Home Sweet Home

Most, if not all of you, live hundreds of miles/kilometers away from me. So I've been wondering, tell me what your hometown/county/state/country/etc. is like. What's there to do where you live? Is there a particular restaurant you love? What about nature parks? Any historic sites nearby?

My biggest claim to fame is that I'm from PA, USA and I'm about 15 minutes away from Hershey Park. For those that don't know, it's an amusement park built in a town where chocolate is famous. And it's not nicknamed the "sweetest place on Earth" for nothing! Along with the amusement park, there's also Chocolate World, a ride where you get to learn how the chocolate is made and then, my favorite part, at the end of the ride you get a free sample!

Pennsylvania is also home to state forests so there's plenty of outdoor recreation to do like hiking, biking, swimming, etc. Even being 20 minutes outside of the state's capitol, it doesn't take me long to get out in nature and away from crowds. Currently, in central PA, I'm about 2-3 hours away from New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington DC so busy cities aren't far away either. I'm also only about 3 hours away from the beach! As far as I'm concerned, my home state's got everything I need fairly close by!

Please share what makes your place home sweet home.

I live near New Ross, where Kennedy Homestead is, where JFK's grandparents were from. When the platform JFK used was dismantled, the stairs was put into (and is still in) my grandmothers house. I'm dead serious.

Vienna Sightseeing Tour

Let’s start with Vienna’s main sight, the Stephansdom (St. Stephen’s Cathedral). It’s huge, it’s old, and it gets renovated constantly, so you’ll never see it without scaffolding. It has parts from all styles starting with 12th century, since it was constantly expanded or repaired. During World War 2, the cathedral was partially destroyed and later rebuilt.

The Schönbrunn Zoo is the world’s oldest zoo, including several baroque buildings and located close to Schönbrunn Palace. You can find all kinds of animals there, which are kept in a way that comes as close as possible to their natural surroundings. Feeding times are a great attraction, especially for kids.

Schönbrunn Palace, summer residence of the Habsburg dynasty is located in the middle of a huge park with awesome floral patterns. It is possible to visit most parts of the castle, where items from all of its owners are displayed, the most famous of which was Empress Elisabeth.

The Prater is a giant fun fair, and more than that. Located in the middle of a park, you can also go running or cycling there, sit in the sun, and much more.
The biggest attraction is the Riesenrad (Giant Ferris Wheel). It is roughly 61 meters (200 feet) in diameter and turns very slowly, giving you an awesome view over Vienna at its highest point.

One of the most notable things about Vienna is that every other junction is called blah square and has some historical meaning. There are several statues throughout Vienna, they are partially gold-plated and called „Pestsäule“ (plague memorial statue). They were built after the plague was stopped, as a reminder and a tribute to everyone who had died.

The Donauinsel (Danube Island) is located between two arms of the Danube river, 21km long and up to 250m wide. You can go swimming, biking, running, relax in the sun, or visit one of the many nearby cafés. In June, the island is used for the „Donauinselfest“ (Danube Island Festival), with several stages and hundreds of bands and other actors, lots of things to eat and drink, thousands of visitors, and best of all: free entry. <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" /><!-- s -->

That’s all for now, I hope you liked my little tour. <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" /><!-- s -->

Quite possibly moving soon, with any luck anyway... so I'll update soon...

I'm currently in Northwest New Jersey, one of the few places in the Garden State that has Gardens and a few sparse farms around. Close enough to a lot of great cities like Philadelphia, New York City, Newark (wait, nevermind, scratch that one off the list of "great" cities) that I can visit them without a lot of inconvenience, but I'm far enough away that I never have to deal with them if I don't want to.

If my luck turns out right I may find myself moving down to Raleigh, North Carolina this summer.

I don't really like Hershey's chocolate.. it feels too... chalk-y to eat.

ANYWAYS.

I live in "The town of the midnight sun", or Akureyri, Iceland.
It's a small colledge/university town of 18.000 ish people.
It's got a number of museums and a lot of art and culture and shit like that.

