A language learners’ forum

I keep saying to myself that I will have one of those 'holiday of a lifetime' type holidays. I read some old diaries to see if any of my past holidays actually fit this description and I've just forgotten about it. It seems some might well do that, but since they are no longer fresh enough in my memory I think I might need to do it again.

In a casual conversation with my dearest istriku, I gingerly mentioned the idea of going to somewhere like Madagascar; adding that Malagasy is in fact an Austronesian language. She said: 'Oh? Are we going to learn it or something before we go? I thought you'd just started on Swahili?' So I just left that.

She said: 'I don't want to go to one of those places with loads of steep hills you always try to go to, because it's okay coming down them, but not going up.' On a bike presumably, though perhaps also on foot. It started me thinking: which are worst: upward slopes or downward slopes? I think she was thinking back to the time we were in Wales and went to the supermarket on bicycles. I was used to it because I lived there for a while, I warned her it would be difficult. I admit that putting a supermarket in a valley was not a particularly shrewd idea, considering you have to come back up a hill with a load. But you know I've done the opposite as well and ended up crashing off and the load makes it worse. I told her this and she said: 'Yes, that's why it's best not to have too many hills.'

I rambled a bit. Do you have a holiday plan for 2023?

I usually go on a bunch of short(er) trips throughout the year (yay Europe), but this year I'm doing three longer trips. I went to Sweden for two weeks in January, am going to Tajikistan for two weeks this summer (bucket list!), and Japan for nearly a month in late September

I have a few small trips booked but my most exciting holiday this year is going to be a week in Greenland in June. I was reading a crime novel set in Iceland back in January where in the course of tracking down the murderer, the characters flew to Greenland and (although this may sound silly!) that was the first time it had ever occurred to me that Greenland was a place you could actually go. Before I knew what was happening I'd spent my life savings on Air Greenland flights to see some ice before it all melts

In the autumn I'm having a slightly warmer holiday and spending a fortnight travelling from Crete to Rhodes to Turkey. Have never been to Turkey before so quite excited about that, although I am now wondering whether I should start learning Turkish. I did one lesson of Turkish Duolingo, remembered how much I hate Duolingo and stopped

Le Baron - Did you hear that UEA are organising the 2024 Universala Kongreso in Tanzania? Not sure an Esperanto event can necessarily be a holiday of a lifetime(!), but I started looking at pictures of Tanzania and now I am quite tempted...

Radioclare wrote:I have a few small trips booked but my most exciting holiday this year is going to be a week in Greenland in June. I was reading a crime novel set in Iceland back in January where in the course of tracking down the murderer, the characters flew to Greenland and (although this may sound silly!) that was the first time it had ever occurred to me that Greenland was a place you could actually go. Before I knew what was happening I'd spent my life savings on Air Greenland flights to see some ice before it all melts

Life savings! Be careful on the bank job you'll need to do to replenish your funds for the Crete to Turkey voyage. I laughed audibly at the idea of Greenland being 'a place you could actually go to'. I can imagine it. It is in fact one of those places you imagine as something like a volcano island where a plane obviously couldn't land.

Radioclare wrote:Le Baron - Did you hear that UEA are organising the 2024 Universala Kongreso in Tanzania? Not sure an Esperanto event can necessarily be a holiday of a lifetime(!), but I started looking at pictures of Tanzania and now I am quite tempted...

This is great news. Tanzania...Swahili...Esperanto plus trip to Africa. I'll break this good news at breakfast tomorrow, or just leave a note.

I booked my flights yesterday for Vietnam, and I'm going in November...and then realised I've booked it just after Black Friday, which is a time we're not supposed to book holiday at work so will have to pay to fix that if work won't make an exception... Although I don't work retail, our customers are all retail businesses and our company likes to have people on standby in case something explodes from too much online traffic.

But I am planning to visit Sai Gon and Chau Doc. There's a lot of places I want to visit and had to sit down and ask what kind of things I want to see there and what destinations would cover the most bases whilst not being overly touristy. Though Sai Gon will still have its touristy parts, but Chau doc offers a few things that I was looking to other places for but it seems less popular for tourists.

