Week 4 Travel or holidays or fast food you've eaten in strange places

This is the thread for your wonderful stories.

If we consider the fast-food as being a food which can be quickly prepared and served, we can criticize it for numerous things. Indeed, The meal is not healthy. It's very rich in fat, in sugar, in salt. Only one of these meals can exceed the number of calories which certain people need in one day! Furthermore, at the level of the prices, in the unity, sandwich are (more expensive) than in a supermaket.
However, we can find some advantages to eat in fast-food. So, as his name indicates it the service is ''fast''. Moreover, This type of restaurant is really close of the places of work or study; what make it practical. To conclude, I think that fast food are not so bad if they are not regular.

Hi all,
I'm going to speak about London, the biggest city in Europe. I went there 4 years. I loved this city, always entertainment, people are smiling, they seem happy and give a smile. Cultural diversity is a striking appearance. By changing neighborhoods it seems to change countries. Chinatown, Indian, Pakistani, every day a new restaurant to discover each culture. My hotel was located near Victoria Street, so it's not far from Big Ben and Parliament. The building is beautiful and overlooks the River Thames. One can then see the London Dungeon. After a few minutes walk, you cross the Westminster bridge and along the Thames to the north. After the curve where is the national theater seen Tate Modern. A contemporary art museum with a restaurant that serves perspective. It is recommended to be well covered.Advancing a little further, the most famous of London Bridge is offered to us. The London Bridge with his side, the Tower of London. My trip was perfect, the buildings are much more impressive than in Paris where only ala Eiffel tower stands out.

I was fortunate to travel to many countries. My mother loves to travel, a passion she passed on me, and many members of my family have lived abroad and I went to see them.
I went to the United States as part of an exchange with the school. it was a wonderful experience, I lived with local family and going to school every day. But I came back earlier than planned because it was the year of the storm Sandy and my high school made us repatriate emergency in France, we were the last aircraft was taking off from New York airport and we stay in this airport alone for hours, the airport was emptied, it was awesome!
In high school I also traveled to Europe (Denmark Sweden and Italy) and I keep a wonderful memory.
But my most significant trips are the trips I made with my family. When I was a child my parents made me the tour of Europe and we often went to see our English neighbor who lived in Manchester and who had a house for his holidays in France.
Then I went to join my family in the DRC. it was a good experience but I had the impression to be in a golden prison. We could never left alone without guard, to walk or to visit quietly. I saw two attempts to revolution and it wasn't good memories.
But the trip that most impressed me is the trip I made with my grandmother. When she was young, she lived in Laos during the war and was imprisoned with her mother in the Japanese camps. One day she wanted that we discover her history and we went to Laos and Cambodia. Besides the aspect of emotion, both countries are magnificent. People are magical with a beautiful culture. Life seems so much simpler there. Cambodia was in reconstruction after a war against the "Khmer Rouge", but the inhabitants had smile. These countries are impressive, and I'm happy to have discovered Asia in this way!

Hi,

When I was a child I had been to Sinkiang that is a province located in northwest of China. The provincial capital is Urumchi. It's a place really wonderful. There are many amazing National Conversation Parks and virgin forests. Because the special physiognomy of the landscape, there is "flaming mountain" in Turpan which is a famous city in Sinkiang. And it has been introduced in the novel «journey to the west». And I remember when I was there, I had bought a stone of the flaming mountain, this stone can float on the water. In Sinkiang, all the fruits are very delicious because of the latitude. The latitude of Sinkiang is high so the illumination of sunlight is adequate. That's why these fruits are so sugary.

I really like this travel because it was the first time I traveled without my mom. It's just like the prove of growing up.

