Part 1
"When we Firmas were pushed north into the Pyrimian mountain valley after the death of their chain of command, they settled down and instead of focusing on expansion focused on necessities like food. With co-operation from the first goblins and other creative minds that joined the First Wave of the migration, they managed to grow food over the summer in first-iteration greenhouses. "My parents were part of the first wave. They were old for a couple, but joined the Firma clan in founding a government and keeping the area safe, as well as spreading word. The dragonic gods didn't like their behavior at all; cities burning is more entertainment for them, so they were the first to be Forsaken in this era, publicly, in the main square of the old Dragonic Capital. "However, that backfired, with more and more dragons tired of running around and fighting all the time, they decided to settle down in a place where nobody would bother them; now that they had this place given to them, and the Second Wave started. Basically the entirety of the dragonic clans and several other species amassed in this wave, and the Sapient Unification Government held. "My parents had an egg in one of the more northern caves, right on the coast. Then, the third wave arrived and everything went downhill from there. "The Unification Wars were fought between those who wanted one government to cover this region, and those who wanted governments segregated by species. This would have been fine if the secessionists didn't step in on people's behalves, without their consent; it took fifteen years of war for the war to end. Millions died and some species like the Snow Fox beastpeople almost went extinct. My parent were part of the death wave. "The war evolved so rapidly it was impossible for a commander to last more than two months. It started with sticks and stones and within a month there were arrow volleys. A year saw guns, two tanks, three battleships, four planes. Bombs, bigger bullets, bigger guns, bigger bombs. "In the last few months of the war, the first nuclear devices were used, creating miniature stars on the land with immense destructive potential unleashed. It ended with mutually assured destruction protocols being activated, and when all was said and done the land was a snow-fallen irradiated dustball. "It took years for the survivors to pick up the remnants of our short-lived civilization and restart it into the Terra Firma Sapience Union. All the time, my egg didn't hatch because I had no incubator, but didn't die thanks to my ice type. It was located close enough to a mana vein where I just... absorbed the entire vein. When the cave was found by explorers following maps for my parents den, all they found was my egg glowing brighter than Sunstones. "I was taken to an incubation facility in Cellyia, one of the bigger cities. There I hatched, and after more than one test I grew. My growth was still... affected by the time without an incubator, so my already slow growth stopped after fifty years instead of continuing to infinity. And then I took some magic courses, did my best to drain my mana reserves, and settled down here, well away from... the bustle of Cellyia. It never quite felt like a home, you know. It was a good place to grow up, don't get me wrong, but I like it here better. Remote, and in the same place my parents met for the first time. As much as I can tell, anyway; a number of records were destroyed in the Unification War. "When your heroes continued to come up here, I would be the one on first guard. Damming a river, I used water magic to break it. Trying to destroy some transit infrastructure, I would be the first one to either fake it, finish it off, or lure them away. When your latest one decided to head for Cellyia, it was out of my range for such activities. I shadowed the party on the way and let others take care of it. "I never thought that your 'heroes' would be heartless enough to burn what they were told and even acknowledged as a hospital with patients inside. A library and museum with most of our pre-unification works inside. An orphanage, a school... an entire neighborhood of ten thousand citizens' homes. What for? To try to kill just one of us. "We... couldn't take that kind of behavior. Cellyia might have not been the best place for someone with my personality to grow up, especially without parental figures, but that orphanage still had some good memories. An all-citizens vote was called, an all-citizens vote was passed, and we started a counter-offensive military campaign into your Civilization Nations. We've been waiting for you elves, leaders of the Civilized Nations, to advance your society; it's been seven hundred years, all the most you've done is grow your population and add an extra floor to your townhomes. "So we're going to do it for you. You ran our patience down, so we're going to change your society for you. Is it a repeat of the Unification War? I don't think so, given that you Civilized Nations never rescinded the declaration of war against us 'monsters' over two thousand years ago; one that you still follow through on to this day. "But that isn't the end of my story. "When the gods forsook us, they tried to pry away our magic, our land, and our lives. So we defended. Space radars monitor their movements on the mortal plane. There's so many more technical details I can go into. All I can tell you is, at one point, the old god of Dragonic Princess-kidnapping; yes, they were a god; they came and asked us to restart worshiping them. "That went over as well as you'd expect, and the next thing that happened... was that I absorbed her mana and powers. Technically, I am an undefined god, and... at this point, I'm afraid to get a definition. "What if it's something I don't like? Something evil, immoral... something my parents, the leaders of the Second Wave, wouldn't be proud of? What if... what if it kills me? Everyone hates me? I'd no longer be free... "So my solution was to hide. Here, in a mountain cave in the middle of nowhere. This is my life, all of it... and I don't know where to go from here." ----- "So... you're a god?" I asked. I couldn't think of another question to ask. "Yes and no." The cat replied. It did nothing to satisfy my fearful curiosity. How could one both be and not be a god? "Princess-kidnapping was a... niche god, rarely prayed to by still enough to be, you know, and actual deity. So her mana ran out first, and most of it dissipated back into the environment yada yada yada, but like the sponge my mana reserves are, I sucked more of it up than I should have; enough to had just a slight touch of divine control. On par with a low-level demigod. If I was omnipresent, I'd solve me problems with a snap of my claws, and then I wouldn't be hiding from my problems here." "If your powers came from a god, how are yours undefined?" My mind was seeking knowledge now. I was a mage, after all, and this was more than just the opportunity of a lifetime; it was the opportunity of a aeon. "Because I absorbed her essence from the environment before it had the chance to fully dissipate, but still late enough where it was no longer hers." Vixie shrugged "Or something like that, mana gets weird sometimes. All that matters now is my stockpile is slowly increasing its grow rate, which gets annoying pretty fast." "Annoying?" The cat laughed again. "Do you think this is all of my baseline reserve? Half of the reason I stay away from the rest of society is because the last time someone with multiple aura got involved with politics..." She trailed off, and then let another, this time impeccably cast illusion fall. The air around her was burnt crisp with the power of several mandatory auras in her current small size. Twelve tails flicked behind her back, eleven of them made of energy. Floating specs of light, some smaller while others the size of ice crystals surrounded the air around her. The six orbs on her back were joined by six more, and were attached to a ring. Her head had two halos, and her entire body was engraved with glowing lines. If she before radiated power, now she was made of it. The lights on the cave's ceiling flickered as more and more of the illusion fell away. Geometric shapes orbiting her body, a platform made of mana at her feet, lightning whizzing between all sorts of objects. Finally, it was gone, and the cat that stared at me with big, sad, glowing blue eyes had told me her deepest secret. As soon as it had started, the illusion repaired itself, and before me was one cat, a halo, six orbs, two crystals, and two mana tails. I did the second most instinctive thing when it came to seeing a cat. I pulled her in for a hug. There was a quickly quieted hiss as she squirmed a bit in my grip, trying to get more comfortable, before letting herself get stroked by me. Several images flashed before my eyes, and a tear came out of mine. We had gone to war against the less lucky sapients on our world, and were now paying the price. It felt like hours, but then my stomach growled, reminding me I hadn't eaten in literal days. Vixie shot out of my grip and led the way down into the cave. I followed, and soon enough I was eating some salted crackers with dried meat and cheese while Vixie moved around between other caves. "What are you doing?" I asked her between bites. "Packing," She replied. "Why?" "It's time I got out of here and, to follow the phrase, touched some grass." ----- It took three days for the elf, whose name was Nick, to recover enough to be able to make the journey to Cellyia. In those three days, I realized just how - and why - the Civilized Races looked at us the way they did. For starters, I'd forgotten just how many things ran on electricity, let alone other, more complicated mechanics. Pressurized water, instant hot water, even sinks, showers, and toilets were all completely unknown to the 'civilized races.' Ah, yes. Civilized without toilet paper. Bitter ramblings about the people who set off the chain reaction of events that killed my family aside, those were the second longest three days of my life; the first was my thirteenth birthday so I could get a personal HUD and social media. I was also a mess of thoughts. The elf had shown me, over the course of the three days - aside from the two-minute get-my-life-together moment - that I couldn't hide from my problems forever, or they would team up and try to hunt me. Hence my new, reluctant guest from the overflowing hospital they had oh-so-nicely delivered to my door. I had words for the medical staff. And I was also a mess of thoughts. Did I mention that one already. In all seriousness, Nick adapted to electronics pretty well. All I had to do was explain what it was, what it did, and file it under the name of science. It took an impressive four minutes of rambling about quantum mechanics before Vick realized that he was in way over his head asking how the 'magic rock that can half-think with bottled lightning' worked. He backed out when I yanked a textbook from my knowledge hoard and flipped through the pages to the start to explain how quantum superposition affected the set of particles it was entangled to. Fun. Finding out what toothbrushes were took some convincing, but soon the elf's teeth started to recover from lack of proper dental care. Food was easier than I expected, and Vick was pretty accepting of whatever I tossed on his plate. Except for artichokes, for some reason he hated those. Over the three days we bonded, and Nick got pretty used to life in my home. On the second day I moved him to the guest bedroom I had built but never maintained, but one wave of my paw and a splurge of magic later that was solved. "Why don't you use magic more often?" Nick asked. I explained that was much as I wanted to burn my reserves like they were a forest before a forest fire, the mental strain was tough without learning proper casting, which requires one to drain their reserves to practice wielding physical willpower. That meant that I was caught in an infinite loop of negativity, so I could only get away with a couple spells a day before the mental exhaustion metaphorically turned my brain to mush. On the morning of the fourth day, we left. Honestly, Nick could have left on the first day but I wanted him to be able to have the stamina to walk around for hours on end with me in Cellyia. Either way, as long as he kept by me it would be fine. There was a small population of elves, humans, and dwarves who had come up to the TFSU for one reason or another and never left, which meant that he wouldn't be too far out of place. My plan, instead of just flying into the Cellyia while steering clear of the airport, was to make it to the closest town, Lymian, and take a train from there north to Union Station. It would dump us a bit further downtown than I liked, but Cellyia was built in levels, and I could take the footpath level to wherever I needed. All said and done and one passenger seat clipped to my saddlebag harness on my dragon form, I opened the door to my cave. And was promptly blocked by a wall of snow. "Right," I half-grumbled. I enjoyed tunneling through snow, but spray would make the entrance cave wet and that wouldn't dry for another couple days, and until it did the sound of drips would echo throughout my home like nothing else. Either way, checking one last time that Nick was secure, I prepared my wings and powered forward. The snow and ice parted for me, and then melted and fixed itself back together behind me as I power-swam through the snow the same way I would through water. After ten seconds of this, I burst up from the snow-covered mountain the snowstorm had left behind and started to change my heading for Lymian. It would take thirty minutes of flying to get there, as I was flying lower and slower than usual to take care of my passenger, but we soon enough turned the next mountain and saw the town. The elf gasped as he took in the sights, while I kept my eye out for more activity. It had been fortified as a military base due to the war, but not by much; the town was useless from a defensive standpoint anyway. I spotted the next train arriving from its winding track around the next mountain, which also meant that I was a bit early. The citizens of Lymian were used to my presence, as I usually stopped by to pick up supplies and occasionally a bit of correspondence. So when I landed on top of a several story tall snow pile, nobody cared. I let Nick out, and then transformed into my cat form and slid down the snow pile to start to jogging towards the train station. That's when I remembered that unlike me, elves without snowshoes do not float on snow. Oops. ----- The sights were more than pretty, more than beautiful... If the gods had rejected these people, they might have just as well done it out of jealousy. After I'd been dropped off on top of a snow mound, I immediately flattened myself on my stomach to not fall through. I'd been in more than enough snowstorms and snow mounds to know how it would go if I didn't. The cat climbed the hill below me, reappearing as naturally as the snow fell. "Sorry," Vixie apologized. "Here, let me..." I felt the snow melt around me and we descended down to the ground. Vixie glowed brightly, literally; Even using as little magic as reshaping some snow was threatening to cascade out of her form. We moved to the train station without incident, where the massive 'train cars' were loaded full of passengers and cargo and then taken off towards the big city. Apparently this was the same one the hero burned, but the 'rebuilding and recovery efforts we going well; no critical infrastructure had been severely damaged.' Either way, the ride there was uneventful. Stepping out into Union Station was different. It was like I had entered a busy capital marketplace or square, with everyone rushing in another direction to another place. I trailed after Vixie, where even the oddity of an elf in these mountains was outshone by just how many different races there were; beastkin and kobolds and orcs and undead all filled the streets in, well, peace. "The city is built in layers," Vixie explained. "So while yes, residential and office towers here in the capital were set alight, underground public transit, personal transit, and cargo and fluid transit was all untouched, so we were able to circle around the hero and put out the fires to be replaced with smoke generators, and a couple holograms snatched from a nearby cargo transport." I had no idea what any of that meant, only that the city also had extensive underground bits. The towers soared over everything, and lights covered every spare centimeter of the city. Vixie led me down market stalls, across plazas, through parks and through building lobbies. Eventually, the babble increased, something I didn't think was possible. "Welcome to the commercial district," Vixie said after she had pulled me into a corner away from the masses of people and crowds moving around. "We're right near the harbor, and when we get there I'm going to show you the lighthouse and explain the city a bit better." I almost lost track of Vixie as we continued to move through the throngs of people going about their daily lives. I saw a couple boarded up shops, but most of them were either undamaged or didn't care about the scorch marks on their shops. Jewelry boutiques and grocery stores lived in tandem with furniture stores and a massive slab of too-smooth-to-be-natural stone of a rock type I had never seen before. It was covered in signs depicting some kind of diagram. Right around the corner was the waterfront, with a massive promenade running alongside it. Snow-covered trees lined the walkways, and soon enough Vixie and I came out of the crowd near a large, tall abandoned - though no unmaintained - building. "Right then," Vixie explained and started climbing. "Here's the old lighthouse, it's perfect for seeing the city. They never officially decommissioned it, so it's still legal to climb and properly maintained, but they never use it either." "What was the large thing they were building?" I asked, clambering onto the next ladder. "That? Oh, that was the space elevator." Vixie replied. "The ground part has been completed for three years now, we're just waiting for the rest of the nanotubes to make it into orbit and then run a kevlar cord up, follow it down with the space-grade heavy-duty nanotube cord, and then that's that." "Space?..." I was confused. "When the gods said that they were higher than mortals, you took that both figuratively and literally; they live above you and in a higher dimension. In this case, space is where they live in terms of height, but not number of dimensions. We're working on interdimensional travel, and interuniversal too, but those aren't replicatable on any sort of large scale yet." Vixie shrugged. "Either way, it's not like I care." "But you have it?" I pressed. "Dimensional travel." "Yes." She replied. "Well," I let out a short laughed. "The Civilized Nations are screwed over." "That's putting it lightly," She climbed on top of the last platform and showed me the city against the setting sun, lit up brighter than the night sky and more lively than the earth. It was beautiful. I sat there and watched the city glow with a power not even the gods had, side by side with not a dragon or monster, but a friend. END. A/N: Rushed this last bit of the arc, but school is ramping up at the end of the year so it was either fast story or incomplete story, and I chose fast story. Happy pride month, everyone, and I hope to see more of you when I have more time.
Original Prompt: [WP] For as long as all the races have known, Dragons have been seen as violent, destructive creatures. After an attack on your village, you black out and find yourself in the den of a dragon. It's rather annoyed that that is how they're seen, and wants to prove that isn't the case.
u/Lycan_Jedi thank you for the prompt!
Part 1