It's got a few restaurants. My personal favorite is Greifinn for going out (awesome, sizable steaks, cooked to perfection!), and Jón Sprettur for ordering in (best pizza I've ever had, and comes with a dvd rental, one old movie and one new).
The town is built in a hill, so every walk out of the house takes you up a hill and down a hill too.
There's a ski-resort up the hill from where we live, a large pool and gym across the street, and the ocean a short ways down hill (I would pop down to the docs and fish, it's a nice past-time and a great way to access cheap cat-food).

The ocean just downhill is actually just a narrow fjord, and so the town is way inland even if it's down at the ocean as well. And across the fjord are more mountains. meaning that we sit in this little bowl, and on some summer days, the burning sun heats up the air in the bowl an awful lot, leaving us with temperatures as high as 25°c in the shade. Those days I just stay indoors, in the cool air of my big cement-block of a house.

During the longest days of summer, there is no night, and as a result, there's a golf tournament held here where people play through the night, not the day. It's apparently one of two or three tournaments that do this, ours being the first.

Aside from being called the town of the midnight sun in travelling brochures, it's also referred to as the town in the woods. In our yard alone there's 9 or 10 trees (I'm not getting up to count!) and just across the street (the other way than the pool, we're at an intersection) is a little park with maybe 150 or so trees and about an hour's walk away is a patch of woods with thousands of trees.
The woods are so close to the town and the yards are so densely populated with trees that during the hight of summer the town looks like a flow of green from across the fjord. More like the town is in the woods, than the trees are in the town, hence the nickname.

I could go on about our yard for a while, but the condensed version is; We have Rhubarb, Redcurrant, Raspberries and two kinds of strawberries and a patch for potatoes and a whole host of tulips.
Also a deck with a good BBQ.
Ofcourse, this is the home I might be loosing within the next few months, so I'd rather not go on about it any further. <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_sad.gif" alt=":(" title="Sad" /><!-- s -->

Uhm... yeah... I think that's about it.
Here are some pictures;









Oh and click here for this big panorama pic of the whole town.

Miniar Wrote:I don't really like Hershey's chocolate.. it feels too... chalk-y to eat.

What type did you try?

And Min, have you ever been to Iceland's "Blue Lagoon"? I saw it on a TV show the other week and thought of you.

Elinox Wrote:

Miniar Wrote:I don't really like Hershey's chocolate.. it feels too... chalk-y to eat.

What type did you try?

And Min, have you ever been to Iceland's "Blue Lagoon"? I saw it on a TV show the other week and thought of you.

I've tried a few.. can't remember 'em all, but what I've been offered the most is the damned kisses, and I do not like them...

I've been there, but not since they did the big renovation thingies and made it all pretty.
I'll go there as soon as top surgery is healed up... so.. uhm... in a couple years.. after I've had the chance to have it.

Miniar Wrote:I don't really like Hershey's chocolate.. it feels too... chalk-y to eat.

Do you mean Hershey's brand chocolate? Because AFAIK they localized a lot of chocolate under different names here, like Nestle.

skorpio Wrote:

Miniar Wrote:I don't really like Hershey's chocolate.. it feels too... chalk-y to eat.

Do you mean Hershey's brand chocolate? Because AFAIK they localized a lot of chocolate under different names here, like Nestle.

I don't actually think I've had ever had an american chocolate I "liked".
But yeah, "Hershey's" has always been on the wrapper of the one I really dislike.

Miniar Wrote:

skorpio Wrote:

Miniar Wrote:I don't really like Hershey's chocolate.. it feels too... chalk-y to eat.

Do you mean Hershey's brand chocolate? Because AFAIK they localized a lot of chocolate under different names here, like Nestle.

They bastardized Hershey's chocolate overseas? <!-- s:shock: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_eek.gif" alt=":shock:" title="Shocked" /><!-- s:shock: -->

Miniar Wrote:I don't actually think I've had ever had an american chocolate I "liked".
But yeah, "Hershey's" has always been on the wrapper of the one I really dislike.

Hmmm, I may have to send you some "real" Hershey's chocolate then!