, after this mile we'll slow it down then." But I would tell myself this after each mile to try to keep going.
I remember a reading about dedicating the last handful of miles to people in your life to keep yourself pushing so I decided to do this, mile 23 I dedicated to my dogs, mile 24 my wife (yes it was slower than my dogs, but there was a bit more hilliness okay!! And mile 23 was mostly down hill). Mile 25 was for my older daughter, and 26 was for my younger daughter (notice how they had the exact same pace, no favorites here). Once I hit mile 26 I was back in the park where the finish line was, I passed my boss who was cheering me on (she ran the half), and a short distance later I saw my wife and girls which elated me greatly and helped with the last push through the gate. My oldest daughter ran along the grass with me til the finish, and my youngest tried which was a great feeling to finish with.

Post-race

After I crossed the line I snagged my medal and immediate went to get a banana, Gatorade, and a slice of pizza. Over the course of the last year of running, I have found I need to eat immediately after finishing or I get terrible GI issues and the wrong kind of runs. I found my wife and kids we took pictures, I snagged a second slice of pizza and got my bag so we could go. Little did I know my wife wanted lunch, so we went to a little restaurant on the lake and got fish and chips, then walked to get icecream for the mall near by. Ultimately I was okay with this because walking felt better than sitting or standing still anyway. I made the drive back home (we took separate cars), took my socks and KT tape off for the first time to see an angry angry blood blister on the inside edge of my right foot (luckily not under my foot so not an issue, I am used to blisters on my right foot though...never get them on my left) I did some foam rolling and took a super hot shower, and here I am now writing this and deciding what I want for dinner.
I told my wife before this started if I hit my 4 hour goal I would take a 2 year break from marathons and focus on halves...but I mean...I am already looking into fun ones in 2024...I gotta shoot for 3:45 or better now right?
Made with a new race report generator created by herumph.

submitted by Olbaidon to running [link] [comments]

2023.05.29 01:18 Olbaidon Race Report - First Marathon (Coeur d'Alene)

Race Information

Name: Coeur d'Alene Marathon
Date: May 28th 2023
Distance: 26.2 miles
Location: Coeur d'Alene Idaho
Website: https://runsignup.com/Race/ID/CoeurDAlene/nsplit
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9158648279/overview
Time: 3:58:17 (chip time)

Goals

Goal	Description	Completed?
A	Sub 4:00:00	Yes
B	Finish	Yes

Splits

Mile	Time
1	9:01
2	8:58
3	9:00
4	8:40
5	8:47
6	9:05
7	8:38
8	8:52
9	8:51
10	9:16
11	8:38
12	9:39
13	8:35
14	8:53
15	9:00
16	9:11
17	9:10
18	9:14
19	9:13
20	9:06
21	9:28
22	9:10
23	9:28
24	9:34
25	9:15
26	9:15
27	9:36 (pace)

Background

Training

Pre-race

Race

Post-race

submitted by Olbaidon to firstmarathon [link] [comments]

2023.05.29 01:07 BIGBOOSTING Sandals Royal Curacao Review

Just got back from Sandals Royal Curacao! This is a long review. I took over this subreddit to make it as informational as possible about the resorts, so here we go! Please feel free to ask any questions if I missed something.

Room:
We stayed May 22-27 in a Sunchi Swim-up Club Level room (HSUP). We were in Sunchi Building 8, which is the last building on one side of the resort. We stayed in 1253, which is the second-to-last room on the first floor. All that to say, Curacao is a long resort and you'll definitely get your steps in! But we were also right next to the dive shop, which was fantastic for us.

The swim-up room was amazing and highly recommended! We ended up using it more than the double infinity pool. They did a perfect job at keeping the in-room bar stocked with alcohol and juices/water (around 10am). We didn't have to call for anything once. So we would hang out in the pool (which connects across buildings 7 & 8, and there is a common area) and make our own drinks. Many times we were the only ones in the pool out of all the rooms. The swim-up pool is completely private, there is no entry except through a room, and there are a lot of gorgeous plants and flowers blocking it from the other side. Hummingbirds would be 1 foot away and were fun to watch. Floats are provided for each room. Use the ice bucket to keep bottles cool outside.

Ordering food from Room Service was consistently 40-45 minutes. At night it was quiet, as the music from the main area doesn't really reach building 8. No one would be in the swim-up pool after 10, it would start to get a little chilly with the wind. It gets very, very dark towards the Sunchi end of the resort. I recommend using the building side to reach your room, not the garden path.

Two subjective complaints:
(1) Housekeeping was very late. Some days they didn't come until 4-5pm, and the evening turn-down and towel replenishment didn't happen until 10pm. Between the swim-up and shower and wet floors, you NEED towels. We supplemented with the brown pool towels, grabbing them any time we went by the other pools. The late service could be because we were in the last building, but I'm not sure. The housekeepers did do a very thorough job and the rooms were clean and new.
(2) When we first checked-in, the back door's lock looked like it was forcibly broken and mangled. We had them replace it, but it still didn't lock. There is a second set of heavy wooden doors (blinds really) that do close and lock, so we weren't overly concerned. I don't think someone tried to break in, based on how the pool would make it hard to get to. But I can see someone getting locked out accidentally and having no other option but to break the door, since you can't get out of the pool area otherwise.

Restaurants/Service
The service across all restaurants and bars was outstanding. We never experienced a wait or long times to get our ordedrinks. The waitstaff were happy to talk to you and literally everyone says hello as you pass by. Concierge was perfect and accommodating as well. Restaurants had most of everything, and they would tell you what they're out of as you sat down.

Pietra - Our go-to breakfast buffet. At lunch they change the buffet to different food by country (Asian, Mexican, American, etc.). The food was all great at lunch. I ate too many fajitas.

Vincent - Reservation required. I recommend the Escargots and Foie Gras. They were out of the Cured Beef Bresaola.

Toteki, La Palma, Kishi - Food trucks. These were great for a snack. Get the cuttlefish and shrimp from La Palma, and the General Tso's Steak Bao Buns from Kishi.

Strand - For dinner, absolutely get the Snapper. It was my favorite meal of the trip. My husband liked the Surf & Turf at Strand better than Butch's. Strand also has a lunch menu with American-type items on it. The shrimp Caesar wrap was a nice light lunch.

Butch's - Reservation required. We went twice for dinner, once for breakfast. For dinner appetizers, try the Waldorf Caesar, Crispy Goat Cheese Salad, and Grilled Black Pepper Bacon (definitely that one). The Aged Prime Rib and Chargrilled Lamb Chops were great. We also had the Surf & Turf and Steak Diane which were very good too. Absolutely get the Willy Wonka Brulee - it was my favorite dessert on the resort.

Gatsu Gatsu - We went twice. The sushi here is so good. It's 4 pieces per roll. I recommend the Champagne Lobster and Caribbean Dynamite rolls. Shrimp tempura and crispy chicken karaage were our favorite appetizers. They were out of edamame and tonkotsu ramen.

Kanaal - Nice to pop into for a cappuccino or sweets.

Zuka and Aolo's - did not try.

Note: We wanted to order champagne (Veuve Clicquot) but the resort (or at least Butch's, Kanaal, and Pietra) was out of that and several of their Proseccos. We did end up getting 2 bottles of Prosecco though.

Scuba Diving
Scuba was great and the team was a lot of fun. You have to do a check-out dive if you haven't logged a dive recently (they do check your log book if you want to avoid the check-out dive). We did ours around 11am and were able to go on an afternoon dive the same day (we were waitlisted, but some didn't show up). You sign up for dives starting at 8am 2 days out, so if you want to dive Friday, show up on Wednesday morning at 8am to sign up. They do keep waitlists for each dive. The dive shop has lockers! Great for if your room is at the other end of the resort and you don't want to walk with your stuff every morning.

The dive schedule seems highly variable - while we were there, they did 2-tank morning dives Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and a 1-tank afternoon dive those days. Tuesday and Thursday they do a 1-tank morning dive, and 1-tank afternoon dive. I'm not sure about Saturday-Sunday since we weren't there. But, they said just a month ago they were only able to do 1-tank morning dives each day and no afternoon dives, as the water would get too choppy. And yes, the water was very choppy and it was windy all day. I saw a red flag or two at the resort while we were there. So you may want to check out the weather in Curacao the month you want to book.

They mentioned all the dive sites were 5-10 minutes away, but we were able to go Double Reef Thursday, the farthest site at 30 minutes. There were several turtles, a reef shark, squid, and a great variety of fish and coral. It was the best dive I've been in on years. However, they said it had been a month and a half since they'd been able to reach the site because of the choppiness. A couple on the boat had been able to go with an offsite-company and enter via shore, so that's an option as well.

City
You can take a cab from the resort to Willemstad for $49 each way. Our cab was private and air conditioned. The drivers were very nice. They dropped us off next to the CURACAO sign, and pickup was there too (they gave you a card and you call them 30 minutes before you're ready to leave). Right by the Curacao sign, there's a tiny alley with a white and blue cow - go down that alley for some great gelato. There's also an ice cream place near the sign that claims to give you an orgasm in less than a minute, but I didn't partake. There are lots of cafes and souvenir shops around Willemstad. There's a fresh fish and fruit market. You'll be near where the cruise ships dock. Check out the bridge and forts. Pop into a casino for some much-needed A/C. As an aside, a local man very persistently forced his help on us (where are you going, follow me down this alley, etc...) and wouldn't leave us alone and stop following us even after we said we knew where we were going, and ultimately asked for beer money, but the city seemed safe. There were several police officers around the streets we passed. Just be aware of your surroundings (as in any city).

Miscellaneous
The bus ride from/to the airport took us 40-45 minutes. It's a very nice and comfortable bus. You'll see a Sandals area at the end after you pick up your luggage. The airport was very nice and modern and quick to get through (we were first off the plane though). On departure, there seemed to be only one main hot food place after security, but they have a VIP/Priority Pass lounge that had some good light food on the buffet and a hot menu to order from as well. Check if your credit card has that as a perk to avoid the long line at the other restaurant. It opens at 1pm.

Spa/Gym - The spa was nice and clean. You have your own private bathroom/changing area in the table room versus a general locker room. The gym had a steady flow of people, but wasn't ever too crowded.

Curacao is HOT in May. Seriously. It was 86 every day, with a heat index around 96-97. Now, I was born and raised in South Georgia where it gets 95 with a 110 index in the summer, but this heat hit different. The UV index on my weather app said 11. Wear sunscreen and stay in the water. And get used to being wet - it'll either be pool water, ocean, or sweat depending on your location at the resort. It was mostly sunny every day, with a few clouds in the afternoon. No rain. At night it cools off well enough. Thankfully there's always a nice breeze going on. But stay hydrated and pay attention to your skin. Walking around the city with the heat was a bit much, we started at 9 and made it to 12 before calling it quits.

Tl;dr
I loved it! I highly recommend a Swim-up room, but maybe ask for a central building instead of on the edge of the resort (walking that far in the extreme heat with no shade gets old fast). Great service, wonderful staff. I would pick another month to go back though. May was just too hot for me!

Edited thoughts:

People get out to the main pool EARLY - there were people laying out at 7:30am. We were able to find a pair of chairs around 10 the one time we went to the infinity pool, but not around 2 the second time we thought about going.
This is subjective, but the beach was underwhelming. It's rocky on the side facing the ocean, and you aren't allowed to go down to the water. The side facing the inlet/strand just doesn't have that beach & open water forever feel. We didn't go down there except for the check-out dive (no dive pool)

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2023.05.28 22:39 cheerstonewdayz He put me in a dangerous situation, and I am still shaken up about it.

