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Maybe we're spoiled but Dutch zoos are pretty great? I live next to Blijdorp Zoo and they all have lots of space to move around, no visitors loving with the animals, etc.
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May 9, 2016 18:32
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There's a Dutch zoo where you walk around among monkeys on the loose, it's pretty cool. They give you special bags with long ziplocks so that the monkeys don't steal your stuff.
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May 9, 2016 18:37
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Yeah some zoos are pretty good, especially with small animals. I think Arnhem? has an awesome zoo too. (Can't remember but it's around there and has a bunch of biodomes). Switzerland has some good ones for big animals too -- there's a place with a herd of bison and some other unusual animals that's like a 2km * 300m enclosure. I don't think I've ever seen a good enclosure for a lion or a cheetah or any big predatory animal. I've rarely seen good enclosures for large herbivores. Unfortunately everyone goes to zoos to see bears and lions and stuff, and those animals are always the most badly treated. Saladman fucked around with this message at 19:40 on May 9, 2016 |
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May 9, 2016 19:38
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Saladman posted:It's even more depressing when you go to a zoo outside of the US/Canada and Europe (not sure about Japan/Korea). I thought about going to the one in Lujan but just couldn't bring myself to it, and I've been to some pretty bad zoos (hi Tunis). Yeah, I've never been to a zoo outside of first world countries. Australia Zoo in Beerwah is pretty good, and IIRC the Toronto Zoo is pretty good. Copenhagen Zoo is the most depressing zoo I've ever been to, went there as a kid. I can't remember what other zoos we went to but when 10-year-old me realizes the animals are being so badly treated that they're obviously super sad, there's a problem. I didn't go to a zoo in Japan but there was one park where they just had like 20 monkeys locked up in a tiny cage and that was just so incredibly depressing and sad.
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May 9, 2016 19:50
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Thoiry is fine I think. Obviously it's not a classic zoo.
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May 9, 2016 20:09
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PT6A posted:Don't go to a zoo that's not in a somewhat major city, though. Holy gently caress, that's a route to instant depression.
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May 9, 2016 20:16
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HookShot posted:I didn't go to a zoo in Japan but there was one park where they just had like 20 monkeys locked up in a tiny cage and that was just so incredibly depressing and sad. Come to think of it, I think among the best places I've seen semi-wild animals has been in Japan -- the deer in Nara (totally free roaming) and the monkeys in Kyoto (YOU go in the cage, they go free).
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May 9, 2016 20:35
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PT6A posted:Meh, it's not that bad. I've been to the Berlin Zoo and the Madrid Zoo and neither seemed particularly egregious in terms of small enclosures or otherwise poor conditions. Certainly as good as any zoos I've been to in Canada. If you are in Berlin and for some odd reason, as a tourist, want to go to a zoo, go to the Tierpark, not the Zoo. The former was East Germany's version of the Zoo, except that it is much bigger and not crammed straight into the city centre (or, as perhaps more appropriate, the "centre").
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May 9, 2016 21:08
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Hollow Talk posted:If you are in Berlin and for some odd reason, as a tourist, want to go to a zoo, go to the Tierpark, not the Zoo. The former was East Germany's version of the Zoo, except that it is much bigger and not crammed straight into the city centre (or, as perhaps more appropriate, the "centre"). I could walk there and they had pandas. Who cares? On another note, does anyone else find TripAdvisor recommends restaurants whose use of salt is about as unsubtle as being rammed up the rear end with a broom handle? I guess their primary clientele (English reviewers in Spain) need something they can taste after havin 40 fags a day, innit? Soy sauce is not a salad dressing for gently caress sake! EDIT: That was a bit harsh I suppose, but there's no loving way in hell that's the third best restaurant in the city. It's not even the third best meal I've had in the city, and I've had only 4 proper meals. Out of three courses, there was no course that beat any single other thing I've eaten here in Jerez, or in Madrid. Sad! PT6A fucked around with this message at 22:39 on May 9, 2016 |
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May 9, 2016 22:10
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Trip advisor is good for middle class or cheap food.