In 2014, I went for the first time to where my ancestors (from my father) are buried . It's a village called Ambakobe, in the east coast of Madagascar.
I never wanted to go there but that time, I was forced to because my uncle died.
It was a real adventure beyond the sad situation.
In Madagascar, roads are poorly maintained both in town and in the peripheries. So the journey was very long and tiresome. We first travelled to a place called Mananjary and it took an entire day. The corpse was put on the car roof. When we arrived, we took a rest and the "local" part of the family made a wake. There is a big difference between Antananarivo's (the capital city where I lived) landscape and Mananjary's one. I felt like I was  already cut off from the world, even if it was my second time there (both for death matters) and even if I only stayed for a few hours.
Next day we left early and took 2 pickups to begin the real part of the adventure on the rough road. We were : 12 from Antananarivo, 4 men who were couples of driver/driver assistant and 2 relatives from Mananjary +the coffin . One of my uncle had not supported the road and gave up. He chose to walk back and it took him few hours walk alone. We had to stop many times to remove mud on car wheels and sometimes it was really hard and mud flew everywhere. We finally arrived to a place I can't remember and stayed there, in a little house for the night. The drivers didn't want to pursue the road and have decided to abandon us with the body but they stayed for the night too. That night, people in the little village wanted to fight us because they knew we were going to Ambakobe, where a man/woman has had a story. So they don't like Ambakobe. I had realized how bad it was when my father took out his shotgun. But nothing finally happened.
The next day we started to walk and it took us almost an entire day to arrive to the final destination. Some time after we left the village The corpse had been taken by a group of men from Ambakobe, and they took turns carrying the corpse. They had tied the sheet in which the body was wrapped to two long pieces of wood . They ran with the corpse and caught us up. It was incredible but heartbreaking to see my cousin see her dad in those circumstances. I was extremely shocked. .
During that journey, we had crossed rivers, walked on cow excrements (perhaps even human's one ), fell many times, lost many things. But despite all this, it was a very important human experience. I used to complain about what I don't have and many other things. But I realized people in Ambakobe, and from villages nearby seemed much happier than me. I finally understood what it was to really have nothing and it made me grow. We all must be happy with what we have.

Hi everyone,
i hope you enjoyed your week end and didn't forget to revise your "marchés financiers" classes for the exam on tuesday ..................
I stop to stress you more than you could be now, and i come back to the subject of the day which will be "travels" for me.
Thanks to my parents, i travelled a lot, i have been in lot of places in Europe, i lived in Warsaw for 5 months last year in the erasmus exchange program. But today, i decided to speak about my travel in Egypt.
I was there 2 weeks. Before the departure, my mother advised me to buy "sea shoes" which refers to rubber shoes for the time which i will spend on the sea. I didn't listen her. On place, i often spent time in the sea, (it was a beautiful Mediterranean sea, with a perfect blue) because i swam with fish. And one day, i walked on a sea urchin ... Result ? Something like 20 thorn in the foot ...
I saw a doctor, he tooks a scalpel and cut/open my skin at each place where i had a thorn ...
I didn't suffer and scream more than this time .. Obviously today, now it is just a bad memory, i don't have any track or scar, but i realised at this time, that you always have to listen at your mother ...

Two years ago, I made a trip with my professional class in Netherlands, during one week. I had opportunity to visited tree cities : Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam. In first, I discovered The Hague, capital of the Netherlands. In The Hague, is located the seat of government, who I can visited.
Then, we visited and stay some days in Rotterdam. His industrial port is impressive and bigest. In Rotterdam, what me impresssed most it’s architecture of buildings and the hostel in the center of the city, with her architecture really unusual by her triangular shapes.
To close my trip in The Netherlands, I discovered Amsterdam and narrow houses, across the rivers Amstel. In this city, my favorite, I could enter in Anne Frank’s house, in one of these narrow house, at the river’s edge.
My favorite memory it’s in Amsterdam… the charm of this city, these bikes, these shapes unusual of house is really disorienting.