Back at the start of spring break, my then-boyfriend, Maverick (fake name, 22m) invited me (21f) to take a bus over to his college city to visit him for the weekend and then drive back home together that following Sunday since I work weekdays. I was hesitant about going mainly because the bus ticket was a little expensive. I explained this to Maverick, but he then offered to buy the bus ticket for me.
Fast forward to that Friday before spring break, I get on the bus. My hometown to his college city was roughly a 3-hour bus ride, and it was late at night. 30 minutes before I arrive, I let him know that I’m 30 minutes away and to get ready to pick me up and to let me know when he was here to which he texted back 15 minutes later saying “I will be near x street”. It was further down where I was dropped off, which I thought was weird but I walked over there anyway.
I couldn’t find his car and called to ask where he was. That’s when he said he hadn’t left his apartment yet. WHAT? I try to stay as calm as possible because I didn’t want to come off as nagging. There was also a spring break event going on in his city that I did not about until I got there. So he’s about to drive and asks where my drop-off spot was, even though it was emailed to him when he bought the bus ticket.
He calls back again and tell me he was just going to turn back and call an Uber for me because there were so many road closures due to the event. He only lives about 10-15 minutes away from my bus stop. He claimed the whole city was closed off as well. Maverick hates driving and gets anxious whenever he drives, which is why he tends to avoid it at all costs.
He gets to his apartment, and I text, “Next time, actually mean it or don’t say anything at all about being here when you were not”. He then texted back “I tried being there” “Can’t because of closures” and “Why are you abusing me?” He then told me to be grateful and acknowledge that he tried to pick me up and then went on to ask "How can you expect us to be in a relationship when this is how you are? Verbally abusive.”
We go back and forth arguing. I admit I was getting petty and asked if he was gonna block me again like a man-child and a baby and not face these things like adults. (He’s had a habit of blocking me mid-argument in the past). He texted back “You’re a fucking b*tch”, “verbal abuser”, and to “go to hell”. At that point, I didn’t want to stay in his apartment even though he had already sent an Uber for me. The Uber driver eventually canceled which made Maverick even angrier. He demanded I pay him back $45 for the bus ticket and $10-15 for the Uber.
It was 11 pm and all the passengers were gone. I at first managed to stay in the hotel lobby (since my bus dropped us off at a hotel) but was eventually kicked out. So I’m sitting on a bench outside, by myself, freezing while trying to find a hotel. In the end, I couldn’t find anywhere since the city is normally expensive so hotels/motels range anywhere from $150-$200 a night.
Maverick then told me he told his friend, Ramiro (early 20s m), and that even Ramiro said that I was a manipulative a**hole, who deserved to be called a b*tch and to be left out there. He’s not only allowing Ramiro to talk badly about me behind my back but to also harass me. He also said he was gonna tell our friend Edwin (22m) about this. I was so done. For a moment, I genuinely thought something was gonna happen to me. Homeless men were trying to talk to me, and I didn’t feel safe at all. Maverick did offer to get me another Uber, but I declined because I didn’t feel safe staying with him.
I then decided to call Edwin, only to ask if he knew anyone in the city I could stay with. It's past midnight. Edwin said he know no one asides from Maverick and asked what was going on. I didn’t want to pour everything out, so I gave him a short summary trying not to go into detail. Edwin then called Maverick demanding he picks me up. I told Edwin that I didn’t feel comfortable staying with Maverick, to which, Edwin explained that it was the best option since I was his responsibility the minute I got off the bus.
I felt bad because I did not intend of dragging Edwin into it. I was getting even colder, so in that moment staying with Maverick was my only choice. Maverick came to pick me up 10 minutes later. Because of how cold I was, I could barely walk properly. When I got in his car, I was shaking and didn't even look at him. We went straight to his apartment, and the only amount of energy I had left was to take my makeup off and pass out on his bed (as in sleep btw lol). I remember looking at the clock and it was almost 1 am.
The next day, we kinda talked things out, but there was no coming back from this. He pretended like nothing happened and took me out to a nice restaurant later that night and paid for both of our meals. I was still in disbelief. And the thing is, he still believed I was in the wrong and took it as if it was both of our faults due to a "miscommunication". Even when I tried talking about it, he would get angry and expect me to move past it.
I don't think I've ever been more shaken about a situation than the one he put me in. I am no longer with Maverick, and I also don't feel safe around him anymore. The fact that he still thinks I deserved what happened and that I was at fault is scary. I initially made an AITA post about this situation shortly after it happened and was voted NTA. I showed Maverick the post and even the comments calling him out on his behavior. All he said was and I quote "I feel like they're not getting the whole story". Then he went on to say that the AITA post ruined our relationship and demanded I made another one showing the chat logs instead. I genuinely feel like anything could've happened to me that night especially as a woman alone at night in a city.
I apologize for this post being a lot longer than intended. It was just a lot to unpack.

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2023.05.28 22:20 nopardaz Shipping containers history

Shipping containers are ubiquitous parts of the shipping industry. More recently, shipping containers are being used as storage, habitable buildings and even as building material for larger structures, like restaurants or hotels. But shipping containers were not always the omnipresent cargo boxes that dominate the dockyards as they do today.
In fact, shipping was handled entirely without them for most of oceanic shipping’s history. Shipping containers and the resulting “containerization” of the shipping industry were both relatively recent innovations that transformed the global economy and allowed for unprecedented development, low shipping costs, and a complete reinvention of oceanic shipping.
Let’s break down the history of shipping containers and examine the figures, developments, and decisions that led to the intermodal and worldwide containerized shipping system that all developed nations use to this day.

The First Transported Container

On 26th April 1956 the ‘Ideal X' was the first freighter to transport goods using McLean's new shipping containers. The ship transported 58 of the shipping containers from Newark to Houston. Shortly afterwards the first ship designed purely for carrying shipping containers the ‘Maxton', which could carry 60 shipping containers as deck cargo, was put into service.
In order to ensure that's McLeans new shipping containers could travel across the globe, and be handled at every port, it was necessary for the containers to be built to a specific standard and that every container built the world over met this exact specification. Eventually after many negotiations, an international standard was agreed the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) which set the shipping containers at lengths of 10', 20', 30' and 40', a width of 8', and a height of 8'6”.

Early ISO Shipping Container Designs

Patented in 1956 after numerous tests, the first ISO container was born. It was stackable and built with steel. Reinforced corners made it possible to stack the containers without causing damage. They were uniform in size, theft-proof and easy to load.
Dockworkers at the time, known as longshoremen, went on strike. They realised loading containers onto ships would require a smaller workforce. It was this downtime that enable McLean to refine his designs.
McLeans big new idea was a success. He negotiated with the New York Port Authority to convert the New Jersey side of the harbour into a container port. The business would grow steadily over next ten years.
Rea more: How containers keep your goods safe during transit

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2023.05.28 21:48 leofire97 JAPAN TRIP REPORT

Tokyo-Hakone-Kyoto-Nara-Osaka-Kobe
Just wanted to preface this and say that for my partner and I, jet lag became our friend. We got up super early with ease and did everything we wanted to do. So if jet lag is something worrisome for you, think of it as a positive 🙂
**all prices are in Canadian dollars which is 1:100 Japanese yen.
*sorry for any grammatical / punctuation errors
Takeaways:
-Fruit is expensive as heck in Japan!!!
-Bring plastic bags for garbage with you!!
-Going to the washroom & “dropping off your kids at the pool” is a * religious * experience
-Splurge on kobe beef & omakase!!-Get a bullet train / shinkanssen pass. We found that it was extremely worth it for the days we were in Kyoto, Nara, Osaka and Kobe as we used it everyday on the JR lines. For an entire week we did not replenish our Suica.
-Japan has this Peach water that tastes like REAL fruit juice. Identical to when you bite into a peach. GET IT!
-For money conversion, I found that my credit card gave me a better rate than converting my cash. However, cash is still king in Japan, especially in the markets.
-The japan metro/JSubway system etc is overwhelming at first however, we learned it the first day. Google maps was my bestie.
-The culture shock is huge. Japanese people are very dutiful. Everytime we needed help, locals would always go out of their way to make sure we got to our destination, even if that meant a 10minute detour for themselves. Japan is also very forward looking. I was impressed with how I was handed a sheet to put over my face to avoid my makeup getting on the clothes when trying things on.
-Comme les garçons does not let you try on their shirts 😣
8 May 2023 (Monday)Canada -> TOKYO
We checked in for our flight on air Canada as well as the Japan website.Highly recommend downloading Ubigi as an air sim and getting the suica card on your iphone wallet! Suica saved us a lot of time and we just tapped as we went along.
9 May 2023 (Tuesday) TOKYOArrived in Narita airport
I highly recommend getting the airport limo bus. I used this link: https://www.klook.com/.../2274-narita-haneda-airport.../...Service to and from the airport cost us 45$ canadian total per person and was a great choice since we did not have to worry about transfers on our first day in Japan. Lots of leg room, AC & WIFI.Our airbnb was near Okubo station. I loved our location as it was 1 stop away from shinjuku station and we had the best ramen. Restaurant is called Gomaryu.
10 May 2023 (Wednesday) TOKYO / shibazakura festival
Our trip was slightly changed as seeing Mt Fuji was important to us and this was the only day we knew for certain would be sunny! Initially, I had planned a chill day but we rearranged everything and went to the Shibazakura festival. I highly recommend going as it was beautiful with tons of Instagramable photo spots and great food vendors.
11 May 2023(Thursday) TOKYO / DISNEYLAND
I booked tickets for us on Klook for Disneyland.I have never been to any Disneyland but this one was truly magical! My partner and I cried after the beauty and the beast ride. We got to the park at 8am and werent let in till 9am. We were one of the first 10% of people who arrived. Keep in mind that people who stayed at the Disney resort got a 15mins head start so once it was our turn, we ran towards the B&B ride to which there was already a 3hr wait immediately. Paying an extra 20$/pp was a no brainer and 10000% worth it. Honestly never experienced nostalgia and magic to this degree. Also want to give a shoutout to the tower of terror 10/10 and 10mins lineup. The starwars ride was also superb for what it was. Alien mochi was worth the hype.

12 May 2023 (Friday) TOKYO / tsukiji market & sumo performance
Tsukiji market was worth visiting with the variety of food. I do not recommend getting anything “a5 wagyu” or sushi as it is not the freshest. I learned the hard way that not all sushi is made equally in Japan so splurge on an omakase (more on my experience later).I booked a sumo experience with klook: https://www.klook.com/.../75397-sumo-lunch-experience.../...Amazing meal (I still think about the katsu we had) and show! Was very intimate and got to fight the sumo wrestlers! This day was a core memory for sure.We also visited the unicorn gundam statue which was UNBELIEVABLE!!
13 May 2023 (Saturday) TOKYO
This day was supposed to be relaxing… but we somehow did 30k steps. We went to the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden (so beautiful and amazing starbucks!), Meiji Jingu shrine, imperial palace & yūshūkan museum (ww2 history & samurai)
14 May 2023 (Sunday) TOKYO bullet train to yunessan
This was the first day we had for activating our shinkansen pass. We travelled to an onsen in the mountains of Hakone. It is called Yunessan onsen and it was AMAZING. It is the onsen where you can bathe in wine, coffee, sake, green tea etc. We for some reason did not have high expectations but it superseded everything. We paid extra for the fish bath where they eat your dead skin (so ticklish and a crazy experience) and we went to the adult part of the onsen where everyone is naked. Here we found ourselves submerged in lemon water while it was raining with a view of the mountains. Truly a sublime experience
15 May 2023 (Monday) TOKYO -> KYOTO We walked everywhere this day.Saw the emperor, checked out Kinnkaku-ji (Golden Temple), and Yasaka shrine (had the best matcha soft serve)
16 May 2023 (Tuesday) KYOTO We Travelled to Fushimi Inari shrine (super busy and touristy but worth it!), nara park to see the bowing deer , saw the Todaiji temple and visited the famous mochi making place called nakatani mochi shop and saw the show! Best mochi I had all trip. We decided not to go to the Arashiyama bamboo forest as it did not seem worth it from other people’s reviews.
17 May 2023 (Wednesday) KYOTO -> OSAKA Kuromon market had everything similar to Tsukiji market in Tokyo. One thing i loved here were the sweet potato chips that had sugar and salt coating. We also visited a micro pig cafe and the animals seemed very happy. Dotonburri had so many food options.
18 May 2023 (Thursday) OSAKA -> KOBE -> OSAKA My partner had a religious experience here as we both had the best beef of our life. We had kobe and wagyu beef at mouriya honten in Kobe (we travelled here using our JR pass so it was *technically free*). I wanted to take some time to note how amazing the hospitality was and that the chef cooked our beef in thirds. He made sure that every slice of beef we put in our mouth was still hot and watched as we ate to gage when to start searing the next slabs of beef. I WAS AMAZED!!! Total spent here was $240 CDN.Next we visited the zoo in Osaka and it was only 5$ CDN! (500 JAPANESE yen). I have never seen a red panda before so that was the highlight for me!After this we did mario kart in the streets of Osaka/Dotonburi. https://www.klook.com/.../8590-street-go-kart.../...I originally wanted to book it for us in Tokyo but it was booked out for a month!! However, the tour guides were amazing and it was a blast. I am not sure why others advised against it and that local Japanese people are annoyed by this activity because I found everyone waving at us, smiling and taking videos. 10/10 activity.
19 May 2023 (Friday) OSAKA. I never had soufflé pancakes so I made a reservation for us at Happy Pancake in Osaka. WAS DELICIOUS AND THE LINE WAS SO LONG FOR PEOPLE WHO DID NOT MAKE A RESERVATION. Also the fruit was really worth it as I said before, Fruit is very hard to come by.The rest of the day was for exploring Dotonburi and shopping.
20 May 2023 (Saturday) OSAKA -> TOKYO Free day!We had michelin ramen for 15$ in … A SUBWAY STATION. Ginza kagari! The creamiest broth with chicken and truffle. It was life changing to say the least. We go there at 4pm and the line only formed after we left.
21 May 2023 (Sunday) - Last full day 🙁 TOKYO We had an omakase booking at Sushi Yajima and I was so happy. It is run by a old couple who speak PERFECT english. The freshest fish and each person only paid 44$! I made sure to research this place and many other omakase experiences and this was worth way more than what we paid for. The husband was making the nigiri for us and he said the funniest things! He was plating tuna for my partner and said: “This fish is Viagra. You are strong man so you don’t need it, but I need it” HIGHLY RECOMMEND IF YOU ARE ON A BUDGET AND WANT TO EXPERIENCE THE BEST SUSHI IN JAPAN. 😂
22 May 2023(Monday) TOKYO ->back home