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May 10, 2016 10:19
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And it's incredibly unreliable anywhere with lots of tourists, particularly for smaller towns. Inevitably the top 5 restaurants anywhere in Italy are gelato places, because obviously everyone is going to give 5* for their €3 gelato. The rating window is incredibly narrow too -- anywhere with more than 50 ratings is going to be between 3.5* and 4.5*. Anywhere with < 3* and more than 30 ratings must include a dead rat with every meal. I use it a lot for its photos of places and food though, which I find handy to differentiate the atmosphere of places, which is what I usually care about more than the food if I'm spending more than €10 on it.
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May 10, 2016 11:00
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Saladman posted:And it's incredibly unreliable anywhere with lots of tourists, particularly for smaller towns. Inevitably the top 5 restaurants anywhere in Italy are gelato places, because obviously everyone is going to give 5* for their €3 gelato. The rating window is incredibly narrow too -- anywhere with more than 50 ratings is going to be between 3.5* and 4.5*. Anywhere with < 3* and more than 30 ratings must include a dead rat with every meal. Yeah, oddly enough in this case it was a slightly higher-end place, so the usual failings don't apply as much. Perhaps I just caught them on an off night, but paying twice as much as I did for lunch, for a less enjoyable meal was frustrating to say the least. Admittedly, the food was much more complex and used a greater variety of fresh ingredients, but I'd rather take simple done well as opposed to high-quality half-assed. The atmosphere was lovely, too, as was the service, so I can't complain on either of those dimensions, but... I'd honestly prefer eating in a shithole and/or a place with questionable service* if the food were stunning. The place I went the night before was in a similar price bracket, and their dishes were composed with much more consideration, where each element on the plate harmonized with and added to the dish, whereas the place I was complaining about was just high-end stuff thrown together as far I can tell. * This is another problem with English-language reviews of anywhere in Europe -- yeah, the service is going to be poo poo by North American standards, because you are expected to ask the waitstaff if you would like something, instead of them asking you every 20 seconds to see if you need something. It would be like Europeans faulting North American waitstaff for being too pushy, or for being upset at being flagged down constantly: the cultural norms are different, and that's a thing you should be aware of when travelling. It's sort of like wine ratings: given the average scales, if you see something that's less than 86 points out of 100, or less than 15/20 (depending on what scale the reviewer is using) it must be an absolutely brutal wine, yet only the very finest wines have a chance of hitting above 92-94 or 17 on the same scales. It seems ridiculous to even have a rating scale at that point because there's so little ability for differentiation precisely in the range where most things end up hitting. EDIT: I'm mainly pissed off at myself, because I make this same mistake every single goddamn time I go anywhere on vacation and I have no right to complain any more because I should have learned by now!
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May 10, 2016 15:47
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Ok, got a very specific question about a place in Portugal's Algarve. If you've ever googled "Algarve" you've probably seen the region's most famous sea cave:  I want to go. It seems that the most common way is a tour in which you stay in the boat. Not for me. Is there anything preventing me from swimming to it? It's at 37.087229, -8.423707. Looks very close to Benagil beach. Will someone stop me?
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May 11, 2016 23:53
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I'm sick of hotels, I miss the apartment I rented last year very dearly. I was paying twice as much as I am this time, yes, but I got three times the space and services, and for three times as long. This should teach me not to be cheap, but inevitably I'll probably make this mistake several more times much like my earlier issues with following tripadvisor because I just don't learn. On the plus side, the shoebox I've rented this time around is very nicely located and not horribly expensive.
