BATE: Vacation Memories

[Moon Sedai]

 

Brown Ajah Travel Event: Vacation Memories.

If you’ve been on vacation, you know that travelling with your friends, family, and loved ones can help build precious (and not-so-precious) memories.

So, you fell asleep on the beach and got sunburned?

Have your car battery die while you spent the day at the Water Park?

 

Or, did you get to be the “Magician’s Assistant” at the Amusement Park or get to meet some really cool people while at a Festival?

 

 

This is your chance to tell us all about your best (and worst) Vacation memories!<BR style="mso-special-character: line-break"><BR style="mso-special-character: line-break">

 

Where did you go?

Who did you go with?

What made this vacation so memorable?

 

 

 

[Moon Sedai]

To kick-sart this discussion, I will tell the story of one of my best Vacation memories.

Starting with the Best:

 

In January, 2001, my (then) boyfriend and I, who were living in Germany while serving in the U.S. Army, wanted to take one last trip in Europe before he left Germany. We decided to go to Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria and travelled with another couple we knew, a boy named Jason and a girl named Rachel.

This was the castle that inspired Sleeping Beauty.

 

It was a cold winter, and we bundled together in a very small car to travel the many miles to the Castle, and stayed in a nearby village that night, late.

 

While we were there, it snowed. We took a horse-drawn carriage up the mountain to the castle, and toured it and a neighboring castle.

The castle is GORGEOUS inside. The images painted on the walls are scenes from Wagner Operas (like from Flight of the Valkeries).

 

On the way down the mountain, my boyfriend proposed for the first time.

 

Even though the rest of the trip was tarnished with memories of Rachel hogging space in the small car, I will never forget the look when Mr. Moon proposed.

Nothing more romantic.

 

The worst Vacation?

Eh.

Not my vacation, but my husbands. A few years later, while we were still engaged we were living in two different states. He was in Texas, I lived in Florida to help my brother out until he and his wife had their first son. During that summer, Mr. Moon came to visit me for a week vacation. It started out with his plane arriving 3 hours late. Then, the morning after he got to florida, my grandfather passed away, so we were going to have to travel up to Georgia (Where my mother and her family live) to visit my family and go to the funeral. He had just been in atlanta for a layover, I had been in atlanta the week before for a wedding.

He did not pack for a funeral. He had swimming trunks, jeans, some ratty boots, and flip-flops.

While he'd met my family before, it was only one time, briefly, so he spent the whole four days we were in Georgia uncomfortable, and was constantly getting in trouble with my mother, who was so overwrought with grief that she was unbearable.

 

The week was so horrid, it was an honest surprise to me that my husband still wanted to marry me.

[keyholder21]

Wow Moon - what a beautiful story! AND what a sucky one lol. I'm sorry you guys had to go through that on the latter trip, but hey, it all worked out for the best, right?

 

 

Let's see. One of the RARE family trips we took when I was younger:

 

My mom, my sister, my sister's dad (who(m?) my mom was engaged to at the time), me, and my 82 year old grandmother pile into a Ford Taurus. Yeah. That's right. So the two middle aged adults are up front, driving and navigating, and my sister, grandmother, and I are crammed into the back. Poor Ky has to sit in the middle. It's also in the middle of summer. We decided to drive with 5 of us in a Taurus from NY to Michigan in the summer time. Things are going fine (other than cramped) when grandma decides she's cold (I love her, but seriously, I was still sweating a river!). So Ron turns down the AC to low. It's already starting to get stuffy and grandma says she's STILL cold, so Ron turns it off. Yep. You heard me. Then, my sister - who had been really quiet since then says "I'm hotter than a chicken's butt."

 

We all burst out laughing. Even grandma (who could still hear well at that point). Then Ron had the idea of buying g-ma a blanket at the next store we drove by - did that and had blessed AC for the rest of the trip.

[Moon Sedai]

That's Hilarious!

 

Most of the vacations I took with my family as a kid were trips from Atlanta to Panama City Beach, Florida (Where my dad lived for about 10 years and my brother now lives).

It's about a 6 hour drive, and we'd leave early in the morning, drive south through Alabama and down into Florida.