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2023.05.28 20:52 basic_dissident Best neighborhoods/hotels for a slutty weekend in LA

I am going to be spending a Sunday layover in LA in a few weeks and I’m trying to get around a bit. I’m trying to figure out what neighborhoods/hotels to stay out to have the best luck of getting as much action as possible 😏 Does anyone have any suggestions or experiences that could help me make this call?
I typically am into the more ottehairy/alternative type than the typical twinky LA type so I’m thinking about some place other than WeHo. Would a place like Silver Lake (near the Eagle perhaps?) be a better bet?
Also, does anyone have any experience with the bathhouses/sex clubs in LA? Any recs there that could be helpful?
Any and all info welcome and happy hunting 😈

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2023.05.28 20:16 Mortimer_Whimsiwick World Hunger Games: 17th Hunger Games: Day 2

With the first day gone, Artemis and Luther gave their analysis and previewed public polls. Mortimer had usurped Wolvthorne (7) as the favourite to win after his victory against the District 1 tributes as well as exercising his chemistry prowess. Surprisingly, Cat had risen up the ranks as well, being the third favourite to win. Luther remarked how if Mortimer wins the games, they would have the seventh consecutive Golden Victor on their hands. Artemis then said the same could be said about Cat if she does something spectacular with her therapy skills. Luther reminded everyone that they were two tributes away from the final round of bets.
The cameras checked on the progress of the tributes. Mortimer stepped away from the boiling water to gather more logs for his raft project while his allies slumbered. Andrei (2) and Wolvthorne (7) were resting back at the cornucopia after failing to find more tributes. What they didn’t know was that John (9) had managed to steal a water bottle and a knife from them while on patrol. Carnelia and Logan (11) both were still in the eastern sector while Horace (10) continued to stay out of sight. Wren (5) and Jassy (12) were struggling to sleep inside a hollowed out log yards away from the lake shore.
Cat and Pearl awoke to see Mortimer napping on a nearly completed raft. Cat correctly guessed he stayed up all night working on it. She asked Pearl why he was making it. Pearl explained his logic behind it and Cat agreed it made sense something valuable would be on the other side. Pearl woke Mortimer from his nap while Cat filled the water bottles and pulled out the sandwiches. Mortimer was annoyed with himself for dozing off, but Pearl assured him nothing had happened since the portraits of the fallen. She urged him to eat breakfast before resuming his raft project. He relented and the two joined Cat.
Cat out of the blue asked if he could sing like his mentor. Mortimer was caught off guard but shook his head. Pearl regaled how Gill would sometimes burst into spontaneous song when visiting The Brine. Cat said that from a therapist’s perspective, it’s good to have someone in the community keep spirits high. Mortimer asked if Phoebe was hers, to which Cat nodded. She said that if she wins, she will provide District 6 another high spirits person. She asked the two what they would do if they won. Pearl announced her intent to open her own restaurant and clean the Grotto Hole neighbourhood. Mortimer agreed that the place needed some “R&R”. The two girls stared at him. He realised he hadn’t answered Cat’s question and rolled his eyes. He admitted he would hopefully marry his girlfriend and get his father some medical treatment. Cat seemed confused by him saying hopefully, but he returned to his raft project before she could ask. Pearl told her, “I appreciate what you’ve been trying to do for him. Considering he’s the most likely of us to go home, he needs to be in a better headspace.” Cat smiled and patted her on the back. She went off to relieve herself with Pearl accompanying her.
The next two hours went without much incident. There was some entertainment in Wolvthorne (7)’s agitation of not finding more tributes, Andrei (2) complaining about the smell, and the D11 tributes munching on leeches. However, interest was peaking when the tracking system caught Wolvthorne and Andrei (2) unknowingly closing in on Cat and the D4 tributes. A moment of triumph came when Mortimer had completed his raft, which measured 6’x10’. Pearl asked how they knew it would float. Cat decided to test it by standing on it while Mortimer pushed it off the shore. He kept it from floating away using the sturdy rope. A big smile spread across Mortimer’s face when seeing it float. He pulled the raft back in and suggested they pack up and begin their journey.
The three began gathering their materials. Cat went to grab the last backpack when all of a sudden, she heard a splash of water. She looked up and spotted Andrei and Wolvthorne bursting through the brush. She dropped the backpack and blocked Andrei’s attack with her sword. She dodged his next attack but wasn’t aware of Wolvthorne circling around to kill her. He was stopped by Pearl, who threw a rock at his head. Wolvthorne looked up and spotted her and Mortimer at the edge of the lake. He raged at the sight of Mortimer and bolted towards them. Pearl jumped onto the raft and urged Mortimer and Cat to retreat. Mortimer realized she was right as he had left his trident on the raft. As for Cat, she turned to see Mortimer and Pearl push off the shore and escape Wolvthorne. Desperate to reach them in time, she spat in Andrei’s face and slashed his face with her sword. She dove into the water and swam towards the raft. Artemis guessed she was a strong swimmer as she managed to catch up to the raft. Pearl quickly pulled her up onto the raft. All the while Wolvthorne threatened Mortimer with a gruesome death, his language having to be censored by the Capital.
The trio slowly moved through the lake, relieved to be far away from danger. The first hour was silent as Cat was upset with nearly being left behind. Pearl sensed the tension and waited for the first person to speak up. Unfortunately, Mortimer was unperturbed and continued to watch the trees and the water’s surface. In the commentator’s booth, Artemis described the drama as juicy and wondered if they would turn on one another. Luther was on the fence as well, remembering how Mortimer left without hesitation. Eventually, Pearl broke the silence and said, “Will someone please start talking as I’m tired of hearing the dead air.” Cat said she’d be willing to talk if her partner apologized. The annoyed and oblivious Mortimer asked what he had to be sorry for. Cat reminded him that he didn’t try to help her fight Andrei and left her to die. He argued that there was no time, but Cat recalled how he stood there “like a passive waste” as she struggled against Andrei and Pearl hurled rocks at Wolvthorne. Mortimer took offence to that comment. The two began hurling insults at each other while Pearl stood watching. She tried interjecting but her voice was lost in the chaos. Strangely enough, Andrei and Wolvthorne could hear the pandemonium while running along the shoreline. Their interest caused them to miss John (9) sneaking past and hightailing it to the cornucopia. The fight ended when Cat accused Mortimer of plotting to kill her and he blurted out, “I only kept you around for Pearl. But when an opportunity presented itself, I took it. I refuse to get screwed over again.” Cat was surprised by the sudden revelation and her face morphed to one of shock and understanding.
Mortimer was frustrated by the whole ordeal and sarcastically said, “Well, now the cat’s out of the bag. You now know after all this, I still have issues. Are you happy?” As he said the last sentence, he thrust his arms in the air and accidentally sent Pearl plummeting into the water. The splash pushed the raft forward. Mortimer quickly anchored the raft to a tree and Cat asked if she was alright. Pearl gave them a thumbs up, reminding her that she could swim. Cat urged her to return to the raft. Suddenly, Mortimer was freaking out. He noticed that the chemistry kit was missing from the backpack. Pearl guessed it fell in the water and sank to the bottom. She volunteered to swim down and grab it. He objected to this idea and offered to go himself. But before he could dive in, he saw nothing but the ripples on the surface. Underwater cameras found Pearl navigating the cloudy water searching for the kit, which was fortunately sealed in a waterproof box. Leeches attached themselves to her arms and legs, but she continued to swim. On the surface, Mortimer began berating himself for what happened. Cat assured him it was an accident and that Pearl could take care of herself. Mortimer felt slight relief, commenting how she did set the breath holding record.
Suddenly, something floating in the distance caught his eye. From his perspective, it looked similar to a log. However, when he squinted and leaned closer, he could make out big green eyes. It was a ten foot alligator and it was swimming closer. Mortimer’s terror heightened when he spotted two more coming from behind it. Pearl found the kit and burst out of the water, surfacing a mere three metres away from the raft. When she disrupted the water’s surface tension, this signalled to the alligators of prey in the water and they darted towards her. Cat screamed for her to get out of the water. The confused and terrified Pearl turned to see the sudden danger and screamed. She tossed the kit onto the middle of the raft and swam desperately to Cat’s outstretched hand. Mortimer grabbed his trident and was ready to stab any gators that came near.
The first alligator reached the raft before her and was on course to bite her head clean off, but was quickly stabbed in the neck by Mortimer and pushed away before it could do anything. A split second before Pearl could grab Cat’s hand, the second gator latched its jaws onto her right foot and began to pull her under. Mortimer impulsively dove into the water with trident in hand. He stabbed it in the eye and pushed its jaws open to help Pearl escape. Seconds later, the third and final gator latched onto Pearl’s waist and wrenched her free from Mortimer’s grasp. Mortimer cursed to himself, the bubbles giving the Capital a brief comedic moment in the chaos. He swam up to the surface to catch his breath before diving back down to save his partner. It didn’t take long to find his partner still in the gator’s clutches. His fear for her safety heightened when the gator began rolling and twisting her body around like a ragdoll.
In the commentator’s booth, Luther explained to the audience that the gator was commencing a “death roll”, an effective technique they use to kill and dismember their prey. Mortimer quickened his pace and lined his shot up when suddenly, the gator’s tail slapped him across the face. The sharp tip of the tail cut across his right eye, emitting a small mist of blood into the green water. The unexpected attack blinded Mortimer and caused him to drop his trident. He covered his eye to see better and saw the gator still rolling Pearl. He swam towards them and wrapped his hands around the gator’s neck. He fastened his legs around the neck and jabbed both of his thumbs into its eyes. The rolling stopped but the gator didn’t let go of Pearl’s now limp body. Mortimer grabbed the snout and pulled back as hard as he could, only sending everyone deeper into the lake. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted his trident and abandoned the gator to grab it. The gator tried to swim away, but Mortimer was quicker and stabbed it in the back of the neck, paralysing it and causing it to drown five minutes later.
Unfortunately, a cannon sounded while he was away. Pearl’s body floated to the surface, a mass amount of red spreading around her lifeless body. Mortimer dragged her body towards the raft and received assistance from Cat. Cat checked her vitals as he dragged himself onto the raft, still covering his eye. Cat stared at him with teary eyes and shook her head, signifying Pearl’s death. Mortimer began to cry, mourning the loss of his partner. The tears irritated his injured eye, making the scene all the more devastating. It was reported that back in District 4’s town square, Pearl’s older sister Henrietta was arrested after assaulting a peacekeeper in anger after he mocked her death to his comrade.
Cat cut off a sleeve of her Lycra swim piece and created a makeshift rag. Mortimer rummaged through his chemistry kit, Luther calling it his “hat of tricks”, and grabbed some leftover algae in a vial. Cat insisted he let her do it, but Mortimer argued that he had to do it. Cat grabbed a leech from Mortimer’s leg and dropped it in. Mortimer then poured in the last of his hydrogen peroxide, placing it in a stopper before shaking the tube. He then stared at the tube as the contents became a black goo. When the process was completed, he ignited it, creating a flame with a sulphury smell. Cat realized his hands were shaking at this point and insisted she apply the goo to his eye. Mortimer relented and allowed her to do so. She told him he was lucky his eyeball was unaffected but had to use some of their water to wash the blood out.
During the process, the two ignored the two cannons that rang in the distance. They were revealed to be Wren (5) and Carnelia (11), both having fallen victim to the alligator mutts. The difference was that Jassy (12) refused to budge from her small island while Logan (11) was relieving himself when his partner died. The arena was silent overall as the surviving tributes collected themselves from the attacks. Other notable events being Andrei (2) and Wolvthorne (7) fending off a congregation of five alligators, being considered one of the most dangerous mutt packs ever.
Back in the commentator’s booth, Artemis was geeking out over the recent events. She considered Andrei and Wolvthorne barely Golden Victor material, adding that Mortimer was “definite”. Luther claimed to believe Cat was the same as well, with Artemis claiming she was a hair away. She diverted the topic to Mortimer and his great performance taking on three gators single-handedly. Luther wondered how he was feeling after failing to save Pearl, guessing he was blaming himself. This made Artemis interested in whether Cat could exercise more of her therapy skills.
Mortimer and Cat sat in silence as the raft continued to drift into the northwest sector. Cat took it upon herself to steer as Mortimer was lying down lost in a pool of tears. Cat eventually sat down and asked him if he was alright. At first, he didn’t answer, prompting Cat to tell him, “As your therapist, I suggest you let it all out. It will make you feel better.” The therapist part received a weird look, but Mortimer took a deep breath. More tears came out as he blamed himself for Pearl’s death, pointing out that he was the one who caused her to fall out. Cat assured him that it was an accident, but Mortimer argued that if he didn’t have trust issues with Cat, they wouldn’t have been fighting in the first place. Adding insult to injury, Pearl’s final act was to put his chemistry kit (their survival) over her own life. Cat agreed that his trust issues were a problem. She told him to explain what he thinks is the root cause of his issues. Mortimer was reluctant, but Cat explained that being honest about his childhood and inner demons could make all the difference. She rhetorically asked, “Whether you die here or win this thing, you want to go out a new man or not?” Mortimer admitted she had a point and decided to regale his childhood experience.
As told by Mortimer, he grew up with his father Edward Beckett, Faroe Island Base engineer, and his unemployed mother Ursula. After a workplace accident fractured his back, he was medically discharged and sent back to District 4. With no source of income to support them, Ursula left the family and never came back. Mortimer had no choice but to enter the workforce early in order to support himself and his disabled father. A few kindhearted adults, including Gill Henderson and Pearl’s father Alexander Riverstone, offered to lend their support. However, hurt by his mother’s abandonment and being bullied at school, he turned them away. Eventually, he dropped out of school at age nine and found work in a shipyard. Bullying would still persist outside of the workplace, even having his hard earned fishing equipment stolen by troublemakers like Adrian Carrick. It was around age fifteen when he first got himself entangled in a covert smuggling operation with District 6, trading fish and hooks in exchange for warmweed and soda bottles. On rare occasions, refugees fled the district and were given fake IDs. Mortimer saw what warmweed did to his peers and vowed never to consume it himself. He did notice the health benefits it possessed as a pain reliever and took it upon himself to study warmweed and find out a safe way to feed it to his father. He requested chemistry equipment and textbooks on his smuggling trips. He learned about the science of warmweed and engineering a method to separate the SHC (medical component) from the TBA (psychoactive compound) through trial and error. He would feed the SHC to his father, enabling him to walk for limited periods with assistance from a cane, and using the TBA in a secret grotto as bait to catch fish. Though there was no evidence, the citizens knew who the smugglers were and looked upon them in disdain.
In present time, Mortimer began to tear up some more, knowing what the next part was. Cat comforted him and assured him he could take a break. Mortimer insisted he finish. He talked about his girlfriend Meridia Vilewater, who against her family’s wishes, fell for him and successfully befriended him. He admitted that he found her presence annoying at first, but realized her feelings and intent were genuine. He began to fall for her as well, further cementing his hoodlum image. He even talked about the Kraken tattoo she did for him. Mortimer lamented how he took her for granted a lot and didn’t reciprocate as much as she did. He asked himself why she would continue to see him. Cat pondered over this for a few seconds. She told him that Meridia recognized his dedication to his father and knew deep down that he was a compassionate person. “What’s not to love?” Cat said. “You are handsome, strong, and talented. Come to think of it, the parallels between you and your mentor are hard to ignore.” Mortimer said that Gill was right on how he was basically him if he suffered worse. Cat guessed that’s why he took a personal interest in him.
Cat told him that even though he was dealt a heavy hand in life, he shouldn’t completely give up on humanity. She expressed how she was always close to giving up, having to see addicts tarnishing their bodies willingly and turning their nose up to treatment. However, it was the one in ten successful cases that continually recapture her hope. Cat continued how he already was taking a good first step in trusting Meridia and takes that as a sign of him having the potential to let himself be happy. Mortimer pondered over this and agreed. He made a solemn vow that if he wins, he would make things right with everyone, adding how Pearl would want that. Cat offered her hand in helping him make it to the end, declaring their victory to be for Pearl. Mortimer thanked her for listening and promised that if she wins, she will make an excellent therapist.
Suddenly, a cannon sounded in the distance. It was revealed to be Logan (11) after Horace (10) took advantage of his hysterics and beat him to death with a log. The heart to heart talk captivated the Capital, touched by Mortimer’s rare moment of vulnerability and in awe of Cat’s therapy skills. Both of their odds greatly increased, sharing first and second place. Artemis conceded and said Cat was Golden Victor material now, but hoped she does something explosive in the finale.
The next several hours were uneventful and tributes were still on edge. They had a perfect reason to as there were still alligator mutts patrolling the deeper bodies of water. The water had become so cloudy that one couldn’t see an inch below the surface. On top of that, the sulphur smell had gotten worse, causing some tributes to dry heave and cover their mouths. Jassy (12) took longer than expected to do this, her dry heaves giving Maximus Square a laugh. John (9) was bitten on the thigh by a gator when he got too close to the lake. He killed it with his knife and dragged himself into a hollow log to patch himself up. Andrei and Wolvthorne were camping close to John’s hiding spot. They were gorging on the food and water sponsors gifted them after killing the gators while complaining to each other about the smell. They left one water bottle unattended, giving a window of opportunity for Peggy (8) who hid in a tree over the course of the games. She was caught by Wolvthorne, but managed to escape with the water bottle. During the chase, Wolvthorne tripped and spotted John inside the log. He dragged him out of the log and proceeded to hack him to death with his axe in a fury. John’s cannon sounded at the fifth strike. The Capital fangroup The Mutts cheered for Peggy’s victory, but they received jeers from the Buccaneers (D4 fangroup) and the Lumberjacks (D7 fangroup).
It was near sundown when Mortimer and Cat entered unfamiliar territory. After three deaths in under an hour, the smell was much worse. Cat nearly fell off the raft while struggling to hold her breakfast in. They landed at a small shoreline and came face to face to a heavy brush. Cat picked up a small log and hurled it into the brush. When nothing bounced back, she guessed there was a secret area behind it. She commended Mortimer for being right and asked what they should do. He stated that as much as he wanted to explore, it was getting dark and they should camp. Cat agreed and the two started a fire. She became exasperated by the sulphur smell and asked how they could ignore it. Mortimer borrowed her sword and ripped one of their backpacks to shreds. He tied some pieces together and fashioned them into masks. The two now had something to barely stave off the powerful sewer smell.
Their relief turned to dismay when they discovered their last water bottle had one gulp left. What made the situation worse was that with no more hydrogen peroxide, they lost their means of purifying more water. Mortimer insisted she drink it. Cat accepted it and drank it. She raised the water bottle in the air and asked the sky to “fill her up”. Surprisingly, two sponsor gifts floated down to them seconds after saying this. One held a first aid kit while the other had two water bottles and two sandwiches. Cat doctored Mortimer’s right eye with a special cream from the kit. After she was done, the two ate their sandwiches.
Cat asked to see his tattoo. Mortimer shyly rolled his lycra suit off. The Kraken and the treasure chest became visible. Cat crawled closer and traced her fingers on the tentacles, marvelling at the design. Mortimer revealed Meridia liked to paint and desired to be District 4’s first female tattoo artist, using him as her guinea pig. He didn’t forget to attribute the treasure chest and polishing to Minerva. The viewers in Maximus Square were sensing the sexual tension, oohing and aahing as Cat continued to trace the tentacles. Artemis was fanning herself in the commentator’s booth, hoping the two would kiss. Luther slapped her shoulder, reminding her he had a girlfriend. Cat’s fingers arrived at the treasure chest on Mortimer’s actual chest and the two locked eyes. The two leaned closer until their faces were two inches apart. The sudden awareness of their actions dawned on them and they awkwardly distanced themselves by five feet. Mortimer said he was loyal to Meridia and didn’t want to betray that trust even in the arena. Cat apologised, excusing it to her imagining what might have been if she asked her coworker Pedal out. Mortimer promised her that she could do it if she wins. She thanked him, him joking how it felt good to be the therapist this one time. The rest of the night was without incident. A hovercraft entered the arena to display the portraits of the fallen. The fallen included Pearl (4), Wren (5), John (9), and Carnelia and Logan (11). This left Andrei (2), Mortimer (4), Cat (6), Wolvthorne (7), Peggy (8), Horace (10), and Jassy (12) remaining.

