Real Life Adventuring

Real life adventuring thread again. Any stories to tell or share?

I'm actually considering just getting a backpack and just hoofing it within the next few years

in my high school years, i was lucky enough to visit 11 countries on 4 continents. briefly, and in no particular order-

Japan: do not make fun of punks on a train, just in case they speak english, get off on your stop and ambush you in an alleyway. don't eat the fugu, it might kill you.

China: state sponsored tour guides will lie to you at any opportunity. bring an independent for facts. also, things might explode or collapse at random, from chairs to bridges.

UK: the food is bland, they won't admit it but you shouldn't comment on it. avoid speaking any foreign languages you might know.

France: for the love of god, don't try and speak French to them. you'll be offending their delicate sensibilities, and then you're just screwed.

Greece: the cops will be upset with you if you report a crime. also, WATCH YOUR WALLET AND STORE YOUR PASSPORT IN A SAFE. your life might depend on it.

the Netherlands: crazy place. don't bring children. don't confuse coffee houses with cafes, as they are two separate things. take a canal ride.

Turkey: was glorious, but things have changed and now I would worry about ever going back.

Australia: everything, from the wildlife, to the ground you walk on, to the water at the beach, to the trees you see, probably has the potential to kill you. read up on EVERYTHING.

New Zealand: if you plan to stay on Maori land overnight, maintain eye contact with the guy who greets you and let him turn his back on you first. you'll insult him if you do either before he welcomes you, and then you have to make your way off their land on your own.

Mexico: if the army shows up and says move, MOVE. if you're a woman and arrested, don't be surprised if you end up in a cell full of Transvestites. its so the women in the womens cells won't beat you to hell.

Canada: is lovely. enjoy.

Reminder that there is nothing stopping you from looking up local wanted criminals and hunting for them yourself.
Go out and bring justice to this broken world, Anons.

>Mfw WI is one of the few states where bounty hunting is illegal
>Mfw I have no ambition to do anything else exciting
>Mfw I'll die in 30-50 years without accomplishing anything meaningful or storyworthy

Move to a better state.

I started going on road trips for my summer holiday a couple of years ago, and that's pretty much casual adventuring.

I went to a little village in Yorkshire for one of the days, and spent my time wandering around footpaths, taking pictures of the scenery.

Last year, I went to Liverpool for a day, and decided 'fuck it I'll walk into town' from my hotel (actually a pub) in a shitty rough suburb.
Discovered the shitty rough suburb place when I got ripped off for all my cash and half my dinner on the first night, after having grabbed a takeaway pizza and wandered in a random direction while eating it. Got some decent tourist directions advice from them, though.
Next day, I wandered into the city centre. I got turned around on the way, walked through a market full of poor people (very shifty looks there from the locals, the traders saw I was one of their people), discovered how shitty the area I was staying in was (payday loan places everywhere), and then found my way into the city proper.
Wandered about catching pokemon on my phone for a while, followed a stream of locals to a tiny sandwich store, and grabbed a cheap but tasty (if messy) breakfast of a bacon and egg roll.
Wandered some more, went around a museum to get away from the sun and the heat, then parked myself by a fountain for a few hours to read a book.
Wandered back to the hotel, got lost again as my phone ran out of battery (fucking pokemon go ate my charge) and I'd wandered off the tourist map, and wandered through the middle of an estate halfway through 'regeneration'. Literally halfway; new-built modern houses gave way halfway through it to shitty old tiny houses packed in tightly together.
Wandered past a bit of wasteland where there used to be buildings, got to the hotel for dinner (low food prices mean huge portions AND low prices), changed, waddled off to go clubbing and to work off some of dinner.

Who cares if direct bounty hunting is illegal, the police still will publicly announce wanted criminals and ask for any additional information that you can provide to them if you investigate.

Check out the fantastic documentary "Tickled", a journalist without outside help exposes a batshit insane blackmailing network that has cells all over the USA, all funded by a megalomaniac millionaire.
The journalist researches all leads and puts together the clues himself, it's an extraordinary example for what a lone person with a mission can accomplish.

People are not aware of just how much they are capable, they hear such stories about legends that did this and that on their own and think "well that was them, /I/ could never do such a thing" when the reality is that those people likely had the same mindset before they found something they are passionate enough about to break their limits.

Don't let you hold yourself down, it doesn't even have to be something world changing.
Look for the next best mission that seems interesting enough and go to hell and back to fulfil it, just to prove to yourself that you can and will.