However, you do have me thinking about steep hills. I live in the very flat Cambridgeshire and don't go out an walk much and here I am saying "yeah I'll go to Chau Doc" and one of the reasons is to visit temples in the mountain there, I see "climbing 400 stairs" in my future now. But I got time to make my body work before I go.

The last proper holiday I had, and the only one since the pandemic, was a trip to Campania (Italy) last year. Europe is on my doorstep but I don't really make the most of it, but I also don't like to fly too much (not just for the environmental impact, but also because the whole airport and budget airline experience just isn't very pleasant) so these days I aim for fewer, longer trips rather than more short ones.

I've started planning a couple for this year (but not finished yet because I'm a massive procrastinator): Austria and Bavaria in mid-to-late May, then some surfing in Portugal then possibly Spain in the summer. I'm keen to see some places in the North of Spain - Galicia, Asturias, Basque Country, etc. - but after looking at the map and public transport connections it seems that I slightly underestimated the distances between all these places, and I don't want to rush so I might have to either limit my area or increase my time!

As for trips of a lifetime... I've been putting off Australia, Japan, and Latin America for too many years so I'll try to make them happen in the next couple.

Le Baron wrote:Do you have a holiday plan for 2023?

The same as every year:
Read. Take walks. Watch movies. Play music. Play games. I doubt that I'll even leave town. Less stress. Lower price tag.

jeff_lindqvist wrote:

Le Baron wrote:Do you have a holiday plan for 2023?

The same as every year:
Read. Take walks. Watch movies. Play music. Play games. I doubt that I'll even leave town. Less stress. Lower price tag.

I agree the stress avoidance and price tag are attractive. However it's good to see other things and what I like best about having travelled is when you get back and there is an unreal feeling of getting back home and everything feels new, but familiar.

A beautiful thread!

And the answer: we had a plan to visit Paris with my husband, who has never been there. But as soon as we started making more precise plans (such as the date, and asking for my holiday at work etc), the plan started crumbling for various reasons.

So, no clue whether this will turn out well, we are also in the usual emmigrant/expat situation, of most longer holidays being used up by travelling back to see family and friends.

But in my new job, I will have all the weekends free for at least three months!!! While it doesn't really matter in any positive way, that it will really be Saturday and Sunday (I'd prefer normal days, so that I could actually see needed offices and shops open), it matters that it will always be two days in a row. A luxury, that will allow us to make regularly small travels to the plenty of places that are still typical huge holiday destinations for Czechs, but nearly the neighbourhood for us now

So, we are likely to visit various places in the Switzerland (for example, we have to visit Zürich yet, and Tessin, and much more), a few in France (but most will be now a bit further away), I surely want to see Milano (I've visited just once and very very briefly so far) and we both like Italy, and so on. Plenty of options doable in a weekend. Including just beautiful nature nearby. But I miss cities. I really do.

And our new appartment has a balcony, there are mountains clearly seen behind and above the surrounding buildings, and we have enough space for the coffee machine there. Sounds like a holiday destination to me!

Le Baron wrote:

jeff_lindqvist wrote:

Le Baron wrote:Do you have a holiday plan for 2023?

The same as every year:
Read. Take walks. Watch movies. Play music. Play games. I doubt that I'll even leave town. Less stress. Lower price tag.

I agree the stress avoidance and price tag are attractive. However it's good to see other things and what I like best about having travelled is when you get back and there is an unreal feeling of getting back home and everything feels new, but familiar.

Move to a new place every year or every other year, problem solved But many others created

Cavesa wrote:we are also in the usual emmigrant/expat situation, of most longer holidays being used up by travelling back to see family and friends.

This is absolutely true! I've done it so many times. To the point where people back home said: 'why aren't you visiting this year?' But I needed to save days for other places. I've convinced my brother to visit here in August which means he gets a holiday and I save days. I think it is mutually beneficial. Though some like my sister can't afford the time or cost.

Cavesa wrote:Move to a new place every year or every other year, problem solved But many others created

That sounds exciting and horrible in equal measure. No doubt that is Jeff's worst nightmare!