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2023.05.28 19:25 Tiiimmmaayy Anniversary ideas?

Hello everybody, my 4 year anniversary with my gf is coming up and she requested we do something different than just dinner this year. We usually just go to a fancy steakhouse to celebrate.
I am still fairly new to the Dallas area and have actually never visited in the downtown area since we live up in the Frisco/Plano area. I was thinking about getting a nice hotel near downtown and do some activities. Any suggestions? I know she has always wanted to go in the reunion tower, but the restaurant has been fully booked for months now. Can we still go up there for just drinks at the bar without a reservation? If not I guess we can just go up to the observation deck. I see they have tickets to go up in the day and at night.
Which is a nice area to stay in? I will most likely be using either marriot, Hilton, or Hyatt points for a free hotel. I think I have enough points across all 3 of those properties for a free night.
We are not into the club scene, so a more laid back cocktail/piano bar is more our scene in the evening. Any good day activities?
Thank you, and I appreciate the help!

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2023.05.28 19:19 avonitramazle Suggestions for USA

I'll go to the USA for Work&Travel program this summer. I'll spend 2 months working near Richmond, VA, then I'll have about a week for travelling somewhere before going back to Richmond and then home.
Where should I go? Is it worth it spending a day or two just for travelling to/back from West coast? Should I stay close to Richmond?
I'll probably have a chance to visit NYC, D.C, Niagara Falls, Virginia Beach during the working period, so I'm not interested in those.
I'd prefer nature, mountains, rivers, lakes, outdoorsy stuff, like hiking, rafting, cycling, maybe a national park. Basically I'm not that interested in cities, museums, fancy hotels, restaurants.
Right now I'm looking at cheap flight options to Denver or Las Vegas. Keep in mind that I won't have a car, so getting to national parks or similar places will be hard. I'm open to any suggestions.

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2023.05.28 18:52 NoReflection269 Fine dining restaurant near the pod hotel

Hi
Im looking for a romantic upscale restaurant to take my wife. We’re going to be in Brooklyn this summer for a few days, staying at the pod hotel. It seems like most of the upscale restaurants are in Manhattan. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

submitted by NoReflection269 to Brooklyn [link] [comments]

2023.05.28 17:23 darkerenergy Trip Report: 18 days + Golden Week (25/04 - 13/05)

Tokyo - Yokohama - Nagoya - Kyoto - Osaka - Tokyo

Hi all, going to go through our trip covering golden week and time around it (: It was myself (F21) and my partner (M24) and the reasoning behind the timing was mainly due to bank holidays in the UK being unfortunately placed perfectly in line with golden week this year! Despite this, I feel we actually got pretty lucky with it all. I'll put an emoji to note which days were for golden week but for the tl;dr we weren't affected that much.
Other important contexts, both interested in Japan for a few different reasons. Anime isn't a small one but I'm also a huge fan of the Yakuza games, he's into the JDM car scene, and we just enjoy travelling in general. We didn't do many things like Universal, Disneysea etc. but hopefully there's some things in here that people will enjoy hearing about! I'll go through some tips/recommendations for the casual readers first before going into the trip in depth - please let me know if there's anything else you want to know about!

