What is the best trip you've ever taken?

My best was a specific leg on a trip through Europe.

In 1999 I went to Europe with a few coworkers/friends. And yes, I was a bit worried about the Y2K problem so we traveled before all the planes and computers would crash.

Pretty normal trip and we ended up in Dresden since I love Kurt Vonnegut. From there off to Prague. We heard it was cheap and we could see Franz Kafka’s house.

So on the train to from Dresden to Prague me and my three traveling buddies had our passports checked. This turned into a problem for me. A bunch of dudes with machine guns had never seen a passport like mine since I had just had it issued. I was fairly certain I was going to a eastern European jail. Luckily, after about 30 minutes this was cleared up. I was shitting myself telling the people I was with to call the embassy and giving them photocopies of my passport and ID I had in my money-belt.

In Prague we found a pretty horrible hostile but it was only 6 bucks a night and I can deal with odd bugs when the room is cheap enough. We were put in a room with this awesome guy from Boston that had been floating around Europe for a few months. Josh…

Josh was all, ” Lets make some spaghetti.” since the hostel sort of had a kitchen. So we were off to find a grocery store. There is a huge grocery store in downtown Prague. It is just underground. Supplies bought, noodles in belly.

Now we figure out how to party. Josh knows of a place called “Club Uzi” that is pretty close. What could go wrong? The place was closed for the night. That went wrong. So we went to a place that was a weird underground place with a shit DJ and freakishly attractive women. I am fairly certain paying for sex was a option. We left pretty quick and went back to the hostel.

The next night we went to another place that was more normal. Big open place that was modern with hardwood everything. We were getting liters of very strong local beer and didn’t care. When I paid the bill I wasn’t really sure what they said so I gave them the biggest bill I had in my wallet and told them to keep the change. I later found out each massive beer was around 50 cents and I probably paid her rent for the month with my tip.

Next thing I remember is crawling along train-tracks….

We eventually make it back downtown and we know where the hostel is. But there is another club. So fuck it.

There is this long staircase going down and there is a club straight out of “The Lost Boys” The inside is modeled after a cave and is very dark and there are holes in the walls you can crawl through to get to different sections featuring different sexual acts.

We bounced pretty quick. But this is where the night became the best. Some “lads” were walking past us and there were a bunch of posters for a concert Scorpions were having. They were running around ripping down the posters and pissing on them. The cops were not pleased and they ended up in a Eastern European jail.

It would be hard for me to say, because I’ve been a bunch of places and usually have a good tie on each trip. I loved Hawaii (Kona) when I was 13. I loved California the several times I’ve been there. I loved Ireland the 3 times I’ve been there. I’ve been to Mexico and Canada, too. They were fun and interesting but not incredible. I’ve been to Maine and it was so beautiful.

I think probably Ireland. The medieval history, the scenery, the people, the adventure. Second would probably be Hawaii. California would be third.

Mount Desert Island, Maine, 2013. Lived on the outskirts of Acadia National Park for 7 weeks. The length is what makes this one my favorite. It’s so different to go and live somewhere new for awhile than it is to just visit. It was the most spontaneous, communal, carefree living I’ve ever done. Learned to share my home with the chipmunks and the crane flies. Got into awesome shape by hiking a different mountain every other day too. I’d give anything to relive those weeks.

I have to say every trip I’ve taken abroad —to China, Germany and the UK—have been the best trips of my life. I met fascinating people, ate new and wonderful foods, had experiences I never would have had in the States, and perhaps most importantly, realized the world does not revolve around the United States.

One other trip was extremely important to me. In 1963 I attended the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and had the privilege of seeing and hearing MLK and others speak.

Woodstock 94.

I lived in New Zealand for 15 years. Any time I had vacation there was fabulous. Camping up the East Coast of the North Island, driving or flying down to Queenstown, boating up in the Bay of Islands. .. swimming in the Bay of Plenty. .. it was all amazing.

Well, there were these mushrooms back in the late 70’s…............

I love travelling and I can’t think of a bad place I’ve been. I loved driving across Canada. We went from Vancouver to Edmonton and then flew to Toronto and drove onwards to Halifax. It was a fabulous trip. I love the visits we’ve made to Europe and even around the UK.

Strangely, one absolutely I adored was a trip we did over here in Australia. We’ve been to most areas over here now. There are a couple of trips we’d like to do, but we’ve driven around a lot of Australia. A couple of years ago I needed to do some interviews in Darwin and Alice Springs. We didn’t want to waste the opportunity so we flew to Darwin and then hired a camper van and drove from there to Alice Springs. I’d always expected Kakadu to be a bit hyped. I loved it! It’s such a different place. Darwin was great, as was Litchfield, but I really loved Kakadu. Then we drove down through the centre of Australia. It was so stunning. At times you wouldn’t see another car for ages and you could look across this beautiful, orange country and see not very much at all. The landscape was stunning. After Alice Springs we went out to Uluru. Such a spiritual place. The downside was lots of other people think it’s a great place too. Still, it was an amazing experience to watch the sun going down over Uluru. So that was a wonderful trip because I did not expect to love it as much as I did. We had such fun in our camper van too. It was a hoot. Just the two of us in this little van.

LSD and The Salvador Dali museum.

St. Petersburg FL.

New York 3 years ago. I got to see my sister’s family for one. Also my sister has theater connections. I got to see 2 of my favorite Broadway musicals. And my dream of going to the Tony Awards came true!

1985

I was living in Japan, and some friends and I decided to go to Thailand. We were there for 9 or 10 days, and I was high for every single one. I remember one dinner with a large group of tourists. We sat at a large table on the sidewalk, and we were served huge platters of tiger prawns in curry sauce. There were more platters of exquisitely delicious food of all varieties. It was sumptuous. I think my share of the bill was about USD 10. We took a train down to Koh Samui and a ferry across to the island. This was before the airport. I stayed in a grass shack on the beach and ate pancakes with fresh pineapple every morning with mugs of fresh coffee. We ordered magic mushrooms at the hotel’s restaurant one afternoon. After eating those, I went out and sat under a tree where I watched the ants. It was quite a trip.

@Sophie12

It’s great to meet another Himalayan trekker and welcome to Fluther!

Did you get a good view of Lhotse from the base camp?
Did you get a chance to check your footing on the Khumbu icefall?

I went on a trek around Annapurna with the Sierra Club. I got to see a golden sunrise on the face of Dhaulagiri.

Sailing down the Yangtze River in March 2014 from Chongqing to Yichang and stopping off at famous places such as Baidi Cheng, Shibaozhai Pagoda and the ‘ghost city’ of Fengdu. Absolutely fascinating, all of it, and what made it especially memorable was my companion, my Chinese girlfriend, who could explain and translate where necessary and who was herself the nicest thing of all.

I’m not going to tell you, but I’ll show you. Maldives…..