Tessie Randriambelo wrote:In 2014, I went for the first time to where my ancestors (from my father) are buried . It's a village called Ambakobe, in the east coast of Madagascar.
I never wanted to go there but that time, I was forced to because my uncle died.
It was a real adventure beyond the sad situation.
In Madagascar, roads are poorly maintained both in town and in the peripheries. So the journey was very long and tiresome. We first travelled to a place called Mananjary and it took an entire day. The corpse was put on the car roof. When we arrived, we took a rest and the "local" part of the family made a wake. There is a big difference between Antananarivo's (the capital city where I lived) landscape and Mananjary's one. I felt like I was  already cut off from the world, even if it was my second time there (both for death matters) and even if I only stayed for a few hours.
Next day we left early and took 2 pickups to begin the real part of the adventure on the rough road. We were : 12 from Antananarivo, 4 men who were couples of driver/driver assistant and 2 relatives from Mananjary +the coffin . One of my uncle had not supported the road and gave up. He chose to walk back and it took him few hours walk alone. We had to stop many times to remove mud on car wheels and sometimes it was really hard and mud flew everywhere. We finally arrived to a place I can't remember and stayed there, in a little house for the night. The drivers didn't want to pursue the road and have decided to abandon us with the body but they stayed for the night too. That night, people in the little village wanted to fight us because they knew we were going to Ambakobe, where a man/woman has had a story. So they don't like Ambakobe. I had realized how bad it was when my father took out his shotgun. But nothing finally happened.
The next day we started to walk and it took us almost an entire day to arrive to the final destination. Some time after we left the village The corpse had been taken by a group of men from Ambakobe, and they took turns carrying the corpse. They had tied the sheet in which the body was wrapped to two long pieces of wood . They ran with the corpse and caught us up. It was incredible but heartbreaking to see my cousin see her dad in those circumstances. I was extremely shocked. .
During that journey, we had crossed rivers, walked on cow excrements (perhaps even human's one ), fell many times, lost many things. But despite all this, it was a very important human experience. I used to complain about what I don't have and many other things. But I realized people in Ambakobe, and from villages nearby seemed much happier than me. I finally understood what it was to really have nothing and it made me grow. We all must be happy with what we have.

Wow!

My father died a few years ago but the funeral was not as exciting as that. What a life experience.

kilian pousset wrote:Hi everyone,
i hope you enjoyed your week end and didn't forget to revise your "marchés financiers" classes for the exam on tuesday ..................
I stop to stress you more than you could be now, and i come back to the subject of the day which will be "travels" for me.
Thanks to my parents, i travelled a lot, i have been in lot of places in Europe, i lived in Warsaw for 5 months last year in the erasmus exchange program. But today, i decided to speak about my travel in Egypt.
I was there 2 weeks. Before the departure, my mother advised me to buy "sea shoes" which refers to rubber shoes for the time which i will spend on the sea. I didn't listen her. On place, i often spent time in the sea, (it was a beautiful Mediterranean sea, with a perfect blue) because i swam with fish. And one day, i walked on a sea urchin ... Result ? Something like 20 thorn in the foot ...
I saw a doctor, he tooks a scalpel and cut/open my skin at each place where i had a thorn ...
I didn't suffer and scream more than this time .. Obviously today, now it is just a bad memory, i don't have any track or scar, but i realised at this time, that you always have to listen at your mother ...

I think Egypt is a wonderful country but I don't know alexandria or the med.

Luxor and the Nile are amazing though

Hello everyone,
Today, I will talk about my travel in Italy with the school in 2013. we left during a week in Rome and a day in Firenze. It was a really long drive with the bus, especially the night to sleep. But, when you get to Roma at 8am and you have a coffee in front of the Colosseum : it's just so beautiful.
Furthermore, I had a chance to see the new pop Francis, chosen one month previously. Another thing incredible, it was the hotel wich was directly adjacent to the beach.  I was able to visit in particular the Basilica of Saint Peter, with a beautiful view of Roma at the top of the dome, the film studio Cinecittà, where scenes of Sergio Leone's movie were turned, central Roma, with the Trevi fountain, Piazza Navona, Piazza di Spagna and the Pantheon.

I visited france more than my country (what a shame) but the greatest adventures i've experienced so far were in Madagascar. In 2010, we went to Mahajanga as usual but we were tired of the common beaches full of people so we decided to left the town and explore the surroundings, without any further plan or any idea of where are we heading to. So we discovered an abandoned paved way, we followed it until we were on a very large and endless asphalted track. It turned out it was an abandoned airfield but the control tower was still there with all its equipment. We continued our ride, heading to a forest we saw before from the control tower. The RV was stuck in the sand (i dont know how the sand got there, maybe the ocean was there before) so we decided to leave it there and continue since there is nobody around. So we got into the 4x4, finding our way through the small forest, crossing streams, dealing with mud and we stop from time to time until we arrived on very beautiful beach with white sand, shallow crystal clear water (it was a place where a small river meet the ocean). It was so clear that we could see clearly few little sharks swimming, waiting for unfortunate fishes. We just discovered a very beautiful place (we were certainly not the first to get there though), it was our place. We manage to unstuck the RV and we spent two days there. At night, when the wave crash on the sand, there were blue light (like the photo below, i dont have the pics of this trip with me).