We always stayed in the same motel, in the same motel room. We'd spend time at the beach, at the amusement park (that's now shut down) and the water park. We always went the week of Mom's birthday, if we went at all.

And on the way home, we kids, stuck in the back seat, would torture one another with "touch the Sunburn."

Those vacations were so similar that they blur into my mind.

[Ithillian Turambar]

One of the most memorable holidays I ever had was the three weeks I spent in Australia, with my then bf (now hubby) his brother and his brother's gf. We were based in Brisbane and it was so hot and sunny that you would get sun burned just in the five minute walk to the corner shop.

 

We visited the Rainforest and were attacked by leeches, and I nearly walked/ran into a giant spider as a result. From Brisbane we went to Byron's Bay - the most easterly point of Aus- to watch the sun rise. The 'short cut' back to the car provided more possibly deadly adventures as we came across a clearing full of DEAD THINGS and feathers and blood. Omg I was sure we would all be eaten by crocodiles. Our next stop was Sydney, with the Opera House, marina and wonderful aquarium. We went on a trip up into the Blue Mountains, although the clouds closed in and the rain poured down, so was mostly white.

 

From there we headed back to the East Coast and Fraser Island. This is one of the last untouched wildernesses in Australia and is the only place you can find pure strain wild dingos, although we were not best pleased when one visited our camp in the evening. We spent the night playing cards in the car. The main highway on the island was the aptly named 70 Mile Beach, which was great fun to speed along, although it meant you had to time all of your driving to match the tides. We got caught inland on our last day there and had to tear along the bush trails at 70 kph - the limit was 30 kph lol.

 

Back in Brisbane we spent a day at Steve Irwin's Wildlife parke, having close up experiences with kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, snakes, crocodiles and my all time favourite - a wombat who just adored me. I am now a wombat fan for life.

 

Our final trip was to Cairns and a whole day snorkelling out on the Great Barrier Reef. The trip out to the reef was on a stupidly fast boat and yet still took over an hour. We then stopped just off the continental shelf and had to swim over to the reef. Of course I expected to be eaten by a shark at any moment. The reef itself was just amazing. The colours and sheer variety of life was stunning and I made very good friends with a giant potato cod and even managed to find Nemo.

 

I don't think that I have ever loved a place more. It's been my favourite place ever since and I would love to go back some day.

 

I have lots more memories of other holidays, good and bad, so may post more later :-)

[Rasheta Ardashir]

Moon i'm about to head off to Germany and we are planning to get up to Neuschwanstein Castle, I told my professor I HAD to go. *laughs*

 

The best vacation I took was probably one of the many times I went to Disneyland which was also the worst. *laughs* The best part was it was with my brother who is almost always fun. The worst was it was with his g/f, and another friend of ours who we found out are not fun. The best part was my brother and I ran around Disneyland by ourselves for several hours and his fave ride is Haunted Mansion. So we go on Haunted mansion, and that day I just happened to have my belled anklet on, we get into the "Doom buggies." on the ride and end up in the seance room. Well in order to let someone with a wheelchair on the ride the rest of the ride has to stop and wait. So we were stuck in the seance room. My brother and I started talking along with Madame Leota and when she says to make a noise I jingled my foot. The people in the next buggy were like...omg did you hear that? That was so not part of the ride! OMG is this place really haunted?! So my brother looks at me and I jingle my foot again and the people behind us really start freaking out. At that point the ride starts again and my brother and i dissolve into a fit of giggles.

[Elayrin Eleazar]

Moon i'm about to head off to Germany and we are planning to get up to Neuschwanstein Castle, I told my professor I HAD to go. *laughs*

It's definitely worth a visit! Although I have to confess, I've only visited it once - although I lived only about 2 hours away from it at that time... Well, I think sights are more interesting the farer away from you they are. Took me 26 years to visit our capital Berlin - and I've never been to the cathedral in Cologne either, although it's no more than half an hour away from me..... Well, maybe this summer!

 

My best vacatian memory... well, usually every vacation I can spend with my family. They're living 600km away from me, so I can usually see them no more than twice a year.

Oh, and three years ago I went to Spain with my boyfriend and our best friend. I've never had so much fun before, it was just great. Early October, summer weather, the ocean, no time for worries... That was great.