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May 12, 2016 16:51
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After I leave Split on or around the end of May I have another 7 weeks or so of solo backpacking and I'm looking for input on where's worth visiting and worth skipping in Eastern Europe. Athens and the Greek islands seem expensive, but are they really that different than Croatia if I'm just going to be swimming and hiking? Are Sofia, Bucharest, and Montenegro worth visiting? Between Vilnius, Riga, and Tallinn which is the best for what? Right now my plan is to go to, in unknown order, Budapest, Prague, Kiev/Chernobyl, Kraków, and Istanbul depending on how expensive flights are. Are there any cities/towns/things in those areas that are must-sees? I'm 24, mostly interested in food, nature, and architecture but some occasional partying wouldn't hurt. I've already been through Milan, Venice, parts of Northern and central Croatia on this trip, and I'm heading to Sarajevo today before Mostar and Split.
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May 13, 2016 05:40
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PT6A posted:I want to set up a tour of "out of the way Spain" so folks get to see hidden gems like this (Jerez de la Frontera) and Logroño. Please do, or at least drop an itinerary, something cheap on the budgie
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May 13, 2016 05:45
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zacpol posted:After I leave Split on or around the end of May I have another 7 weeks or so of solo backpacking Santorini is one of the most stunningly beautiful places I've ever been, and Ive done a lot of traveling. I even remember the first time I saw it, from 30,000 feet on a flight to Israel, and I was like "poo poo whatever island that is looks awesome, I want to go there". It's expensive, although maybe if you go to one of the other islands besides Fira it's less so, since 99% of tourists only make it to the big crescent island. Depends what your plans are already but Santorini is somewhere that IMO exceeded my already high expectations. I've never been to Mykonos or the other popular Greek islands so can't comment on that. (Paros and Naxos though -- not so much appeal, only went because it was already a stop on the ferry from Athens to Santorini.) It also depends on your budget, and if you think you'll come back. Santorini is ridiculously romantic once you escape the crowds in a couple specific places when cruise ships are there. itd be an awesome vacation with your partner in 10 years too. It's not going anywhere, unless it has a cataclysmic eruption that changes society forever, again.
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May 13, 2016 08:49
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Waci posted:Fixed. My town's zoo has a big rear end herd of deer on a big rear end paddock right next to the entrance, as the first exhibit the visitors can see. Those are Père David's deer, which had been completely extinct in the wild since 1939. For decades the species had survived only in zoos, and only lately they've managed to reintroduce a population that is now some 700 strong. In short, gently caress yeah for zoos.
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May 13, 2016 21:30
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pigdog posted:In short, gently caress yeah for zoos. Truth. My local zoo also takes care of local wildlife that can't survive in the wild, like bear cubs whose mother got hit and killed by a car. But by all means: let me know why a likely slow and lingering death for those cubs is a preferable outcome, if you disagree! So, after three trips to Madrid I finally made it out to El Escorial. It seemed so much less impressive than I'd been led to believe. Sure, the building itself is quite impressive, but the parts that you can actually visit are either way, way smaller than I thought, or I didn't see the full extent (but I spent a while wandering around looking for other parts I was allowed to see, so I doubt I missed anything). I guess it's worth going if you've exhausted all other options, but there's like 10 museums in Madrid that I would advise visiting before making that journey. I'm thinking of going to Toledo on Tuesday for the day to see the military museum and the El Greco museum. Would anyone happen to know if this is a good idea or a bad idea?
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May 14, 2016 16:41
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PT6A posted:I'm thinking of going to Toledo on Tuesday for the day to see the military museum and the El Greco museum. Would anyone happen to know if this is a good idea or a bad idea? I enjoyed Toledo. I also did it as a day trip from Madrid last November. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the Alcazar as it was closed on Wednesdays, but I walked around it and it looked neat. The El Greco museum was decent and cheap, but a little sparse on the art. The main draw for me was all the religious sights. That's also where you'll find a lot of El Greco's best works. I think there are something like 8-10 sites between churches, mosques, and synagogues. 6 of these can be visited with one tourist bracelet for 8 euros. The cathedral is amazing and has it's own art gallery which is top notch. A couple of tips would be have a map, because the town is like a labyrinth and it's very easy to get lost. Also take the bus into town from the train station because it's a long way uphill, but walk back when you leave because there is a neat Roman bridge you can cross and get some really great views of the Alcazar and the city itself.