Went clubbing, found that northern girls are indeed friendlier than girls down south. And that Liverpool attracts people from all over.
Cheap booze, too. Too cheap for the old-school metalhead I befriended; he got too drunk and security escorted him out when he passed out in front of a speaker.
Left the club, had some chips from a van nearby to soak up the last of the booze, and got a cab back to the hotel to sleep it off.
Then went to the little village in yorkshire to get over the hangover.
Everyone there assumed I couldn't understand them. My mother grew up there, so I only realised that after a few hours of them talking shit about me. People do that right to your face down here, so I just sort of ignored it and left them to their assumption before wandering off to go look at scenery.
Got rained on a bit, feet were aching after the previous day's hike over concrete, so I didn't go far. Just a picnic by a waterfall.

Then I went to scotland to see some people I know there. I don't recommend it; shit roads, most of the people are dicks, they have knock-off paper money that gets queried in england, and the infrastructure is lacking. Hung out in a mechanic's garage for a few hours catching up with my friends, and petting their dogs.
Went on north, discovered that the highlands of scotland are just as unfriendly as the south of england, with worse roads and worse local authorities and worse drivers.
And a 60MPH Average Speed Check all the way down the eastern side.

I'm in London right now. Wandered around, saw Westerminister Abby, and a few museums. It's informed my ideas for theology in DVD. Couldn't stop thinking about Never where while I walked.

I feel I could do more for adventure, but I don't want to die. I'm too much of a pussy.

One day you will die and right before you'll wish you weren't such a pussy that went out of his way to avoid adventures.

>crazy place. don't bring children. don't confuse coffee houses with cafes, as they are two separate things
Elucidate, sir.

You buy weed in coffee houses

You might be right. I'm a pipeline worker, any day some Fulker might drop a 48" on me.

What do you suggest?

So a coffee house is a hash bar?
Why is it crazy? Bitches and whores?

The crazyness probably has to do with drugs apparently there's a dutch TV program that solely consists of the TV presenter trying out different drugs

About 8 years ago while on a road trip I decided to try and drive the Canol Road (Yukon Highway 6). I got a little over a third of the way through the road, camped the first night, and my truck died five miles into the second day. I hung out the rest of that day waiting to see if anyone would come along. No luck. So I made a hobo sack out of a small tarp and hiked two days back to Johnsons Crossing. People forget just how quiet and dark it can get out there away from other poeple.

Overall, 7/10 would do it again, even with the breakdown.

>for the love of god, don't try and speak French to them. you'll be offending their delicate sensibilities, and then you're just screwed.
Don't try and speak English in Paris, they'll know you're a filthy American tourist, assuming you're American.

I actually did all right speaking French down towards the south, though I'm not great at it. But around Paris they look at you like dirt if you try and fail at French, while silently laughing at you, and if you try and speak English they just think you're a tourist and silently detest you.

Can't fucking win.

London is great because a lot of the time you can really just pick a street and wander down it to investigate and see what you find. There'll usually be something.

Found a pub buried like four storeys underground while I was poking about last year. Nice place.

I lived in Istanbul for two months during Erdogan's rise to power. Istanbul is fucking beautiful, the people are super nice, you will get conned at some point and it will be *hilarious*. The food is fucking amazing, and there are fuckhuge bagels, offal bacon, and boiled oysters available on streetcornes everywhere for like 5c a pop. The bayside fish restaurants are dodgy as hell but there are some fucking beautiful places to eat in Kuzguncuk. Just stay away from the barbed wire fence with the skeletons painted on the wall underneath it.
Also the entire city takes care of all stray cats collectively. It's pretty cool, I worked with one of the most lucid and devious crazy cat ladies I've ever met taking cats to a vet to be checked up and spayed/neutered. Don't fuck with the cats in istanbul, you *will* get shanked by an old woman.

Lived in Berlin for a month after that when the Nazis had just won the right in court to assemble publically.
I've never fucking been *anywhere* angrier or more ready for a fight in my life. There were signs of swastikas being torn to shreds on government buildings, nazi eagles being shot out of the sky plastered next to posters for David Bowie's return to Neukoln tour, an absurd and exhilirating energy *eveywhere*.
Around that time I visited the Soviet Memorial in Berlin, the fucking enormous three-city-blocks size one. I had no idea why the Germans hadn't gotten rid of it after the Soviets left. Turns out, they fucking love the monuments. Berlinites think of the russian soldiers as heroes, as separate from the soviets, and while I was there, this ancient couple was struggling up the stairs to the center of the monument where this europunk skinhead was laying one too. It was surreal.
That was also where I experienced the Bagpipe Falafel Block Party, daily wedding rides through Neukoln with men hanging from limos, and the Ginger Shot.
All in all, a damn fine three months.

