I’ve been posting the travelogue of my six month wandering trip on a Fool board which has been eaten by a Foolish gremlin. Anyhow, I can continue the saga here (once a week) if people want - or not
Jeff
0 voters
Jeff, I would love to see a more condensed version without the details of where to shop where to eat. Not looking for a travel guide, but would love to hear reasons why we should spend money and effort to go to these places. Answer the question “why should we care?” Snapshots of why we might like to go to some of these places would be helpful to us in choosing where to spend money when we start traveling again, or at least give us some armchair travel.
I confess we are not “If It’s Tuesday it Must Be Belgium” type travelers, instead preferring to rent an apartment for months at a time and getting to know the local spirit and flavors. I am looking for experiences, not things to take home. What experiences can I get there that I can’t get here? What is special or unique about these places? How are these places changing you?
That said, with the closing of the other boards I think it’s necessary to allow some OT postings, as long as it’s properly marked. It’s easy enough for people to skip over should they prefer, and I am always happy to hear about your adventures when it’s about you. Insight on to who our fellow posters are can help us to understand the unstated background noise of the on topic posts on this board as well.
IP
Yes, please continue to post (marked OT). Interesting off-topic posts add flavor to METAR like spices to a stew.
Safe travels!
Wendy
It’s better suited for a travel board not for this board.
OK - it looks like the vast majority of the yes/no votes wants to see this stuff, so I’ll post it “OT”. I’ll also take IP’s comment into consideration and not post the longer descriptions of places that pop up from time to time - usually regarding larger cities that we’ve visited repeatedly (I already preempted this decision by omitting the write-ups on Athens and Istanbul).
What I’m posting here are pages from my travel book’s(“Take the High Road - A Primer for the Independent Traveler”) geographic section. They are frequently mash-ups of information from multiple visits so even if they are only a page or two it can be difficult to do everything in a single day. Cities tend to run longer as we frequently spend a week or more in them.
The posts are also out of context. While they are chronologically the order we are currently visiting them, they are “dots”. We will be visiting Livorno, for example, and may (or may not) head into Florence to see a museum (maybe the Piti which we haven’t been in for a while). The book covers the other options we’ve elected on other trips when we have variously visited from Livorno such as Pisa, Lucca and the Cinque Terra.
Similarly, when we get to Tilbury in the UK, we are heading into London for a West End show as the tickets are a fraction of the cost of seeing the same shows on Broadway (our center 1st row seats are about $85 for a matinee) and while the particular show might not be important, the option is good for travelers to know. Likewise, reviewing a restaurant or two is also helpful for the occasional visitor (even if the review is panning a touted one).
I’ll try to include economic or social changes I see taking place, but frankly, life is too short to do much editing specifically for METAR to remove “extraneous” travel details.
Let me know how this works after this week’s post (due this weekend).
Jeff
I’ll try to include economic or social changes I see taking place, but frankly, life is too short to do much editing specifically for METAR to remove “extraneous” travel details.
Too true. You’re doing us all a favor by posting this travelog. People should be able to ignore stuff they’re not interested in without you taking the time to format it to their specification.
What do they expect for free?
intercst
I appreciate the clearly marked OT postings. Long tales do not bore me, especially when describing city favorites like Athens and Istanbul.
You are more likely to tip me off about a global trend or risk by your highly educated observations of contemporaneous local conditions across the globe than I could glean from agenda-driven ivory tower reporting from the Boston-NY-DC corridor.
You’re a key component of my personal investment biosphere.
Well make up your mind if this to be a MACRO board or anything goes board and anyone, not related to whoever can post as they please. Just asking for consistency here not exceptions.
Lucky Dog
What do they expect for free?
…we expect the world, intercst, the world! 
Jeff,
As usual, thanks for copying us all along here. It’s fun to think about, even if the destination isn’t tops on the list.
…but frankly, life is too short to do much editing specifically for METAR to remove “extraneous” travel details.
Jeff,
Frankly I like vicariously travelling with you and all the details. Age and a bad back now limits my ability to travel.
So, don’t let one, or a few, person’s desire for less “extraneous” info over influence you. They can just skip details that many of us might find interesting and fun.
As you say, life is too short. Stick to what works for you.
So, don’t let one, or a few, person’s desire for less “extraneous” info over influence you. They can just skip details that many of us might find interesting and fun.
Ditto!
Pete
Well make up your mind if this to be a MACRO board or anything goes board…
This is the “Macro Economic Trends and Risks” board which means, in my mind at least, investments and and actions that will affect investments.
To my mind the only way to have a board that posts ONLY what y’all want to read would be to open y’all’s own board and not allow anyone else to post on it.
Desert (Of course y’all might still have problems if you are schizophrenic;-) Dave
(That ends the humor portion of our presentation for today)