I wasn't going to do a trip write up at all, but I'm planning a return trip in the Fall and I realized some of the things I learned on my first trip might be useful for other people, so here we go! I don't often see post write ups from people who are specifically into rhythm games/ arcades/ anime stuff
 
Dates: March 8 - 24, 2023 Background: Planned this trip mostly for myself but one of my friends decided to tag along fairly last minute. I had planned to spend the whole trip in Tokyo but the one thing she wanted to do was Kyoto, so we added a side trip + a very pleasant day at a Ryokan. I used Wanderlog to plan (HIGHLY recommend, this site is amazing), and my basic daily itinerary was morning shrine > pick an area to explore and have 1-2 major things per day. The person I was travelling with ended up taking a long ass time to get ready each day, so most of my morning stuff got cut or rearranged. Costs: I will fully admit I did not budget for food/ shopping, 100% vibes. I simply do not acknowledge what I spent

• Flight: $1,500 (Delta from MSP > SEA > Haneda. Direct from MSP had not resumed yet)
• Hotels: ¥314,000 (Roughly $2,300 USD for all 3 hotels total) [¥205,000 (Tokyu Stay Tsukiji, 15 nights) + ¥30,000 (Tokyu Stay Kyoto, 2 nights) + ¥79,000 (Kyokoyado Muromachi Yutone Kyoto, 1 night)]
• Shinkansen: ¥42,000 for 2 round trip tickets from Tokyo/Kyoto and back. Roughly $300 USD, machine did not take foreign CC only cash

Highlights

• The Kingdom Hearts concert, I maxed out my luck on this trip and we were able to see this on it's last night in Tokyo. Absolutely incredible!!
• Sushi Yuu, Roppongi (omakase sushi for about ¥20,000 per person, we paid more with drinks)
• ShibuyaSky, the open air viewing makes the experience so much better, plus there's a bunch of different spots to hang out up on the observation deck
• Fushimi Inari, the whole shrine blew me out of the water, absolutely must experience in person
• TeamLabs Planets, so few things live up to the hype and this is one of them
• Golden Gai, the bars were so much fun, got the full experience of a salaryman pissing on the side of the konbini

Lowlights

• Caffeine- if you are addicted to non carbonated caffeine like I am be prepared to be disappointed. The monsters are only 40mg compared to America's 150mg+. I'm glad I brought caffeine pills
• Tsukiji market is really not worth going out of your way for, it's nice if you're near it but it's really just a fish market + insane lines for most of the food
• I'm still mad about how bad the food was at the Square Enix cafe is, at least we got coasters + placemats out of the deal. This was genuinely my only bad experience in Japan
• Everything on this subreddit told me that people in Tokyo don't really care about tattoos, however they do really seem to care about colored hair. I have very long, bright ombre hair and I was a bit of a sideshow attraction, including people taking photos of me in public multiple times. Probably the most frustrating part of the trip was being stared at constantly
• Japanese thrift stores love old American clothes, I was definitely let down by the majority of these

Goals:

• Buy anime stuff
• Play rhythm games
• Go thrift shopping
• See cherry blossoms
• Collect shrine stamps (goshuin)

Advice:

• TAX FREE SHOPPING: This has to be first because no one mentions it?? There are 2 types of tax free, discount and rebate. Everywhere has a minimum for tax free. Don Quijote you have to go to the separate tax free counter, and they will seal the bags shut. You're not supposed to use the tax free items in the country - I didn't know this and did it anyways? There seems to be no repercussions unless they open your bag and count every individual KitKat. I had to open the bags to repack everything anyways. The places that do rebates are generally malls, you bring your receipt + passport and they'll give you the 10% back in cash (minus a fee). When you get to the airport, you scan your passport after you drop your luggage, indicating you made tax free purchases. You do not need to keep your receipts anymore
• Don Quijote does sell luggage but Ginza Karen is cheaper
• Besides the standard things that every single trip report has (get a suica, you'll walk a lot, etc etc), the biggest thing I learned is not to go to an area without at least 1-2 specific goals in mind. For example, I had given us like a half day to go around Shibuya/ Harajuku, but because we didn't look into what malls or stores we might like to go to, we ended up wandering pretty aimlessly and not really enjoying the area. This happened a few different areas we went to, so I decided that in the future I would pin some stores on Google Maps and try to make it to those specific stores
• Install LINE and set up an account. It's crazy how much connects to LINE. For me the biggest thing was 1) making Sushiro reservations and not having to sit in the store for an hour plus waiting for our table and 2) being able to grab a chargeSPOT to charge my phone. I brought a battery pack but at this point it must be like a decade old, it took the entire night to recharge and died on me during the day a few times. I have a Pixel 6 Pro and was literally constantly charging my phone
• If you're coming from the Americas, don't try to do something on your first night. Get your Konbini dinner and go the fuck to sleep
• Getting from place to place can take longer than expected, you'll have to navigate the stations, find the entrances (sometimes hidden in malls) and exits (sometimes closed), don't make plans too tight together
• Navigating Kyoto was so much more confusing. At first our Suica cards didn't work because we apparently didn't tap out at a station in Tokyo, so we were buying day passes and paying in cash on the bus. Some of the buses have 0 English and 100% Kanji (navigation difficulty: extreme). Suica cards DO work in Kyoto so if you're having issues go to a gate with an attendant and they can help
• It can be weirdly hard to find bathrooms, most konbini have them but you're supposed to ask the cashier if you can use them. I speak very basic Japanese but hammed up the gaijin card here and would just ask to use the toilet in English, no one ever told me no Weeb specific advice:
• If you want to do pop ups (like the Jujutusu Kaisen Animation exhibit), a Japanese e-sim will be a lifesaver. You need a Japanese phone number to do SO much, they really make it extremely frustrating to make reservations without it. I did manage to make reservations for the Square Enix cafe though, the write-up is on my profile. (Was it worth it? Absolutely not, worst food all trip, -3/10)
• Prices are all over the place for figures, especially prize figures. There's a solid chance you might buy something and see it cheaper at the next shop, however going back/forth between shops in Akihabara can be a huge pain in the ass. I'd recommend 1) making a list of things you want the most and 2) setting a per item budget and a total budget. A lot of the anime stuff was cheaper in Kyoto as well
• You can find a ton of gachapon stuff at Surugaya, so you can just buy what you want and don't have to gamble. Surugaya bins are organized by series
• Use collabo-cafe.com to find cafes and pop up events you might be interested. Plan ahead because reservations can be hard to come by

 
Now on to the super detailed trip report! Here's the big album if you don't want to look through photos separated by day. Warning for flashing video
 
Day 1 (travel)

• Landed in Haneda around 3pm. Immigration + customs took about an hour (we did the visit Japan web ahead of time and had both QR codes ready). There was virtually no lines anywhere
• It took about an hour to navigate to the hotel. I chose to stay at the Tokyu Stay Tsukiji because 1) it was really cheap, 2) it was close to the Ginza line, and 3) it had a washer in the room. Although the location was slightly inconvenient for late nights, I'd say it was totally worth it for the ability to grab food in Tsukiji market, and the room was pretty large compared to some other areas of Tokyo. In fact, the room was so cheap that when we went to Kyoto, we opted to not check out of the Tsukiji room and just leave the majority of our possessions there. This didn't cause any issues and made travelling on the Shinkansen way easier
• I thought we were built different and could do some stuff this evening. We ended up walking to the Donki and being assaulted by sound in every direction. 7/10 didn't discover the 2nd floor until days later. At this point exhaustion kicked in and we got a Lawsons dinner and crashed

Day 2 (Akihabara, photos)

• Going to Akihabara on our first day in Japan sure was a choice. Thankfully neither of us suffered jetlag on the way in. Checked out like 10 different game centers and a ton of anime shops. Managed to find the only Monster Rehab of the whole trip here
• Konbini lunch + strong zero! That flavor was terrible :')
• Dinner at the Monster Hunter cafe (no reservations required). Expectations were low but my travel partner is a huge MH fan. The food wasn't bad but the drinks were awful. The ambiance is nice and there were definitely some regulars there playing MH on the consoles they had set up
• The new Namco game center had like 12 brand new Taiko cabs and all of them had phone mounts so you could film yourself playing! I was really intimidated by everyone there being extremely good so we didn't play any games here

Day 3 (Shibuya & Harajuku, photos)

• Breakfast at Tsukiji outer market since we were already there
• Went to Shibuya Loft for the Bravely Default pop up shop
• Checked out Tower Records
• Ate lunch at Japanese McDonalds
• Went to Takeshita Street. TBH this felt like in-person AliExpress, I'm sure the charm of the early 2000s is long gone
• Visited Hachiko
• Shibuya Sky Observatory

Day 4 (Asakusa, photos)

• Started at Kaminarimon Gate & went down Nakamise shopping street. It was very crowded on a Sunday but I enjoyed it immensely, you just need some patience to get where you want to go. I liked trying all the food, most of the food stalls here were cash only
• Senso-ji temple, bought Goshuincho to collect stamps
• Ate lunch and dinner in the area, there's a ton of food options
• We ended going all the way over to Yoyogi park as well but nothing was in bloom. Because it was overcast the park looked really sad

Day 5 (Shinjuku & Kabukicho, photos)

• Now is the time to come clean, I'm a huge Yakuza/ RGG fan. In the morning I had my Majima birthday cake delivered by PRIROLL. I pre-ordered it and chose the delivery day where we didn't have morning plans. It comes frozen and needs to defrost in the fridge. While we left Majima to chill, we made the pilgrimage to Kabukicho to see the iconic gate. It was raining in the morning so we hit up some arcades then went shopping
• There's a really cool mall that seems anime-centric (I believe it's called Shinjuku Marui Anex). It had a Godzilla store, Cinnamoroll Cafe, a JJK pop up, and best of all... A Surugaya. These stores have bins where everything is ¥100-300 and we ended up buying way too much in every one we came across
• Went back to Kabukicho and explored a bit, went to Golden Gai and drank at a handful of bars. Almost missed the last train because I drunkenly insisted on a final game of MaiMai. 10/10 staying in Kabukicho next time

Day 6 (Ikebukero & Rippongi, photos)

• The plan today was to check out Ikebukero and Roppongi, but we ended up spending so much time at the first mall that we didn't really do anything in Roppongi besides get dinner. Went to the Pokemon Mega Center and the cafe. The main cafe was closed so it was just take out, all the food was really cute but the waffles were kind of terrible
• Gashapon no Depato Ikebukuro was super overwhelming. A lot of the smaller gashapon stores are somewhat organized by what is in the machines, this one just felt chaotic, and it went on forever
• Sushi Yuu was incredible, I didn't take photos of every single course but I was so full that couldn't finish my dessert at the very end. The owner speaks some English and I made our reservations by messaging him on Facebook

Day 7 (Yokohama, photos)

• We didn't get to Yokohama as early as I would have liked - I took us out way into the suburbs to try to find this Yakuza plushie from the claw machines. I looked up the locations on the Sega website, unfortunately this machine was extra rigged and I couldn't win it >:[ On the bright side all the rhythm games had no one else playing them
• Took the cable car over and went to the Cup Noodle museum. Unfortunately we didn't have a reservation so we had to come back later. Found some cafes in the area and had a late breakfast
• The museum was really small, the main draw is making your own Cup Noodles. Entrance costs 500 yen and this is an additional 500. We had some trouble navigating this part because no one spoke any English
• Had dinner at a pie restaurant that was 10/10
• Explored a bit of Yamashita park (Yakuza 7, anyone?) I was kind of disappointed I wasn't able to see this during the day
• Walked around Yokohama Chinatown & visited the local Round 1 ;)

Day 8 (Kyoto, photos)