From what I've seen, people from the south of France seem to be way more chill about the language thing.
Met some guy from Leon working at Mt Vernon last year, apparently for a school overseas thing. He was super cool, and his accent was fucking awesome. It seems like the most stereotypically french places are Paris and Quebec.

Wish I'd seen more of Berlin when I went there. Unfortunately I was so ill at the time that I felt like I'd got the full Holocaust experience from visiting that concentration camp.

How do you people get the money to travel so much?

Spent two summers driving around the States on road trips. Plan to go again this year if I can scrape the cash together.

First one saw me visit California for the first time, both LA (fun encounters with a tranny) and Yosemite (where I had a scary but cool encounter with a bear), as well as stopping at the Grand Canyon, Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone, getting lost in Oklahoma, and staying in the sketchiest hotel ever in Nowhere, Missouri. Fuck Missouri. Followed most of Route 66 on that trip, which was cool as fuck.

Second trip saw me visit a friend in Denver (fun visit to a strip club, met Bonnie Rotten there actually), drove on to San Francisco where my car died and I was up for 38 hours straight getting it fixed, saw the Golden Gate Bridge technically, then limped home in a broken car through the northern states like Montana (beautiful), North Dakota (surprisingly pretty too, if empty as fuck), northern Nevada (stayed at a tired but fun casino one night, got drunk as fuck and played midnight poker), and Wisconsin (sucked ass).

Also drove out to New Jersey awhile back for a buddy's wedding, spent the entire time on the beach getting crossfaded at midnight and giving speeches about how awesome he and his new wife are.

Had a friend who did it. Just packed a bag and went to America, crossed it from Mexico to Canada on foot. Changed him as a person. Probably the best thing he ever did to himself.

Word of warning, though: it takes a very, very particular kind of person to be able to do this, certainly under the insane condition he did (he didn't even take a phone with him, not to mention shit like medicines or water. Basically turned himself into a traveling hobo, completely at the hands of fate. If anything had gone wrong he'd have died like a dog). Think carefully before committing to that kind of journey.

I've considered doing this actually. Just packing a bag and setting off. Sounds really exciting, if terribly dangerous.

>Sounds really exciting, if terribly dangerous.
How does someone even decide how to go about doing something like that?

Of course, it's a moot point to me seeing as I need to remain both within this country (socialised healthcare ftw) and be able to get within range of a hospital/pharmacy pretty regularly.

Japan is one of THE best places in the world to have a big cross country hiking trip, especially if you're the kind of guy who might be interested in a trip to Japan in the first place (i.e. very likely an unfit otaku with minimal outdoors experience). On the one hand, beautiful scenery, endless forests and mountains and fields, a very pastoral experience all around and a challenging enough walk to be satisfying. On the other hand, you never have to be really anxious for your life since at the end of the day the roads are in very good shape, it's inconceivable to go 24 hours without reaching at least one convenience store no matter where you are (so even in some kind of nightmarish worst case scenario where you lost your bag, your supplies were stolen, you sprained your ankle and your phone is dead, you can always count on there being a place to get those things a couple kilometers ahead) and the people are extremely helpful to travelers. A dentist in Yurihonjo literally picked my buddy and I up when his leg was too infected to walk, took us to the hospital, paid all the expenses and let us stay at his place and eat his food while my buddy recuperated. It's also fairly easy to live on the relative cheap due to the abundance of good traveling food (cup noodles are high quality and will serve you will, and CalorieMate is a godsend). You could make your life a lot healthier by taking the extra effort to carry some rice with you and learning to prepare it - with a tiny amount of work, a bowl of rice with furikake and a cup of tea can make an incredibly satisfying roadside lunch (add trail mix, jerky and CalorieMate for the extra nutrients).

(cont.)

>How does someone even decide how to go about doing something like that?
Be unfulfilled and have the ability to drop what you're doing and nick off for awhile? It helps that I'm an American living in America, so I don't have the whole "take a plane" issue. (I'm also , for reference).

Still, I'm not terribly happy with what I'm doing as a person right now and a big wandering trip might be just the ticket to resolve things for me. Haven't decided on it for sure though.

>a lot of the time you can really just pick a street and wander down it to investigate and see what you find
Often, you'll end up finding 'stabbed', or 'run over'. Even more often, an asian massage parlour or sex shop. Sometimes both in the same building.

