Hello! :)

[Cynthia]

Welcome aboard TravelsByBooks! I am also a big fan of Globetrekker. Are there any places in particular that you would like to travel to?

I hope you enjoy the forum and we'll be seeing you around,

Cynthia

[Cynthia]

Hi TravelsbyBooks,

I travelled to Australia and New Zealand two years ago and it was an amazing trip! There is so much to see! I recommend camping in the Australian Outback, doing some hiking in Tasmania, scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef, climbing the Franz Josef glacier in NZ and skydiving over Lake Wanaka! It's an incredible experience.

I am planning a trip to the UK this June/July. Do you recommend any places to visit? I plan to spend two and a half weeks travelling.

I have never been to Japan but I do hope to visit it someday too.

Cynthia

[Jim]

Hi Cynthia

If this is your first ever visit to the UK, and you intend to make more visits in future, and being as you only have a few weeks I would suggest confining your visit to England on this occasion, and save 'non-English' Britain for a future visit. Otherwise, you may find yourself doing a lot of travelling and it may all get a bit much.

Alternatively, you could combine all parts of the UK if you wish if you think of some themes you want to base your visit around and limit your stops - a friend of mine once did 'Cathedral' cities and selected a half dozen or so contrasting places up and down the UK, or you might want to explore the haunts of particular writers, artists, filming locations etc

Whatever, try and think of an approach that suits you and does not follow the crowd just for the sake of being easy, and don't try and 'cram in' all the big sites - you could never do justice to the UK (or any country) in that time. We see so many foreigners falling for the same old stops each year - Bath, Windsor, Canterbury, Edinburgh etc, and you tend to find that in summertime you tend to have to fight to see the real UK through all the dressed up stereotypes laid on to please the tourists and pay high prices for the privilege! These places are best visited 'off season'.

[Cynthia]

Jim,

Thank you so much for your input. I really appreciate it. I will definately keep your suggestions in mind when planning my trip.

Cynthia

[Guest]

Check out Globe Trekker's guide to England & Wales for lots of really quirky places to visit - like Bog Snorkelling, Neasden Hindu Temple in London and Eden nature reserve.
http://www.pilotguides.com/destination_guide/europe/england/index.php

[Cynthia]

Thanks Susi! I will definately take a look.

Cheers,

Cynthia

[zebra woods]

I am also a big fan of GT who live in China. I could only watch the episodes few years ago on TV , few days ago I just bought a DVD collection of GT including 64 episodes which excited me so much.

it's great to be here and share the travel experice with you all

[Cynthia]

Hello again everyone!! My trip to the United Kingdom was amazing! The Globetrekker episodes really helped me prepare for my trip! A big thanks to everyone for all your suggestions!! I can't wait to return and explore what more Britain has to offer!!

Cynthia

[PENILYN]

[Sonja :o)]

Hi Everyone,

I felt weird making my own post to say hello when there is a perfectly good one here already ….a little out of date but perfectly good
Just wanted to say a quick hello, I loooove Globe Trekker and have been a huge fan of it for a long time! I read these forums all the time and…and I finally got really tired of just reading and not participating.
I gues I'm not a total newbie, I used to have an account here years ago but forgot my password hehe…well now I’m back, won't forget it and can’t wait to meet you all!

So hello

[Cynthia]

Hey Sonja!! Welcome to the forum!! So nice to meet you. I'm glad you decided to participate in the forum. It's a great way to meet and chat with other globetrekker fans and globetrekker hosts from around the world!

Where are you from in Canada? I live in Kingston at the moment, but I'm going to be moving to Ottawa in July. Tell us about yourself!



Cynthia

[Sonja :o)]

Hi Cynthia,
I'm a fan of yours!!! hehe
I live in Toronto, so we're pretty close...well kind of.
Oh man this is going to sound really silly: I'm actually a university student... of radio and television arts. Here's the silly part, I think that about 90% of why I went into that was Globe Trekker (haha is that sad or what ...oh well, i do enjoy it) I plan on doing my masters in architecture though so I've been taking extra courses to be able to qualify. I love cycling, swimming, skiing, hiking...bahhh anything outdoors really hehe. I also reeeally enjoy art and photography.
Well that's a really quick little tidbit. I'd love to know more about you too. Thanks for the welcome )

[Sonja :o)]

Eeeeeek....sorry I didn't mean to make this face
I meant to do a smiley face but my smileys have noses : o ) hehe so it came out like that. I really need to get used to removing their poor noses on forums

[Cynthia]

Sonja, you are so cute! We accept all types of smiley faces here..

