[ SECRET POST #3494 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3494 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[One Punch Man]


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[Overwatch, Genji/Zenyatta]


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Notes:

Late day, so early secrets!

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 12 secrets from Secret Submission Post #499.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Advice

[(Anonymous)]

I have a question.

Vacation

[kaijinscendre]

This site was very useful when I was planning my trip to DC, so I am back with another travel question. I am trying to decide where to go on my next vacation and need help narrowing it down. For background, I've only taken vacations to DC and NYC (for a day).

What I am looking for:
-Museums
-Historical Sites (churches, monuments, temples)
-Interesting things you can only find in that place
-Great food

What I Don't Want
-Nature. I don't mind going to a botanical garden or looking at some beautiful outdoors but I am not a hiker. I hate the beach.

If I go someplace in the US I can probably save the money for it by next year. If it is out of the US, I'd probably have to wait until 2018 (which isn't a problem).

Right now, the US place I am interested in is Seattle.
Internationally, I am interested in Tokyo/Kyoto and Australia (not sure where).

Any suggestion welcome!

Re: Vacation

[shortysc22]

You're going to have to save a lot of money for Tokyo/Kyoto or Australia, simply for the flights. If you're to go international, I almost recommend Europe because you can do some really awesome budget trips. I loved doing some awesome tours through Europe and did them on a budget. If you're interested in that, let me know.

Have you thought about Philadelphia or Boston? Philadelphia is great for US history (Independence Hall) and the Philadelphia Museum of Art is really top notch. With Philadelphia, you'd be able to tack on a day trip to NYC again. Or even head to Gettysburg. Possibly a day trip out to Lancaster County to see the Amish country.

Boston has tons of history and some interesting museums. I've only been there once, but I'm sure you can find a lot if you do your research.

I loved Seattle for the museums at the Space Needle and the Space Needle itself. I thought the University of Washington Campus was really pretty.

LA is a super diverse place and I love it so much. I've always gone for Hollywood stuff but there is a really awesome car museum (the Peterson Automotive Museum) and we stopped at the La Brea Tar Pits museum, which is a bit more child friendly than my friend and I thought. I loved doing Disneyland.

Give me feedback/ask questions and I can give more advice.

Re: Vacation

[kaijinscendre]

The money for the tickets shouldn't be a problem, I priced the tickets into Tokyo at $800 if I fly out of Houston. I've already got around $2000 saved up.

I thought about going to Europe (it'd likely be myself and my sister) but right now the political climate is a bit wonky. The big thing is that we would prefer public transportation instead of renting a car. How easy is it to travel between various countries? How much time would I need to take off. If I went on an international trip, I'd likely take off 10~ days. Maybe a bit longer.

Seattle and LA would probably be my picks for the US. It'd be cool to see the West coast of the USA. But I probably wouldn't be interested in Disneyland.

Re: Vacation

[shortysc22]

There's so much to see and do in LA without doing Disney, honestly. Especially if you look a little bit. I went out for a film festival and found random movie premieres and then went to a TV taping.

I hear you on the political climate. I'm glad the last time I went I did Busabout's Scandi-Baltic Adventure which was 8 days and 5 countries. We took taxis twice, I think, the entire trip. Otherwise it was public transit or cruises/ferries between the different cities. I added layovers in Oslo and Copenhagen. We stayed in hostels, so I don't know how you would feel about that.

Topdeck is another really great tour provider of Europe. I did both Topdeck and Busabout solo. If you go to Europe, I think you'd love Prague, it's one of my favorite cities.

Re: Vacation

[shortysc22]

Also, I did a week long California trip (flew to San Jose, then to La, back to San Jose, did San Francisco) and did not rent a car and took a taxi only once. Public transit is manageable in LA if you plan ahead.

Re: Vacation

[(Anonymous)]

How about New Orleans? Tons of history, amazing food, music everywhere. There's nowhere else in the world quite like it.

Re: Vacation

[(Anonymous)]

That was where my mind went to as well. Just don't go in the summer if you don't enjoy the heat.

Re: Vacation

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT
Agreed! Fall is probably the best time of year to visit;I went in early October 2011 and it was relatively dry (not so humid, only rained once) and moderately warm (70s, I think).

Re: Vacation

[kaijinscendre]

I'd have to go when it is cold. I hate the heat and I imagine New Orleans is so humid is it like walking through soup.

Re: Vacation

[(Anonymous)]

It requires more planning, but New Orleans is great in the winter, especially over Christmas. Temps in the low to mid 70s, fewer tourists (don't go for Mardi Gras unless you like drunk crowds) and fabulous restaurants.

Re: Vacation

[(Anonymous)]

Are you adverse to renting a car? Because if not, I'd suggest flying into Albuquerque, spending a few days there, and then driving up to Santa Fe. There are great museums, a lot of cool mission-style churches, and amazing food. And even if you're not into nature, it's still interesting countryside, even if you're just driving by it. It's really not like anywhere else in the world.