Rock festivals are also an adventure. They're a place where regular rules of society are sort of suspended, and it's totally okay to drink ridiculously strong booze in public as long as it's not in a glass bottle, and where you can suddenly end up in the Somme if it rains.
And you can just meet random people there, because everyone's drunk and nobody gives a shit, and you're all metalheads anyway.

Like I said, special kind of person. Dude grew up in an abusive home, struggled to make a living as an artist, joined the military, served a few years before realizing it wasn't for him, , returned home with nothing to live for. His mom was a literal whore and a drug dealer to boot. He was so deeply in debt he couldn't afford utilities and in trouble with the local mob. He had very little to lose.

>How does someone even decide how to go about doing something like that?
You just get fucking bored of your life and set off.
Someone I work with up and decided to live in Japan for a year. Took a career break, learned japanese, and got a job as a sushi chef in tokyo.
I just book holidays from work, book a string of hotel rooms, get in the car, and drive.

Eh, considering how I estimate my chances of survival, if that's any more than ten years from now I'll count myself lucky that I survived that long, and wonder why nobody found it in them to strike me down beforehand.

Damn, dude had a hard run of it. Sorry to hear it, glad he had a good experience on his trip though.

That sounds like a few cons I go to: everyone is drunk, high, or both and random adventure just happens.

I wonder if part of my reluctance to go and do anything like this (aside from the needing a fistful of pills every morning and an hour in hospital every eight weeks thing) is because of something related to the medical thing.

I'm not really sure how to articulate it, but it feels as though, since this near-death episode I had (related to the medical thing, long story), I'm subconsciously steering away from anything that could risk me dying.

Maybe it's just because some of me remembers what I went through and doesn't want to repeat it, I'm not sure.

Two greatest things to remember:

1. Japan is not Tokyo. They're practically too different countries, and traveling them takes different skills. In Northern Japan, people won't speak English, would've never seen a white man, haven't advanced past the 60's and won't know about any of your fangled animoo shit. Also, nobody lives there below the age of 60. Like, seriously, the entirety of Japan north of Kanto is populated by nothing but the elderly. the other hand, they're INCREDIBLY generous and very considerate of travelers. You will not pass by a single old lady who wouldn't offer you food (which they're always carrying, somehow). We had anything from candy to meat buns to rice to bottles of energy drinks shoved in our hands. It actually came to the point of being a burden since we had to carry it all. We started dodging the old ladies. In Tokyo... well, imagine New York but a hell of a lot sleazier. You won't be pickpocketed in Tokyo: you'll be scammed. Don't talk to strangers unless you have to and don't ever let anyone look at your wallet. In particular, avoid people who are weirdly pushy offering to help you operate the ticket machines in the subway. That's a very common scam there.

2. This is the big one: don't for a single moment assume that Japan is animeland. You'll save yourself disappointment, embarrassment and trouble. Just accept the fact that you'll go there and it'd be a place like any other place, with its fair share of problems and discomforts, and it's not going to be the dream. The women are butt ugly, they aren't actually attracted to foreigners, most people won't think you're cool for knowing about manga and your feeble attempts at speaking the language would be (politely) laughed at. Maid cafes are filled with hideous gorgons in cheap costumes who sell horrifically overpriced and frankly disgusting food, and Akihabara is really only interesting insofar as you can get good merch. Don't even think of hitting on the schoolgirls.

When I was in high school we went to Berlin on a class trip. Me and all my buddies basically would just go this place called Tom's fries every night to get beer and fries and do rounds around the city. We would meet Turkish con artists, Prostitutes and other groups of drunk Americans for some reason. One night my friend smashed a beer bottle against an apartment building and this guy immediately pops out of a window and starts swinging at him as we all run away.
Best time of my life desu

This thread is making me wonder where I went wrong with my life to end up the person I am.

I'm too young to have to worry about this shit, what is the matter with me?

Pic unrelated.

This was more anticlimactic than i expected.

About old ladies in Northern Japan:

My buddy and I, on a cold, rainy day, entered a shokudo (eatery) in one of those 20 person villages in Aomori so remote they literally don't show on any map. We were carrying our bags, our coats soaking wet, looking thoroughly miserable and disheveled. The only inhabitant of that place was a bent, fat old lady who looked FREAKISHLY like Mulan's grandmother from the Disney film. Didn't speak a word of proper English, but welcomed us in. We entered, hesitantly, since it was fairly late in the afternoon, and before we knew it she came out from behind the counter. We froze in place, certain we've done something wrong, only for her to take off our bags and our coats and start mumbling to us in Japanese. We apologized seventeen times, (because that's about all we knew how to say) and she just nodded energetically, sat us in front of the counter and asked "Ramen? Ramen?". We nodded. She gave us steaming hot bowls of rich, thick ramen with meat, and on that cold, wet afternoon that was paradise. We stood up to leave, but she looked at us and went "tchoto matte" (wait please), disappeared into the kitchen and returned with two slices of cake and two cups of coffee.

