The Syndicate

thellama73 wrote:

Metalmarsh89 wrote:I wasn't going to believe you, but you actually went for the trapeze and harnessed up!

Everyone should always believe me all the time.

I believe in me you!

incredulous in Paris

I love how so many people look nerdy in this place.

Time to post my own nerdy face:
Myself in Zurich one year ago.

Dragon D. Luffy wrote:I love how so many people look nerdy in this place.

Time to post my own nerdy face:

Spoiler: show

Myself in Zurich one year ago.

I assume you're not talking about me.

No you look like a circus ringleader.

Good to see you, Jay and DDL!

I'm very jealous of the landscape in both pictures. Someday!

Hey MP. :P

Wow. I'm going to get right on that, MM, and ask my PhD advisor for some time off so I can go to Zurich and Paris. :P

We'll see his response.

Piece of cake. In fact, your PhD adviser should go with you.

MovingPictures07 wrote:Wow. I'm going to get right on that, MM, and ask my PhD advisor for some time off so I can go to Zurich and Paris. :P

We'll see his response.

While you're in the way you should go to Italy too. The whole country is awesome.
But speaking about PhD, you could use that to go abroad. Try to get a sponsorhip to go study in some foreign university. That's how I got to travel to Europe myself.

Nice picture!

Now I just need to change my concentration to International Accounting...

Italy is wonderful, but Rome is really crammed tbh. My favourite spots were Borghese, Trastevere and Caracalla. If Paris wouldn't stand as my first love in travel, Florence would be my favourite city in the world so far.

My favourite Italian spot and occasion, though: Live at Pompeii in Pompeii and TD's Zeit whilst climbing and staring into the Vesuvius. I'll probably never have such genuine eargams again.

Florence is pure amazing. Loved it. I liked Rome as much as Florence, though.

Another one I loved in Europe was Prague.

Paris is kind of overrated though, imo. It's cool, but I don't see why people treat it like the best one.

I liked Prague, but it wasn't the stuck-in-my-head kind of like.

"First love" factor aside, it was a shocker for me too, but I found Paris very agreeable, bar a few really crappy places. And it's a really "photogenic" city, too. Montmartre is to die for. The most enjoyable thought for me, however, is that if I would be able to afford living there, make money out of the music I like and otherwise go in the afternoon in Jardin du Luxembourg or in the weekend at the park behind Versailles, I'd be completely fulfilled.

Oh, and have a cat for a pet, of course.

I loved Venice and Paris, I wasn't so keen on Rome.

I've been to Florida.

I liked Paris a lot. My only beef was the severely overcrowded metro system.

My favorite cities in Europe so far have been Cambridge, Edinburgh, and Amsterdam. I'll probably be going to Vienna next month. Can't wait.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:I liked Paris a lot. My only beef was the severely overcrowded metro system.

My favorite cities in Europe so far have been Cambridge, Edinburgh, and Amsterdam. I'll probably be going to Vienna next month. Can't wait.

I don't remember it being overcrowded and I used to take one from Pont Neuf every day, depending where I wanted to go. I don't know if they still have such a fast system, but usually a train would have also arrived every two-three minutes during main hours, which is the fastest transit I can recall, sometimes even compared to London, certainly minutes faster than Vienna, for instance, and hours faster than my country's capital.

Overcrowded metro reminded me, instead, that most of the Rome underground stations, especially Termini, were pure death. At morning rush hour, platform full with people, incoming train also full with people and then stampede mentality in or out.

My beefs with Paris were Champs-Elysees, which is just godawful, certain places like Place de Pigalle which don't actually exhibit anything of interest and having to pronounce "a emporter" when ordering pizza to take away. Aa aaamp- aa aahmp- ah ahmpo- merde!

Dunno why but I'm not keen to visit Venice.

Ricochet wrote:Dunno why but I'm not keen to visit Venice.

I wasn't keen at all. I just did it to keep others happy. It turned out to be my favourite place I'd been in Europe. I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

I had to go on a beach vacation to keep my ex-gf happy, in Portugal. She repaid by dumping me half a year later.

But nah, Portugal was great. I also like visiting corners of the continent, so we went to Cape St. Vincent. A-goddam'-mazing.

