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Topic: Last Breaths of a Dying Season SOC 10/6/18

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FearlessF

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Re: Last Breaths of a Dying Season SOC 10/6/18
« Reply #350 on: October 09, 2018, 01:24:49 PM »
friggin shoe snobs
"Courage; Generosity; Fairness; Honor; In these are the true awards of manly sport."

847badgerfan

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Re: Last Breaths of a Dying Season SOC 10/6/18
« Reply #351 on: October 09, 2018, 01:27:09 PM »
U RAH RAH! WIS CON SIN!

Mdot21

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Re: Last Breaths of a Dying Season SOC 10/6/18
« Reply #352 on: October 09, 2018, 01:50:54 PM »
CDG is a mess but it's not that bad imo. I've seen worse airports. Have you ever flown out of Miami? That is probably the worst airport of all-time.

I just take uber now from the airports. Pretty much anywhere. Some cities in Europe like Barcelona don't have uber, but majority of them do I've found. I think the uber to the apartment we rented in Montmartre from CDG was maybe 40-50 euros. In an E class Benz. Not bad.

My advice to anyone going is just take uber from the airport. And once you're in the city the subway is the way to go. You can get anywhere in the city very easily and very cheaply. And as for the beggars and gypsys- yeah, just ignore them, keep walking or be a complete a-hole and scream at them like a maniac and keep it moving. They are looking for stupid tourists to distract and pick pocket. This applies to any major city over there. Oh and when you take the elevator up to the top of the Eiffel Tower they cram you in there like sardines- so you really have to watch your pockets there.

OrangeAfroMan

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Re: Last Breaths of a Dying Season SOC 10/6/18
« Reply #353 on: October 09, 2018, 02:37:44 PM »
I remember my dad making a big deal of pickpockets when I went to the Bahamas at 18.  I wasn't worried, because I had this weird dollar-sized billfold thing that would only fit in my front pockets.  No problem.


Do the 16 year old French girls look like Margot Robbie?  I'd probably just hand over my wallet if they did (she was in that con artist movie with Will Smith).
“The Swamp is where Gators live.  We feel comfortable there, but we hope our opponents feel tentative. A swamp is hot and sticky and can be dangerous." - Steve Spurrier

MrNubbz

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Re: Last Breaths of a Dying Season SOC 10/6/18
« Reply #354 on: October 09, 2018, 02:42:49 PM »
 Oh and when you take the elevator up to the top of the Eiffel Tower they cram you in there like sardines- so you really have to watch your pockets there.
Put a lfe like dido in each pocket and wear a body cam.The expressions alone might make plays of the day
"Let us endeavor so to live - that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." - Mark Twain

FearlessF

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Re: Last Breaths of a Dying Season SOC 10/6/18
« Reply #355 on: October 09, 2018, 03:51:45 PM »
Do the 16 year old French girls look like Margot Robbie?  I'd probably just hand over my wallet if they did (she was in that con artist movie with Will Smith).
I doubt it since Margot was born in Australia
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Cincydawg

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Re: Last Breaths of a Dying Season SOC 10/6/18
« Reply #356 on: October 09, 2018, 05:05:32 PM »
I have no desire or reason to visit Paris or other cities like it that are unfriendly to me.

I understand the "when in Rome" idea of blending in, but if I'm going to be harassed and in danger of being robbed I will pick another destination to spend my time and money
General alertness will keep you from getting robbed, and blending in a bit makes you less obvious as a tourist who is clueless.  The 16 year old girls are Gypsies, literally, the French call them "Rums".  One will come up to you and distract you.  It is very effective if you are not aware of what is happening.  I'd guess it's happened to me 5-6 times.  I just keep walking, but my first trip over it distracted me, and the wife jerked me away and explained, which is what I'm trying to do here.
I think understanding such things makes a visit nicer, and mostly avoids bad things happening.  You aren't in any physical danger, but you can lose a wallet.  Oh yeah, don't buy those things that hang around your neck and let them dangle outside your shirt.
The other cities like Lyon and Strasbourg and Bordeaux are very different in that they have MANY fewer folks trying to rob you so visibly, I can't even remember any.  I'm sure they have some pickpocket types.  Paris is the tourist mecca so it attracts those who prey on tourists, and the police do not care at all about property crime.  That is why every domicile in cities in France have serious security.
Our French friends and cousins who visit were amazed at our house in Cincy which had no fence or wall around it.  They asked me how we could be secure in our house given we had a large green belt behind the house and anyone could sneak up on us.
I just said "Americans tend to have guns." 