Sounds like you are doing what you love at school, so that's awesome. It's soooo NOT sad that you went into radio and television arts because of Globetrekker. On the contrary, I find that so exciting! You should do what inspires you! I love Globetrekker too and I make videos because I love to share my travels with others. I love to start with an idea and develop it into something concrete (I guess that's why I ended up in engineering ). Globetrekker inspires people for many different reasons and in a way, that's the beauty of the show. For example, I only discovered my love for making videos when I decided to make my first showreel for Globetrekker. Also, Globetrekker has allowed me to discovered places that I never knew existed! It's open my eyes and allowed me to get a taste of different cultures and find out what many countries had to offer. I love to travel and meet people and Globetrekker inspiries me to keep doing that.

By the way, I'm a university student too (at Queen's). I'm working on my Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in the area of solar thermal energy. I find it really interesting and I think this area (renewables) is so important right now too. I am moving to Ottawa in July to continue my research at Carleton University. I just got an offer to join their faculty a couple days ago, so things are quite exciting right now.

Just like you, I also love the outdoors. I sail competitively, play ultimate frisbee and bike, and I also love to go camping and hiking.

Hope to talk to you again soon.

Cynthia

[Sonja :o)]

Okay first of all I have to address this 'faculty offer' and 'PhD' business (clears throat) so let me start with...
.....WOW! That's absolutely amazing! Congratulations and good luck with it! and the area you are working in really is fascinating, I mean I don't know anything about it in engineering terms but it really is interesting to learn about and sooo important these days. I really hope to take courses in sustainable and alternative housing if I go into architecture so I guess that's kind of related.
But wow wow wow seriously.... amazing!.

I've actually never been sailing (well once when I was younger but I wasn't technically sailing) but I think its such a great sport I definitely hope to try it someday. I watched your video from camping though, great video, looks like so much fun.

[Cynthia]

Hey Sonja! Thanks for the congrats for Carleton. I'm really excited about it too. If you would have asked me 9 years ago when I started university if I'd ever do a Ph.D., I would have probably laughed. So, you see, you never know where life will take you. I was lucky enough to go to several conferences around the world during my grad studies so I got to meet a lot of interesting people all over. Good luck with your architecture program. Who knows, we might collaborate someday on a low energy building project or something

Sailing is my favourite sport. I've been sailing for 22 years (it's crazy how time flies) and it's been a blast. Kingston is really great for sailing as it's always windy here. I definately recommend you try your hand at sailing again, it's a great way to finish the day after a long day at school.

Cynthia

[admin]

Hi Sonja - Welcome! It's great to have you back.

Helen

[Sonja :o)]

Thank you, It's great to be back! haha
Thanks for approving my account (this laughing guy is too cute!)
Question;
I've looked on the forum, though maybe not hard enough ...how do I attach a photo into my profile; I tried putting a link to an image in the space provided for an avatar in the profile...I'm not doing it right am I?

[Cynthia]

Hmm.. that's strange. Is the graphic image no greater than 80 pixels wide and with a height of no greater than 80 pixels? The graphic must be less than 6 KB too. If you've done this, then it should work. If it didn't work the first time, try again with a different image and see it that works.

Good luck!

Cynthia

[Sonja :o)]

yup I did all that S
Verrry strange...well it's no big deal really. I might try again a little later.
Thanks for the tips.

[Cynthia]

Sonja, can you upload the photo somewhere (like on a photo site or something, if you have one) and then just copy and paste the url of the photo in the avatar weblink space? I am not sure but I think that's what I did when I signed up in 2005.

Hope this help. If not, hopefully someone else might know.

Cynthia

[Sonja :o)]

yep... I'm pasting a photo link from flicker ( a photo that is not larger that 80 x 80 pixels and 4KB ) into the box that asks for an avatar url.
Oh well that's okay.
Thanks for the help though! :o)

[Cynthia]

Hey! Sorry to hear that didn't work. I really don't know why. Would love to check out your photos on Flickr though!! Are any of your travel photos on your site? Where have you travelled to?

Cynthia

[admin]

[Cynthia]

Ah sweet! Thanks Helen for helping her out

Cynthia

[admin]

[Sonja :o)]

Oooooh it worked!
Thank you,
Thank you
to both of you!