Wait, what was this thread about again?

I wanna go to Portugal.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:I liked Paris a lot. My only beef was the severely overcrowded metro system.

My favorite cities in Europe so far have been Cambridge, Edinburgh, and Amsterdam. I'll probably be going to Vienna next month. Can't wait.

Paris's metro was terrible.

Paris is like a bunch of beautiful places filled with a lot of little annoying things that make me think I wouldn't like to live there.

But there sure are A LOT of beautiful places.

My favorite time was when me and my friends had a picnic with cheese and wine sitting in front of the Eiffel Tower. Made me feel a lot more rich than I actually am (ignoring the fact that we were doing a picnic cuz nobody had money to actually climb the tower).

Ricochet wrote: Dunno why but I'm not keen to visit Venice.

Venice is a one day-only thing. I got some of my best photos there. But you can see the entire city in one day and it's not a place you'd want to live in. It's like the city itself is more of a tourist attraction than an actual city.

I recommend you visiting it if you have the chance, though. It's really beautiful.

I think the places I liked the most were the ones with the best food. Italy was one. Prague was another. Belgium was heaven-like in terms of food. Paris had some pretty good food too.

I spent most of my year in Europe living in UK, and UK's cuisine is easily the worst in the world. So going to other countries was really refreshing since I got to eat great food.

UK has some pretty great places to visit, though. I went to London like 4 times and I'd go there again.

UK food is pretty crummy, but it's better than American food. :P

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:UK food is pretty crummy, but it's better than American food. :P

You haven't been to my home.

Epignosis wrote:

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:UK food is pretty crummy, but it's better than American food. :P

You haven't been to my home.

Yeah, Epi REALLY knows how to butcher UK food so badly it's even worse than American food.

Golden wrote:

Epignosis wrote:

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:UK food is pretty crummy, but it's better than American food. :P

You haven't been to my home.

Yeah, Epi REALLY knows how to butcher UK food so badly it's even worse than American food.

UK food is just...put shit together.

Shepherd's Pie?

Fish and chips?

Come on guys.

No wonder Gordon Ramsay is your patron saint.

You fucking muppets.

I've been living in London for almost 2 years and I like the food alright. I think there is good food and bad food most everywhere.

My husband is half Portuguese, but I haven't been to Portugal yet. We hope to go there later this year to visit some family.

Epignosis wrote:

Golden wrote:

Epignosis wrote:

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:UK food is pretty crummy, but it's better than American food. :P

You haven't been to my home.

Yeah, Epi REALLY knows how to butcher UK food so badly it's even worse than American food.

UK food is just...put shit together.

Shepherd's Pie?

Fish and chips?

Come on guys.

No wonder Gordon Ramsay is your patron saint.

You fucking muppets.

I haven't met a British person who likes Gordon Ramsey yet

One thing that's really great about UK food is the sweets. God, they don't make sweets like that in Brazil. I brought like 5 boxes of biscuits in my luggage.

But savoury food? I'll pass. I gained like 2 pounds in half a year after I came back to Brazil because I couldn't stop eating.

I do miss scampi with chips, though. It's a very rare example of good British savoury food.

fingersplints wrote:

Epignosis wrote:

Golden wrote:

Epignosis wrote:

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:UK food is pretty crummy, but it's better than American food. :P

You haven't been to my home.

Yeah, Epi REALLY knows how to butcher UK food so badly it's even worse than American food.

UK food is just...put shit together.

Shepherd's Pie?

Fish and chips?

Come on guys.

No wonder Gordon Ramsay is your patron saint.

You fucking muppets.

I haven't met a British person who likes Gordon Ramsey yet

BECAUSE THEIR FOOD SUCKS.

I had cheese and wine one evening sitting on the edge of the island on the Seine. But I did it alone, because that's the kind of person I am.

I'm not a gourmand in my travel. Those Belgian beers, on the other hand, hot damn.

linki @ fingersplints: Brits and Germans easily fight over beach spots in Portugal, from what I could tell. I think I remember two young British girls on the same beach we went to, but they seemed depressed at life and after too much sun they used to go oh heavens no and retreat back to the hotel.