Last year we managed to go back there and there was a hotel built there and a large part of the forest was cut down
Here is the gmaps view of the place https://www.google.com/maps/place/H%C3%B4tel+Antsanitia+Resort/@-15.5712296,46.4270794,3984m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x2203fb37a78a6f63:0x638ec11110138a72!8m2!3d-15.5672691!4d46.4251983

Beautiful. We sometimes get those small glowing jellyfish on the beach at Soulac. When there are thousands they are eerily beautiful.

I went in Holland 5 years ago. It was a hot summer in France. We had planned to leave in the South. But with the heat we went in the North. We used a campingcar. It is easier to travel, sleep, eat. Besides we are has as in a house. We had to take bikes with us. We rode a bike has Amsterdam and I fell because there is many pavement. Amsterdam it's like Venise. Their are many sheep. In a second part of my travel I saw the fields of tulips and windmills. I remembers me black bikes without brakes with the guard mud white behind.
We spent some at night in the campaign near had a good laugh and fields. The color of the sky in Holland is not the same that in France, it is more clear and deeper at the same time I find.
My biggest memory it is the cake pastry. Why ? Because there is always canel in their cakes. If you do not like: it's a pity for you, and if you like is not impatient soon you will not like anymore.

As strange as the topic is it reminds me of my first time in Sweden, I tasted a bit of local food but i also went to 2 new fast food for me: Max, a Swedish fast food company and Burger King at a time it didn't exist in France which was really good, and since it was my godmother who paid it was better than here in Poitiers where i prefer the good ol' MacDonalds cause you got more for the same amount.

Anyway, I went to Sweden 3 times thanks to my godmother who married a Swedish lad and has lived over there for more than 10 years. It's really beautiful country. We spend most of our time in Stockholm which is really nice and yellow. The first time we also went on a 2 day trip on my godmother's ship. It was really nice but even if it was summer you don't swin really much there cause the water is around 15°C at its best.

I really enjoyed the trips and I look forward to the next time I'll go to Sweden.

I drank an irish cofee in a church in dublin, ate vegan food in a little underground market (not under the ground, underground culture) in camden in london (i really hate vegan food ), shared a beer with some "where's waldo" zombiefied, next to the tower bridge. I drank and ate in an overflow swimming pool, wich give you the feeling than the pool is falling directly in the sea, in Guadeloupe http://www.toubana.com/image/hotel_acueil2.jpg . I ate things with name i can even remember in a basement with a familly of at least 10 persons in trinidad.

I spend my holidays to work but in the last week of august i went to Paris with a friend on an impulse. As we have been finished our contrat and she never goes to Paris, it was an opportunity going to over there. Every days, we walked, and walked, and walked...As we wanted to see the must-sees, we're taken almost never break. For example the first days, after 5 hours of route, we saw le Sacré Coeur, Haussmann Avenue, 5 floors of Galeries Lafayette, Garnier palace, the place of Concorde, the Arc de Triomphe, Le petit et le Grand Palace, Champs-Elysées, the Eiffel Tower, The church of Madelaine....This evening we have eaten in the Champs Elysée. It was been a bad decision: very expansive. So I've eaten only a sandwich and my friend a cottage cheese without water...BUT we are met Walter, an habitant of San-Francisco. As i was sitting next to him, i converse with him, in english of course (he didn't speak french). He was airline pilot, and as he had got time he decided going to Paris without his wife and dogs. In hobbies, i teach English for spanish. The other days was been intensive too. We're have also see Jardins du Luxembourg (my favourite place in Paris), Orsay museum, le Marais, Panthéon,Cathédrale Notre Dame, le Louvre, Les Invalides, Versailles Castle...It was exhausting but very enriching!

