French Riviera



trip so far:

Los Angeles
Lake Tahoe
Fiji
Hong Kong & Macau
Singapore
Vientiane
South Tibet/Mt Everest
Athens
Rome
Munich
French Riviera

**** This is eyeboogers pick ****

After my lemur escapade in Madagascar, it's time to hit the African mainland for some more wildlife viewing.

My 11th pick: Southern Zambia (28.4341)

Two big reasons I'm here.

The first is Victoria Falls. Holy **** look at this thing.







It features Devils Pool where you can hang at the edge of the falls:





The other reason I’m here: National Parks. I can’t go to all of them of course, but I’ll focus on two.

Lower Zambezi:




And South Luangwa:






Giant animals and a giant waterfall. What more could I ask for?

Athens writeup:

Here we reach the ancient history section of my vacation

Acropolis


Parthenon


temple of hephaestus, I hear temples are all the rage


erechtheion


Odeon of Herodes Atticus


close enough to hit the beach if Id like


have a gyro

Rome

Unparalleled history and tourist sights. One of the few cities in this draft where a week isn't enough time imo.

Collesum is quite famous




Trevi Fountain



Vacatin City
St Peters Square


St Peters Basilica


Sistine Chapel


Rennaissance artwork, imo the most beatiful art ever


Italian food is quite good


As a pizza aficionado Ive always wanted to have true Italian style

you managed to find the worst looking Italian food somehow

great pick though. Been to Rome about half a dozen times and it's a great city. Was never going to draft it though since I've already been there so much.

fun fact: First time I went to Rome there was no Pope

Glad I scrolled up, I had Monaco already written down. Passed one time too many

I'll take Milan (9.1859 E).

So does Biesterfield's pick preclude drafting Nice? It seems a bit borderline to me...

I'd think you could definitely pick Nice

I guess we can treat it the same way as Hong Kong and Macau. Someone can pick it, if not it I get it.

I'll take Nice...

Write up tomorrow.

it's hard to load this thread in the browser when there are so many unspoilered pics on a page :-/

All my picks so far:

Starting Point: LAS VEGAS 115.1398° W
1st Stop: CENTRAL CALIFORNIA COAST 122.0308° W
2nd Stop: SOUTH ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND 169.8926° E
3rd Stop: KYOTO, JAPAN 135.7680° E
4th Stop: HANOI, VIETNAM 105.8342° E
5th Stop: LUANG PRABANG, LAOS 102.1347° E
6th Stop: CHIANG MAI, THAILAND 98.9817° E
7th Stop: MANDALAY PROVINCE, MYANMAR 96.0891° E
8th Stop: KERALA, INDIA 76.2711° E
9th Stop: KASHMIR REGION, INDIA/PAKISTAN 74.7973° E
10th Stop: SHIRAZ, IRAN 52.5837° E
11th Stop: TBILISI AND KAKHETI REGION, GEORGIA, 44.8271° E

At least one delinquent writeup coming up

Does it really affect load time?

It doesn't seem to affect mine at all. I'll spoiler them in the future if it's an issue.

.

8th Stop: KERALA, INDIA 76.2711° E

The Kerala Backwaters are one of the great tourist destinations that few people in the U.S. have ever heard of, a labyrinthine network of interconnected canals, rivers, lakes, and inlets on the southwestern Indian coast. The region was named one of National Geographic Traveller's ten paradises on earth, and it is absolutely TEEMING with beautiful places to see and cool activities to engage in. Seriously, click that first link above; it'll take you an hour to go through all of that site's content, and you seemingly could be in Kerala for a month and not scratch the surface.

I first heard about Kerala studying comparative international politics in college; Kerala has long had an anomalously high literacy rate for both men and women, something like 93 percent for decades when the rest of India struggled with much lower rates. I was always fascinated by Kerala for that reason, and it turns out that it is phenomenally ****ing gorgeous as well!

Please note the minimal amount of temples in the below pictures.

First, here are some general photos of the Kerala region.



Kovalam Beach:



The snake boat races of Alappuzha, known as the Venice of the East:



Kollam:



Kochi:



Periyar and Eravikulam National Parks to see elephants and tigers and such:



Thiruvananthapuram, to try and say it five times fast:



Just relaxing in a boat on a canal:



maybe I'll be there for Holi:



and, of course, the food:



(I know I made this way too long. Sorry; I got excited.)

too late now to do another writeup, so Kashmir and the rest will have to wait until tomorrow

If you thought that was too long you guys must hate my 40 picture writeups...

I like them

Pick 12: Savonlinna 28.8864° E

I'm aware I'm behind on write ups, but I'm at work and will try to get these done when I get home

.

I planned this to be quick since it's just a makeup writeup, buuuuuut...

PRAGUE

A bit different from most of my selections, but it's nice to mix in some different notes along the way, & I couldn't pass up Prague.

& it's not even due to their halfazzed beaches...



It's mostly the cool history & beautiful scenery...



With a side of nightlife...



& an array of fine dining...



& yes eyebooger, there are in fact beautiful sunsets...

Actually disappointed in NICE based on its reputation compared with what I found on the internet, but that's what I get for drafting on the weekend.

Oh well, it's going to be my only stop in France, so it's a good excuse to have some elite French food, relax at the beach, check out some sites (Chagall Museum, Castle Hill, market district, old town, etc.), & say I've been to Nice. I'm probably just spoiled by the ridiculous beauty of some of my other stops...

Pictures of beach/coast stuff:



Pictures of inland stuff:



Pictures of sunsets:



JM3 trip so far:

Las Vegas - 115.1398° W
San Diego - 117.1611° W
Bora Bora - 151.7415° W
Maui - 156.3319° W
Samoa - 172.1046° W
Taipei - 121.9189° E
Krabi Province - 98.9063° E
Dubai - 55.2708° E
Santorini - 25.4615° E
Cape Town - 18.4241° E
Puglia - 17.1012° E
Prague - 14.4378° E
Nice - 7.2620° E

nice pics

i wish i could use imgur at work; could bang out some writeups right now

Icwudt

i didn't actually think i did anything there :-/