We traded looks, my friend and I, and quietly discussed payment. Then the old lady just looked at us and said "Servisu! Servisu!" ("service", which is the Japanese term for "on the house). We ate and drank.

Then she offered us juice. "Servisu!"

We drank as well.

She offered us buns for the road. Servisu.

She never asked for payment for anything. Not even the ramen. Never asked for a single thing. Just kept muttering in Japanese and nodding.

It was a very memorable evening, in its way.

Israel is surprisingly nice. I know it's a Zionist cliche but I really did expect to come to some third world shithole where you have to bring your own water, only to find out Tel Aviv basically looks like a whiter San Fransisco.

Jerusalem has some scary neighborhoods, though.

What a great old woman. Hope you thanked her profusely.

You met a guardian angel dude.

If you're looking to travel but don't want to throw yourself completely to the winds, I might recommend seeking out a job for which you are required to travel. I work IT for a big company, and am often sent out to support our employees and clients at various meetings and events around the United States. It's been relatively easy, taking a day off here and a late flight there, to turn these business trips into pleasure trips, allowing me to see far more of the country than I ever would have been able to on my own dime alone.

Hrm. What sort of qualifications do you need for something like that?

Comfy story/10

Depends entirely on the job. Go looking, see if you qualify.

>Go looking, see if you qualify.
I doubt it. 'Sides, I can't go abroad at the moment, I've just started uni. Doing a degree in arts.

I know.

met a guy that was basically this when I was travelling in NYC late 2015 pretty interesting fellow

I'm glad you enjoyed your time in North Dakota, user

Come back again sometime!

Truth be told, all my training has been done on-the-job, with the appropriate certifications acquired afterward. There are a lot of different jobs out there that require travel, it just takes a little effort finding one that wants someone with your skillset. The company at which I work holds regular meetings and conferences in cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, Las Vegas and San Diego that require someone who is familiar with their hardware and software, so I go and I support our people. If the meeting ends on a Thursday and I want to do a little exploring, I request Friday off and fly back on Sunday.

I actually bought a hat that has your state motto on it for a friend of mine who hates ND (it was a troll gift). I found the state pleasant and surprisingly pretty though there's very little there to look at. I plan to pass through sometime on my way out west again.

Dutchfag here, yes there is such a program. You're probably referencing to "Spuiten en Slikken", which literally translates to "Shooting and Swallowing". It's not just about drugs though, they also talk a about sex.

You have to see that yes, while the presenter will take drugs and they will talk about sexual toys and techniques and all that, it is mainly aimed at educating people about those subjects. I'm wondering now tho, do you guys get taught about about drug usage in high school? They cover soft and hard drugs in our biology lessons, mainly talking about the effects weed, hash and mushrooms, addiction to hard drugs and what happens in to your body when you take these substances.

I do think that foreigners might have a bit of a warped view of our country though. Late teens and twenties are the age groups which mostly do drugs, once people get a bit older usage will really diminish or stop. Right now I might smoke some hash or weed once every few weeks with a couple of friends so its not like everyone is just high here all the time, often its more like going drinking with your buddies in my experience.

Prostitution isn't really a huge thing amongst Dutch people, at least not much more than in other countries I think. I believe its mostly foreigners who make use of those services.

>it just takes a little effort finding one that wants someone with your skillset.
Considering the only thing I've got any skill whatsoever in (and even then...) seems to be writing fictive works, I feel like that might take more than just a little effort.

>I'm wondering now tho, do you guys get taught about about drug usage in high school?
Basically starts and ends at the word "Don't", which has caused a fair few problems in the past.

They actually *are* the only stereotypically french places. People in Paris are jerks. The rest of France is fairly normal and welcoming. Except for Marseilles, maybe, but I never went there.

The holocaust museum in Berlin is the most fucking intense shit I've ever been to. Theres a monument out front proportional to every life lost. It looks like a hill of graves bout ten feet high, but it's all built in a huge fucking pit, and then you walk down into the columns and there's like forty feet of stone towering over you in rows of clumns. I went there at night, and there were fucking children playing hide and seek and giggling in the monument.