It’s quite strange that I don’t like traveling that much but I do traveled a lot….
Anyway, my best memories I have are from this summer. I was with my aunt and her husband’s family in Bretagne in a small city named Hennon. The best part was that we were in a chalet without any king of connection to the outside world O_o…… No internet, no TV and almost anyone around us, only cows . I just spend 1 week there but it was really wonderful and it was not boring at all! I even made a movie with my little cousins (Me being Leonardo, an Italian model, bodybuilder from father to son since 1970). After that we went to another small city where we spend 2 nights sleeping outside. I do know now that I’m not suited for that

I prefer to go to mountains and the sea rather than visiting cities. Last year with a friend of mine we went out wild camping on the Massif central for 4 days. We experienced a series of extraordinary and unexpected things ; sleeping on the top of the mountain, magnificent view opened out before us the next morning, setting up a tent in the middle of a pasture and finding ourselves surrounded by a herd of curious cows, bathing in a lake, etc,,, we walked 70 km in total. It was an unforgettable experience.
Going to the Île d’Aix by boat was also cool. Starting from La Rochelle, it took us 3 hours to sail to the island. I was not so good at sailing,,, but having a lunch in the middle of the sea was great. We spent several nights in the boat at the port.
Sleeping, bathing et WC surrounded by nature,,,I love all the extraordinary things.

I traveled a lot this summer. I came to Holland to see Amsterdam. This city is very famous for her river and her windmill... Just kidding, i stayed to the "Quartier rouge" to see prostitute and smoke weed. As it was legal, it wasn't the same thing that in France but you can learn a lot of thing by visiting prostitute museum and marijuana museum. In fact, the prostitute way of life is realy hard. Even if they are self-employed, it wasn't a choice for everyone. Some of her have a mac, some of her was homeless or have no other solution. I agree with the fact that it is legal. It gives them protection from police and government. They have a button in case of emergency, if they press it, the police come to help. They have financial help from the government like money for treatment etc...
Otherwise, Amsterdam is maybe the most beautifull city i've ever seen. There are bicycle everywhere, bridge, it look like venise but we have all the place to brise and walk peacefully. I really recommend this place.

Gabriel Pilon wrote:i stayed to the "Quartier rouge" to see prostitute and smoke weed.

Nice! Did you actually taste the local meal?

Hi,
I will talk about my travel in Poland 4 years ago as part of an exchange with my school.
We lived in a local family and spend most of our time the day travelling around the city of Katovice and the night drinking in bar and nightclub with my classmate and Polish students of this exchange. Everyday, Polish students showed us their favorite places, told us their story and the history of their country. It was awesome to share their everyday life because everyday we knew a little more about their lifestyle. We lived exactly like polish students.
Usually, when you discover a country, you just visit some monuments, bars and you dont try to discover the lifestyle of the population and i think it's the most beautiful thing to do when you are travelling.

Traveling is not my favorite pastime. But it turns out that there is something interesting about traveling that we do around the world. During the summer holidays I was in Spain on Mallorca Island of Palmas to visit my family who lives there. The purpose of my trip was to strengthen ties with members of my family that I had not seen for 1 year. Apart from the satisfaction I've had two months living with my family, I fell under the spell of this country with all its cultural richness. Besides that, I had the opportunity to meet wonderful people like each other. During these holidays I made the acquaintance of a French living in Paris that meets under the name of Sebastien and his wife and his two daughters. A rich family humanly and intellectually is the meeting which marked me the most so far in my life. Furthermore I also met a super cool English.
All this to say that travel is sometimes a way to interact culturally. It allows the discovery of new culture and a means of conveying culture.

Hello everybody!
Personally I really like travelling and discovering different cultures in the world. I have  already travelled  in Spain, in Italy, in Poland and twice in Germany. I have always stayed in the european zone. I expect to change that. I would like to go outside european countries (leaving with the erasmus program in Canada is already a beginning!). In the futur, I would like to go to New Zealand, to Easter Island (Chile) and to Groenland. Concerning Fast Food subject, wherever you move, you can always find  a McDonald, expect in Africa, in Vietnam or in North Korea where you can’t find anyone. In these countries, you can find better food than in fast foods.

Hi,
I want to talk about Greece. Today, many people see Greece as a country in crisis, with numerous financial problems. However, Greece also has other aspects. It is one of country with the most beautiful landscapes of Europe. I visited Greece 5 years ago. At this moment there, Greece was not still on the front page of all the economic newspapers. I discovered two aspects very different from this country.On one side, I discovered a country with magnificent landscapes, very different from those whom we can see in France. I have was able to visit cities as Olympia, Corinth, Athens, Epidaure, Piraeus which have a heritage which we do not find everywhere in Europe. On the other hand, when I arrived in Greece by boat, on the port, there was big railings with behind, hundreds of people who tried to pass in secret in Italy by hiding under the vehicles which entered the boat.