Tips + Recommendations

Yamato Takkyubin Luggage Forwarding If like us you are going to be staying in quite a few different places, this service is so so so good I cannot overstate it. We had two big suitcases and one smaller one, we sent just the big ones for two of the trips and then for the final trip from Osaka to Tokyo we sent all 3 and just used our backpacks to bring essentials for the night.Pretty much all hotels will allow you to use the service, some may request you pay them with cash for the actual service but for all but one of ours we could use card. We sent Yokohama -> Kyoto, then Kyoto -> Osaka, then finally Osaka -> Tokyo. There are options for same day delivery I believe however we did both the next day and for a few days later. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments and I'll answer if I can!
Trip Planning I've been fortunate to be able to travel a lot so wasn't nervous about the actual travel, however Japan is such a far away country that I didn't want to go and get there then not know what to do and waste my time. In the past holidays with family were more about relaxing on a beach, or with my partner our city breaks are short as they are other European countries and so easier to return to if we wanted. I wanted to take a different approach to this trip so I made a big Google Sheet and Google Map with all the places I wanted to visit/see. It was never meant to be a strict itinerary as some people I showed seemed to assume 😅 But it really helped me to visually see where things I wanted to go to were, and then make a rough plan in case I did get stuck at some point.Anyway it was a really good idea in hindsight and I'm very glad we did it for this trip as our first time going! Here's a picture of the map looks like, we didn't necessarily do everything but we did most things - https://i.imgur.com/2xLyy7Y.png. I used mymaps.google.com, to be honest there's definitely betteeasier to use tools out there but I got this to work for me so I stuck with it.
Walking People aren't kidding about the amount of walking, although I think our top amount was still under 30k so don't worry too much. That said, if you don't walk a lot anyway then your feet are going to hurt. My partner was fine, I was awful. I thought my shoes would be fine and apparently they weren't so if you can pack walking boots please do. The other thing is I think the way you walk affects it too, my partner and I both had multiple pairs of shoes with us but where his converse boots were fine, the soles of my feet were awful in the same types of shoes 😭
Driving I am not a driver but my partner is. He has a full manual UK driving license and insurance, and so for Japan all he needed was to get the International Driver's Permit a little before we went. We rented a car for three different occasions, two times from the same place then the final was for a JDM rental. All was fine, the JDM place was confused for a moment as my partner has a Polish passport + UK license but we translated Poland for him and after that there were no issues! You'll need to check what you need depending on where you're from, it's easier for us due to the same driving side although when we rented for Daikoku and the Nagoya drive they did give us an automatic so just be aware of that if you want to request/drive manual. The rental places we used were Orix rent-a-car for the Daikoku and Yokohama -> Nagoya trip and we had a Mazda 2. For the JDM rental we used Omoshiro.

Trip Report

Tokyo

25/04 - Airport, Shinjuku hotel, Shinjuku We followed a similar first day that I'm sure many of these reports will begin with - arrived at the airport, we had filled out the VJW forms and had both QR codes ready to go. Immigration had about an hour wait so longer than normal but we were also near the back of our plane and there was at least another full plane in front of us. Actually going through immigration was a complete breeze. Once through and picked up our luggage, we got a Welcome Suica, then headed to Shinjuku. We reached our hotel about 4 hours early for check-in, wasn't sure what to do for that time but they were happy to take our bags until we could go to the room (something that is consistent with all the hotels we went to thankfully). Jetlag was pretty bad, I was flagging by afternoon but we pushed through it and took the few hours to just walk around and see the sights. We spent some time in Hakone-yama before heading back to the hotel and getting cleaned up/accidentally falling asleep too early.
26/04 - Akihabara, Golden Gai Of course woke too early by not being as proactive as we should've with warding off jetlag but used that to leave early for Akihabara. After getting some breakfast we saw the Yodobashi Camera and went in there for about an hour just looking at all the floors 😅 It was raining a ton but it surprised us with how warm it still was and quickly realised why people prefer umbrella with no raincoat!! Spent pretty much the whole day in Akihabara, went round a ton of shops and also went into our first of many many arcades we'd go to. We went back to the hotel to return the items we'd bought then walked to Golden Gai as our hotel was about a 15-20 minute walk ^^ Had some delicious ramen, unfortunately didn't drink as my partner was finishing antibiotics for the first few days but it was still great to be there. Slept a lot later which was good.
27/04 - Kabukicho, Shinjuku National Garden This was more a day for me to fufill my Yakuza game sightseeing. Being so close to Kabukicho I was so excited to visit a city and be able to make my way round without a map loool. It was just the end of the blue festival so the iconic arch was still blue although I did get to see it red at the end of the trip so I wasn't too bothered about that. We went around Kabukicho, the square, again spent tons of time in the arcades and discovered how much we enjoyed the MaiMaiDX machines. Ended up getting one of the passports that save your progress and give you an extra play so if you like arcades then I recommend them!! After this and some lunch, we were going to do a walk to the national garden then realised I went the wrong way so we took the train. As a side note here, the Suica and train system is so useful. Very similar to using a card for the underground except it's actually clean. Walked around the national garden, it was very sunny and warm. Didn't know it had it before going but there's a starbucks in the middle of the garden and we managed to join the queue about 10 minutes before they stopped taking new orders. Had a nice time watching the sun set in that garden before heading back to the hotel.
28/04 - Teamlabs Planets Wasn't something I was going to initially go to however I checked out tickets the day previously and saw some for this day and decided we could do it as we had a ton of free time. I had chosen 2:30pm for an entrance time however it was such a nice day so we left early and spent time just walking around the docks. It was so so sunny, the area didn't have loads going on however it was still very pretty. We spent time in the parks and walking alongside the water. Teamlabs was pretty cool, I did enjoy the water based sections although dodging both influencer and family photos might detract from your experience. This was also where I realised I'd already become the stereotype tourist and was sunburnt :') I guess I had to learn my lesson physically and I did thankfully stop any further burning after this with diligent sun cream appliance afterwards pretty much every day. After this we went back to Shinjuku and after food we packed up ready to go to Yokohama.

Yokohama

29/04 - Bashamichi, Daikoku, Cosmo Clock ✨Showa Day Left our hotel at 11 and hadn't yet discovered the wonders of luggage forwarding so we brought all our bags with us on the train to Yokohama! Not too bad though, we got to our hotel a little early but they took our bags as we went and had lunch before the room was ready. Went around Bashamichi (another game location lol) before taking the train to central Yokohama. We had pre-booked the rental cars all before we left to ensure availability but there weren't any problems. This was also my partner's birthday which is something the rental staff realised whilst we were sorting out all the documents 😆. For Daikoku, we didn't need to pass through any ETC gates from Yokohama but it was the first time on the Japanese roads. It was a little nerve-wracking at first as there's very slightly different rules to UK roads but in general driving is fine. We reached Daikoku PA around 20 past 6pm, and it was about 2 hours until police moved everyone along. My partner was in dreamland with the cars that we saw, if you're into the JDM scene at all or just a petrolhead then you'll love it but it is a bit of luck with what you'll see. After we left Daikoku, we went back to our hotel. We'd checked in with them previously that we could keep the car with them as the hotel we had chosen had parking available for an additional cost. We left the car at the hotel then went out for drinks and to see the cosmo clock. Didn't ride it but it was very cool seeing it all lit up over Yokohama. We bar hopped a bit, then went back.
30/04 - Recovery... Not much to say about this day, my partner was fairly hungover so we returned the car to the rental place and then spent the day just chilling at our ryokan hotel and around Yokohama. No drinks this time round as we had a very long trip the next day!!

Nagoya (Road Trip from Yokohama)

01/05 - Expressways, Onshi-Hakone Park, Expressways, Shinshiro, Expressways, Nagoya I'll condense this one a bit otherwise I'll type forever but this was a really fun time. The driving totaled almost 6 hours by the end so it's not for the faint hearted haha. The point was that we'd stop a few times along the way though which is what we did end up doing. We sent our luggage with the forwarding service (to the hotel after Nagoya as we were just staying the one night), then had an early start as we went to the car rental for 8. We chose the same place we rented from for Daikoku and had the same sales rep sorting out any documents so it was a bit quicker although this time we did get a quick explaination on the toll gates. Anyone going on the expressways will need to know how to use them, we were a bit confused the first time but once you've done it a couple times it'll be smooth sailing (and it's such a good system for people with the automatic cards too). We left Yokohama and set our location for Nagoya. We went for about 2 hours before stopping in Odawara for a quick snack and pee break. Pretty overcast day but despite this we still decided to do a stop in a park on the way and went to Onshi-Hakone Park. It was very cool/bit scary going up the winding mountain passes but wow the views are incredible. We spent again probably a couple hours at the park, had some lunch, no view of Fuji but we could see a lot of the other mountains around which are breathtaking in their own rights (: It's right on Lake Ashi so we did get to see the pirate cruise going round. After this break we did another couple hours or so driving before stopping slightly outside of Shinshiro. Something I will say about the expressways is that it is insane how fast people go 😂 We're not about to try anything so it was sticking to the 120 on the signs for us but people just whizz by. Anyway, we stopped at a familymart in this village for a quick break and I know I've said it already but the views are so beautiful. It's green in the UK but it's something else, I kept wondering if it's just viewing through rose tinted glasses/greener on the other side but I don't think that's true at least about those countryside views. It was also one of the reasons we wanted to do the road trip instead of train at least this time round, we could stop in these places and take it in. After our stop there, it was back onto the expressway until we reached Nagoya. It was roughly 6pm when we reached Nagoya, we had intially booked the car for the whole day with return the next morning but they allow early return with Orix so we did that instead before finding our hotel and having some dinner. Not too much time in Nagoya but it was the first time seeing the bullet train which was cool. Nagoya itself has some nice sights, we were thinking about going to Liberty Walk the next day but instead we just decided we'd head to Kyoto once we left the hotel.

Kyoto

02/05 - Shinkansen, Kyoto, Nishiki Market It was a really lovely day and we were taking the shinkansen for the first time. The shinkansen from Nagoya is only 34 minutes but we did end up buying reserved seats as the station was pretty packed. This is probably the main thing we noticed with Golden week, everything else was busy but not insanely so. Nagoya station was a lot busier but otherwise fine. We didn't have JR passes as when I used the online calculator it didn't come out to be worth it for our particular travel so it was full fare for us. The shinkansen itself was good, we would be using it again for Osaka back to Tokyo but due to Nagoya being closer to Kyoto I didn't reeeally think I'd need to book early. It's probably a good idea still lol but it worked out fine for us to book same day despite how busy Nagoya was. Once in Kyoto we took our time walking down to our next hotel. This was another ryokan style so that was nice, we also passed a garden which we noted to go to the next day (Shosei-en Garden). Our luggage had arrived and was waiting for us at the hotel already so we got refreshed then went out for the evening. We went up to Nishiki market then walked back towards our hotel again. Had a sushi train small dinner as we hadn't had any sushi yet and I've also only had a train once before. It might not be the best Kyoto had to offer but wow was it still better than anything I'd had in the UK!! We then spent hours once again in an arcade, if you like games the MaiMaiDX machines really are addictive :')
03/05 - Shosei-en Garden, Higashi Hongan-ji, Tō-ji Temple, Nijō Castle✨Constitution Memorial Day We woke up early, had breakfast at the ryokan, then went straight for the garden. It was a beautiful day once again so plenty of suncream applied. The Shosei-en Garden isn't the biggest but it's so beautiful, they have this pond that looks so still but my partner spotted a turtle and then you start to see more and more. They have some historical buildings around the place, we spent about an hour there before going to the next place. We walked down the road to the next place, this was Higashi Honhan-ji temple. Both locations weren't really that busy to be honest. Seeing this temple was nice but personally I did prefer the gardens. We next went Tō-ji temple. This is one of those locations that are on the 'must-do in Kyoto' but I did like it a lot. The 5 story pagoda was a cool sight. It wasn't so busy although we were going around lunch time so hungry crowds were likely taking a small break (: We spent an unreasonable amount of time just looking at the koi fish in the moat not even in the temple area 🎏 Finally we went to Nijō Castle. This was quite busy although we were one of the latter groups going around as it was nearing the end of the day. Another of the listed must do's but again I would say it's a cool place to see. If you do go, the tour around the main house is interesting and if you decide to climb the walls there's some nice sights of the area around. We finished up this day heading back to the market area and had dinner including a matcha beer. I'm not really a massive matcha person but I was up for trying all the different things, the beer sort of just tasted of normal beer but it looked exactly like a matcha-green coloured guinness.
04/05 - Arishiyama ✨Greenery Day This wasn't really a packed day as we were heading to an airbnb for a couple of nights. We used the luggage forwarding from the ryokan where they were concerned that we wouldn't get our luggage as soon as we wanted due to Golden week. I then let them know we were looking to get it sent for the 6th and they completely relaxed and said that would be perfectly fine 👌 For context if you've not been to Kyoto, the train system is alright but pales compared to Tokyo. Getting to our airbnb wouldn't be too long, about an hour, but as we didn't really have anything planned and only had our small suitcase with us we decided to walk to the next airbnb instead and waste time along the way. This way when we arrived it wouldn't be before check in time and it would keep us out and about. The walk was about 3 hours total although we lengthed it by stopping a few times. There were some celebrations happening due to Greenery day and Children's day being the next day. We stopped to listen to some music, stopped to have a starbucks, then finally we reached out airbnb in Arishiyama. The place was really nice, and it was fun to have a whole place for a few nights instead of a hotel. If you're wanting to, looking at airbnb's is a completely valid option when staying in Japan - you just might get warned before you arrive not to talk or laugh too loudly or the neighbours might complain/call the police 😅
05/05 - Fushimi Inari Shrine ✨Children's Day Initially were going to do both the bamboo/monkey forest and Fushimi Inari but ended up leaving a little later than planned so just committed to only Fushimi Inari. I was expecting fairly large crowds considering the day and the station was..... not great. That said, the station was very small and so although it was crowded we were also out of there fairly quick. This review of Fushimi Inari is going to follow almost everyone's - it was busy at the bottom and as you go up you'll get a lot less people. Even it being Children's day didn't stop us getting moments of just myself and my partner being alone so don't be deterred if the bottom is busy! Beautiful views, we did the full routes going to the top. It was a bit tricky at times but it's not a race, and you'll feel good doing the full thing. We reached the top, were able to partake in the prayers there, then had a great time going back down. There was a little area near the end with a bunch of cats; we turned a corner and saw one and a bunch of people crowding round to take a photo. Maybe only a few steps later you realise there's about 4 more just chilling around the place. It was a cool experience and definitely worth doing at least once if you're there.

