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Spankytoes

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Everything posted by Spankytoes

  1. I pussed out and booked a friend I for Oktoberfest, Salzburg, Amsterdam and probably Rome. The prospect of doing a solo trip looked less and less appealing. Plus, it’s his first time overseas so I get to play tour guide a bit.
  2. It’s all fun and games until he can’t enter Canada
  3. All those Chili's, PF Chang's and Carl's Jr. in CDMX will remain empty.
  4. Good move. No way in hell you would have made that connection. EasyJet flies into the North Terminal and Norwegian flies from the South Terminal. Assuming that you got to the gate on time, which you won't, it would take you 15-20 minutes to deplane. I've waited 10 minutes fro customs at Gatwick and I've waited 2+ hours depending on how many flights land at the same time. Then you have to take the shuttle to change terminals, which is pre-security. Your flight will begin boarding at 9:15 since it is international. Even if you landed on time, had a short Customs line and security was light for you to re-check in (I've yet to get through without the hand swab test), you'd still miss the flight.
  5. 1. I am cranky. Being miserable and treating others like shit is every NYers God-given right! 2. Going to Times Square is a PITA dumb "bucket list" item people feel compelled to do. I used to live at 56th between 8th and 9th and even then I didn't bother. I was just questioning the timing of the visit as a tourist when that's typically what a tourist would build their trip around. You can have a champagne toast in a restaurant anywhere. I actually respect you more for avoiding it like the plague. 3. I don't have any real recs for you on a NYE vein. I've spent the last 4 in Dallas, Long Island and Sydney. I turn 40 in January and a hangover takes 2 days to recover from now. I'm the wrong guy to ask.
  6. As a planned vacation, and as tourists, I don't get it. It's like going to Munich during Oktoberfest to hang out at a sports bar while paying hotel rates 3X higher than normal.
  7. You're going to NYC, specifically for NYE, to "stay the fuck away from Times Square"? Based on this, I'd go to Larry Flynt's Hustler's Club off the West Side Hwy. for dinner, but make sure you stay the fuck away from the strippers. Perhaps a nice jaunt to an ice skating rink in Jersey to stay the fuck away from Central Park and Rockefeller Center. Or maybe a lunch at Sbarro's to stay the fuck away from all the tourists at Carmine's.
  8. Well, we are trying to avoid them. It’s just not for the reason they claim it to be. For some reason, they think we have to put up with their insane bullshit even though we’re no longer married. So we duck into a Victoria's Secret when we spot them in the food court.
  9. This isn’t technically a holiday story, but it fits into the thread and I need to fucking vent... MIL’s birthday is tomorrow so my wife decided to go to a French bakery in Queens because her mom is a saint. While they were gone, I started looking up places to travel to for next year. After looking at a map, I realized that St. Petersburg is close to Helsinki, a Finnair hub. (Oneworld alliance redeemable with miles...it’s not important) Then it dawned on me that I could take the wife and her mom back to their home city to visit their daughter/sister since MIL is turning 75 and we’re losing the ability to plan that sort of thing. I spent a couple hours mapping things out and found a pretty decent deal. I waited until they got back from shopping and sprung it on the wife. She only halfway acknowledged my idea. I was a little crestfallen, because I thought it was solid and put some effort into it, but I figured she was tired. I brought it up a little later that evening and she said that it wouldn’t be worth it because her sister will probably be here next summer. Before I even prodded her for details, I knew how this was going to go. Apparently, visa approvals not withstanding, I will be housing her sister, her 18 year old nephew and her 5 year old niece “just for a little while until they can get their own place.” (None of them speak English) The last time I heard that was with her father, who moved out in an urn 9 years later. She and her mom have been coordinating this and it slipped their minds to solicit my thoughts on the matter. Our youngest is moving out to attend college next summer so I was only ONE more relative away from claiming my house back. For some reason, I am trying to figure out how to tactfully tell her that this isn’t going to happen and she can forget about it until the sun burns out. To make it Thanksgiving related, I will be stuffing her like a turkey in retribution for the foreseeable future because I’m sure I’ll be making the plane reservations using my miles.
  10. Ou going to win yet another Big 12 title. Water is wet
  11. Understood. They do the same thing in Cuba. I'd want the stamp. They are my "trophies". I'm considering it. 3 years isn't the end of the world to wait for Iran.
  12. I did Cairo for a day when I was 19. So the pyramids got crossed off. Marrakesh or Casablanca could be doable if I couple it with Spain. I've never done Madrid, just Barcelona and Pamplona. Valencia would be cool, but I need an airline hub for Star or Oneworld. Southwest Turkey intrigues me. Turkey is one of those places where I'm a little apprehensive traveling away from big cities, which is ironic because of where I'm going next fall. (On a Russian passport) I'll check it out. Thanks
  13. My only objection would be that I plan to go to Iran at some point and my passport expires in 2022. Can't do both with the customs stamp from Israel.
  14. It's crazy when shit like that happens. I met Mack Brown about 6-7 years ago in Dallas. I got roped into watching my friend's 3 month old daughter while my wife got her hair done. So there I am, sitting in the waiting area of a hair salon with my niece, and who walks in but Mack Brown himself. I was nervous as shit, and just kept looking at him as he read a magazine and waited, but was too scared to say anything to him. Pretty soon the baby started crying, and I'm trying to quiet her down because I didn't want her to bother Coach February, but she wouldn't stop. Pretty soon he gets up and walks over. He started running his hands through her hair and asked what was wrong. I replied that she was probably hungry or something. So Mack put down his magazine, picked up the baby and lifted up his shirt. He breast fed her right there in the middle of the hair salon. Chill guy, really nice about it.
  15. I'm going to do 2 weeks at most. Haven't decided when yet. Next year is my really busy year at work and I have to get the youngest moved down to Dallas and setup for college. So I'm thinking about doing something over Labor Day to save on a few vacation days and I won't get killed for being out of the office. Late July is the earliest I could consider but that sounds like a miserable time in the ME heat. Not so bad for Africa. You're right, that's a shitload of flying. However, Petra is a 3rd tier destination for me. Even when I get to AMM, it's still a 10 hour ride round trip to see an ancient carved rock that I only mildly care about. (And 100% due to Indiana Jones) All the flights from AMM to Aquaba have lengthy layovers with a night time arrival, so I don't save anything there. Nothing else in the area really moves the needle for me. That's why I considered lopping it off. It's either 10 hours on a plane to J'Burg or 10 hours on a bus. An openjaw from JFK to Nairobi and out of J'Burg is intriguing. I could use Avianica Lifemiles for one leg and United miles for the other to fly South African Airways. Victoria Falls would be a must, so Capetown and J'Burg would be included somewhere. I will need to book at the end of the month when my Miles post and to grab my airfare. Will consider some itineraries this weekend. In the end, I think you're right. It needs to be 8-10 days in the ME or 2 weeks in Africa, but not both.
  16. I may have found a solution last night: Skip Petra, do 3-4 days in Istanbul and then on to Johannesburg. I found a ridiculously good option for South Africa for 30K Citi Thank You Points + $55 from IST and JNB-JFK direct for 40K CTY Points + $73. Then BA to Victoria Falls to inch closer to a safari. That sounds like a winner.
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