 

My worst vacation memory... *laughs* Well, that's an easy one!

About 13 years ago... My family and I wanted to drive through Italy with a mobile home to see a lot of the country. It started with driving to Italy - I was sick all the time because I couldn't bear the mobile home's movement (when I moved, I had to... well, you don't want to know! )

But that wasn't the worst... two days after our start, we were near Rome but couldn't make it to the city on the same day, so we decided to stay on a motorway station overnight - under a street lamp and near the restaurant, for we felt safe there. The next morning we woke up - all of us with an enormous headache (and my father never has headaches!), but didn't worry. We climbed out of the mobile home - and then my mother realized that the strange shiny things we saw lying on the grass next to us were our mobile home's window panes......

Well, someone took out the window panes, climbed into the vehicle and stole everything we had with us. Money, documents, even a part of our clothes - and we hadn't noticed a hing. That was a nice trip home... no money, no papers - a vacation to remember.

Later my grandma told us she saw how tourists in Italy were robbed in a TV reportage. Thieves opened the windows of the tourists' vehicle, poured sleep gas (is this how you call it in English? Well, gas that makes you sleep) in and waited until the tourists were sound asleep - then they could take what they wanted without being afraid of getting caught.

We think this is what happened to us, too - otherwise it can't be explained why nobody woke up and why we all had a bad headache the next morning...

[Elgee]

I've been to the Cathedral in Cologne! I was an exchange student in Europe, and the family I stayed with in Munchen took a few of us there for the Christmas Eve service.

 

Our first stop on our exchange tour was actually in Berlin, but there we stayed in a youth hostel. My most vivid memory of that is the absolutely disgusting red tea they tried to give us in the morning, till I sweet talked the Turkish staff into sharing their coffee with us

 

Oh and sneaking out of the hostel late 1 night to go clubbing with some red haired Count and his buddies. That was fun, as was sneaking back in early in the morning. The hostel had REALLY nice Turkish staff *grins*

 

Back then the Wall was still up, and they allowed us to go on a very special (and HIGHLY supervised) day trip into East Berlin. I got into trouble for speaking Russian to one of the guards at the Russian Memorial. (Into trouble with my own government officials, that is, since it was back in the days of Apartheid and South Africa was vehemently against the Communist states. I still have a "note" at Inferior Affairs that requires a special investigation when I want to renew my passport )

 

Germany was one of the highlights of our trip, along with Austria. Italy was a bit of a let down, though the people were the friendliest.

[Moon Sedai]

Sounds like there are a lot of good Vacation Memories out there! Keep em comin!

 

Here's another one.

 

We got married out of state, and had to go home almost right away to go to classes for our University, and did not get a chance to go on a honeymoon until months later.

When we did go, we went to San Antonio, Texas for a weekend at the Schlitterbahn water park and an afternoon at the Alamo. We saw Willy Wonka in Imax, and we toured the Riverwalk in San Antonio (A bunch of shops along the river).

 

ON our way home, we picked up Harry Potter #5 and read it together.

 

it was beautiful.

 

 

[Raena]

Back in my last year of high school, my Spanish class went to San Sebastián, Spain for two weeks. It was a great trip. A classmate and I stayed with a family that lived in the middle of the old town. It was just beautiful. The weather was nice for the entire trip and for one of the two weeks Semana Grande (big week) was happening which meant lots of fun things going on, including a fireworks competition. I turned 18 while there and the rest of the group took me out for dinner and stuff. It was really a great trip and I'd love to go back some day.

[Elgee]

That sounds lovely, Raena! Spain is definitely on my list of place to still go to, the Lotto willing. Good food, great music, beautiful architecture (Barcelona is so on the list!) and then of course the people sound simply amazing.

[Raena]

I've been to Barcelona too. That was also a great trip.

 

I went with a friend, just after we were done high school. We tried to get everything as cheap as possible, so we went there with Ryanair, and stayed at a cheap hostel, etc. We lived next door to a bar where we spent most of the evenings, and most of the days we spent at the beach. We walked around some and saw some of the buildings and such, but that wasn't really a priority. I would love to go back and do more touristy things.

 

One night we met some guys and they thought we should go to this town square where a lot of people were just sitting and having fun, that was nice until the police came and made everyone leave.