• I bought the Shinkansen tickets to Kyoto the evening before, so we weren't able to get great seats. The machines are also a huge pain in the ass and don't take American CCs, so plan ahead here
• It took us longer than expected to figure out how to use the tickets and read the signage, so we weren't able to get food before and I had to have one of the train bentos. I knew it was going to suck and it was worse than expected :(
• You can bring a full sized suitcase and just put it in front of you, seeing other people do this was unexpected
• My travel partner was destroyed at this point so she rested in the room. I went to the National Garden and Imperial Palace alone. The sakura were just starting to bloom and the weather was great, loved it. The National Garden is SO huge that I only ended up walking up the west side before I tapped out
• Checked out Heian-jingu shrine + the giant torii, I went to another smaller shrine with a great view but I can't remember the name
• We did photoshoots at ESPERANTO Kyoto. There's basically no reviews from foreigners about this place but it was fantastic!! Their online booking form didn't work for me, so I emailed asking for a reservation. I emailed in Japanese and English and they replied in English. They gave me time options and I replied with what package and room each of us wanted (the website says they require a deposit but they told me they didn't need one). When we got there they did our hair and makeup, and then you pick your kimonos out. The photographer spoke pretty decent English and we didn't have trouble communicating with anyone else here. They had our photos edited and printed about 30 minutes after we picked which ones we wanted. The whole thing took about 3 hours (it was longer because we used the same set room). I don't want to include my photos but I did add a video of my hairstyle because she knocked it out of the park
• Ended the day with okonomiyaki, one of my favorite Japanese foods

Day 9 (Kyoto, photos)

• Fushimi Inari day! I ended up walking this alone, I did not realize how long it was going to take or the fact it was actually like 10,000 stairs. My knees were very upset on the way down
• It was not as busy as expected, I went at roughly noon on a Friday. Most people tap out before the actual mountain climb
• The Goshuin at Fushimi Inari are on paper, you can paste them into your books later. Even if you don't have a Goshuincho I'd recommend buying them because they are very cute!
• Shrine cats!!!! You can buy photos of them to help pay for their food
• After Fushimi Inari I somehow managed to walk to Tofukuji Temple (I did the garden but not the bridge) and Daigo-ji Gojunoto pagoda and garden. I wanted to cut my legs off after today

Day 10 (Kyoto, photos)

• I started my day at the Kyoto Round 1, I had visited it on day 8 as well. This one is ace because it was literally always empty 10/10
• Decided to explore Gion a bit, ended up at the Machiya Starbucks and had the best thing I ate all trip (a custard dorayaka, I regret not going back for another)
• Ended up at Kiyomizu-dera Temple totally on accident. It wasn't super impressive in early spring but the view was still fantastic
• Ended the day at the Ryokan (Kyokoyado Muromachi Yutone). Ended up picking one without an onsen because we are both covered in tattoos, and I didn't want to deal with finding a private one. The cypress tub was a great trade off, and the food was incredible

Day 11 (Tokyo - Concert, photos)

• Today we travelled back to Tokyo and went to the Kingdom Hearts concert. I ended up trying for the lottery for tickets back in like December 2022. Winners were announced the first weekend in January and you only had a few days to buy tickets. I have a friend of a friend living in Japan who did me the biggest solid ever and bought our tickets. I met up with her during the trip for the hand off. The seats are randomly assigned and we had AMAZING seats near the front. This was also the performance Nomura was at!
• We weren't supposed to take photos during the performance so I just have some before. Also, I made Organization XIII beads that attach onto my dress with magnets and I am very proud of it, so please excuse the bathroom selfie :D
• The concert was about 3 hours long and after all the travelling we were beat. We ate dinner, played our nightly games of Ongeki, and passed out
• Bonus video of the music box that plays Dearly Beloved

Day 12 (Ginza & Sumida, photos)

• We were really starting to tucker out at this point. We managed to drag ourselves to the Ginza art Aquarium in the AM and the Tokyo SkyTree in the afternoon. Today was the Equinox so everything was crazy busy, the line to buy tickets for the SkyTree was literally like 2 ish hours long so we bought them online and went shopping in the mall
• The Art Aquarium was really cool, but a lot of the fish were in really small tanks. I didn't include photos of those :(
• The SkyTree just let people up as fast as they could so it was extremely crowded at the top, and not super enjoyable imo
• I spent the evening at the arcades in Akihabara :D

Day 13 (Tokyo - JJK Exhibit, photos - flashing video warning)

• Today I went off in the am to see if I could buy a ticket to the Jujutsu Kaisen animation exhibit in person. The online site wouldn't let me buy a ticket because I didn't have a Japanese phone number. UNFORTUNATELY you couldn't buy tickets in person. I got super lucky again and 2 foreign exchange students from Europe were trying to do the same thing, however they did have a Japanese phone number and the site allowed you to get 3 tickets at a time. They were able to grab them for all 3 of us for that evening
• Putzed off to Hie Shrine, anyone that tells you it's a mini Fushimi Inari is lying
• Went back to Akihabara, found a Miku racing pop up!
• Went back to... Ginza? for the JJK animation exhibit, it took about an hour to go through. I included a ton of photos so just skip today if you're not interested in that show

Day 14 (Tokyo - TeamLabs Planets & SquareEnix Cafe, photos)

• TeamLabs was so cool! I didn't include many photos since it's 95% selfies. Make sure you explore a bit as the string light room had a couple of different areas that are easy to miss, and it's possible to accidentally skip the hanging garden, which was beautiful! TeamLabs took us about 2.5 hours but we were 100% those bitches taking forever to get a million photos
• Since we were staying in Tsukiji we ended up just slowly walking back to the room for a much needed nap
• Back to Akihabara yet again! More rhythm games, some awful food at SE

Day 15 (Shinjuku, photos)

• This was our last full day in Japan, we honestly didn't want to do anything but we managed to drag our asses to Shinjuku National Garden for the cherry blossoms. Unfortunately it was sprinkling a bit, at least it kept the crowds away
• Managed to check out Meiji Jingu, but at this point my travel partner was sick of walking and tapped out
• I went back to Kabukicho, walked around a bit and ended up back at an arcade (bless Ongeki for having stools)

Final thoughts (Misc, photos)

• We were literally so annihilated by the trip that we took a taxi to the airport, it was about ¥8,000 from Tsukiji ($60 USD ish)
• I ended up buying a 24" suitcase from Ginza Karen for ¥6,000. It was 100% full of stuff I purchased. We also used one or those giant ¥500 bags from Donki as a carry on
• My Goshuincho was my favorite souvenir, I'm so proud of all the stamps I collected (I did get doubles at some shrines). I plan to bring this back late 2023 to try to finish it
• I have the old school GoogleFi plan and don't have to do anything extra to have international data. Lots of places & stations have free WiFi but you'll need to put your email in
• I don't really sleep that much and my schedule in the US is already busted, but it took me about 2 full weeks to get back on normal human hours. I'm tired again just writing this up and looking through all my photos
• My main regret is not trying more food, we ended up waiting until we were dying of starvation and ate at the konbini a lot (typical)

 
Edits for formatting

We will be landing at MXP in Milan and plan to rent a car to travel in and around Lugano Switzerland for 2 days, and then in Lecco Italy for the following 3 days, before returning to Milan at the LIN airport. We've already reserved the car, but it is refundable.
We intend to make an excursion to the Ponte dei Salti swimming area north of Lugano while we're staying there. Then we will drive to Como city and likely spend half a day there before continuing on to Lecco. While we're in Lecco, we plan to visit Bellagio and Varenna and anything else that suits our fancy in the region. We know that these locations will be easily accessible by train/ferry once we're already in Lecco.
We have parking with our rental unit in Lugano, but no parking reserved in Lecco. How impossible may it be for us to find suitable parking for 3 overnights in Lecco? I don't think we'll really need the car for those 3 days, but all of the rental options I've found require a return at an airport.
I think most of this trek would be feasible by train, but I came to the conclusion that it may be too time-consuming and/or potentially confusing for us in a foreign place to figure out the best method(s) of travel.
I've also considered returning the car to the LIN airport after we visit Como, and then take a train back up to Lecco instead of trying to park the car there for 3 days.
Thank you in advance to anyone knowledgeable of that area. It would be amazing if there is someone local can advise us about the parking situation in Lecco since this has become one of the more glaring uncertainties in our itinerary.
Cheers!

In just under two weeks, ARMYs will descend upon Singapore to see SUGA! Help an ARMY out and let them know about safety, how to get around, where to eat, tourist attractions, BTS-related things to do, or anything else that you think someone should know when they visit! (Special thanks to the mods for your input and feedback for this guide!)

BTS' Past Visits

Red Bullet Tour (2014 BTS Live Trilogy Episode II) at the The Star Performing Arts Centre (13 Dec 2014)

• Fancam
• Official photos by Hallyu Singapore
• Official photos of Hi-Five session by Hallyu Singapore. Session was for all Cat 1 VVIP ticket holders ($268), who got a Hi-Five Pass and Concert Poster. The first 100 VVIP ticket holders also got to go up on stage to get a "Dark & Wild" album autographed by BTS.

Music Bank performance (4 Aug 2017) at the Suntec Convention Centre

• Fancam
• Quiz game video
• Outing at the Merlion statue and Singapore flyer: Photos Set 1 Photos Set 2.

Love Yourself World Tour (19 Jan 2019) at the National Stadium
This made history as the first time a K-pop group held a concert at the venue (largest concert venue in the country) and tickets sold out in about 3.5 hours! (45,000 audience)

• Concert review
• Witty notice from the Singapore Police Force abt avoiding ticket scams (it uses the BTS song titles!)
• Bonus: Jimin picked Marina Bay Sands as his special spot in the BTS x Street Galleries collaboration with Google revealed on ARMY Day (July 9) 2022

Concert Venue

Do note that it’s currently the June school holidays too (26 May-26 Jun), so the Sports Hub and surrounding areas may be crowded with many other visitors besides the concert-goers. Please be mindful!

• Singapore Indoor Stadium, right next to the National Stadium (both are part of the Singapore Sports Hub) where BTS performed at their last concert here in 2019. In fact, the Indoor Stadium was then used as the waiting zone for the standing zone ticket-holders.
• Concert guidelines been posted yet (will update here when they are), but here are the general guidelines for events there (links opens a pdf)
• The nearest MRT station is the Stadium station, on the Circle line - here is a train map (with Stadium MRT circled out in light purple). You’ll know when you’ve arrived as the station design is quite unique! Go up the elevator and follow the signage - the path is sheltered.
• You can find Kallang Wave Mall right next to the venue, for a spot of shopping and dining before the concert (opening hrs:10am-10pm daily). There is another smaller mall Leisure Park Kallang located next to the carpark, which houses an ice skating rink, bowling alley and cinema alongside more food options. The open space in front of the MRT station and the two malls is where ARMYs are likely to gather to exchange fan support and stuff
• The nearest hawker centre (i.e the affordable street food) is Old Airport Road Food Centre, one of the oldest and largest hawker centres in the country. It is about 20 mins walk away from the stadium, or you can simply alight at the Mountbatten/Dakota MRT stations (one or two stops away from Stadium MRT station respectively); both are about a 5 mins’ walk away from the food centre. Here is a list of recommendations (unfortunately, not a lot of Halal food stalls here. Let me know if you need those).
• There is also a McDonalds’ & KFC near Mountbatten MRT if you want something more familiar, or potentially try whatever new promo is currently going on at these places.

Sightseeing/Activities

Non-exhaustive list (all prices are in SGD)

• National Gallery Singapore. There is a special Namjooning Tour as part of the Gallery Wellness Festival. Slots are fully booked for the guided tours on 25 & 30 June. You could try the self-guided tours instead, which start on 17 July. Gallery passes for general admission to the permanent galleries (needed to access the tour) cost $20 for non-Singaporeans aged 13-59. Closes early (by 3pm) on some weekends in June and July (see dates on website).
• National Museum Singapore. Has very interactive and engaging exhibits. Highly recommended (I used to be a volunteer docent there for abt a year). Tickets cost from $15 (for access to permanent galleries only)
• Singapore Zoo & adjacent parks (Bird Park, River Wonders, Night Safari). We have one of the best zoos in the world! Single park tickets cost $50. Multi-park options also available. .
• Gardens by the Bay. Pretty gardens with outdoor sections and 2 indoor air-conditioned conservatories - you may have heard of the supertrees that have been featured in the movie "Crazy Rich Asians" and K-drama "Little Women". Provides a welcome respite from the heat. It’s free to visit the outdoor areas, but it’s really worth it to pay for entry to the conservatories. There are various pricing packages, so best to check out the website yourself.
• Singapore Botanical Gardens is our first UNESCO World Heritage site, the first and only tropical botanic garden on the list. Admission is free.
• The Merlion and the Marina Bay area. I personally recommend going at night to see the famed cityscape of Singapore all lit up (the temperature’s cooler too!). Marina Bay Sands Mall has a light and water show every night. There is also the iLight Festival going on now until 25 June with artistic light installations (mix of free and paid attractions). Bonus: Yoongi wore a Merlion Singapore t-shirt in a travel-themed Lotte Xylitol ad!
• You can also ride the Singapore Flyer for an aerial view of our city like the boys did! Admission costs $40.
• Visit our ethnic enclaves, Chinatown, Little India, Kampung Glam and Geylang Serai to see old shophouses, shop for souvenirs and try ethnic food
• One of the fanbases here, BangtanSG, has teased an ARMY event from 11-13 June. Will update when more details are released.
• Sentosa & Universal Studios Singapore theme park - you can access the island via various modes of transport with varying admission fees. Transport within the island is free.
• If you don’t want to think too hard, the best airport in the world for 12 years running is also an attraction in itself! See its dedicated section below for more information.
• Singapore is also located in the centre of Southeast Asia - if you’ve never been in this oft-forgotten region of the world, take the chance to check out our neighbouring countries as well! Malaysia can easily be reached via bus, and Indonesia via ferry.