There's a river by where we used to live I bet none of you have ever seen.

It's brown.

Ricochet wrote:I had cheese and wine one evening sitting on the edge of the island on the Seine. But I did it alone, because that's the kind of person I am.

I'm not a gourmand in my travel. Those Belgian beers, on the other hand, hot damn.

linki @ fingersplints: Brits and Germans easily fight over beach spots in Portugal, from what I could tell. I think I remember two young British girls on the same beach we went to, but they seemed depressed at life and after too much sun they used to go oh heavens no and retreat back to the hotel.

I suppose those girls were exposed to more sunlight during that moment in Portugal than what they do in a full year in UK.

Not kidding. When I came back to Brazil one of the first things I noticed was the sunlight, because I didn't remember it to be possible for sun to shine so much.

I've been to Pittsburgh, PA, New York City, Buxton, NC, and a few places in between.

I've been to many many places (in the USA).

I'll get out soon.

The Indian food in the UK is great! But yeah, otherwise I wasn't blown away, but I have only been to London. One of my favorite Chefs Ottolenghi has his restaurants there, but I never tried them. I love some of his recipes though.

The food in America is much better, but it's like comparing the UK to all of Europe size-wise. We just have sooo much more variety and wonderful food cities than the UK can offer.

I loved visiting Naxos in Greece, Istanbul, Granada in Spain was amazing because of Alhambra, but so many beautiful cobble-stoned towns in Europe that we just dont have here. The food in France and Italy was some of my favorite though. I could live on baguettes, cheese, creme brulee and pasta. That's balanced right?

Well, I may be alone here, but I loved all the food I had when I was in England.

England's pretty nice for vegetarians. That's why I hate American food.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:England's pretty nice for vegetarians. That's why I hate American food.

America is great for carnivores, which is why I love it.

thellama73 wrote:

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:England's pretty nice for vegetarians. That's why I hate American food.

America is great for carnivores, which is why I love it.

Haven't been to USA. Or to any country in the Americas other than my own, for that matter (unless you count Aruba as a country). It's one of the places I'd like to visit.

I haven't been to USA either. Probably because I'm not a baptist. Shred buddies notwithstanding, my only other connection would be a family friend residing in L.A.

Dragon D. Luffy wrote:Haven't been to USA. Or to any country in the Americas other than my own, for that matter (unless you count Aruba as a country). It's one of the places I'd like to visit.

I have only been outside of the U.S. once (Mexico City) thus far, but it was a good trip. I really, really want to travel globally so much more, and I plan on utilizing summers thanks to my shiny professor position (when I'm finally done with schooling to get me there) to do so.

That said, there's still a lot in the U.S. I want to see. It's definitely a lot of pockets of subcultures that make up a country, so I would recommend covering multiple areas if at all possible.

Not all Americans are Baptists. In fact, I would venture to say that most of us are not. What MP says s true. It is a huge country, with many very different cultures. You will not get the same experience in the Deep South, Southern California, New England, the Midwest, the Pacific Northwest, Texas, New York, or Flyover Country.

Sorry, I didn't mean that. I was implying that most of my friends or (former) colleagues who are baptists usually take trips to the States, provided or not by their church, whether they already have relatives there or go for a summer job or go to church camps. My best friend literally has hopes that in two years or so he can fuck this hometown and move to the States with his wife and children.

thellama73 wrote:Not all Americans are Baptists. In fact, I would venture to say that most of us are not. What MP says s true. It is a huge country, with many very different cultures. You will not get the same experience in the Deep South, Southern California, New England, the Midwest, the Pacific Northwest, Texas, New York, or Flyover Country.

Incredibly true.

It's amazing to me how different Cincinnati, OH is from San Antonio, TX, for example, having lived in both places now.

I plan on arranging Syndicate meetups in the future, so whatever I can do to help get some of you non-USAers in for any of those, I'll consider it.

It would be cool if we could get together on a cruise. Then we could play the party game version of mafia.

G-Man wrote:It would be cool if we could get together on a cruise. Then we could play the party game version of mafia.

That'd be badass.

And we're definitely going to play the party game version in any meetup. Required.