 

My memories from that trip are kind of cloudy. I wonder why.

[Moon Sedai]

These are great memories!

 

To shift things up, let's talk about souvineirs.

Are there any things you collect when you visit a new place?

 

Do you have any interesting souviners from vacations?

Or anything interesting people have brought back from vacation to give to you?

 

I have a small collection of magnets from some of my vacation sites.

When I was young, before I could drive, I collected Keychains.

 

When we went to Philadelphia, I bought a christmas Ornament shaped like the LIberty Bell.

I still have the movie ticket from "Willy WOnka" from our honeymoon.

 

In Germany, I bought a few things, like Beer glasses and mugs, but I took a lot of photographs (few are in digital format, because I took them about 10 years ago).

 

I think my favorite souviner is from a trip I didn't take. When we lived in Germany, my husband (then boyfriend) went to a Leadership Retreat with his unit for a weekend in France, including a trip to Paris. I couldn't go because I couldn't get the time off.

While he was there, they travelled to Normandy to see the site of the infamous D-day invasion.

 

He brought me home a rock from the beach.

I still have it- it is sitting on a bookshelf next to a few other random knick-knacks I've acquired over the years.

[Raena]

I think I've got a t-shirt from most of the places I've been to in the more recent years. I have usually bought magnets as gifts for others, but not for myself.

[Moon Sedai]

T-shirts are fun!

 

But, I'm always afraid I'll spill something on it and ruin my souvenier.

 

Magnets I can leave up on my fridge as a reminder of my past.

[Jeannaisais]

That sounds lovely, Raena! Spain is definitely on my list of place to still go to, the Lotto willing. Good food, great music, beautiful architecture (Barcelona is so on the list!) and then of course the people sound simply amazing.

 

Spain is amazingly gorgeous. I loved every minute of my four months and would never give those up for anything. If you speak the language well, the people are really nice to you! And if you aren't great at Spanish they are still really nice but will probably talk about you in Spanish without you knowing (some workers have tried that on me before and it usually backfires on them ).

 

But anyways, besides San Sebastian and Barcelona (two cities I unfortunately did not get to due to money constraints), you should also add to that list most of the major cities in southern Spain, such as Granada, Sevilla, Cordoba (if for nothing but the cathedral there and it's amazing architecture) and a relaxing weekend on the beach in Cadiz (you can look for some of the history while you're there as well if you so desire ). Personally, I would pass on Madrid on there passing through by flying into or out of Madrid and then taking a bus south as that would be cheaper.

 

And as of right now I have so many vacation memories I don't know where to start!

 

Best: Venice and Bolzano with my mom. Gorgeous scenery, amazing food and an awesome time.

Worst: Vienna, Austria...friend traveling with me had the stomach flu for the weekend and I had severe sinus allergy reaction to some of the plants up there....we spent almmost the entire weekend in the hostal rather than actually viewing the city. And the one day we both felt remotely okay, it rained the entire day. talk about a sucky vacation weekend!

[Moon Sedai]

Worst: Vienna, Austria...friend traveling with me had the stomach flu for the weekend and I had severe sinus allergy reaction to some of the plants up there....we spent almmost the entire weekend in the hostal rather than actually viewing the city. And the one day we both felt remotely okay, it rained the entire day. talk about a sucky vacation weekend!

 

That would be AWFUL! escpecially because Vienna is supposed to be a gorgeous city to visit!

 

When I lived in Germany, I visited the U.S. Three times on vacation, and each time I broke out in a horrible rash on my hands.

I was very concerned that I'd become allergic to my homeland.

Totally not the same thing, I know, but I can understand how horrible being sick on vacation could be,

[Jeannaisais]

Yeah, it was pretty bad, especially since those plane tickets were not cheap!! I just remember that we got there late Thursday night and I spent from about 3pm on Friday to about 7am Saturday fast asleep because it was so hard to breathe that my body made me shut down.

 

It's true that the biggest concern while traveling is definitely worrying about getting sick....bc being sick is no fun, no matter what lol

 

But a few weeks later I got to travel with my mom for a week to Athens, Rome, Pisa, Milan, Venice and Bolzano. That had to be the most amazing week ever *nods*