As for how, my aunt was living in Istanbul after my grandma died. My grandma was a goddamn dynamo of a human being who downed like two sticks of butter and a bottle of wine every day, left me, a twelve-year old, full dvds of every season of black adder and monty python, and swore like a sailor. She was a teacher on a US military base in Turkey, fell in love with the country, never left, died of leukemia at age 87. She asked that her ashes be scatterd in the bay of Kizkalesi and libations be poured to Poseidon and Dionysus. Fuckin awesome person.
After Erdogan, my aunt decided to get the fuck out of turkey the moment she got a job in Berlin, and basically let me stay in her apartment both places while she figured shit out. All in all it was pretty affordable. Not like Kuzguncuk and Neukoln are too expensive.

>I found the state pleasant and surprisingly pretty though there's very little there to look at. I plan to pass through sometime on my way out west again.

If you just took I-94 across the state you won't get to see much because it just skirts the Badlands, and due to geology and climate, most of the (admittedly not very prevalent) trees grow at the bottoms of canyons, which aren't visible from the road.

If you have time, stop in Medora and visit the national park there. And as much as I hate to admit it, the South Dakota Badlands are much more impressive.

I took a side-trip into the badlands for a few hours, found it pretty (got pictures somewhere), but I couldn't stay long, my car was slowly dying and I had to get home.

I'll try to find time to hit up Medora at some point, I love national parks man. They're gorgeous.

Guess it's good to be the occupier, try visiting Gaza next and see how they live

>The holocaust museum in Berlin is the most fucking intense shit I've ever been to. Theres a monument out front proportional to every life lost. It looks like a hill of graves bout ten feet high, but it's all built in a huge fucking pit, and then you walk down into the columns and there's like forty feet of stone towering over you in rows of clumns. I went there at night, and there were fucking children playing hide and seek and giggling in the monument.
I remember. I was cold, footsore and so tired I could barely stand, but I still remember how eerie the place was. So quiet. And it just keeps on going until you feel like it's never going to end.

>Canada: is lovely. enjoy.
As a Canadian, i'm tickled pink that you think our country is lovely I think so too, but most of /int/ Canadians are self hating faggots that despise this country for "reasons".

>your feeble attempts at speaking the language would be (politely) laughed at
I'd disagree with this one. I've only been to Japan once, admittably, but some of my friends have done it regularly, including taking long trips around the countryside (i just stayed in Tokyo), and we've all found that people react extremely positively if you speak even a little Japanese. Japanese tend to be veyr prud of their country, and that a foreigner has gone through the trouble of learning the language affirms that pride.

Maine is great to visit for some /x/ tier stuff. Come during summer though, don't wanna get caught in a noreaster if you don't know your way around.

I've always wanted to wander through Japan's forest and see the rural areas. I'm not comfortable in cities, they're too loud to me.

I've always wanted to travel more. Most I ever did was going to Canada for a school field trip. Canada's all right - I went to Toronto, and it was the first time I'd ever been to a city. Lemme tell ya - as a country kid, going to a city as vast as Toronto was fucking insane. You couldn't turn around without seeing a literal sea of people, all going about their day at the same time. Back where I lived in NY, there was about five or six people per square mile tops. Beautiful city though. Would absolutely go again.

I feel you. I moved down to a city in PA a couple years ago for work and I hate it. I feel like I'm in a fucking sardine can in this apartment.

Starts with "here's the worst case reaction: it is standard for everybody", turns into "weeds kills more than alcohol!", and ends with " we will call the DEA on you and they will shoot to kill and sue your corpse".
Actual DARE speaker, who made drugs sound so fucking cool and hardcore. If I hadn't been a broke-ass 6 year old, I would've found some crack right then and there.

>Lemme tell ya - as a country kid, going to a city as vast as Toronto was fucking insane.
I know what you mean. Place I'm from, you're never more than 15 minutes away from the sea. When I went to France, pretty much the only thing that stuck with me was how weird it felt to be able to look in any direction and still only see hills spreading out into the distance.

Same with when I went to Berlin, as I said earlier. Largest city I've ever been to is Liverpool, and when I got up to the viewing deck of the Reichstag, all I could see was city in every direction.

I know what you mean about not liking being in cities too, I'm from a pretty woody suburban area and cities just don't work for me. Too loud, too much car fumes, as soon as I'm there I want to get away.

>When I went to France, pretty much the only thing that stuck with me was how weird it felt to be able to look in any direction and still only see hills spreading out into the distance.
That's how it looked back where I lived. I get freaked out by huge bodies of water - I've lived in the boonies for so long that the ocean legit creeps me the fuck out.