(Note: You may want to check out Klook for discount tickets/passes)

Dining

Singapore is a food paradise with various cuisines from the local ethnic groups, as well as international ones. For Muslims, there are a lot of Muslim-owned or Halal-certified options around (look for this certificate, or the label “Muslim-owned”), including most of the fast food chains like McDonald’s/KFC/Burger King/Subway.
Carrying some cash with you (~$10 per pax) is a good idea, especially if you’re venturing out to hawker centres; while many places now have an electronic payment system in place, cash is still king in terms of versatility, and anecdotally most stores prefer cash or will charge a credit-card payment surcharge.

Where to eat?

• Most of the malls have a good selection of dining options, ranging from the (relatively affordable) multi-stall foodcourts to fast-food restaurants, cafes, and more upmarket restaurants.
  • It can get crowded during lunchtime (12-2pm) as office workers come out for their break, so try to avoid those hours if possible, or make advance reservations.
  • If you are staying/shopping in Orchard Road, Far East Plaza (level 4 & 5) and Lucky Plaza (multiple levels) have relatively more affordable food options for the area..
  • There’s a myriad of other malls in the suburban areas outside of Orchard to be explored.
• Hawker centres: A “hawker” in Singapore refers to a street food vendor, and in Singapore they’ve been centralised into food centres to create an iconic Singapore dining institution. These places are generally not air-conditioned, but they are the most affordable dining option. If you see an item on a table even if it’s something innocuous like a tissue paper packet or name-card, it means the seat's been reserved (“chop-ed” in the local slang) by people who are off queuing for their food.
  • Look for stalls with the longest lines (the most popular stalls will have long queues all day long), but most stalls should have decent food.
  • Newton Hawker Centre (near Newton MRT station) and Lau Pa Sat (near Telok AyeDowntown/Raffles Place Stations) are probably the most well-known to tourists, but beware of touts and over-charging, especially at Newton.
  • Taking the MRT out to slightly less central areas like Ang Mo Kio, Toa Payoh, Kallang, etc. should bring you to other hawker centres that cater to locals.
• Order in: GrabFood and Foodpanda are the two most popular food delivery apps with extensive coverage all around Singapore. Deliveroo is also available. Just be prepared to pay upwards of $5 delivery fee during peak periods, and the listed online prices are usually higher than in-store. The apps also have pick-up available if you’d simply like to order in advance.
• The ethnic enclaves like Kampung Glam (Malay/Muslim), Chinatown and Little India have a higher concentration of the respective ethnic cuisines, but most places in Singapore have a good mix of different local and international cuisines

What to eat?

Breakfast (These are generally very affordable options that should cost you below $10 per person, particularly if you go to food courts/hawker centres)

• Tea/coffee with kaya toast and half-boiled eggs. Available at most hawker centres (usually at the drink stalls), and chains like Ya Kun Kaya Toast and Killiney Kopitiam in malls. Order tea/coffee like a local by referring to this guide.
• Among the fast-food chains, KFC offers the more local option of chicken porridge (congee)
• Roti prata, a south-Indian flatbread (also known as paratha in India, or roti canai in Malaysia), available at most hawker centres and Indian coffee-shops
• Nasi lemak, coconut milk-flavoured rice with a variety of side dishes (usual ones: omelette, fried chicken wing/fried fish, fried anchovies).
• Beehoon, rice vermicelli with a range of toppings like fish cake, luncheon meat (spam), chicken wings, veggies etc.
• Chai Tow Kway (“carrot cake” - it’s actually radish cake), Tau Huey (soya bean curd pudding) + Youtiao (chinese fried dough)
• Mee Rebus, a Malay noodle dish with thick & spicy potato-based gravy topped with hard-boiled egg, bean sprouts, fried shallots, tau kwa (fried beancurd) and spring onions

Lunch & dinner

• Chilli crab: I don’t have any personal recommendations, and it could be costly because the crabs are usually charged by weight, which may vary daily. The link gives a run-down of some popular places
• Hainanese chicken rice: Again, no personal recommendations, but you can find this in most foodcourts and hawker centres. You should be able to find one of these for $5 or less.
• Murtabak/Briyani: My favourite is ZamZam Restaurant (est, 1908) at North Bridge Road in the Muslim enclave of Kampung Glam, but there is a whole row of Singapore-Indian restaurants serving a similar menu there
• Everything under the sun :) Google maps & data coverage generally works well in most parts of Singapore, so search & explore! Some sites you can start at include Chope & Burpple.

Snacks

• A must try, it’s sold by any ice cream man you see roaming around with a popup like this
• We have a ton of bubble tea (boba) stores if you’re craving it, you’d probably find a bubble tea store or two within 20mins of walking anywhere. Koi/Gongcha/LiHo are quite standard options, and then there’s others like Playmade/Chichasansen with their own unique points. Here’s a list with 61 of them...
• There’re plenty of 7-11s and convenience stores around, as well as “mama shops” around public residential housing.

Getting Around

Singapore has a great public transport system. It’s really easy & cheap to get around on the MRT (mass rapid transit trains) and buses. Use Google Maps or the City Mapper app to navigate yourself and get route recommendations (the latter also has transport arrival timings and fare estimates. It also works in many cities globally, so is very useful for tourists). Various transport passes are available for tourists, but you can also use your contactless credit cards (Visa and Mastercard) to pay for the fares (no registration required).
In general, using the Circle Line (yellow) or Downtown Line (blue) should get you to most tourist attractions. Orchard Road (main shopping belt) can be accessed via the North South Line (red), between Orchard and Somerset MRT stations. Map for reference, with links to versions in Chinese/Malay/Tamil available for download.
Taxis and ride-hailing cars: We have Grab and Gojek in place of Uber.

• The largest local taxi fleet - the blue Comfort Cabs - also have their own ride-hailing app to compete, although they can also operate via the traditional meter & can be booked via phone call/flagged down as usual. Fares can be paid via cash post-ride or credit card for all these private car options.
• Ride-hailing tends to be very expensive. At peak periods, ride-hailing services could be even more expensive than taxis, but at least you know the price beforehand. All malls have a taxi stand where you can stand in queue and hop on the next available cab. Queues can be long at morning and evening peak periods, so avoid taking cabs then if you can.

General navigation
All signs are in English, and the locals - esp the younger generation - are able to speak English fluently. If you’re really lost, feel free to approach others to ask for help! People are generally friendly and helpful despite initial appearances :)
As a side note: in general, if Google Maps is asking you to circle around a building to get somewhere - don’t. You can cut through most places on the ground floor quite easily, even the residential buildings (unless they’re private properties like condominiums/landed housing). MRT stations are connected to a good number of places via sheltered corridors if they’re nearby enough. Enjoy the aircon & shade instead of walking outside in the heat if you can.

Shopping

• Orchard Road is our main shopping belt, running from Orchard to Somerset MRT stations. You can find many shopping malls there, with collections ranging from upmarket to fast fashion. Check out Design Orchard, a retail space for fashion and lifestyle items by Singapore designers.
• For an old-style emporium experience drop by Mustafa Centre. It used to be open 24 hours but this was disrupted by COVID19 and now it is only open until 2am (best place for late night shopping!). It's not a glitzy mall, but has crowded aisles chock full of all manners of things, including snacks and souvenirs (avoid going on Sundays when it gets super crowded with migrant workers on their day off).
• Already mentioned above are the ethnic enclaves Chinatown, Little India, Kampung Glam and Geylang Serai with smaller standalone shops. Special mention for Haji Lane in the Kampung Glam area, a small street with cute boutiques.
• The many, many other malls scattered across the country - a brief list. For example, Paya Lebar alone (just another station up from Dakota!) is connected to several malls like Paya Lebar Quarter (PLQ), PLQ 2, PL Square, Singpost centre, and a couple more within a 5-mins’ walk (Tanjong Katong Complex, City Plaza, KINEX etc.).

Weathewhat to wear

The weather is especially hot these days (max temp of up to 35 degrees celsius, or 95 Fahrenheit), with possible spurts of heavy rain at certain times of day, so dress light and carry an umbrella (most places do have sheltered walkways between buildings and bus-stops/MRT stations though, so don’t worry too much about getting around in the rain). Mall air-conditioning can be cold, so hv another layer (e.g. cardigan/wrap/scarf) on hand. Remember to hydrate frequently & avoid staying outdoors for too long!

Airport

• Singapore Changi Airport is often voted by travellers as the best airport in the world, with lots of shopping, dining and leisure options in the various terminals. BTS (except Jin who took a different flight) stopped over at Changi Airport on the way to New Zealand for Bon Voyage 4 (airport lounge scenes shown in Episode 1)! While you may not have access to the business class lounge like them, there are various other options to rest and hangout, like the many gardens (some even accessible from the public areas) and even a free 24h cinema (Terminal 3 transit area).
• Jewel Changi Airport which is attached to Terminal 1 is an attraction in itself. It's worth arriving 2-3 hours earlier than your flight check-in time to grab a meal and have a look around Jewel. A particular highlight is to take the skytrain between Terminals 2 and 3, cutting across the centre of Jewel, to get a spectacular view of the indoor waterfall. There is also shopping aplenty (Tip: NTUC Fairprice supermarket in Jewel has a nice selection of food and non-food souvenirs which are pretty affordable).
• There are various transport options for getting to the city from the airport. Public transport like MRT is convenient if you are travelling light, else there is a shuttle service to selected downtown hotels. Taxis and ride-hire cars can be expensive, especially with the airport surcharge.
• Sort of related, Yoongi gave a shout out to our national airlines (Singapore Airlines) for its great seat and amenities in business class in BV4! (He said: let's always fly Singapore Airlines in the future!). The airlines must have taken notice, because they recently announced that they would be adding BTS content like songs, MVs, LY New York concert, and Break The Silence docu in their in-flight entertainment system to commemorate BTS' 10th anniversary. An ARMY also spotted a write-up abt BTS in their in-flight magazine.

We’ve tried to achieve a balance between being succinct and informative, but certainly the above info is not exhaustive. So do feel free to ask in the comments below if the info you need is not here! Fellow SG ARMY, or those familiar with Singapore, feel free to chime in!

My husband and I just got back from a 5-day vacation in Grace Bay. I spent a lot of time on this sub before our trip and posted asking for recommendations about our itinerary, so figured I would follow up with my thoughts if they are useful to anyone who is planning on visiting there as well!
Accommodations: We stayed at Grace Bay Club. Honestly I can’t say enough good things about this place. Yes it is pricey, but IMO worth the splurge for proximity to the beach, amenities and service. We booked through the hotel and had breakfast included every day, which was delicious and had a lot of variety. The service was amazing. All the staff were super friendly and accommodating the entire time we were there. Lastly, I thought out of the other hotels on the beach that GBC had the best beach setup. There is only one row of chairs, so you have an unobstructed view / access to the ocean. All in all, 10/10!
Food / Restaurants: Since we were staying on resort we ate out for all our meals (if you are planning to do the same, be prepared for how pricey it is!) Here’s a list of where we ate with my two cents: - Coco Bistro: Our favorite meal by far! Everything was delicious. We didn’t have a reservation but were able to get a spot by the bar. Coco van (the airstream bar / food truck on the property) was also a fun spot with more casual vibes. - Infinity Restaurant: This is Grace Bay Club’s on-resort restaurant. It’s nice because it’s right on the beach and very romantic. Food was good, definitely pricey. We didn’t have any but we heard the sushi was good. Might be fun for a splurge! - Provence: French-fusion cuisine, located in-town in sort of a strip mall area. We made reservations here because it got great reviews, but honestly I would skip. It was very expensive and not really worth the price tag IMO. I would pick one of the resort restaurants instead for a splurgy night out so you can be on the water. - Da Conch Shack: a close second favorite! Depending on where you’re staying you need a car or taxi to get there, but I think it’s worth the trip. Right on the beach and great views / vibes. Staff were super friendly and food was great. - Omar’s: We probably did ourselves a disservice by stopping here on the way to the airport since it’s close to it, so we didn’t have a ton of time to hang out. A lot of people recommend this place and it is in a cool location right on the water, and it’s probably a great lunch / day trip spot if you have the time.
Excursions / Transport: - As others have said, RENT A CAR! It’s only about $30/40 per day and so worth it. We rented from Grace Bay Car Rentals and the process was easy. Just be prepared to drive on the left side of the road. - We only had one excursion planned which was a half-day snorkel trip through Lady Grace (a charter that I think is run by the Ritz). I’d recommend looking at Lady Grace’s tours, the boat was super nice, has a full bar and great staff. Snorkeling was fun and we made a stop at Iguana Island afterwards which was nice to see. - My husband also did a dive trip off-resort (I stayed on the beach :)). I don’t have a ton of info but I know he really liked it and it was reasonably priced. I can ask him for details if anyone is interested!
Final thoughts: This was one of the BEST vacations we’ve ever had, we’re already making plans to go back. Usually we pack our trips with tours and excursions, but I was perfectly happy to sit on the beach most days because the water and sand are so beautiful. It’s a perfect spot for a low-key / relaxing vacation (probably not so much if you’re looking for a party destination).
Let me know if I can elaborate on anything!