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May 14, 2016 18:16
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MagicCube posted:I enjoyed Toledo. I also did it as a day trip from Madrid last November. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the Alcazar as it was closed on Wednesdays, but I walked around it and it looked neat. The El Greco museum was decent and cheap, but a little sparse on the art. The main draw for me was all the religious sights. That's also where you'll find a lot of El Greco's best works. I think there are something like 8-10 sites between churches, mosques, and synagogues. 6 of these can be visited with one tourist bracelet for 8 euros. The cathedral is amazing and has it's own art gallery which is top notch. Good call on taking the bus. The walk from the train station to the Real Monasterio in El Escorial was way more uphill than I expected, so now I understand the risks. I don't really need a map because I have a local SIM (indispensable in Jerez as well). I've been doing some looking and I think I'll probably try to hit the Cristo de Luz Mosque/Church thing, and maybe the Synagogue in terms of religious buildings. The cathedral as well if I have time, but my itinerary is already looking pretty full for a single day. I'm going on Tuesday so I can see both the Alcazar and the Museo del Greco, being that one closes on Monday and the other closes on Wednesday. Well, anyway, it's good to hear that others have enjoyed it.
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May 14, 2016 18:29
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Yo thread, flying Vancouver to Amsterdam in July, is Air Transat any good or should I splurge a little bit more and fly KLM? I'm a pretty tall guy and usually pay extra for exit rows, etc.
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May 17, 2016 03:09
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CLAM DOWN posted:Yo thread, flying Vancouver to Amsterdam in July, is Air Transat any good or should I splurge a little bit more and fly KLM? I'm a pretty tall guy and usually pay extra for exit rows, etc. you answered your own question
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May 17, 2016 03:17
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Being tall is fuckin expensive ok
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May 17, 2016 03:18
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Given up to a $200 difference in ticket price, I would fly KLM every time over a North American airline operator.
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May 17, 2016 04:29
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Transat would be $1400 CAD, KLM would be $1800 CAD. Leaning towards KLM.
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May 17, 2016 04:39
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Air Transat is awful on flights longer than 2-3 hours, so if a $400 savings is all you're getting then go KLM. I did it once from Toronto to Glasgow and swore it off until I saved close to $1000 flying to Venice. Still was terrible, but the price made up for it a bit.
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May 17, 2016 05:56
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Awesome to know, thank you very much.
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May 17, 2016 05:59
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Yeah the KLM seats on that route are fine, I also wouldn't touch Air Transat on a long flight at all and I'm like 5'4". Just FYI this is the plane you will almost certainly be on: http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/KLM/KLM_Boeing_777-200.php
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May 17, 2016 06:18
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KLM is good and Air Transat's seats border on being some kind of war crime.
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May 17, 2016 06:58
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I'm sold, gonna book on KLM tomorrow.
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May 17, 2016 07:00
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CLAM DOWN posted:I'm sold, gonna book on KLM tomorrow. Good choice. I just checked and, for tall people's future reference (when not going to AMS as a final destination), KLM's premium economy is narrower and with 3 inches less pitch than BA's. And no lie-flat beds in Business, but I suspect that will be a less frequent concern.
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May 17, 2016 08:16
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KLM Premium Economy is excellent, especially if you can book the first row of economy. Last time I flew transatlantic I happily paid for that upgrade.
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May 17, 2016 08:51
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sweek0 posted:KLM Premium Economy is excellent, especially if you can book the first row of economy. Last time I flew transatlantic I happily paid for that upgrade. All premium economy is good, I'm just pointing out that KLM offers 17.5 inch wide seats and 35 inch pitch, while the BA flight I was just on had 18/38. Regardless of the airline, I don't think I'd ever regret paying for premium economy if I were in a position to afford it. I certainly regretted not upgrading the time I flew KLM, not that regular economy was particularly bad.