>UK: the food is bland
There's a reason we eat so much Indian food here.

>Father tells us about his time in Turkey
>Back when he was younger and dumber, he stood in front of the Soviet embassy with some friends just to see what would happen
>Some native Turks show up, wondering what the Westerners are staring at
>More natives show up
>The group has reached critical mass, people are now showing up just because people are there
>Dad and friends get the hell out of dodge as the guards start getting nervous at the huge crowd

Also I heard it's rude to refuse tea when it's offered, but good lord is the tea strong.

>don't eat the fugu, it might kill you.
Did it kill you?

My attempt at a gap year taught me the value of proper trip planning.
Which I am not going to recount, because I'm still kinda sore about the disaster it turned out as, and the circumstances surrounding it.
Although Montreal was a fucking trip.

I used to go to a con that was like that after-hours. You'd hang out outside, get drunk, share booze, play music, and have fun.
Then the local residents started complaining about the fun to venue security, and calling the police. And it was in London, so that was the metropolitan police, who hate fun and are selected for being the biggest dickheads imaginable.
So I went to festivals instead, where fun is practically mandatory. The only downside is camping, and the mud, and the fact that if you pick the wrong campsite to set up in, you end up losing your tent in a mudslide or river.
Plus, it's three days of heavy fucking metal. Best hearing damage ever.

English countryside is pretty comfy.

The mild winter means there is more wild boar and feral pigs around than normal, and they are busting into farms and animal pens for food, attacking people etc. So fellow historic hunters and I have a weekend excursion planned to cull, fill our freezers and get the $40-per-head bounty from the dept of fish and game.

Just rehafted my spears. Pic related.

Hey, I used to have that rug.

>Those lugs near the spearhead

Do you remember what happened to Robert Baratheon?

Holy fuck the tea is good. They serve in these tiny little crystal glasses, even the complementary tea they give you on the public transit across the bosphorus, so I was always terrified of breaking them because I'm used to great big honkin mugs for my tea.
They also have a thing for cherry and rose flavored everything, including tea, which varies greatly in quality.

I wish I'd have time to travel more. I've been on pretty many university excursions, and they've been interesting enough (good thing about having studied geology is being able to go see all sorts of interesting places), but I'd like to travel somewhere on my own as well, and actually have enough time to hang around somewhere rather than spend the whole day driving on a shitty minibus from one place to another. I did spend several weeks in a hostel in Tokyo at one point, and a weekend in London with my best friend, but both of those are years ago now.

What I'd really want to do is go sailing. Not on a cruise ship, those floating hotals have little to do with proper ships, but aboard actual ships. Too bad that these days you can't just get yourself hired aboard a cargo ship for one trip without having graduated from sailor academy, as otherwise I'd have done that a long time ago.
I should probably join a society that renovates old sailing ships. I hear they occasionally go sailing with those ships as well.

Sounds like fun. Wish I could hop across the channel and join you for it. Always wanted to see a boar.

You can just do some skipper courses, rent a boat and go cruising.

Target? I have had it for years. Not a huge fan, but until I save up for a nice Persian or something....

Multiple wraps of bull-hide lace, with an antler toggle, allowed to have flex and pivot, and thus are less likely to break. It is also much easier to fix in the field. Pic related.

One of my spears has solid quillions, forged into the head. After a while, they begin to stress and break. I have been doing this for over a decade. I am confident in my equipment.

Also: Bobby B was drunk, and possibly drugged.

Ours are ancestors of German boar, brought in the 1600s by the English to try and tempt nobles to move to the new world. Fun fact: One generation of boars breeding with pigs makes feral pigs. Two generations they get the tusks and cartilage armour back. By the fourth generation, they are full blown boar again, and now you have a population of 300 pound, armoured, meat eating murder-pigs with face-knives, that have no natural competition.

This has been a surprisingly good and comfy thread

>Except for Marseilles, maybe, but I never went there
I went there, people are ok

>Ours are ancestors of German boar, brought in the 1600s by the English to try and tempt nobles to move to the new world. Fun fact: One generation of boars breeding with pigs makes feral pigs. Two generations they get the tusks and cartilage armour back. By the fourth generation, they are full blown boar again, and now you have a population of 300 pound, armoured, meat eating murder-pigs with face-knives, that have no natural competition.
Oh no, I think I've got you mixed up with the Hungarian guy who always joins you in the Arms and Armour threads. Sorry.