There’s a opening for a few positions as a Logistics Specialist at near by airports for TSOs and LTSOs in my area.
major duties seem to include: Supply stocking, receiving, daily maintenance, repairs, fleet maintenance, inventory control and procurement duties. Is it worth applying to? Any insight or advice?

Hi guys. I know I'm probably too ambitious for some days haha. Any suggestions for optimizing my itinerary? This trip will be done in June. Thanks!!
Day 1 (ASAKUSA/IKEBUKURO)

• ​

Kanda Myojin & EDOCCO (get my goshuin cho first)

• Asakusa/Sensoji/ Donquijote ASAKUSA
• Kappabahsi street: kitchen ware, imitation food
• Ueno park
• Yanaka Ginza
• Ameyoko shopping district
• Ikebukuro Sunshine City,

Day 2 (MEIJI/HARAJUKU/SHIBUYA)

• Gotokuji
• Meiji shrine
• Yoyogi park
• Harajuku (Takeshita street)
• Omotesando
• Shibuya (Happy pancake)
• Shibuya Parco Mall
• Shibuya Sky

Day 3 (IMPERIAL/TOKYO/SHINJUKU)

• Imperial Palace
• Tokyo Midtown Yaesu
• Underground character street
• Shinjuku
• Kabuki-cho (red light district)
• Fuunji (Famous Tsukemen)

Day 4 (TSUKIJI/GINZA/AKIHABARA)

• Tsukiji market
• Ginza
• Itoya building (century old stationary store)
• Midori no sushi for lunch?
• Akihabara explore area
• BIC-CAMERA
• Akihabara don quixote

Day 5 (TOKYO/OSAKA)

• Last min tokyo shopping
• Shinkansen to Osaka
• Shinsaibashi-suji
• Dotonburi

Day 6 (Nara)
Just a list of places to consider visiting, keeping it flexible for now

• Kofuku-ji

Nakatanidou Mochi (famous mochi pounding shop)
Yoshiki-en Garden
Nandaimon Gate
Todaiji
Todaiji Shoro
Todai-ji Nigatsudo (February Hall)
Kasuga Taisha
Deer park
Higashimuki Shopping Street
Nara museum
Day 7 (OSAKA)

• Osaka castle
• Osaka Tenmangu shrine
• Tsuyunoten Shrine
• Umeda area
• IF got time shinseikai at evening

Day 8 (EAST KYOTO)

• Fushimi Inari Taisha
• Kiyomizu-dera (can go temple first then walk down to shop)
• Sannen Zaka
• Ninenzaka
• Yasaka shrine
• Shijo Dori
• Hanami-koji Street
• Gion
• Nishiki Market

Day 9 (WEST Kyoto)

• Togetsu Bridge
• Tenryuji Temple
• Bamboo forest
• Nonomiya Jinja
• Torokko Arashiyama Station

Take Sagano scenic railway → Kameokka torroko station

• Walk to JR Umahori station (7 mins)

Go back Torokko arashiyama stn to see shops

• Kinkakuji
• Maybe can go nishiki market (closes 6pm)

Day 10 (OSAKA NAMBA AREA)

• Kaiyukan
• Shi tennoji temple
• Kuromon ichiba market
• Namba Yasaka Shrine
• Solaniwa Onsen / SPA WORLD
• Explore Namba area /OR go shinseikai

Day 11 - 22th June (Tue) OSAKA

• Half day, need to reach airport by 8pm
• Last min osaka shopping?
• Rinku Premium outlets
• Reach KIX airport