Re: Vacation

[kaijinscendre]

I'm not super adverse to it unless the places I'd be traveling are super packed all the time (like NYC was). I'd prefer public transit though. I think I might have some vaguely distant family in New Mexico actually.

Re: Vacation

[kallanda_lee]

Honestly I'd recommend saving up, taking a few weeks off and doing a (small) tour of a few European cities.

Re: Vacation

[kallanda_lee]

To add to that (as I was brief), there are ways of doing it relatively cheaply. Flights to Brussels, for example, start from 360 round trip if you book a long time in advance, a lot of things can be done by public transport locally,and popular places have cheap places to stay if you're willing to do things like youth hostels. Anyway, if you'd be so inclined, I'd certainly help.

Re: Vacation

[kaijinscendre]

Not sure if I'd be able to afford more than 12 days off. But I know Europe has some great history. What cities would you suggest? Or what order of cities?

I'd likely get motels because if I go to Europe I know my mom would want to go.

Re: Vacation

[(Anonymous)]

I would seriously suggest Chicago. Somewhat lacking on the history front, but it has amazing food, great museums, and tons of culture generally, especially for theater and comedy. Absolutely fucking fantastic city.

You could also do Philly or Boston as someone else mentioned - or you could do a general West Coast trip. It's not that hard to do Seattle + Portland, or San Francisco + Los Angeles + San Diego, or Los Angeles + San Diego + Phoenix, and those are all really fantastic places to visit, all have great food and culture, and there's a good bit of history as well (though obviously not as much as on the East Coast).

Re: Vacation

[kaijinscendre]

I wouldn't mind seeing lots of places on the West Coast (especially San Diego). How is public transit in most of the larger cities? I think that San Fransisco has good public transit.

Re: Vacation

[diet_poison]

Seconding Chicago, I luuuuurve the place.

Sadly I have not been to as many US cities as I'd like, so I don't have much of a comparison point. Boston is cool but really fucking cold 10 months out of the year (you might like it better?) and complicated to drive in (not exactly a modern city grid all the way through). Atlanta is very trafficky, has some tourist traps but I wasn't super impressed.

Re: Vacation

[lb_lee]

You mentioned flying out of Houston, so if you're interested in a really cheap option, I know some stuff about Austin!

Museums: There's the Museum of Natural and Artificial Ephemerata, which is this kooky little place run out of a family's house, has all sorts of weird stuff in it. It's small, but totally worth visiting, you ask me.

Historical Sites: The UT Tower. Home of the biggest school shooting until Virginia Tech?

Great food: Black's Barbecue. (Though you're Texan already, you probably already know barbecue.) Chuy's, if you like Tex-Mex. Conan's Pizza is my favorite pizza joint, it's deep-dish Chicago style.

In March is the annual Kite festival, if you like watching weird kites. And you can cool off at Barton Springs, which is a natural spring pool with fish and such in it.

...I might possibly be planning a trip there with my INCREDIBLY Yankee friend. I plan to inflict ALLLLLLLL the country on her.

Re: Vacation

[kaijinscendre]

Oh, I'm not Texan (I am from Texas's hat, aka Oklahoma). But the difference in flight costs is crazy. If I fly out of OKC it is $1600. If I fly out of Houston, it is $800!

My sister has been wanting to visit Texas because we have a cousin there. But that would only likely be a 4 day trip.

Re: Vacation

[(Anonymous)]

Just about any major European city will have what you want: London, Paris, Rome, Florence, Venice, Prague...

For U.S. cities:

Chicago - don't count it out, as it has the art museum, museum of science and industry, and the small but very interesting Oriental Institute if you're into Egyptology. You can hit the Navy Pier, there's Chinatown to explore, and tons of great ethnic food + Chicago specialties like Italian beef both in the city and in the suburbs if you can make it out that far.

Re: Vacation

[(Anonymous)]

San Francisco!

Coffee

[(Anonymous)]

I love the taste of coffee but every time I make coffee at home, it tastes like bitterass crap. I've made it with a french press, a pour over funnel, cold brewed in a jug and then strained, with between 1/2 tbsp to 2 tbsp of coffee per cup of water - it always tastes awful. Like weirdly flat, bitter, terrible. What am I doing wrong? Or more like - how do you do it RIGHT? I'm too damn poor to shell out for coffee all the time. LOL

Re: Coffee

[(Anonymous)]

1) Make sure you're getting good coffee. A lot of what's sold in grocery stores and Starbucks is crap - over-processed, stale, burnt - so no matter how good your technique is, it's never going to be tasty.

2) Use filtered water. (You don't need to buy bottled, if you have a charcoal-filter jug, that's fine.) If you have hard water, that can seriously change the taste of your coffee.

3) Make sure you're not overbrewing. Use a timer. Don't let it sit too long.

4) Look at how the coffee you like is made. Are you drinking mostly espresso out? Does your favourite coffee place use a drip machine? Different brewing methods yield different flavours, so if you like one in particular, save up for the right equipment to make it that way.