Foreign Perspectives

Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

Although I am that little bit happier to be able to hold a photo in my hand rather than have it only as a digital file on disc, obviously it’s a whole lot handier for me to have that image on disc too.

In fact, although I’ve thousands of photographs from my holidays all over the world, you’ll only have seen those that I’ve taken in the digital age which, for me, effectively started just under four years ago properly but there are the camcorder images from back as much as 16 years.

What to do about all those non-digital images though? Well, in the plans is the purchase of a slide scanner which’ll radically increase the number of photos available to me online and make a major difference in the geographic coverage too with photos from Australia, the far east, India and several Pacific islands not forgetting about photos from just about all corners of America and Canada.

Now all I need is for the price of the things to drop down to something sensible.

Since we’ve gotten over the peak of the Summer season and, more importantly, I now have the Spanish exam behind me, our thoughts are turning to holidays for ourselves.

London is an easy choice for us as we’re just 20 mins from the airport and the flight times are pretty convenient too. Not only that but there’s loads of things to see and do in London year-round so we don’t need to aim for any particular date.

One interesting option that we think of now and again are London apartments. You might think that these would be very expensive and, of course, some of them are. Not all though and particularly not if you choose your dates wisely as many serviced apartments are aimed at business people and therefore have lower rates at the weekends.

Failing that, London is naturally full of cheap hotels although you should be careful with these as some are cheap because they’re not that convenient to public transport. If they’re reasonably close to a tube line even hotels that are relatively far out can be extremely practical as you can get a surprising distance on the tube in 20 minutes.

Some jobs sound really fantastic.

You know the ones: you hear about a friend who lands this great job which has them jetting about all over Europe and it sounds brilliant, doesn’t it?

Except, of course, that it’s incredibly tiring. At one point I had one of these “fantastic jobs” which at one point involved flying to London three times a month. Now, at the beginning, that was brilliant as I could pick up all kinds of things in London that I couldn’t get in the local shops and I could do a bit of sight-seeing as well.

After a month or two of that though you’ve seen all the sights and been to all the shops and then it’s just tiring which is, of course, the problem with jobs that involve a lot of travelling.

What should you pack to go on a short trip?

One thing’s for sure: don’t think that you can just replicate your packing for a full-scale holiday because you’re just going to run up a bill for excess baggage for no reason at all. If you’re going for a long-weekend it’s just being silly to even consider a full-sized case that needs checked in: carryon is the only way to go.

What should you bring though?

In terms of clothing, that depends on the temperature difference between where you live and where you’re going. Clearly if it’s Winter at home and Summer at the destination (or vice versa) that will dictate you having an extra change of clothing above what it would otherwise.

Essential items should be trimmed down to the minimum. That minimum should include:

1. passport;
2. credit card, debit card and cash card, all international versions (ie with a Visa/Mastercard on the credit/debit cards and Plus/Cirrus on the cash card). Make sure one is Visa and the other Mastercard as acceptance isn’t equally widespread in all countries and max three cards in total in case they’re stolen.
3. driving license (even if you don’t plan on driving);
4. plane tickets (or their electonic equivalent ie the booking number);
5. electical adaptor for foreign electrical sockets (get a “world” version rather than just a “european” one to cover all the bases);
6. guidebook (sometimes they’re not available locally in English)

And, of course, personal items such as contact lens solutions, glasses, sunglasses, womens items, and the like.

Ideally, all the stuff you’re taking should fit in a supermarket carrier bag. Any larger, and it’s definitely too much for a weekend break!

We’re at one of the crossroads of Europe so find that people are stopping here enroute for another major tourist site somewhere in Europe.

It’s very common for people to be coming from Paris enroute to somewhere in the Valencia or Alicante area as we’re pretty much at the half-way point and quite convenient for the motorway exit.

Going the other way, it’s almost always Avignon that people are heading for. OK, Avignon is nice but there seems to be more to see in Nimes, there’s the Pont du Gard, Arles and, for the nature lovers, the Camarge, all around two to three hours drive from here. And those are just the highlights because there are lots of other places to see in that area.

So why’s it always Avignon that they go to?

Simple. It’s got the biggest “name”. It’s why people go to Paris or to Rome or London. They usually start off with places that they’ve heard other people talk about or have seen in films or on TV.

Those coming the longest distances are the worst for this. Both Australians and Americans will almost always start with the “big sights” and, in many cases, only ever go to those “big sights” and thereby miss out on the real culture of the countries that they visit. Visiting in this way means that they are constantly surrounded by their fellow tourists hitting the “big sights”.

I’m not saying that they shouldn’t visit the big sights, but that needs to be balanced by visits to other places around the country. It’s much better to spend a few hours going round a small museum exhibiting a broad range of art than try to get round the Louvre over a day and thereby find that you get to the point of thinking “oh hum, another Matisse”. For that matter, probably the best place to see as Monet did doesn’t have any of his paintings at all!