Chicago rocks. So does DC. The secret to DC pizza is only to eat it when you're piss drunk. LA is a grotesque exercise in urban sprawl. The secret to DC poverty is not to go there. Stay within the guvment center and the narrow corridor of affluence stretching out from there, plus suburbs. Of course if a terrorist attack happens, the ghetto is probably the safest place to be, so it might be in your interests to make a few friends there.

QUOTE (Raidne @ Mar 3 2009, 14.31)

You know what city I'm forgetting? Honolulu. That place is great and there's some weather that you can't beat.

Yeah and once you get bored with the city and the immediate surroundings, you're looking at $2,000+ to go anywhere else in the world worth going. Isolation is good for vacations, not for living.

QUOTE (S John @ Mar 3 2009, 15.55)

Bingo. I've crushed many a Jumbo Slice late night in Adams Morgan. Those things are like the size of your torso, they are cheap, and they are hot food... thats all a drunk person needs at 3am.

Oh man I miss those things. Fucking massive and incredibly cheap. I do not suggest eating them after you've dropped it on the ground however. (Of course your alcohol impaired judgment already caused you to buy it in the first place, so you're probably fucked)The gravel sticks in your mouth all day.

QUOTE (Bronn Stone @ Mar 3 2009, 15.54)

I just ran an Expedia check for Honolulu > LAX for mid April (Friday departure, returning 10 days afterwards). R/T flight is $367. ORD was $659. Narita was $906. Visiting pals on the mainland or in Asia isn't hard at all from Honolulu. Cheap flights MADE Hawaii.

And I can jump in my car and get to anyplace on the east coast for $50-100. Still a prohibitive burden to going anyplace, anytime. Plus its expensive as hell out there.

QUOTE (Raidne @ Mar 3 2009, 15.39)

The people who live there don't seem to want to go anywhere else.

To each their own, but I'd find the isolation incredibly boring.

QUOTE (Raidne @ Mar 3 2009, 16.10)

Have you been there?

Nope, never really interested me. Figured if I'm gonna spend that much on a plane ticket (I'm assuming its costly from Chicago), I'll visit a fricken continent, not an island.

QUOTE (Bronn Stone @ Mar 3 2009, 16.34)

You must get 200 MPG or not pay tolls. Or both.

The key to tolls is to avoid Pennsylvania like the plague. And gas is much cheaper than it used to be. But yeah, $50 is probably understating things a bit.

QUOTE (Raidne @ Mar 3 2009, 16.23)

I had a ticket from Detroit some years ago for just under $600. It's probably not that bad. It's a great way to use free miles. And, EHK, man, it's really something else. You rent a convertible and drive around the whole island of Oahu. You can go out in Honolulu or Waikiki at night, drive out to some deserted beaches during the day, surf on the North Shore in the afternoon, have some excellent seafood...seriously, it's cliche. The people who go never want to come back. It's nearly 80F all year long. There's a reason this is a running gag in Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Eh...might get there someday. But honestly, I'd rather do Europe 10 more times before I really give a second thought to Hawaii.

QUOTE (BJ Penn @ Mar 3 2009, 16.56)

If you've never been here, then just shut your hole already. Cuz you sound like a total knob

Eh, shove it. The place doesn't interest me and never has. I don't need to visit to rather easily conclude that there's a hell of alot more to do on a relatively small peninsula surrounded by dozens of historic, major metropolitan cities and countless other smaller venues with cheap and easy transit between them. Europe > Hawaii for my interests whether we're talking vacation or living. I don't need to have been there to have a more than comfortable certainty on that question. You love it. Good for you. I imagine I'd be bored to tears after a number of weeks.

QUOTE (WarGalley @ Mar 3 2009, 18.01)

Adams Morgan is definitely my first choice. There's one club there where the bouncer pats everyone down for weapons. Cracks me up everytime.

Also preferred Adams Morgan to the other major hotspots. More lively, more varied, typically cheaper and certainly less 'preppy' (A term I haven't used since High School) than Georgetown.

QUOTE (Raidne @ Mar 3 2009, 18.52)

You really should go out somewhere that's not Adams Morgan or Georgetown.

I don't think there's a corner of non-ghetto DC that I didn't get drunk in. Generally had the most fun in Adams Morgan.

QUOTE (BJ Penn @ Mar 3 2009, 19.14)

"Defensive, provincial little shit"? *snickers*

Whatever tool

Aren't you just the 'cool kid' now. What a joke.

QUOTE (Triskele @ Mar 4 2009, 01.24)

What? Is something wrong with Amsterdam?

Besides being small, overpriced, and filled to the brim with irritating 20 year olds? They also have the Red-Light district, which sounds nice in theory, but manages to be a filthy, overcrowded cesspool in reality.

Rest of the city is nice. But its no Paris.

QUOTE (Triskele @ Mar 4 2009, 01.50)

I was just giving our boy from Holland Artas some guff. I agree with you. I've only been to Europe for one semester but I was in the south of France and went to Paris three times. It truly is a world-class city. Rome was great too but I probably preferred Paris. Did see Amsterdam and like that too but in my experience it didn't ever seem like a city. It seemed more like a giant neighborhood.

Barcelona was pretty cool but I got pickpocketed on a subway there. My bad.

Also went to Venice, Florence, and Naples. Naples is sketch.

Fair enough. Missed Italy last time around, definitely a must for the next trip. Though I've heard Rome is pretty filthy, but its still fucking Rome. Worth the visit regardless. Been a few years since I've been on that side of the ocean...have Euros (Germans and Brits excepted) learned to pick up dogshit yet?