I won the chance to meet with my favorite Author. By no means was he an equal in comparison to the popularity of Stephen King or Dean Koontz but there was something special about his works. If you happened to stumble across one of his stories they had a habit of sticking around and festering like little rotten delicacies within your mind.
For years as a growing adult I sat down and studied every word of his. I tried to mimic the way he wrote and every time I’d fall short. There was something inside of me that just couldn’t match the integrity of his tales. Every story he wove sounded drastic, real, as if the main characters were screaming out for their stories to be heard in hopes they didn’t fade away into eternity.
He didn’t just make the characters come alive, he made them tangible. The reader felt as though the characters themselves were only a pages flip away.
Maybe that’s what made his horror so powerful. It wasn’t just the people you felt you could turn too, but also the creatures, the villains, the things that couldn’t be described by anyone else except by Vincent Valentine himself.
I ended up writing a brief paper and submitting it to a contest wrapped around the idea of ‘who inspired you to write?’ I can’t say I won by any means but every paper was openly displayed on the internet for anyone to read and comment.
Imagine my surprise when I received a comment from one 'Vincent Valentine' exclaiming only a few words;
‘You’ve warmed my heart. Keep a lookout in your inbox.
With much appreciation,
Vincent Valentine.’
I remember the sinking feeling in my heart as I read his comment. I felt blessed by a man so above my stature that it made me feel spotlighted in oddest, best and worst type of way. Nearly every hour on the hour I’d do a quick log in and hope to see the little message icon highlighted in the upper right hand corner of my screen.
This went on for a week. Precisely 7 days later on the hour of his comment I got a notification that someone had sent me a message.
‘109 Woodcrest Rd. Portland, ME? I feel confident in my sources. Expect a package soon.
With elation,
Vincent Valentine. ’
He had found my address.
To say I was surprised wouldn’t sum up my feelings in the least. I felt no hostility or fear however, it was almost Wonka-esque. I felt like I was getting a golden ticket and that feeling wasn’t misplaced. Another 7 days later I woke up to find a package waiting at my door.
I stared down at it for a minute, a black fabric shroud was tightly wound around a wooden box. My address was stamped in red lettering over the thick velvety veil. Next to it lay the words ‘From: Vincent Valentine.’
I reached down letting my hands grasp around the extravagant box. With a gentle tug I raised it off of the ground. The concrete seemed so boring and mundane compared to the package. I almost felt ashamed that I had let it sit there even for just a moment.
With a quick spin I turned around, slammed my door shut and proceeded over to my kitchen table. I tried to find the seams of the dark fabric, tugging along the edges but to my surprise found none.
From here it took me a moment to comprehend how I was going to open it without damaging the pristine void like cover. With some trepidation I wandered over to my storage closet and pulled out a box cutter. I hated the fact I had to ruin such an interesting presentation but I knew there was no other way.
I pressed the tip of the blade to the fabric and slowly slid it down. As the fabric retreated it split open revealing a red swirly underside clearly influenced by the colors of flowing blood.
My lips twitched upward before a small laugh left my lips. I stared at the display in front of me. I had cut the fabric from one corner to the other and it had perfectly spread and curled back like a body under autopsy. The wooden box itself lay under the skin ready to dissected from its body.
I set my box cutters aside and pulled out the wooden chest. Intricate designs were carved into the paneling and I instantly recognized them from how Vincent described them in his books. I was looking at Avestan text. They were so beautifully drastic from our modern characters and alphabets.
A chill ran up my spine as I thought back to the horrors Vincent had described in his tales. His greatest theme was studying the dangers of the oldest knowledge available in the world. The spreading of unnatural knowledge was ever present in his works. Granted I couldn’t read the carvings I still appreciated the showmanship.
I had never in my life thought I’d ever be brought a gift like this from someone I admired as much as Mr. Valentine.
I felt the indents of the box as my fingers trailed up to the lid. The wood seemed cold as if it had been left in some winters cavern overnight yet it was a midsummer's day and the sun was blazing outside of my front door. With a quick flick upwards I removed the casing and peered at the contents inside.
The innards of the box contained a black leather bound journal and next to it an envelope stamped with the symbol that appeared in every one of Valentines stories, the mark of Aka Manah. The forgotten God of magic and suffering.
I pulled the envelope out first, letting it rest in one hand while my other hand blindly felt around the table for the box cutters. With a quick nudge I felt a light sting. My eyes tore away from the folded letter and to the razor on my table. With blind stupidity I had skimmed my skin across the blade slicing my fingertip open. I let out a huff of disappointment in myself before gripping the handle and pulling it upwards towards the stamp.
Very gingerly I rocked the razors edge around the bottom of the wax seal, hoping to keep it in one piece. Oddly enough the wax seemed incredibly durable. Even after a couple of flawed jabs it held up nicely. The lip of the envelope separated exposing parchment inside.
I could feel the shivers creep up my spine and crossing over to my neck. Something was so foreboding about this whole situation and I loved every second of it. At the time I felt like I was in the definition of a horror novel.
I carefully pulled the parchment out from its resting place and began reading the handwritten note.
‘I hope you’ve enjoyed the extravagant show I’ve so far prepared for you. There is so much more to come. Inside this very special case that I’ve provided you resides a bound journal. I couldn’t help but notice the limitations to your short stories. Though I loved every single one, I must say, I found something missing. I wouldn’t worry though. I want to help.
Further in this envelope are plane tickets. I want you to visit my home for seven simple nights. By the time you leave I can promise you that little black book will be filled with your first ever living, breathing tale.
All you have to do is make the plane journey and I’ll take care of the rest. Make sure to sign the front cover of your new book. It’s special after all and it’s all yours.
With respects,
Vincent Valentine.’
I slowly lowered the letter on the table, careful to avoid spilling any droplets of blood onto the page. I could feel the indent of the tickets still in the envelope. I couldn’t believe my luck. I’d say my heart sang but once again something crept its way in me, something dark. It felt like I was being invited to a gala that I didn’t belong at.
I was simply a dwarf standing amongst giants.
I shook the feeling off and reached into the box to retrieve my new journal.
Each page was blank and crisp, hundreds of pages ready to be filled. When the flickering of pages reached the front cover I noticed something. A simple black line. A perfect place for my signature.
With a tepid sense of giddiness I raced back to my storage area and retrieved a pen. I quickly returned to my book and spread it open wide. With one hand I held the pages spread and with the other I held the pen. I swept my signature boldly across the line, and just as my pen tip left the page, a single droplet of blood pierced down on top of the paper.
A final period at the end of my name.
The irony of this wasn’t lost to me. I laughed trying to offset the feeling of unease. Signing that book shifted something in my life that I wouldn't be prepared for. I no longer felt like I didn’t just belong near the giants. I felt like they now were aware of me. They were watching me, judging me.
The tickets that lay inside the newly opened envelope were scheduled for 7 months out. I knew these dates weren’t by coincidence. Vincent wanted these sevens to appear, for what reason? I couldn’t say. I figured more of his showmanship would explain it to me in due time.
So I cleared my schedule for a while and prepped for my departure.
When the date came I took a taxi from my home towards the airport. The sky was darkened and cloudy. I watched as lightning flashed in the distance within the heavy gray clouds.
The sky seemed so high up that day. A true monolith of creations might. I could almost feel something immensely powerful looking down upon me from within that storm. It's eyes were assuredly turned down upon me and the journey that lay ahead.
In contrast, the airport itself felt as clinical as always. The typical smell of coffee mixed in with the incoming rain blended together into a mesmerizing fragrance. I grabbed a cup for myself and pressed it against my lips. I let the aroma fill my nostrils as I took in the sights of the planes docking and departing.
When the time came for me to board, lightning struck the tarmac. A mix of asphalt and gravel exploded near our plane. Several passengers screamed out in fear. The explosion sent pellets of rocks into the metallic frame of our sanctuary.
Of course the plane was decommissioned for the day. All planes in the area were tarmacked until further notice. I felt my shoulders give way to disappointment. Vincent said all I had to do was board the plane and he’d take care of the rest. Due to the fates I couldn’t even manage that much.
I took a seat over at the departure area and began my wait. It took the storm 7 hours to depart the area and free up the skies for travel. I had nearly given up on the trip when I heard the intercom sound from overhead.
“All flights are now boarding.”
I looked around me and noticed only a handful of us had survived the stay. The rest had all left. No doubt distraught over their failed plans. Us few who remained had boarded with ease. Almost like a miracle, the rest of the journey went smoothly. We traveled hours before the sun began setting and we arrived at our destination briskly at dusk.
Upon exiting the plane we all headed towards the luggage area. Much to my surprise I was intercepted just meters away by a handsome clean cut man dressed up in an all black suit and wearing a chauffeur’s cap.
“Excuse me Madam, I believe I’m here for you.” The Gentleman said, his dark brown eyes squinting at me with remarkable elegance.
“I’m sorry, who are you?” I politely questioned. I couldn’t have imagined that my ride would have waited for me after a seven hour delay. I was already prepared to gouge my own pockets to hire a taxi service to Mr. Valentine’s home.
“I’m in service to Mr. Vincent Valentine. I believe that I’m to take you to his residence.” His voice was so soothing and smooth. He seemed like more of an actor playing in a role than a real services employee.
“In that case, I’m sorry I made you wait.” I turned my eyes to the bags next to him. He had already procured my luggage.
“Oh, don't worry about that Madam. I haven’t been waiting long. This is the precise time I was told to arrive and so I did. Now if you wouldn’t mind, Mr. Valentine would like to see you as soon as possible.” He flashed me a smile, his pearly teeth were perfectly aligned and accentuated his chiseled jaw.
Without much more conversing he led me to the back of the small parking garage. With a slight nod he guided me over to a black 1964 Dodge 330. It looked ravishingly untouched despite its old age.
My personable Valet walked over to the passenger’s side door and opened it for me. I went to collect my belongings from him but he stopped me. He let me know he’d take care of my bags. I thanked him and took my seat. The interior of the vehicle reflected much of the same feel that it had projected on the exterior. That this was somehow a brand new classic.
When my Chauffeur returned to his side of the vehicle and shut his door I felt myself jump. I was once more jostled into feeling out of place. I had wished that I could have brought some company with me. Someone to be within my same social class. Instead I was resorted to simply just being a fish out of water in the lap of dark luxury.
Without another word and only a glimpse of a quick smile from my companion, we headed off.
I was surprised by the terrain we had found ourselves in just minutes after leaving the airport. The businesses and shopping centers had given away to grasslands and forests. The trees at first came one by one, then by clusters and then finally they tunneled us in. There was merely a thin road with a wall of lumber on either end of us.
Yet still, I was immersed in the landscape. My eyes jumped from one thing to another. The hoot of an owl, the chirping of crickets, it all amazed me. It was as if I was a new born baby entering the world for the first time. The face of my traveling partner remained nonetheless unimpressed. His demeanor made it clear that this journey was nothing special to him. And I suppose it wasn't.
As the darkness outside had peaked, refraining me from any sort of sightseeing, the man next to me spoke up.
“We’re here, Madam.” He spun the wheel of the car instinctively and circled into a large rounded driveway. I looked out my window and saw a large stone manor cropped up in chiseled Gothic architecture. Gray brickwork textured and meshed brilliantly with darkened oaken doors and rich window frames.
“I’ll get your bags. Please, head up to the door. Mr. Valentine is waiting for you.”
I nodded and thanked my driver who waved away my thanks in a polite manner.
“Oh, don’t thank me. I’m just doing what my contract outlines.” With one final charming smile he exited the vehicle. I soon followed
The size of the manor astounded me. Vincent was an amazingly talented author but I knew most readers had no idea who he was. How he could afford to live in a Victorian palace like this was unexplainable to me.
With heavy lead lining my heels I made my ascent up the stone patio steps towards the large wooden door. Hidden amongst the frame of the giant gate was a wicket door. As my feet reached the final step I felt myself freeze up. The way the manor had towered over me made me feel inexplicably small and meaningless. It had left me intimidated beyond movement.
“Well, go on Madam. You've made it this far.” The driver called out to me in a gingerly tone. He was preparing my luggage for travel. With trembling hands I knocked on the thick oaken door. A muffled impact sounded with every strike. A few moments passed by before the wicket creaked open. Inside was a beautiful young woman dressed in a black service outfit, much like the driver wore behind me.
With nothing more than a glance from her piercing eyes she spoke up.
“Welcome to the Wordsmith Manor Ms. Williams. Please come in.” The fair skinned lady reflected the same charm all of Vincent’s employees seemed to have. Though her tone was much sharper and direct. I admired her long black hair that had been pulled back into a tight bun. The dark color resonated brilliantly with her freckles and icy blue eyes.
“Thank you.” I quietly muttered. I kept my eyes low to the ground. I was scared of further intimidation from this home or its perfect occupants. I felt a finger lightly tap the underside of my chin and I looked up to see the Maid smiling at me with an unexpectedly soft smile.
“Don’t be scared to look around. Mr. Valentine specifically asked us to allow you to get a grasp of all you could on your way up to him.” After a quick meeting of our eyes I finally let my gaze roam. Inside was just as immaculate as the outside. Stone lined the walls with finely finished wooden flooring.
The dim lighting that flickered around us seemed to emanate on its own. I saw no signs of lights or cords connecting to any outlet, nor any outlets in general. I felt as though I had stepped back in time. Endlessly long hallways stretched out in every direction from the foyer. It struck my imagination immediately as it quite literally looked like an intricate spiders web.
As I was taking in the sights of the Wordsmith Manor, the male servant scooted past my back in a hurry. He was carrying my luggage up a nearby staircase.
“Your room will be located just upstairs in the main guest room. Your bags will be there for you to unpack. Though you'll find everything you need already located in the room should you search for it. For now Mr. Valentine would like to meet with you.” With a light footed twirl she began walking in front of me. I toed just behind her.
We went through a nicely ornamented hallway of different paintings. Each art piece seemed to be of different creatures and characters that could only be found in the multitude of books Vincent had written. They were painted just as vividly as the author had described them as. They felt like windows into another world rather than paint on parchment.
As I gawked upwards at the portraits of all of the characters that had enraptured my mind over the years, I had scarcely noticed the change in lighting. A rose coloring had begun filling the hallway spilling outwards from a nearby threshold. It lent the way to warmth and a calming sensation. With a few more steps towards the wave of soothing light we entered Mr. Valentine’s Den.
Many books and tomes lined the walls of this area in a neat fashion. Not a singly speck of dust prevented the shimmering of polished wood from glowing in the light. A large red rug swirled with golds and blacks. It lay at the center of the room. Sitting right next to a large stone fireplace
was the man I had only seen on the back covers of my favorite books, Mr. Vincent Valentine. Above him a large portrait of a hellish landscape. The placard read 'The Face of Aka Manah.'
“She’s ready for you Sir.” The woman chirped up. Vincent’s eyes fluttered to life as he looked to her than over to me.
“Thank you my dear. And also, of course, thank you Ms. Williams for coming.” His eyes shined unnaturally well with an endless depth of knowledge and experience. The red tint of the room had darkened his irises to a near pitch black coloring.
“Mr. Valentine, thank you so much for doing all of this.” I nearly stumbled over my words but managed to choke them out. Vincent merely gave me a half smile and shook his head dismissively.
“Nonsense. I saw that article you wrote about how my stories. About how they had inspired you to take up the pen and try your hand at crafting your own tales. I was beyond flattered.” He motioned his slender finger over to a blood red leather wingback chair that sat next to him. With a nod I followed his directions. With a short walk closer to the Author I had taken my seat in the form fitted throne next to my life long hero.
“It really is a shame how many people don’t know about you.” I offered as a sincere sentiment. His half smile spread slightly more across his aged and wizened face.
“My work finds precisely the people I want it too. You can’t share true horror with just anyone you know. I think some Authors found that out the hard way.” With a soft chuckle he resumed, “but this isn’t just a pleasant trip, as you must’ve gathered from my letter. This is a gift. I want to tutor you for for however long it takes until you can find your voice. I can promise, no matter how heavy and large that black book you hold feels, it’ll fill as easily as any ink to paper with the right motivation.”
With one of his ancient hands he pointed over to my jacket pocket, exactly where I had kept my little black book. How he knew where it was still remains a mystery to me.
“I would love to learn from you if I could get the chance.” I held back a yearning look. I didn’t want to make this man think lowly of me.
With a quick check of his watch his face had grown long and disappointed.
“The nights fading well past dawn and I fear our time tonight must be cut short. That being said I want you to understand one thing before bed. Each and every story you tell is as real as flesh and blood. Maybe not to you but to someone, something, somewhere. The cosmos is large and beyond that even larger. Science is just starting to scratch into what philosophers have known from the beginning of time. Sadly humanity's science will never catch up to their freedom of thought. The human understanding will always be a blip of the whole until it’s wiped out completely.”
The way he was staring into my eyes told me so much about who this man was. Whether or not he was sane may have been up to a debate to everyone but himself. He knew he lived in a reality so much more vivid than our own.
“Excuse me sir, the guest bedroom has been prepared. We have seven minutes.” A feminine voice behind me had broken me from my trance. Mr. Valentine's gaze left my own and looked towards his servant.
“And so ends my lesson for the night. Dream about what I taught you and I can promise by the morning you’ll already be one step closer to a new well of horror. Possibly by tomorrow night you'll be completely submerged.”
Before I could respond, the Maid had ushered me out of the den. We had arrived back in the hallway of portraits. The faces amongst them had seemingly changed their gazes to match my mood. Their eyes now were cast down upon me, judging me for who I was and who I wanted to be. Once again I felt that feeling of foreboding darkness. This time however I looked the Demons back in their countless eyes. I was trying to see them as real entities just as Mr. Valentine had requested that I do. Their terrible gazes seemed to soften with every step I took. Their lips seemingly upturning at the edges of their mouths in just the slightest of manners.
Once we hit the staircase in the main foyer I chanced a glance down an adjacent hallway to see the elegant servant carrying thick iron chains from one room to the next. After quickly shutting the doors behind him he used the irons to bar them from the outside. He glanced over towards me and our eyes met. He nodded at me in acknowledgment. His face seemed paled and worn.
My guide nudged my arm to grab my attention away from the man. "Hurry now, we need to get you in bed soon." With a hurried but dignified saunter she had led me up the wooden staircase and into the abyss above. Just as the den had tinted the air red, the second floor cast shadows of darkness around every corner. I felt a cold breath of wind run through me that seemed to emanate from the Manor's stone brick walls themselves.
“My apologies for any drafts up here. It’s been a very long time since anyone has been a guest in the Wordsmith.” Her voice reflected an apologetic tone but also that of stoicism, as if she was repeating an archaic sentiment from her memories but still a sentiment nonetheless.
“It’s fine, I enjoy cold air as long as there's a nice warm blanket to accompany it.” I forced a smile and looked at the side of the servants face. She seemed to have a coy expression on her lips at my fleeting justification for a drafty home.
“And here it is, right at the top of the staircase. I hope you find everything to your liking. If not we’ll do our best to please you in the morning.” She turned to face me. Her eyes emanated light in the darkened corridor. They were submissive but penetrative, an odd combination but one gained from countless years of servitude.
“I’m sure I will. Thank you.” With a nod she stepped beside the door, allowing me entry past her. I walked in front of the Maid and pressed my small hand on the brass handle of the guestroom door. A quick tug and a push allowed me entry.
I gaped at my room.
A large queen sized bed lay mid-way between the doorway and the far wall. A veiled rose colored canopy adorned the edges of the bed mimicking Victorian royalty. The posh blankets seemed soft enough to resemble that of ruby red a cloud. I had never seen anything like it with my own eyes before.
An expansive window lay on the farthest wall, moonlight pooled into the room and coated my resting place with a beam of heavenly light. Just below the window resided a writing desk and a chair, neatly tucked in. No signs of dust or unkempt follies showed any sort of face in this pristine room.
With hushed footsteps I approached my bed. The door latching shut behind me. I allowed my hands to slowly draw back the drapes, the silk nearly slipping through my fingertips. I took a deep breath and laid down. The bed gave way underneath my body and devoured me into its encasing folds. I let out an exhausted breath as I smiled and stared up at the ceiling. I couldn’t possibly have felt more excitement and desire for the future. My heart had swelled up inside of my chest at that moment.
With little more notice my eyes pushed themselves shut and filled my mind with an empty darkness. Neither dream nor thought seemed to come to me that night. My weary brain needed a rest perhaps more than I knew.
I woke up hours later to the brilliant shine of the morning’s sun. Even through my wispy half taut curtains the sunlight had managed to breach into my room. The large window had fully replaced the moonlight from the night prior. I looked down at myself and sighed. I had fallen asleep with all my clothes on including my shoes. I felt as though I had somehow once again proven that I didn’t belong within the halls of the manor.
I pushed that negative thought out of my mind. Quickly followed by physically pushing myself out of my resting place. With all the clarity of an early bird, I let my eyes travel around the naturally well-lit room. I saw a small door on the wall nearest the foot of my bed.
Shortly after I saw my luggage neatly placed near a hardy looking writing desk. After a quick post slumber stretch I allowed myself to start the process of unpacking my belongings. I quickly discovered that the door nearest to the bed led to a bathroom. With travel pack in hand I entered.
Marble countertops and glistening silver accessories lined the bathroom. A smile broke through my face as I saw how disheveled I looked in the mirror in comparison to the pristine nature of the room I was in. I walked to the counter and unzipped my baggie.
To my surprise everything I could need was already placed neatly in a row. Toothpaste, shampoo, deodorant and even other more personal items. Strangely enough they were all my favorite brands.
I shook it off and convinced myself that I just had good tastes in products.
I took some extra time with getting myself cleaned up and presentable. I was fully prepared to make a good impression on my host. Hell, at that point in time, I just wanted to keep pace with his Servants.
Once I was freshened up I put my used clothes into a linen hamper and headed out towards the bedroom door. With a quick flick of my wrist I felt unexpected resistance. I tried again to meet the same result.
It was latched shut.
I kept trying but sure enough the door was locked up tight from the outside of the room. A slight panic began to fill my chest. A panic set in by the fast realization I had allowed myself to enter a strangers home without proper precautions.
I felt my heartbeat begin to race.
With a heavy fist I pounded on the thick wooden frame of the door. Not too long after I heard heavy footsteps glide up the staircase to the other side of my room. With the sound of a lock turning the door opened. Standing on the other side was the Butler, my former Chauffeur.
"My apologies Madam. It's been so long since we've had a guest I suppose it slipped our mind that this door would need unlocking." He tried to give me a charming smile but I wasn't going for it this time. I quickly spat a retort back towards him.
"Why was my door locked in the first place?" I questioned, my eyes shooting directly into the brown depths of his.
"It's mostly to keep the night staff out. They don't like to be bothered much and can be a bit of a handful if they bump into anyone they don't know." In retaliation to my stare his eyes had softened and melted down some of my guard.
"Well I don't care about that. I don't want my door locked. Don't do that in the future." The man grimaced and nodded.
"As you wish." He stated flatly. "Now If you wouldn’t mind breakfast is about to be prepared. If you head to the dining room I’m sure Mr. Valentine will meet you there.” With that the man headed back down the steps towards the foyer. I stood still. I was at a loss as to where to venture. I decided to follow him and venture down the steps. By the time I reached the bottom the man was gone.
"You can head straight down towards the Den but make the first right in the hallway." I jumped as the female voice spoke up right behind my back. I turned around to see the maid behind me. She gave a calm nod and waved out her hand, pointing down the direction of the hall.
“I’m sorry, thank you.” I whispered. It was slowly becoming clear to me that there was something lurking just below the surface of this manor, like it was all a part of some type of show.
With that in the back of my mind I headed off down the hallway. The stone began to lighten up towards the back as a large windowpane took over an entire wall. I entered the windowed room and saw a rather extravagant dining set. Two chairs presented themselves at the foot of either end of the table.
I chose the chair that seemed reserved for a guest, the one less commanding of the dining room. Before long a sensual smell filled the room. Freshly baked bread, bacon and eggs were all seemingly being made from scratch. I stared outside the window as I waited and saw a large clearing in the woods. A bench lay outside facing the yard while several rocky outcroppings lay at the far end, just out of my sight.
“It’s a beautiful day isn’t it?” A smooth voice trailed off. I had glanced at the doorway to see the tall slender figure of Mr. Vincent Valentine. A new blazer was draped over his body accentuating his strong but thin shoulders.
“Very beautiful Sir.” I said, smiling at him. He put out his hand and waved my pleasantries away.
“No need for that. I need you independent for teaching, otherwise you’ll just end up like me.” His tone was like silk. He knew how to speak. Without another word he took his seat at the other end of the table. Fresh plates of food were brought out by the servants and placed in front of us. Just as I had imagined they had prepared fresh biscuits, bacon and eggs along with finely toasted bread.
I raised some food to my mouth and took a bite, nothing but purity of flavor could explain the taste. It was so very refined. It was prepared in such a way that I had to believe that the chauffeur didn’t just have a knack for driving under his belt but was a perfected chef as well.
Mr. Valentine gazed out of the window as I ate, not touching a bite of the spread that lay in front of him.
“Are you willing to go beyond your personal comfort to write?” He asked out loud. The surprising nature of his question made me put my food back down on my plate.
“As long as I’m being taught by you, I don’t think we could go wrong.” I offered while I eyed up the strange teacher.
At my words his sharp gaze shifted to my eyes, penetrating my very soul.
“I want you to leave here a creator, an author of the highest ability. That takes a great deal of sacrifice. Would you be willing to do that?”
I felt stunned at his question. I didn’t understand his meaning nor his goal.
“I believe I am.” I replied. I looked on his face for any type of signal that I had said the right thing. To my surprise a smile came across the old man’s face.
“Good to hear. Tonight will be a fine night for horror.” With that Mr. Valentine stood up from his chair and walked out of the dining room, leaving myself and the feast before me, to our own devices.
I took my time to fill my stomach and then excused myself silently from the table. I wandered the halls of the Wordsmith endlessly. The layout seemingly to continuously shift with every loop. I couldn't explain it but my thought's seemed to refuse to be collected.
I had based by two equivalent foyers, three libraries and countless halls. Eventually becoming lost in the maze of the manor. I felt a cold sweat begin to hit me as I was quickly realizing I wouldn't be able to get back to where I started.
Somehow every long hour only lasted a short minute. The windows began to shift from morning light, to brilliant afternoon beams to a rose colored sunset in just moments.
I spent all day lost and didn't speak with Mr. Valentine a single time after breakfast. No doubt frustrating the man that I was wasting his time.
I quickened my pace down the stone hallways. Left, Right, Left, Forward. Somehow I looped around. I began to jog. Night was approaching. The layout was impossible. Where were the servants?
I heard whispers coming from doors that had long since been chained shut. The same chains I had seen the Butler the night prior carrying. Could this be some ploy just to scare me? If so how were they commanding these stone spaces to loop and twirl so easily around me.
It didn't matter eventually. Night had fully fallen by the time I found myself at the Foyer near my bedroom. Even though hours supposedly had past my stomach was still full from breakfast.
I felt like crying. I wasted an entire day of my trip running around a manor by myself. Not a single page written in the journal Mr. Valentine had bought for me. And to make it worse a quick glance around the hallways showed no signs of life. Just cold drafts of dry air. I had no option but to go back up to my room and try to start anew tomorrow.
I traced my steps back up from the night prior and making it back up to my room. Inside was dark, clouds had covered the moonlight letting nothing break through the thick ink that had pooled inside. I kicked off my shoes and fell back onto the bed. Tears in my eyes.
With every huff of air I took I could hear an echo coming from the blackened corner of the room.
I turned my head and stared into the void.
I couldn't make out anything at first. I wiped the water from my eyes and kept focusing. Eventually a figure formed in my mind. Something just taller than myself. Masculine, dapper.
The Male Servant.
I sat up and called out to the shadow. "What are you doing in my room? How long have you been there?"
The mans outline just continued to watch me. My senses suddenly kicked in. Some sort of instinct was telling me to get as far away from this man as possible. I slowly stood up to my feet, my eyes not leaving his shape.
I slowly began to step towards the door. His frame just stood in the darkness like a drape, his face watching me as I walked further away.
Once I was near the door I felt my shoulder bump into something. I turned and stared at the Maid. Or rather the Maid that was not a maid.
Her outfit clung to her like loose fitting rags. Her face gaunt and mouth opened exposing a pit of darkness outlined by a row of pearly white teeth. Her lower jaw jiggled with my shoulders light touch.
I heard a voice in the back of my head call out to me. 'Run.' And so I did.
I immediately ran down the stairs towards the front foyer. The skittering of feet following closely behind me. I reached the front door and pulled. It tugged but refused to budge. It was locked. I turned to face my pursuers but through my squinted gaze I was met with nothing more than an empty room.
I started to breath heavily trying to control myself. Off down a distant hallway I heard a door open and close. It sounded like it came from Mr. Valentine's Den. I turned back to the front door and tried opening it again, looking for the latch.
Footsteps began to walk down the hallway towards me.
I pulled and pulled, tears welling up in my eyes again. I made a mistake. Coming to here, meeting a stranger, I was being dumb. I never should have taken the offer.
Eventually I screamed out at the front door and heard a soothing voice come from behind me.
"What a terrible night you seem to be having." It was Mr. Valentine. I turned to face him. His back was turned towards me and face obscured.
"Mr. Valentine, please, I don't want to do this anymore. Something's wrong with this place. I'm sorry, I just-" I froze as Mr. Valentine walked closer to me. His knees protruded backwards, facing the wrong way underneath his fine silk slacks.
"My dear, you have 5 days left here." With that all the light faded in the Foyer. I was cast in darkness.
It wasn't until sunlight hit my face the next morning that I felt some sort of relief. I looked around me, I was in the guest bedroom. Precisely where I was the night before. I shot back up and looked around. Nothing was out of place. I heard a knocking at the door. It was the Maid.
"Madam, we've prepared breakfast for you. You wont want to miss your first lesson with Mr. Valentine. He's waiting for you.
I didn't know if I could make it much longer there. Nothing made any sense.
When I came to think of it, I couldn't even remember a single title Mr. Valentine had ever wrote.