Osaka

06/05 - Local train, Dotenbori, Den-Den Town We took a train from our airbnb to Osaka and went via the local train rather than the shinkansen. It was fine, we reached Dotenbori and our hotel was not far from the station. We got there a bit early again but our room was already available and our luggage had arrived too (: After getting refreshed we went out for the afternoon to Den-Den Town. This is Osaka's version of Akihabara, and we spent a lot of time with my partner looking in all the card shops. It was pretty rainy but not really a problem between the Lawson's umbrella and ducking into lots of shops ;) We spent time in an arcade for a while before heading out to Dotenbori market area and the bridges for the evening/night. Yet again another location in the Yakuza games so I had fun pointing out different places like the Mega Don Quijote or the crab restaurant. We had some food and ended up in a drinking place that used a QR code and website for ordering to the table which was dangerously easy to use haha. Had some really tasty sushi there too, I'll try and find the name if anyone is wondering! Took tons of photos there, the rain at night gave the city that classic look reflecting the neon lights everywhere.
07/05 - Kobe day trip We went to Kobe for the day, lots of rain but the main market area is all under cover so that was handy. My partner was looking for a new phone which he found, we also went to one of those places where they grill the food in front of you for dinner. It was great going in a scruffy elevator up to the restaurant and stepping out onto a really beautifully designed restaurant, and it wasn't very busy so we were able to go without reserving beforehand. Kobe itself is cool although we didn't explore too much outside the market areas due to just how hard it was raining, I think it was the heaviest on this day unfortunately.
08/05 - Nara day trip, Todai-ji We went to Nara and although the advice is to go early, we went for more mid-day time. It wasn't crowded at all so that was fortunate. We ended up walking past that famous mochi stall that you see on all the tiktoks of Nara. I wasn't expecting to see the making of the mochi and wasn't going to wait for it either however they started about 2 minutes after we found the stall so we did stay and watch and it was cool to see in person (: We tried the mochi, it's pretty good although for me it was a bit too dry from the powder. Was still tasty!!! Walked through towards the deer park and saw the pagodas around. When we reached the deer park of course we had to get some crackers and feed them. Oh my god they're so pushy!! It was actually so funny to interact with them, one tried to nibble me and we got headbutted a bit when we had the crackers but once you've given them all out then they'll leave you 😆. We sat on a bench for a bit and watched some other poor souls go through the same thing. Saw quite a lot of young fawns too which is cute. We kept walking up to Todai-ji, stopped for an ice cream, then went to the temple to see the huge Buddha statue. It was a good experience to see this temple, but at least for me it wasn't my favourite part of the trip. I know for many others though it's really great to see so don't knock it off your list if you're interested in it! I'm glad I went once but probably won't return. Spent some more time just chilling around Nara and looking at the temples and shrines around the place. We went back to Osaka for around 4pm. Spent the evening in Osaka again, no rain this time! Oh this was about the time I was developing a sore throat, a little bit nerve wracking but fully vaccinated + boosters and have had covid previously so was fairly certain it wasn't that. Even so, my partner was coughing a bit which is the start of the cold we both had for the rest of the trip 😔
09/05 - Osaka Aquarium, Dotenbori I didn't put the aquarium on my plan initially but we had another spare day in Osaka and I do like visiting aquariums + my partner likes penguins a lot and they had a lot there. It was a cool experience, a lot of families as to be expected but it wasn't packed so lots of opportunities to see the animals and fish :) The two whales were very cool, they're so massive. We also got to see their rockhopper penguin conservation area, you could see them sitting on their eggs. I recommend the aquarium to any families planning to be in Osaka, it's pretty easy to get to and the station gives clear directions on where to go to get to the aquarium and the nearby lego park. After the aquarium we went back to Dotenbori and looked around the various book-offs as my partner was looking for screen protectors. If you're interested in any Japanese media I can recommend them too, I found some games in there that were a lot cheaper than you find in the West in much better condition. Our coughs worsened by evening which wasn't great, we weren't doing much more in super crowded areas but it's obviously not good anyway. We were wearing masks everywhere beforehand but it made it more important. We did end up getting some Bron, if you're in Japan and have a cough then I do recommend it but just be aware that it contains codeine. We got some from a place that specifically had a pharmacy section, you bring the box to the cashier and they'll give you the actual bottle from behind the counter. Really really great stuff, much better than anything you can get without a prescription in the UK which was annoying as my cough was subsequently worse for about 5 days once I got back!! It's pretty much gone now though (lasted longer likely due to asthma but it was gone for my partner after a couple days of being back). Overall I really enjoyed Osaka, all the cities we went to were cool but for me Osaka was my favourite :)

Tokyo

10/05 - Shinkansen, Airbnb We left Osaka for Tokyo and took the Shinkansen back. We did splash out a bit and took the green car with seats on the Fuji side. I fell asleep for most of the trip but woke in time to see Fuji for the roughly 6-7 minutes it was viewable for. It was my only time to see Fuji due to the weather being almost clear that day aside from a single cloud going right across the mountain. It didn't block the peak though so I don't feel too robbed 😆. If/when we visit Japan again I would like to see it again closer but it was still a great sight. Once we reached Shinagawa station, we switched to the local train to head to our airbnb in Shinjuku once again (although closer to Shibuya this time whereas we were more North before). We were staying in a pretty close knit residential area but did a bit of a hello to the neighbours which was nice. We had done the luggage forwarding again but had set it to come the next day so we would be the people available for receiving it. Spent the time around the airbnb and also tried having an uber eats delivered (which worked great lol).
11/05 - Shibuya, Shinjuku We spent most of this day around Shibuya as we wanted a few souvenirs for family and also hadn't visited Shibuya properly. Went to the crossing, then spent time mainly shopping and going around one of the Donkis. Pretty rainy again but not a problem for a shopping day.
12/05 - RX-7 Day Trip (Lake Hinuma, Ibaraki Flower Park), Kabukicho We used Omoshiro Rent-a-car for the RX-7 (for those interested, here's the car - https://i.imgur.com/HRX4DYy.png ) and they were great. We had it pre-booked again before we arrived in Japan as it's a pretty sought after car to rent. Bit banged up but nothing major, and we had it booked for I think 8 hours? We did return it a little early as we didn't really have anything else to do and didn't want to be late with a return as the shop closed at the time we'd be returning it. A funny part of the terms you agree to is no Initial D style driving. For the trip itself, we didn't have anything major planned so I made a makeshift plan to just go a bit out of Tokyo and visit somewhere different. I found this lake on maps that'd be not too far, didn't realise until we were there that it's less a lake for sights and more for fishing 😅. No worries though, as the main reason was to get some driving in and enjoy having the car (which was achieved!). Got some snacks from a 7/11 then went off. We had a lot of time left so we drove to Ibaraki flower park, yet another quick find from scrolling around Google Maps. It was a very beautiful park, they have a rose market there as well as selling some fresh produce. It's a small charge to go in the park but it's worth it for the hour or more you might spend there and will go towards the park maintenance. Also being the middle of Spring of course it's going to be beautiful with all the new blooms (: We spent time there admiring the countryside and being sad about going back home the next day. We went back to the rental place afterwards, also during this drive was the time where we were finding it so funny how we were sticking to the speed limits in this beautiful car and being overtaken by massive trucks going so much faster. We did have a moment that was like from a movie though, we entered the expressway after the tolls and as we were pulling in an older Honda NSX was being driven next to us. The guy driving looked over and gave us a nod with a straight face before pulling ahead a little so we could be behind him. We ruined that movie mood by both being so excited by how cool the moment was but hey it's one of those things that won't be forgotten at least!! He zoomed off a few minutes later but we weren't risking anything to keep pace ahaha. We returned the car then went back to Shinjuku for our final evening in Japan. We went back to Kabukicho and I was able to see the arch in red :') Took photos of the karaoke place that's in the games, would've gone in but my throat was killing!! So we just stuck to being outside. We went back to the area around our airbnb, had our last dinner there then went and packed up ready to go home.
13/05 - Home :') Our flight was leaving a little before 9am so we were leaving the airbnb for 5ish. Early start but as we'd gotten packed up it wasn't too bad of a walk to the station. Grabbed our train, it was fairly early on one of the lines that goes direct to the station so we were able to get on with ease. The train was rammed by the time we reached the station. No problems getting through the airport, got to our gate and then flew home.

Final Notes

I had such a good time in Japan, I loved being there and hope to return within the next few years if life permits!! We definitely missed some of those 'must-do's' such as Osaka Castle, any of the theme parks, Arishiyama Monkey Park, actually doing Karaoke, and some of the food options due to my own anxieties walking into places lol. That said, I don't regret the things we did end up doing and it just means I'll have to fit some of those into my next trip 😉. Although my partner would like to visit more Northern areas like Hokkaido or Sendai so we'll see!
We didn't have probably as much packed into each day as could've been but for me this was perfect and a great time for my first time. If you managed to read all this then thank you very much, and please let me know if you have any questions about the trip!! I'll be happy to answer. Thanks for reading!

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2023.05.28 14:55 djwildstar First Road Trip in ER Lariat

My wife and I recently completed our first road trip in the new Lightning ER. The photo is of the truck’s first ever DC fast charge, which happened to be next to a Pro. The trip was from Atlanta GA to Point Pleasant WV, overall about 1200 miles round-trip (and yes, for some crazy reason, our first long trip was to roughly the middle of one of the largest DC fast-charging deserts east of the Mississippi). Overall, I would say that the truck performed well, but there are still issues with long-distance driving in an EV.
I used ABRP to plan the trip — the overall route was Atlanta - Chattanooga - Knoxville - Lexington - Point Pleasant, and the reverse to get home. We stayed overnight in Chattanooga, Huntington WV, and Point Pleasant. Level 2 J1772 charging was widely available in Chattanooga — I parked at a ChargePoint in a garage across the street from our hotel, and paid $8 for charging and $7 for parking … compared to the $14 the hotel wanted to charge to park in their lot. I was able to fully recharge from a Tesla destination charger in Huntington using a TeslaTap adapter (the hotel was pretty terrible, but the charging worked). Our hotel in Point Pleasant didn’t have a charger, but kindly offered me a 120V 20A plug, but the Lightning’s inability to accept more than 10A from a Level 1 charger limited the charge I could get (which significantly impacted our drive home).
I used Electrify America fast charging at Williamsburg KY, Georgetown KY, Knoxville KY, and Chattanooga TN (in most cases on both the outbound and return legs). There was never a stop where Plug-and-Charge didn’t work, never a stop where I couldn’t charge … but out of 6 charging stops, only two charged at 100kW or more, and only one exceeded 150kW.
The truck got between 2.1 and 2.3 miles/kWh on the highway portions of the trip. In general, I drove about 5 MPH over the posted speed limit, so much of the trip was done at 75 MPH. I don’t fully trust FordPass charging or trip logs, because for one segment it reports that I went nearly 150 miles on 0.4kWh, for a whopping 425mi/kWh (see the screenshot above). During the trip I got more comfortable with the guess-o-meter as it burns down range remaining in the battery versus distance to the next stop.
During the trip I learned to use the truck’s built-in navigation, and in general like it better than attempting to use ABRP over CarPlay. I wasn’t able to figure out how to completely mute the navigation system’s prompts , but did manage to change them from voice to chimes. In my previous vehicle (a Ford Flex), I was able to completely mute the navigation, which was nice.
Issues
The biggest issue is charging at the far side of a parking lot in a rural Walmart — in general, we didn’t feel safe, either in the store, in the parking lot, or at surrounding businesses. During this trip, we had two encounters (one at Walmart and one at a nearby restaurant) where customers were actively hostile towards us.
In general, the DC fast-charging experience is not as good as a typical chain gas station (RaceTrac, QuickTrip, etc.), and I would really like to see a concept like a DCFC Buck-ee’s proliferate. At a minimum, we should really have covered, pull-through charging locations with trash cans and windshield squeegees adjacent to the chargers. Having restrooms, snacks, and drinks nearby (not all the way across a big box store parking lot) would be a huge plus.
To say that FordPass is buggy is an understatement. I work in the computesoftware industry, and I’ve put developers on notice for less. If nothing else, their testing regime and release process needs a revamp. In addition to the buggy trip logs, the charge completion estimates were basically random numbers: it would often project that fast charging would be finished an hour or so before it started, or that Level 2 charging would take 10 to 15 minutes.
My wife isn’t the most patient person, so 30-40 minutes spent charging is a half-hour wasted compared to an ICE vehicle. On top of that, I also planned poorly — having heard that Electrify America is unreliable, I’d planned more-frequent stops than strictly necessary. On the return trip I could have skipped at least one, and possibly two charging stops. So overall, the return trip (which was ~600 miles all in one day) was excessively long.
She also felt that the seats weren’t as comfortable as the ones in our previous vehicle (the afore-mentioned Ford Flex), and that climbing in and out of the truck is awkward for her (she feels as if she might fall and hurt herself). I’ve asked for recommendations on these issues in a separate post.