847badgerfan

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Re: Last Breaths of a Dying Season SOC 10/6/18
« Reply #357 on: October 09, 2018, 05:12:45 PM »
Didn't see much, if any, of that "distraction stuff" in London or Barcelona to be honest. Very little in Florence but a TON in Rome. I fended off a dude who was trying it with a long umbrella I was carrying. This was the end of our time in Rome and I'd had enough. I wanted to whack the guy. Mrs. pulled me away and we kept going. She was afraid I'd go to jail the day before we were to come home. Heh.



I'll let you all know how Amsterdam is in a few weeks. It will be my first time there, and then we go back to Barcelona for a few days.
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Cincydawg

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Re: Last Breaths of a Dying Season SOC 10/6/18
« Reply #358 on: October 09, 2018, 05:19:32 PM »
CDG is a mess but it's not that bad imo. I've seen worse airports. Have you ever flown out of Miami? That is probably the worst airport of all-time.


We just flew in and out of MIA.  I didn't notice any issues with it.
We were not going through customs though.
I've never seen anything remotely like CDG in July and August.  I've been through the larger EU airports and it stands out.
Of course, I hear folks complain about ATL which to me is very logically arranged.

Cincydawg

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Re: Last Breaths of a Dying Season SOC 10/6/18
« Reply #359 on: October 09, 2018, 05:22:04 PM »
Barcelona was "clean", no scam artists that I saw.  I did see some naked gay men on the beach, but they were facing outbound fortunately.

We walked all over Barcelona, did 13.5 miles one day walking.  We plan to go back.

I stupidly had only a one hour and a bit layover in CDG on the return flight from Barcelona.  Don't do that.  We made it, barely, running.  Customs was jammed as usual with 2 booths out of 20 open.  It was as bad as Walmart.

847badgerfan

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Re: Last Breaths of a Dying Season SOC 10/6/18
« Reply #360 on: October 09, 2018, 05:33:14 PM »
Walmart? OK, then never. I'll go through London and use rail. Ain't that far.
U RAH RAH! WIS CON SIN!

FearlessF

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Re: Last Breaths of a Dying Season SOC 10/6/18
« Reply #361 on: October 09, 2018, 05:35:36 PM »
my worst experience in an airport was Mexico City - wasn't THAT terrible

Orlando annoys me because of all the wailing kids
"Courage; Generosity; Fairness; Honor; In these are the true awards of manly sport."

utee94

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Re: Last Breaths of a Dying Season SOC 10/6/18
« Reply #362 on: October 09, 2018, 05:36:11 PM »
CDG is only bad when the French workers are on strike.

(Which is just about weekly ;) )


Cincydawg

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Re: Last Breaths of a Dying Season SOC 10/6/18
« Reply #363 on: October 09, 2018, 05:37:18 PM »
Walmart? OK, then never. I'll go through London and use rail. Ain't that far.
Well, you deplane tired and smelly and get in a long long line at customs, OK whatever, and then notice they have 40 gates and 3 of them are manned.  Then another "official" shows up and you think you are about to get to go there and he chit chats and looks at his phone and rearranges his desk and stands up and looks out the door and sits down and picks his nose and maybe 5 minutes later he motions you to come up.
If you don't get into the Sky Priority line you are well and truly.
And the plane lands someone near Rouen apparently and then taxis for hours and hours and hours.  They you deplane and get on a bus which takes you to a concourse where you talk for an hour and then get on a moving sidewalk and FINALLY get on a train which takes you somewhere else where you get on a moving sidewalk and then walk down 4 flights of stairs to the luggage carousels only to figure out eventually that your bags are not on 35-41 but 42-49, which is in another building.

 

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