Spent from May 28th -June 3rd in Iceland doing the Ring Road with another family member.
Lodging- Booking.com and Airbnb were the two primary sources used for securing lodging.
Car rental - Renault Captur drove 1314 miles and cost $1000 for full protection , prepaid fuel, and roadside assistant. I hold top tier status with National so this was a cheaper route renting from them.
Clothing - Base layer thermals, 5.11 pants, layered fleece, and a outside Columbia jacket that acted as a wind and rain protection layer. Wore a Icelandic wool hat that I purchased from a previous trip. Wore sneaker Oboz trail shoes. No need for hiking poles, gloves, etc.
Planning - Most reservations were made in October and November 2022. Restaurant reservations were made as they came available.
Pace - We did not have an extended time so we did do some “jumps” on the Ring Road in the more wildnerness areas by driving 2-3 hrs to lodging or early morning. For some people this sounds horrible, but we both really enjoy the lowering sunlight casting it rays on the mountians along with the solitude. We had a lot of buffer times built in and actually was stuck with a lot of free time.
Driving - Driving is rather easy with mostly paved roads and some gravel. Be mindful of your driving capabilities, exhaustion, and weather ahead. Always check the apps, weather reports, and general reddit post every morning.
Gas - Go to N1 and walk inside to the attendant and ask for the pump to be turned on. They may ask for an ID. Or purchase N1 gift cards to use at the remote pumps if your feeling bold. Never go below half a tank and if you plan your trip right that won’t be a big concern. No need for credit card pin unless using remote pumps.
Weather - Rain and wind on day one arriving with cold temperatures. Weather broke with sunny and mid 50’s the rest of the trip around the Ring Road. Highest temperature we saw was 60 degrees.
Sunday, May 28th
Arrived at Baltimore Airport and stayed in the airport lounge before departure at 7pm. Priority boarding was purchased along with seat selection.Plane ride was fine, but was stuck next to an oversize passenger who invaded my seat preventing me from sleeping. We arrived at 5:00 am after a 30 minute delay on take off. Weather was chilly 40 with a drizzle rain. Heavy rolling fog and overcast sky.
Walked through customs with almost no wait. They are under remodel so big changes will be coming here. Got on the sky blue rental car shuttle that was empty and dropped us off at our stop. We picked up the car with National at a schedule pick up 6:30 am with an actual pick up at 6 am. Got upgraded due to status with a vehicle with a higher clearance. First thing we did was the bridge between continents as we waited for the bakery to open. Got breakfast at Kökulist bakery near the airport which opened at 7 am. Blue Lagoon Reservation at 8:00 am - Upgraded to premium - not really worth it in my opinion. Drinks were good. Attempted to stop at the grocery stores or Costco at 10: 30 am, but things were closed. Parked at Laugavegur parking garage, napped for 30 mins in car, and ate breakfast at Grillhusio and walked downtown to kill time.
We pressed onward and drove to Golden circle with random stops for scenery. Stopped at the Oxarafoss waterfall top parking lot first and hiked it. Then drove by the Geysir Geothermal area, but due to miserable weathecrowds we passed by. Went to Gulfoss and it was - windy/rainy. rainy, parked at top and only did top observation deck. Observed many people unprepared for weather and the winds.
We did not do Faxafoss as paid access was required and it wasn’t worth it to us.
Had Reservations at Friðheimar 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm. Excellent food and we did the unlimited soup and bread for about $20 a person. Had the apple pie dessert which was fabalous. To pay just go to the bar and tell them your table number that is on the twig piece on your table.
Finally stop was our lodging at the Blue View Hotel - Cabin 7A right by the restaurant which was a clean, new two bedroom cottage. Well worth the value and was easy to access with self checkin using an email from them with codes.
Notes: Drive Time Between Airport and Lodging = 2 hours We stayed up for a day and half to overcome the time difference. We arrived at our lodging at 5pm and were in bed by 6:30 pm to take advantage of the 24/7 light.
Monday, May 29th
Breakfast was items left from the bakery the previous day we purchased.
Did Seljalandfoss/Gljurabui (early arrival the better due to crowds/pay parking) - arrived 6 am after 3:30 am wake up. We actually circled back to Gluggafoss which was completely empty around 7:30 am. Drove Fjotshiloavegur rd back to the N1 in Hvolsvollur for gas and breakfast proper.
Then get to horse back riding at Skalalot Manor Hotel - 9:30 am arrival required. Arrived at 8:30 am actual time. Place was well kept and they treated their horses with a lot of love and respect. Did an all day ride with the morning spent on the glacier and the evening ride on the black sand beaches. I actually had a difficult horse that was having a bad day in the morning and she successful threw me/I controlled bailed out off the horse to avoid getting implaed on a fence post. Lunch provided at the hotel was excellent and a lot of high end options.
Went to Skogsfoss around 6:30 pm. Then drove through Vik, but did not stop as it was extremely crowded with buses and the gas station looked mobbed.
Arrived at Hotel Laki around 7:45 pm and found that the rooms were clean, simple, and under remodel in the hallways. Excellent simple buffet with hot and cold choices with two protein choices. Staff were attentive and the weather started to break with sun peeking though.
Note: Drive time from Blue View to Horseback Riding = 1 hour and 30 minutes- finished at 6 pm Drive time from Horseback Riding to Hotel Laki = 1 hour and 30 mins Dinner at Hotel Laki (anytime between 7-9 pm )
Tuesday, May 30th
Woke up at 8 am and ate breakfast buffet at Hotel Laki. Left hotel at 10 am. Also, we woke up to a road closure by Diamond Beach due to high winds causing a motor vehicle accident per the Iceland news site and the road safety app. We hiked Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon for about an hour with moderate crowds. Beware of parking in the lot as people can trap you in blocking with a camper van. Finally around 11 am the Road closure on ring road due to wind was reopen so we decided to immediately start that way after a quick stop at the N1 by Hotel Laki. Drive time from Canyon to Diamond beach - 1 hr and 45 minutes. Stopped and did first overlook at the Mulagljufur Canyon. Narrow parking lot with limited options. The Fjallsarlon Iceberg tour site has an on-site restaurant . Ate here about 30 mins before a 2:30 pm boat tour. Excellent food with a choice of buffet, soup, and sandwiches. Tour lasted an hour. Tour Diamond Beach and Glacial Lake (about 12 mins btw the two glacier lakes) Drive time from Diamond Beach to Hofn for dinner at Pakkhús Restaurant - 1 hr. Got gas at the N1 here. Then 2 hr 45 min to Egilsstadir - arrived at cottage at about 10 pm. We LOVED this drive with the Ring Road turning into gravel with steep cliffs, sweeping views, and beautiful dramatic landscapes. The sun was really hitting everything making it even more special. Stay near Egilsstadir at Abot Cottage. Cute and practical place with one bedroom and a loft.
Wednesday, May 31st
Big driving day for us - FYI Woke up around 6 am and left immediately to seize early morning opportunity. Stopped off at the Stuolafoss Canyon but nesting birds prevented hike. Did 100 ish stairs down to overlook. Noticed a few people violating the posted signage of closure till June 10th for nesting birds on the cliff. Drove to Selfoss/Dettifsoss. One road is gravel and more adventurous and the other side of the canyon is completely paved now for tour buses. Was about a 2 hr drive herre from cottage this morning. Arriving at Dettifoss there was no one on the adventure side which was amazing experience. We didn’t see another human or car for almost 3 hrs! We decided to do the gravel road side up and stop off at the Asbury Cliffs for gas at the N1 and see the little museum. Ate lunch right at 11 am on the paved road side back to the Ring Road. Excellent little burger place. Did geothermal area (parking $10) and also the John snow grotto. Stopped at gas station/grocery store for snacks and drinks. Stopped at Godafoss - got here at 1:45 pm Drove into Akureyri/Piddle around shops - spent 35 mins here and left at 4:30 pm. I mostly wanted to go to one knitted sweatershop and talk to the older lady who knits there. Always super kind! Pay your toll for the tunnel within 24 hours! 2 hr drive to Stay in Northwest Guesthouse and Restaurant in Víðigerði, 531 Hvammstangi, Iceland. Looked dumpy from the outside but they had excellent lamb chops - room was small but had a common sitting area outside rooms. Breakfast was lacking. Did waterfall right by hotel that was a favorite. Do not let this place fool you!
Thursday, June 1st
Goal -Hvammstangi to outside Reykjavik. We had a lot of buffer time built in and decided to redo some things from first day that was rained out. First, we stopped at the KIDKA Wool Factory Shop in Hofoabraut at 8 am. Then stopped at the Alafoss Wool Factory Shop near Reykjavik to finish shopping. Then drove to the Secret Lagoon for 2 pm access. Did the geysers we drove past and got lunch here at the cafe. Drove to Reykjavik downtown to walk around, relax , bread bowl soup, ice cream and some beers till 10:30 pm. Stayed at Airbnb. Note - I left my headphones at the cottage on night one so we picked those up as well.
Friday, June 2nd
Penis museum at opening and hotdogs for breakfast at the famous hot dog place nearby . Got coffee at famous cat place, was mobbed for food and a really small place. Hike into the Volcano Tour - 12 pm takes six hours. Easy drive to parking lot for tour. Highlight of trip. They provide food, harnesses, and helmet. Not strenuous walk, just a tad long hike over a gravel path in the lave field. Walked downtown after volcano tour, swapped police patches, and other random items. Our big dinner was at Matur og Drykkur at 8:30 pm and was beyond amazing with a good wine pairing. Stayed at the Airbnb night 2.
Saturday, June 3rd
Walked downtown and went to Brauo & Co Bakery for cinnamon rolls at 9:30. Returned car at 11:30 am with a boarding at 2 pm. I value not waiting in security or lines so a 30 minute early arrival meant no lines for car return, bus, or security. Sat down in airport and ate lunch in preparation for long flight home. Flight back 3:00 pm