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2023.05.28 14:06 Simpnation420 My 6-day Tokyo-Hakone itinerary. Any advice would be greatly appreciated :D

22 June
- Check-in to the hotel and rest
23 June
- Breakfast at the hotel - 06:00 to 07:00
- Senso-ji - 08:00 to 09:00
- Tokyo Skytree - 10:00 to 12:00
- Lunch near Tokyo Skytree - 12:00 to 13:00
- Take train to Gundam Factory Yokohama - 13:00 to 14:00
- Gundam Factory Yokohama - 14:00 to 17:00
- Dinner and back to hotel - 18:00 to 20:00
24 June
- Depart hotel at 06:00
- Hakone Loop Counter-clockwise:
- Take train to Odawara Station - 07:00 to 08:30
- Take the Hakone Tozan Train to Gora Station - 08:30 to 09:30
- Hakone Ropeway to Owakudani - 09:30 to 11:00
- Lunch at Owakudani - 11:00 to 12:00
- Hakone Ropeway to Togendai - 12:00 to 13:00
- Sightseeing at Lake Ashi and Hakone Shrine - 13:00 to 15:00
- Take bus to Moto-Hakone - 15:00 to 15:30
- Sightseeing at Old Tokaido Road and Hakone Checkpoint - 15:30 to 16:30
- Take boat cruise to Hakone-machi - 16:30 to 17:30
- Bus back to Odawara Station - 17:30 to 18:00
- Take train back to hotel - 18:00 to 19:30
- Dinner and back to hotel - 19:30 to 21:00
25 June
- Breakfast at the hotel - 06:00 to 07:00
- Free time - 09:00 to 10:30
- Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden - 11:00 to 13:00
- Lunch near Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden - 13:00 to 14:00
- Tokyo Tower - 14:30 to 16:00
- Tsukiji Outer Market - 16:30 to 18:00
- Ginza shopping and sightseeing - 18:00 to 20:00
- Dinner and back to hotel - 20:00 to 22:00
26 June
- Meiji Jingu - 06:00 to 08:00
- Yoyogi Park - 08:30 to 10:30
- Lunch at Shibuya - 11:00 to 12:30
- Shibuya Crossing and Hachiko Statue - 12:30 to 13:30
- Akihabara - 14:00 to 16:00
- Harajuku shopping and sightseeing - 16:30 to 18:30
- Dinner and back to hotel - 19:00 to 21:00
27 June
- Free time to explore or do any last-minute shopping
- Check out of the hotel - 12:00
- Take train or taxi to Haneda Airport - 18:00 to 19:00
- Fly home
My budget is around 1000 dollars (excluding flight, food, and accommodation). You guys got any tips and advices?

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2023.05.28 12:42 RoyalOrchidHotel Resorts in Bangalore for day outing

Experience the epitome of luxury and tranquility at Royal Orchid Resort, Bangalore. Nestled in the serene locale of Yelahanka, this 4-star hotel resort stands as one of the best luxury resorts in Bangalore, perfect for families and team outings.

https://preview.redd.it/7k86m0dnel2b1.jpg?width=1366&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d0a7c58889c0cb7217a45fb92b3911cb2f9beeae
Indulge in the lavishness of Royal Orchid Resort, Bangalore, where every detail is designed to create an unforgettable experience. The resort offers a serene retreat from the hustle and bustle of the city, providing a tranquil ambiance amidst lush green surroundings.
For more details-
Visit us - https://www.royalorchidhotels.com/royal-orchid-resort-convention-centre-bangalore/overview
Address: Bellary Road, Allalasandra, Yelahanka, Near Jakkur Flying Club, Bangalore, Karnataka - 560065
Phone - +91 9902000220
E-mail: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

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2023.05.28 12:37 Routine_Bunch_5842 Burgazada: A Hidden Gem Among Istanbul's Princes' Islands

Burgazada: A Hidden Gem Among Istanbul's Princes' Islands

Burgazada is the third largest of the Princes' Islands, located approximately 14 kilometers from Istanbul. It's a quieter and more relaxed island compared to Bükada or Heybeliada, making it a preferred spot among locals due to its unique location and magnificent natural scenery. The island has plenty of facilities and is used as a holiday resort by Istanbul residents.

https://preview.redd.it/8rfk6evyvj2b1.jpg?width=780&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2ec7642e7d8e7af154649a5609a9682bade49f35
https://travellingtopic.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/burgazada-istanbul-780x470.jpg

Getting to Burgazada

You can reach Burgazada by ferry from Bostancı port, which takes around 30 minutes. Alternatively, if you're staying in Taksim or Sultanahmet, you can take the ferry from Eminönü or Beşiktaş. The ferry ride takes around an hour, and a single trip costs 11 Turkish Liras per person.

History of Burgazada

Burgazada was formerly called Antigone, named after Antigonus, who was the commander of Alexander the Great. After the conquest of Constantinople, the island was named Phyrgos, and then it was changed to Burgaz. In the 19th century, the island became a summer resort for native Rums and other foreigners in Istanbul.

Exploring Burgazada

As soon as you get off the ferry, you can head to one of the patisseries across the street to grab some breakfast. Burgazada Mosque, built in 1953, is the only mosque on the island and offers stunning views. You can also visit the home of famous Turkish writer Sait Faik Abasıyanık, which has been converted into a museum.
The island has several churches, including the Greek Orthodox Church, which was built in 1728 and served as a shelter for the Belarusians after World War I. Burgazada is also known for its picturesque spots that are perfect for taking photos.
If you're a coffee lover, you'll find a wonderful coffee shop while wandering the streets of Burgazada. And if you're visiting during the summer months, make sure to bring enough water, sunscreen, and a hat. It's also better to explore the island in the spring or fall season.
Don't just stay around the main port, go and explore other parts of the island, such as the highest points, which offer spectacular views of the sea of Marmara and neighboring islands. And if you're too tired to walk back to the port, you can take an electric taxi for 20 Turkish Liras.

Dining in Burgazada

After walking for almost hours on the streets of Burgazada, we recommend dining at one of the island's best restaurants, which specializes in fish dishes. You can choose from fried or grilled fish and side dishes or "mezes" in Turkish. The restaurant also offers beautiful views of the other islands and the sea of Marmara.
During our visit, we enjoyed a delicious meal at a seafood restaurant. We ordered a fish dish that was enough for two people and paid 180 Turkish liras. The mezes we ordered were flavorful and could be prepared to your liking. We opted for grilled and it was juicy and delicious. If you love seafood, this is a must-visit place.
For dessert, we recommend trying the rmik helvas with cinnamon on top. It's the perfect sweet treat after a seafood meal. We spent the day exploring the beautiful streets of Burgazada, one of Istanbul's least visited islands. We highly recommend visiting this hidden gem.
Burgazada is one of the Princes' Islands located in the Sea of Marmara near Istanbul, Turkey. It is the third largest of the Princes' Islands and is a popular destination for both locals and tourists looking for a peaceful retreat from the bustling city.

Here are some key points about Burgazada:

Location: Burgazada is situated about 20 kilometers southeast of Istanbul's city center. It is part of the Adalar district and is one of the four main Princes' Islands, the others being Büyükada, Heybeliada, and Kınalıada.
Size and Population: Burgazada covers an area of approximately 1.5 square kilometers. The island has a relatively small population, with a residential community of around 1,200 people. The number increases significantly during the summer months when tourists visit the island.
Tranquil Environment: Burgazada is known for its peaceful atmosphere and natural beauty. It offers a tranquil escape from the bustling city life of Istanbul. The island is free of motor vehicles, and transportation is mainly done by horse-drawn carriages (phaetons), bicycles, or on foot.
Natural Landscape: The island is characterized by its hilly terrain, covered with pine and olive trees. It has several walking paths that lead to beautiful viewpoints, where visitors can enjoy panoramic views of the Sea of Marmara and neighboring islands.
Historical and Cultural Sites: Burgazada is home to some notable historical and cultural sites. One of the prominent landmarks is the Church of St. John, a Greek Orthodox church dating back to the 18th century. There are also a few old mansions and summer houses that add to the island's charm.
Beaches and Recreation: The island offers a variety of recreational activities and beaches where visitors can relax and enjoy the sea. One of the popular beaches is Kalpazankaya Beach, located on the northeastern side of the island.
Restaurants and Cafes: Burgazada has a good selection of restaurants and cafes that offer both local and international cuisine. You can enjoy fresh seafood, traditional Turkish dishes, or simply have a cup of tea or coffee while taking in the island's serene ambiance.
To reach Burgazada, you can take a ferry from Istanbul's Kabataş or Bostancı ports. The ferry ride takes approximately one hour, providing a scenic journey across the Sea of Marmara.
Overall, Burgazada is a charming island getaway that offers a peaceful retreat, beautiful landscapes, and a break from the city's hustle and bustle. It's a perfect destination for those seeking relaxation, nature, and a glimpse into Istanbul's island life.
Read more: topic travelling

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2023.05.28 12:06 martinontheinternet [TOMT][Video Game][early 2000s] Beat em up style Arcade Game

First of all I'm sorry if I can't give a lot of details here as my memory is very fuzzy on this after all these years.
Between around 2000 and 2005 my family and I took a trip to Marmaris, Turkey for a resort style trip and we stayed at a hotel with a pool and a two-floor restaurant next to the pool. On the lower level (the ground level) of the restaurant there were a handful of Arcade machines set up (I think 2 or 4). And my brother and I frequently played this Beat em up style game on it. I call it beat em up since it definitely did involve moving from the left to the right of the screen as it scrools until you reach the end of the level and proceed to the next one and you defeat enemies on your way.
However I don't remember if punching and kicking is the main form of attack, I feel like it's less typical than that. In fact the "characters" you play as are (at least in my childhood memory) more like monsters with humanoid appearances. To me they were both scary and cool looking (I guess I was 7 or 8 at the time), more villain-esque(?) and they had weird abilities, like super powers and maybe they could upgrade the abilities as well? The game looked quite flashy and colorful, I think.
Over the course of our 1 week stay we spent quite a lot of coins on it as it was a ton of fun and both my brother and I weren't that great at it. I have no idea how accurate my memory of it is and I wish I could give more info but I hope this rings a bell for anyone out there. This is the first time I thought to ask the internet about it although I often thought back on this game over the years.
Now I don't know too much about Beat em Ups and Fighting Games to be honest. They aren't my favourite genre usually but I do know OF the very popular and mainstream ones including the retro and arcade ones and I've often seen footage of them and such but I never saw THAT game again and I feel like if I did see it then the rest of my memory would come back?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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2023.05.28 11:33 jumpinjacks12345 May 2023 Report/Tips: Venice, Florence, Tuscany, Cinque Terre