Do you actually hunt them with spears, or are they just for getting into character?

Don't jinx us you idiot, we're not even at a hundred posts yet.

Pic unrelated.

Oh jesus really? Dude, first off you don't want to hunt boar up close, they will fuck you up because they're heavy, strong and their tusks are wicked sharp. Second, if you're going to do it get a proper boar spear with a decent solid lug, historic equipment like this is nice but there's a reason we refined the design of that boar spear; they're dangerous animals and you want the best possible weapon.

That's definitely on my plans once I've got a job. Buying my own boat, actually. My family used to have a sailboat when I was young, and we'd spent most of the summer sailing around the islands. I miss that.

I've been to 11 countries, I go hiking every once in a while, sometimes canoe camping and diving, but I haven't got any interesting stories. What am I doing wrong?

>Leon
Do you mean Lyon ?

Marseille is actually not that bad (for a poor city, that is), it's just that their accent is fairly hard, even for french people.

>Oh no, I think I've got you mixed up with the Hungarian guy who always joins you in the Arms and Armour threads. Sorry.

Im the former professional circus performer who works as a living historian at one of the largest museums in America.

>Do you actually hunt them with spears, or are they just for getting into character?

I am a member of Saint Hubert's Rangers, on of many international historic hunting associations that endeavor to keep historic hunting traditions alive. Bow, spear, sling, ferreting, hawking....

I have been hunting boar for over a decade, user. I have been gored before, and that is one of the reasons I wear armour. Its no fun if it doesn't have a fighting chance.

Fucked if I know. I nearly died from an incurable illness, spent nearly three months in hospital recovering and don't have any interesting stories either.

What do you do with the boar once you've killed them? You allowed to eat it?

Not going out and getting completely trashed in a new and foreign location. While drunk or high, people gravitate towards adventures.

>I used to go to a con that was like that after-hours. You'd hang out outside, get drunk, share booze, play music, and have fun.
Basically that's what I do at a few cons a year. One is in Pittsburg in the summer, we get to wander around on the 4th of July just completely crossfaded and have misc adventures, including the midnight run to Primanti's all the time (which was always awesome, I love Primanti's).

The other is in Chicago in the winter and is mostly about tooling around in the hotel being hammered. Fuck, I had a spirit quest with one guy whose name I didn't even know but who had a huge flask of vodka and fruit juice that we drank and went on vision quests with. Hell of a time that was.

>...and that is one of the reasons I wear armour

Modern or not? If not are we taking some kind of plate metal deal or leather?

your quite welcome. I have no complaints about Canada. the food was excellent everywhere I went, the cities were clean and boasted a wide range of architecture, there is LOTS AND LOTS of nature to explore and marvel at, and the multiculturalism in the media and events going on meant i was never bored. can't wait to go back.

from what I could tell, the problems of Canada aren't super widely publicized, because Canadians want people to enjoy their time in their country.

indeed. might try other foods as well, just for the sake of variety, but I know there's a lot of Brits who go "its too foreign" so they can't bring themselves to do it.

Don't you have any laws against hunting methods that make the animal suffer too much?

no, but a man nearby dropped his chopsticks- a telltale sign of the poisoning- and had to have his stomach pumped. no idea if he survived past getting into an ambulance, but later I found out the rates are -low-.

Clownfag has got this shit on lockdown.

>You allowed to eat it?
Of course! Anything that doesn't go in the freezer gets processed and donated to Hunters for the Hungry.

A proper quilted gambeson, tall leather riding boots, panzerhosen (quilted hosen). Pic related. Same padding I use for steel and baton combat.

>They are non-native, destructive and invasive. They attack humans and animals without provocation, and displace native wildlife. As long as I don't use a modern firearm or bow, there is no limit or license, and we get cash bounty on each cull.

I threw a concert a while ago. I lost money but it turned out nice. It was two local bands who I know personally, and one dude who just got back from tour in Mexico.
He's been to the UK, Germany, Mexico, Canada, all across the US, and especially New York City, which is his point of origin. He had some crazy stories about being forced into a sweat lodge by a person he was travelling with and not allowed to leave, and a million texts from some schizo he met in Mexico City.
He's off to Europe again in a couple of weeks, and he's talking about going to Japan at some point soon too. He says the best places to tour are Germany and Japan, touring the northeast US just loses you money.

It's crazy that in this day and age someone can live like that. I write a lot of songs and practice a ton, so I was considering trying it at some point, but it's a bit hard to bring a piano everywhere with you.

I still don't like you, but you have balls.