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May 17, 2016 09:21
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I'm only 5'9'', so I can't pretend to understand how it is for people who are 6'4'', but for average-height or slightly-above people it seems like that money would be better spent on a bottle of melatonin (or several dozen) -- then you wake up after landing feeling refreshed too. YMMV, I know melatonin doesn't work for everyone, but it's magic for me on flights. I usually down 5mg when I get in my seat, sleep 2-4 hours until they wake me up for food, down another 5mg with my dinner, then wake up when we land.
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May 17, 2016 11:03
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Saladman posted:I'm only 5'9'', so I can't pretend to understand how it is for people who are 6'4'', but for average-height or slightly-above people it seems like that money would be better spent on a bottle of melatonin (or several dozen) -- then you wake up after landing feeling refreshed too. YMMV, I know melatonin doesn't work for everyone, but it's magic for me on flights. I usually down 5mg when I get in my seat, sleep 2-4 hours until they wake me up for food, down another 5mg with my dinner, then wake up when we land. For normal height people I absolutely agree, and I don't mean offense by this but you have no idea how difficult this can be for mega tall weirdos. Cramming into an airline seat can be physically painful, especially for a long haul  It's a short persons world out there
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May 17, 2016 16:27
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Or driving a sports car, or being in the kitchen. That's why a lot of tall people have terrible ugly postures. But it's way easier for them to get sympathy upgrades to exit row from the discretion of gate agents. But you really answered your question, flying is already a horrible experience and you are willing to spend extra money, there's really no need to bring up the issue. It's a personal trip, not flying for work
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May 17, 2016 16:44
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sweek0 posted:KLM Premium Economy is excellent, especially if you can book the first row of economy. Last time I flew transatlantic I happily paid for that upgrade. Keep in mind that not all destinations are created equal; Vancouver gets a lot of airlines' older models for long-haul flights where the premium options aren't as good as what people flying out of other Canadian cities or LA/SF would get. Personally I don't like premium economy where the seat format is the same as in economy; if you're charging double the price of the ticket you'd drat well better give me at least a few extra inches of width.
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May 17, 2016 17:08
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HookShot posted:Keep in mind that not all destinations are created equal; Vancouver gets a lot of airlines' older models for long-haul flights where the premium options aren't as good as what people flying out of other Canadian cities or LA/SF would get I flew a 3 month old carbon fiber 787 coming home Shanghai to LAX last year, it's amazing what a difference that higher humidity (aluminum airplanes run ~15% humidity to minimize corrosion) and higher pressure (7000ft altitude instead of 10000ft altitude equivalent), not to mention the windows as big as a baking pan makes  Not a huge fan that the windows are electronically, automatically adjusted for transparency and there's no passenger override.
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May 17, 2016 18:18
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Hadlock posted:I flew a 3 month old carbon fiber 787 coming home Shanghai to LAX last year, it's amazing what a difference that higher humidity (aluminum airplanes run ~15% humidity to minimize corrosion) and higher pressure (7000ft altitude instead of 10000ft altitude equivalent), not to mention the windows as big as a baking pan makes Maybe it's an airline option, but the BA 787 definitely had a passenger adjustment underneath the window. It's not what I would call "obvious" but I poked around at it and things got darker and lighter. Just on the train back to Madrid from Toledo. Very cool city, although the sword shops (many of which sell Lord of the Rings props for added cringeworthiness) are ridiculous. It even seemed that none of the swords actually had an edge. Lots of cool museums and buildings, and a very nice atmosphere provided you avoid the bus tours. Having a data SIM is precious, though, saved me a lot of wandering around. As much as I like Madrid itself I would certainly recommend Toledo as a must-do day trip. You'll want at least 8 hours, IMO. I arrived at 11 and my train left at 7:20 and I was sprinting through the city at times to make it. Edit: also, I should've bought the bracelet that gets you into all the attractions without paying over and over again. This was not a cheap day... PT6A fucked around with this message at 18:37 on May 17, 2016 |
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May 17, 2016 18:33
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