We just got back, Italy is magical. Only been to Rome once before as part of Europe hopping trip about 10 years ago. Some thoughts and tricks on our 10 nights, hope it's helpful for others:
Weather: Don't stress too much on forecasts even a week out. Check before leaving and adjust wardrobe or add a light rain jacket if needed. Originally our entire trip showed rain the whole time. Realistically there was a 1 drizzly day in Venice and 2 hour of rain (ominous with thunder) in Florence. The rest of the time was cloudy or beautiful and clear. Cinque Terre was absolutely clear and 70, but dang that sun when hiking was brutally hot. App: Il Meteo
Download WhatsApp - everyone including hotels, restaurants, business, taxi driver (see below) uses it.
Esim: Airalo worked well for us Samsung S22 and Pixel 6. Did have to reboot my S22, but worked really well and between the 2 of us used about 5GB so couldn't gone with less data. One phone did the Europe regional and another the Italy Mamma Mia one. Some restaurants do have dead zones, some have Wifi, another was like these signs on the wall are your wifi....
Driving: You definitely need a car for Tuscany if you want to be on your own timetable, we rented out of Florence and returned in La Spezia. Beware some of the routes on Google Maps, although reliable there were 2 instances we went off roading when an asphalt road was right there. Then we needed to u-turn on the outskirts of Pisa and it was trying to get us to make this impossible stone walled turn and the locals were like yeah Google Maps has people do this and no one has made that so just turn back around. Also lesson learned for us - just do the rental company insurance, event though my credit card offers primary, we got a larger mid size SUV vs Fiat 500 and with the narrow streets, for me the reduced stress would've been worth it when we had to wiggle the car out some spots - but we came out scratch free. On a side note, we got a Lynk & Co car, which was neat and loved Android Auto as we use it at home. Rented thru Hertz. If you use the toll roads (which can make your life a lot faster sometime), make sure you grab a ticket coming in, we didn't get one for 1 segment, luckily getting off of it, the remote attendant spoke english, a little annoyed, but let us pay the fare from where we came from.
Parking: The meters we encountered in Montepulciano, Siena, Pisa seemed straight forward but sometimes card wouldn't work, the english translation was bad and cancelled out transaction multiple times. Just download EasyPark which seems to work everywhere, GPS your zone, link to GooglePay or credit card, license and boom, spin the clock - small fee less than 10%, but damn was it easy and you can add time or end early....
Trains: Download Trenitalia app, book any train instantly, get train status (where is the train currently), and see any station's timetable. Our Venice to Florence train did get delayed and stopped here and there in Bologna one weekend due to the flood damage, luckily our train wasn't cancelled. 5 days later, all trains seems to be back on track. Missed the big 5/26 strike by one day but I was seeing some trains via the app still scheduled. Basically be mentally prepared for any issues, booked an InterCity (assigned seats) from La Spezia to Pisa ahead of time but day of just waited to see when to schedule the regional from Pisa to Florence, so easy via app and you can see how often they run (30 mins for this route) and buy on demand as your schedule permits.
Booking museums/sights: It can be very tricky to google and find official booking sites as there are a lot of 3rd parties who want to get you a "front of the line pass" with a tour for a large markup. So I tried to book thru official sites as much as I can, for the life of us we couldn't get the Doges official to go through so did get those from Get the Guide for less than 5 euro markup for 2. If you are flexible and go off hours, you can do standby and avoid the nominal online booking fee and time spot, we only did these for some, not all. Maybe don't listen to me during summer months. But we did very little waiting - see below
Food: Note that I found classic italian cooking is much more simple, subtle and just pure flavors. Stuff was beautiful but by California standards, a tad underseasoned although some places did put out salt and pepper (default not request) for some dishes like a burrata. This is also coming from here in SoCal where birria is not enough it's birria ramen and hot cheetos encrusted this or that and 5 different types of toppings for mac and cheese - you know stuff for Instagram.... But I totally appreciated the approach and loved it.
Cities - we tend to do a lot on vacation, it may have been a touch quick but it was so fun, we did get a bit sick just with all the weather and change but nothing serious but was glad to get the downtime in Tuscany, we hit it hard first 2 places Venice and Florence. You may vacation differently, this was also our first trip abroad in 7 or so years so wanted to see ALLTHETHINGS.
Accommodations - We did mostly Airbnb which in Europe requires a meetup vs self check in. Did an incredible bed and breakfast (see Montepulciano) and finally a hotel in Florence for last night which I highly recommend for location and service - Arte Boutique (they helped me track down a lost backpack in a taxi, see below).
Safety - felt pretty safe and not scammy in all of our cities our Airbnb host in Florence said Italy overall is safe but he did confirm Rome you need to be more aware. Honestly we only carried 350 euro with us from US bank and that was plenty, near the end we were needing to use it up as everyone takes card, tap to pay, ApplePay and GooglePay freely. Taxi drivers do prefer cash
Staying calm story - we were ending our trip from Florence to airport in in my rush I left my backpack in backseat of taxi, it was gone before I realized we had our rollers and his backpack and duffel but not mine. Luckily my husband was like ok we will call the hotel (the only one we happened to book) who arranged the taxi, and luckily they tracked him down and he came back due to us allotting tons of time before departure. I had to pay the fare again for the backpack fare but was so relieved. We corresponded via WhatsApp after making the initial call to hotel.
Venice: 2 nights
- Sights: Doges (booked via Get the Guide) was cool, not the biggest museum person. Walk over Bridge of Sighs was uneventful from inside. St Mark Basilica had no advance tickets, but did standby for 3 eupp about 20 min before opening and got in within 10 mins, then hopped over to Campanile Tower w/o tickets, no line around 9-9:30 AM - great views.
- Eat: Faves were the quick bites chichetti (All'Arco, Cantina Do Spade), coffee and pastries and gelato (loved Suso). Our sit downs were not bad, just not mind blowing at Ai Mercanti and Imprompta (although seafood good). Also there's a small bar inside Cafe Florian if you want a macchiato for under 5 euro vs sitting down for a 12 euro cappucino and want a mini experience w/o wait.
It can be crowded mid-day but will calm down, very cool to walk or take vaparetto around and get lost, oops this alley dumps into a canal....
Florence: 2 nights
- Sights: Prebooked Galleria Accademia (a must, always a line), good museum experience if you don't necessarily need hours, so neat to see David here. Because not huge museum people, passed on the Uffuzi. Someone at lunch said hey Medici is cool, so did that on a whim w/o any wait and very cool, glad we did it on the fly. Prebooked Boboli Gardens, kinda tired by the time we got here and it had been drizzly and a bit humid, but nice to stroll. The larger fountain area you can't walk through anymore (Ocean fountain?). Also Piazza Michaelangelo for the Florence city center view. Lots of great shopping here, suggest start at Vale for a leather shop.
- Food: Ok so All Antico Vinaio although touristy is legit sandwich, very good and worth it. Tip: go to San Marco location, smaller wait by Galleria Accademia. GustaPizza was legit and very reasonable 7 euro for Margherita?! Fave gelato was Gelato Dei Neri and My Sugar. Mercato Centrale super cool to walk, shop for products, eat if you like. Trattoria Mario, email ahead for reservations - 1.1 kg florentine steak with small sides and salami/cheese plate all for under $70. Dall'Oste was good florentine but much pricier and touristy but had a good Montalcino wine there, book on website for discount for seatings outside of peak times, our 6 PM had 15% discount on food.
Tuscany: 2 nights Montepulciano, 1 night Siena
So beautiful, just the drive through Val D'Orcia. We stopped by San Gimignano and did the tower with no wait (150 stairs), Gelateria Donderia is overrated but fine, GO GO GO to Da'A'Mariani for sandwich here, sweet sweet man and just off the main street - recommended by Pasticcheria Il Criollo which was fabulous just outside city wall.
Stayed in Montepulciano, which was SO fabulous. Our true bed and breakfast was only 3 suites run on a property by 2 americans who moved to Italy - true hospitality and modern yet italian suite. They are booked solid this year, but it was sooo special. Huge breakfast spread every morning. It was true paradise there and the owners are gems - made awesome restaurant recommendations and reservations, driving route, etc. DM me if you want the name but don't bet on getting in for 2023. Restaurants in Montepulciano were Osteria Porto Di Baccio - great antipasto meat/cheese and pici, great typical osteria in wine cave then Le Logge Vignola which was very creative for a very reasonable price - you definitely need reservations for both maybe a few days ahead as both are fully booked by dinner. Gelato recc here would be Scarbia.
Siena - had the Siena OPA Si pass which I recommend, everything except the roof tour. Cathedral inside is a sight to see and includes works by Michaelangelo and Dontatello - ask worker where they are at, definitely do panaroma. This was helpful https://www.earthtrekkers.com/how-to-visit-the-siena-cathedral/ Walk to PastaZuf down the way from Piazza Campo for legit casual takeway pasta for 5-6 euro
Cinque Terre: 2 nights Riomaggiore
Yup, did Pisa as a quick stop on way to drop off car, it's neat and lots of parking (EasyPark app) to get in/out.
Stayed in Riomaggiore, CT is definitely touristy during the day but quiets down. Rick Steves was right, not overhyped. Every city is absolutely gorgeous. Did the hike from Monterosso-Vernazza-Corniglia - yes the HARD way with those stairs first leg but it was very rewarding and fun, can be tight in spots, started at 8 AM and ended in Corniglia around 11:15, start early as you can for less crowds. Train makes it easy to hop towns. Dinners included Rio Bistrot in Riomaggiore (checked in at lunch for dinner reservation same night) and Ristorante Belforte - both great views and suprisingly great food! Tasting menu is way to go at Rio Bistrot. Quick bites include fried seafood, so good. Be prepared for all the elevation/stairs/walking.
Edits: Add safety section, accommodations, and staying calm story.

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2023.05.28 10:35 PurpleSolitudes Best Resorts in Mexico

https://reddit.com/link/13tv8dq/video/vua15avsqp1b1/player
Tafer Hotels & Resorts is a luxury hospitality company that offers unforgettable vacation experiences in Mexico. With locations in some of the most stunning destinations in Mexico, including Puerto Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas and Cancun, Tafer Hotels & Resorts promises to deliver an exceptional travel experience that is tailored to your unique needs and preferences.
Each property within the Tafer Hotels & Resorts collection features luxurious accommodations, world-class dining options, and a range of activities and amenities designed to help you relax, rejuvenate and explore. Whether you're seeking a romantic getaway, a family vacation or simply a chance to unwind and disconnect from the stresses of everyday life, Tafer Hotels & Resorts has something for everyone.
In this review, we will take an in-depth look at Tafer Hotels & Resorts' luxury vacations in Mexico. We will examine their accommodations, dining options, activities and amenities, customer service, and overall value.
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Accommodations

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The accommodations at Tafer Hotels & Resorts are truly exceptional. Each property offers a range of room types, from deluxe rooms to spacious suites, all with stunning views and luxurious amenities. The rooms are beautifully appointed with high-end furnishings, plush bedding, and state-of-the-art technology such as flat-screen televisions and Wi-Fi access.
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One of the standout features of Tafer Hotels & Resorts' accommodations is their attention to detail. Each room is meticulously designed with comfort and luxury in mind. From the soft lighting to the plush robes and slippers, every aspect of the room is carefully thought out to ensure a relaxing and enjoyable stay.

Dining Options

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The dining options at Tafer Hotels & Resorts are equally impressive. The properties offer a range of dining options, from casual cafes to upscale restaurants, all featuring delicious cuisine prepared by talented chefs.
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One of the standout dining experiences at Tafer Hotels & Resorts is the gourmet restaurant at Garza Blanca Preserve Resort & Spa in Puerto Vallarta. This award-winning restaurant serves up a variety of international dishes, with a focus on fresh local ingredients. The restaurant also boasts stunning ocean views, making it the perfect spot for a romantic dinner.

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Another highlight of Tafer Hotels & Resorts' dining options is the rooftop bar at Hotel Mousai in Puerto Vallarta. This stylish bar offers guests panoramic views of the city and bay, along with a tempting selection of handcrafted cocktails and small plates.

Activities and Amenities

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Tafer Hotels & Resorts offers a wide range of activities and amenities to keep guests entertained during their stay. From relaxing spa treatments to thrilling adventure sports, there's something for everyone.
One of the standout activities at Tafer Hotels & Resorts is the whale watching tours offered at Garza Blanca Preserve Resort & Spa in Puerto Vallarta. During the winter months, guests can enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness humpback whales up close and personal.
Another highlight of Tafer Hotels & Resorts' activities and amenities is the infinity pool at Hotel Mousai in Puerto Vallarta. This stunning pool is located on the rooftop of the hotel and offers breathtaking views of the city and bay. Guests can relax in the sun while sipping on a refreshing cocktail from the nearby bar.
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Customer Service

The customer service at Tafer Hotels & Resorts is exceptional. From the moment guests arrive, they are greeted with warm hospitality and personalized attention. The staff go out of their way to ensure that every guest feels welcome and comfortable during their stay.
One of the standout examples of Tafer Hotels & Resorts' customer service is the butler service offered at Hotel Mousai in Puerto Vallarta. Each guest is assigned a personal butler who is available 24/7 to assist with anything from unpacking luggage to making dinner reservations.

Overall Value

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While Tafer Hotels & Resorts' luxury vacations in Mexico may come with a higher price tag than some other options, the value for money is undeniable. The accommodations, dining options, activities and amenities, and customer service all exceed expectations and provide an unforgettable vacation experience.

Conclusion

Tafer Hotels & Resorts offers a luxury vacation experience in Mexico that is truly exceptional. With stunning accommodations, world-class dining options, a wide range of activities and amenities, excellent customer service, and overall value for money, Tafer Hotels & Resorts is a top choice for travelers seeking a memorable and luxurious vacation in Mexico.

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2023.05.28 10:30 glo75001 Nanda Devi Adventure resort Auli I Best Himalayan Facing Resort in Auli

Nanda Devi Adventure Resort Auli

Hotel location - near Car Parking, Auli, Auli Laga Joshimath, Uttarakhand 246443
Call now - 7500101155, 01352680927, 7895254355
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