saturday and the pineapple of destiny

pinno

elbowloh said:

pinno said:

elbowloh said:

pinno said:

Ha ha - spent time in Dieppe on an engineering exchange.

Funny old world.

On a long journey from Bordeaux to Calais one Sunday, stopped at a boulangerie in some small village along the way and had similar - Croissant and coffee as fresh as you like, whilst sitting in the shade of a small tree watching some elderly people play Boules.
The crunch happens when driving off the ferry in Dover/landing in Heathrow*.

*Pick any UK destination.

...ust about any boulangerie or cafe and getting amazing, cheap food...

This.

Always remember getting out of expensive, over daily budget allowance Austria and Switzerland when I was inter-railing, arriving in Munich station and paying a only few DM for some pastries and 4 (small) tins of beer.

Was in Switzerland a couple of years back with the wife (also did Austria, Salzburg and New Years in Vienna, including a trip to the opera, a traditional NYE Silversterpfad and classical concert). Interlaken first and then Lucerne. Cost us £200 a night to stay in a hostel and £9 for a cappuccino. Beer was £10 and the cheapest food we could find was a £20 margherita pizza.

Sweden was expensive but Austria and Switzerland, eye watering.
Funny, I paid 8 Euros per night in a Hostel in Aix Les Bains and 11 Euros for the meal.
At least they got their priorities right.
To think (when it was 257 potatoes to the pound), I stayed in a Hostel adjacent to Parc de Montjuic which cost... 650 pesetas per night.
But since the Marina was built (and Olympic stadium/facilities for that matter), Barcelona has become too touristy, expensive and lost it's charm.



https://amuse.vice.com/en_us/article/8xpnyx/barcelona-deadly-anti-tourist-campaign

^Odd really. I can understand their antipathy but they elected to build the marina and the big stores in the city centre shopping malls are someone's doing.

MattFalle

Japan

breathtakingly expensive. i think it was something daft like £9.50 for half a local lager when we were there a few years ago.

elbowloh

MattFalle said:

Japan

breathtakingly expensive.

I didn't think it was that bad.

Certainly no more than London prices. Nowhere near what I experienced in Switzerland .

We even had to use their healthcare and that was a lot less than private care here (claimed back on insurance).

MattFalle

elbowloh said:

MattFalle said:

elbowloh said:

MattFalle said:

elbowloh said:

oxoman said:

Pinno nothing like the mainstream tourists to spoil it. I got shown around Pisa by an old taxi driver in the early Noughties. He was brilliant he didn't speak a word of english but he dragged me around the city for 2 hrs and it was great. Nearly missed the plane. Pisa airport was a strange place, watching the military guys tracking the plane down the runways with whatever machinegun they had was a tad worrying everytime we landed there though.

I found Pisa, cathedral and tower aside to be dull. Florence (been a couple of times) is lovely, but stupidily busy. The walk up the duomo tower was good though.
Absolutely loved Sienna though, beautiful, chilled, less busy.

In Barcelona, I much preferred the Gothic cathedral to Gaudi's work.

I've never been in St Paul's in London, which seems weird thinking about it.

I used to live in Florence (schooled there) and its utterly totally beautiful - small enough to wander around, big enough to get lost in. Enough culture and history so you can enjoy it unlike Rome where you drown in it and you end up not appreciating

small, friendly, multicultural, great football team, and, when out of the tourist centre, well priced.

been back a few times (was married 45 mins south) and would go back at any time. really lovely.

But Bologna. Now you're talkin'....

Battigol!

The ex's family was from Spoleto, so spent a lot of time there and around Umbria in general. Also been to Turin, Sicily, Sorrento, Capri, Perugia, Assisi over the years for various reasons, but Sienna was my favourite by far.

The time i went to Florence with the ex when it was the fashion trade season (I think it was called PITI - she was in the trade) was fecking crazily busy).

Her and her family made me drive over the Apennines in the snow, in their car, with no snow chains as they had a meeting with someone at Armani and had to prepare some stuff in the car. It was a bit hairy to put it lightly.

I worked doing private stuff for a while and used to get fliwn into a place called Bolzano for lunch on a regular.

fly across

look, errr, handsome as required by punter

have a lusssh lunch

fly back

Bolzano us gorgeous Swissy Italian, studenty, really lovely.

So, you're basically saying you used to be a gigalo?

nah - that's CB's bag, no? lover of the beautiful, fighter of the corrupt?

I used to look after people from bad people, if you know what I mean.

pinno

MattFalle said:

nah - that's CB's bag, no? lover of the beautiful, fighter of the corrupt?

I used to look after people from bad people, if you know what I mean using Kung fu. A regular Tintin.

elbowloh

pinno said:

MattFalle said:

nah - that's CB's bag, no? lover of the beautiful, fighter of the corrupt?

I used to look after people from bad people, if you know what I mean using Kung fu. A regular Tintin.

Don't think Tintin did kung fu.

You're thinking of Hong Kong Fuey. Easily confused.

My dad does Kung Fu. When he came over to London from Malaysia in the 70s, he worked as a bouncer. All 5' 6 of him.

The height is on my mum's side.

MattFalle

pinno said:

MattFalle said:

nah - that's CB's bag, no? lover of the beautiful, fighter of the corrupt?

I used to look after people from bad people, if you know what I mean using Kung fu. A regular Tintin.

nah - i just used to use Blue Magnum on people.

MattFalle

Anyway, TinTin was a journo so he used words, which, as we know, are mightier than the sword.

Unless you work for Bike Radar, which, as proven by the snippet on the new Dura Ace, requires neither a knack with words or being able to do anything at all in front of a camera.

Stevo_666

oxoman said:

Add Denmark to eye watering expensive. Switzerland I wasn't bothered about the cost as it was on company expenses.

Don't go drinking in Norway Oxo, makes Swedish booze prices look cheap.

hopkinb

Stevo_666 said:

oxoman said:

Add Denmark to eye watering expensive. Switzerland I wasn't bothered about the cost as it was on company expenses.

Don't go drinking in Norway Oxo, makes Swedish booze prices look cheap.

I was about to mention Oslo. I was entertained by deloitte in Oslo. The partner turned out to be more of a wine buff than me, and the more p1ssed he got, the deeper his pockets got. He spent thousands on what would have been hundreds here. It was some experience, overlooking the water, gorgeous scandi staff, drinking very fine white burgundy with sushi, and even finer red burgundy with wagyu beef.

One of those experiences I'll always remember.

elbowloh

Again I didn't find Oslo to be as expensive as I expected. Although we didn't drink that much there. Food was reasonably priced compared to London and the hotel was no where near as expensive as a central London hotel, and we were in a great location.

Thought Lucerne was much worse.

MattFalle

hopkinb said:

Stevo_666 said:

oxoman said:

Add Denmark to eye watering expensive. Switzerland I wasn't bothered about the cost as it was on company expenses.

Don't go drinking in Norway Oxo, makes Swedish booze prices look cheap.

I was about to mention Oslo. I was entertained by deloitte in Oslo. The partner turned out to be more of a wine buff than me, and the more p1ssed he got, the deeper his pockets got. He spent thousands on what would have been hundreds here. It was some experience, overlooking the water, gorgeous scandi staff, drinking very fine white burgundy with sushi, and even finer red burgundy with wagyu beef.

One of those experiences I'll always remember.

i was shared shared a portion of chips with a lady of the night in Newport in a car park if that helps as a comparison.

elbowloh

MattFalle said:

hopkinb said:

Stevo_666 said:

oxoman said:

Add Denmark to eye watering expensive. Switzerland I wasn't bothered about the cost as it was on company expenses.

Don't go drinking in Norway Oxo, makes Swedish booze prices look cheap.

I was about to mention Oslo. I was entertained by deloitte in Oslo. The partner turned out to be more of a wine buff than me, and the more p1ssed he got, the deeper his pockets got. He spent thousands on what would have been hundreds here. It was some experience, overlooking the water, gorgeous scandi staff, drinking very fine white burgundy with sushi, and even finer red burgundy with wagyu beef.

One of those experiences I'll always remember.

i was shared shared a portion of chips with a lady of the night in Newport in a car park if that helps as a comparison.

I shared a menthol cigarette with a lap dancer in Krakow, she supplied the ciggie and I don't smoke.

hopkinb

elbowloh said:

MattFalle said:

hopkinb said:

Stevo_666 said:

oxoman said:

Add Denmark to eye watering expensive. Switzerland I wasn't bothered about the cost as it was on company expenses.

Don't go drinking in Norway Oxo, makes Swedish booze prices look cheap.

I was about to mention Oslo. I was entertained by deloitte in Oslo. The partner turned out to be more of a wine buff than me, and the more p1ssed he got, the deeper his pockets got. He spent thousands on what would have been hundreds here. It was some experience, overlooking the water, gorgeous scandi staff, drinking very fine white burgundy with sushi, and even finer red burgundy with wagyu beef.

One of those experiences I'll always remember.

i was shared shared a portion of chips with a lady of the night in Newport in a car park if that helps as a comparison.

I shared a menthol cigarette with a lap dancer in Krakow, she supplied the ciggie and I don't smoke.

The mind literally boggles. How you remember the menthol, I'm going to leave to the imagination.

pinno

hopkinb said:

elbowloh said:

MattFalle said:

hopkinb said:

Stevo_666 said:

oxoman said:

Add Denmark to eye watering expensive. Switzerland I wasn't bothered about the cost as it was on company expenses.

Don't go drinking in Norway Oxo, makes Swedish booze prices look cheap.

I was about to mention Oslo. I was entertained by deloitte in Oslo. The partner turned out to be more of a wine buff than me, and the more p1ssed he got, the deeper his pockets got. He spent thousands on what would have been hundreds here. It was some experience, overlooking the water, gorgeous scandi staff, drinking very fine white burgundy with sushi, and even finer red burgundy with wagyu beef.

One of those experiences I'll always remember.

i was shared shared a portion of chips with a lady of the night in Newport in a car park if that helps as a comparison.

I shared a menthol cigarette with a lap dancer in Krakow, she supplied the ciggie and I don't smoke.

The mind literally boggles. How you remember the menthol, I'm going to leave to the imagination.

The lap dancer left disappointed.

pinno

MattFalle said:

hopkinb said:

Stevo_666 said:

oxoman said:

Add Denmark to eye watering expensive. Switzerland I wasn't bothered about the cost as it was on company expenses.

Don't go drinking in Norway Oxo, makes Swedish booze prices look cheap.

I was about to mention Oslo. I was entertained by deloitte in Oslo. The partner turned out to be more of a wine buff than me, and the more p1ssed he got, the deeper his pockets got. He spent thousands on what would have been hundreds here. It was some experience, overlooking the water, gorgeous scandi staff, drinking very fine white burgundy with sushi, and even finer red burgundy with wagyu beef.

One of those experiences I'll always remember.

i was shared shared a portion of chips with a lady of the night in Newport in a car park if that helps as a comparison.

There's plenty of lady's of the night in car parks in Newport.
But not as many as Plymouth.

You see - I have a mate who was in the Navy; he was a welder!
He told me all about these places (of interest).

Wheelspinner

Work trip to Finland I was forewarned it was pretty expensive to drink, and they weren’t kidding. Was also advised to decline any invitations by the office to go to the pub on a Tuesday.

That was traditionally “ladies” night, and the custom was you were not allowed to refuse a request for a dance. Given the price of booze, everybody used to get completely sh!tfaced before going on moonshine, and the only “women” who turned up were the escaped mountain trolls that not even a skinful of rough vodka could make look better.

Scary place.

On the way home I visited Hong Kong and stayed three nights in the entirely civilized Grand Hyatt hotel. At dinner in the bistro (not the expensive dining option) they sold Australian wine. Stuff that was about 5 bucks a bottle cheap cr@p at home was on the wine list for the equivalent of $78.