So in October we are porting out of Ft Lauderdale on the Liberty of the Sea. We are flying down the day before and need to get a hotel near by that offers airport to hotel shuttle and we were hopping they may also offer hotel to port shuttle? Since the airport and the port are so close, I would imagine there were hotels that offered that near by ? I’m going through google now and just going to start calling a bunch but I figured why not ask here too! Or, if you fly in the day before, what did you to get to the port from your hotel? I’ve never been down there so I’m not familiar with the area but I see they are close off of maps

Ride ratings are at time of riding, could change with re-rides. only mentioning coasters here as id be here all day with dark/ water rides. although a honourable mention goes to the water rides in parc asterix. i was not expecting to get as wet as we did inside the boat ride. holy hell.
Disneyland paris - 22/05 - 23/05
with it being a monday and tueday we believed it would be rather quite. boy we was wrong. nothing with less that a 30 minute wait most of the day both monday and tuesday. the amount of families there even though it was term time was mental. never seen a park this busy even during my states trips. skipped getting coffee's and food most the day till we left the park as most queues for food were upto about 40 mins. meet mickey had a 5 hour wait. Found the staff were really nice and friendly and happy to help where needed. a lot of english speaking staff too which we found helpful. ops were... ok? hard to tell with some of the rides. the amount of parents who got throught the main gate then seemingly gave up parenting was staggering. silly amount of kids running around queue lines/swinging on fences kicking other people queueing/ hitting people backpacks in the queue for no reason/ randomly screaming with mum ignoring them as insta is more important. other than that it was an OK experience, we both agreed we wouldnt return though, even with the new areas opening up. defo a one and done experience unlike some of the other disney parks iv done. the disney dreams show at night was incredible, the work with projections, water, fireworks and drones really is worth seeing for anyone going, although finding somewhere good to sit/ stand starts at about 9:30 so if you turn up at show time it can be hard to find a spot. also if you want something from a specific shop and want to come back later, note down the closing time as these vary accross shops.
Hyperspace mountain - 4/10
Amazing to look at from outside and watch the launch section whilst in the queue. queue theming was nice, actually had one of the lowest queue's through the day. was very excited to ride as it was due for maintenance this week that had been cancelled. really nice station, was allowed to wait for front row as well when we requested. the launch is nice and kicky, akin to a less powerful hulk launch but its immediatly killed by trims at the top of the launch that pretty much half the speed. other than the main effect at the top of the launch not much else was noticable/ working so it was a rather lackluster indoor ride other than the speed it picks up thought the layout.
Avengers - 4.5/10
Theming overall is lackluster. theres a mish mash of languages used throughout the queue with some characters speaking english and some speaking french so had no idea what was going on. got a back row ride on this one after requesting it. the seats for this are really uncomfortable (im small so no idea why), worst iv been on before. it felt like i had 2 bars digging into my back the entire time, no idea what was going on with them. we rolled round the corner for the launch hold. it played the music/countdown and nothing happened. some absolute goon had taken out there phone and ruined the rides preshow for the entire train, if your this kind of person, please dont go to theme parks. anyway, the launch is much better than hyperspace. sitting at the back we got to see all of the effects throughout the ride, although its nothing special it was better than hyperspace's indoor theming. overall i thought the layout and pacing where slightly better as well.
crush's coaster - 5/10
very lackluster outside cattlepens, but found the indoor section to be pretty cool. queue was at 40 mins + all day so later on in the second day we just bit the bullet and queued for it. we was facing backwards, didnt see much point to the outside section other than interaction with offride guests. the lift hills are suprisingly fast and was suprised at the pacing and layout of the indoor section. even though pretty much nothing happens inside in terms of theming. as i wasnt expecting the layout in the indoor section i was really suprised and enjoyed this coaster more than i thought i would.
Big thunder mountain - 5/10
Holy cattlepen. it just whent on forever on this queue. queued for about an hour i believe. theming of this ride is world class, jaw dropping to look at from across the water, equally as amazing on ride. unfortunatly the actual ride for me was very lackluster. these have always been highly rated rides within the community and i felt it was no more forceful than the train journey to the park. thought the trick track 3rd lifhill was really cool but other than that it was lackluster.
we didnt bother with RC Racer as neither of us can stand pirate ships. and with a constant 30 min wait i didnt want to queue for a pirate ship on rails, happy to miss this credit. same thing with the kids coaster, 50 min wait when it was up, not that bothered about 1 credit.
park asterix 24-26/05
we was knackered after 2 days of disney and not enough sleep so we got a taxi from Disney to park asterix (about 80 euro if your wondering) and decided to spend the day in the park just relaxing and doing small rides like the boat ride/ car ride/ family rides ect. was a really nice day even though we missed off osiris and toutatis on the first day. will talk about the Quese de Letuce hotel and our experience below. Ops here were absolutely incredible. The ops on osiris were super fast at getting people seated and secure. toutatis is really fun to watch for this as once the lapbars raise a 30 second countdown starts to load the next train. day 2 (25th) they was regually dispatching with 10 - 15 seconds left. day 3 was a bit later but it looked like they was training a new person. All other rides ops were brilliant. staff are friendlly and greet you as you enter every shop/ ride. some spoke english which helped us out but those that didnt were fast to get you help from someone that could. we had one trip to the medical bay for paracetomol for the missus and the medical staff knew 0 english but was more than happy to help using google translate. 10/10 customer experience there.
Tonnair 2 zues - 7/10
Backwards - we did this first with no prior experience on this coaster. we was very suprised at how good this was after hearing many accounts of how rough the coaster is since its refurb. the first 2 drops are insane going backwards, the layout feels faster and more relentless. the 90 degree banked turn and tunnel were probably my favourite on this run through.
5/10 forwards - did this later on in the day and once a day per day after that in different seats (front, back and non wheel). this was rougher than i thought it was going to be after our backwards run. its a fun coaster with a good layout and the tunnel is really cool too. but boy is it a rough one, wasnt that noticable till we got off but the headache from the rattling comes pretty fast with this ride.
Pegasse Express - 6/10
Station is really nice on this and fits really well within the greek themes lands of the surrounding area. the nice blue track realy pops and stands out. first launch isnt very kicky, has a nice little section before the lift hill. the following drop and hills are really good fun. we did this about 7 times total so had front, back and middle row rides on it, id say do the front for the indoors section. backwards launch is nice but found it to be a shame that it rises up before dropping at it slows the coaster down and doesnt have as much airtime, but this is understandable on a family coaster. backwards section is really fun although short. overall this ride is a perfect little family coaster. felt like what 13 could have been if AT where allowed more freedom during building it. be great to see more parks with a ride like this.
goudrix - 4/10
Really cool layout on this, i thought it was an arrow looper before looking it up. had a station wait so whent straight to back row and thought id get off and re-ride straight away with a front row. this decision quickly changed. i pulled down the OTS restraints and whent to raise my arms, my left arm popped through the gap and was basically stuck in the raised position. when they checked the restraint he pointed at my arm and asked if it was ok. i said yeah it feels fine but i cant move it up and down so they unlocked the car and re-did my restraint. good ops! .... after an eternity on the lift hill the overall ride was ok, although was very rough on the headbanging. after hitting the brake run i decided not to re-ride and it was a good call as i had a slight headache. (quick note on that, when we whent to the medical bay the following morning, the first thing someone asked us when we requested paracetomol was if it was from a headache on goudrix so the park are fully aware of its roughness) again, good layout but too rough. needs the python efteling treatment. tried again the following day on a none wheel seat in the middle of the train, still just as rough.
Trace Du Hourra - 5/10
Brilliant little bobsled from Mack. fits really nicely in the new toutatis festival area. front row, back row and middle row rides all done, front row is a bit more rough as it enters the straights and bounces between the 2 rails on the middle of the track. dont feel this as much the further back you are. helix's are suprisingly strong in terms of forces on this ride. not as fast as avalanche in BPB i felt but a better and longer layout
SOS Numerobis - 3/10
Cool little kids coaster. nothing really to note other than a 3 lap special. not sure if this is reduced during peak times as it took pictures on the 1st and 3rd laps but not the second. Also a heads up, the pictures on this cant be collected digitally so your digital picture pass wont work.
Vol D'lcare - 2/10
Very stale layout, rough transitions, not much theming, awkward bobsled style wasnt as comfortable as actual mack bobsleds.
Osiris - 8.5/10
This coaster was a massive suprise to me. i knew about it but did not think it was so well themed/ fun to ride. overall id say it wasnt as intense as nemisis, but i preferred the layout. actually felt 0 g during the 0 g rolls and floated out of my seat before being smacked with positive forces on the other inversions. the drops through tunnels are particuarly intense. the theming on this is the best iv seen on B+M Invert to date as i only seen the EOL queue line for dueling dragons. Again ops were on point here, dont think iv ever seen someone do seatbelts that fast before.
Toutatis - 9.5/10
New number 1 coaster for me. Initial launch is suprisingly punchy, if you sat towards the back it pretty much drags you out of the station and down the little drop into the first launch. first launch is followed by a nice airtime hill then a realy odd inversion. the inversion provides some really nice hang time before hitting the banked right turn past the camera, IMO this could have been better place but doesnt detract from the ride experience. it goes round the right hand turn picking up speed then theres a little whip right as it goes round unbanked right turn into the swing launch. i was slightly worried at the power of this launch, with RITA being the strongest id done upto this point. but it has a small section that launches you, drops down under a bridge, then comes back up into a second part of the launch so the speed gain, although packing a punch is gradual. after peaking on the top hat and rolling back, the backwards launch section is incredibly fun. you get really good handtime on the spike, followed by some ruthless ejector as you fly through the 3rd launch forward and go back under the bridge. as it peaks over the top hat it slowly down quiet considerably before slowly falling down the drop and into the first airtime hill. this absolutely tried to kick you out of the chair, giving you little time before it thrown you straight into the 2nd inversion. the 0g stall, this is the first one of these i have experienced and wow, what an element, favourite moment of the ride bar the launch. as someone who rides hands up as much as possible these are 10/10 elements and realy feel like it wants you out of your train. after this the track turns you left with a small airtime hill in the middle of the turn before some seriously whippy transitions before another airtime hill and turning right as it goes into a 90 degree banked airtime hill. it then throws you left as it goes into a heartline role, this section of the ride i found to be the most intense. after the heartline you get one more overbanked right hand turn before a double up into the break run. The entire coaster is airtime filled, feels very fast, very whippy and has great inversions/ elements. the launches are really fun and the queue line/ station building theming was great. especially with the lights as the train rolls out. overall new number 1 for me, defo a front and back ride with as far back as possible being the best for the spike/ hangtime.
overall i would absolutely come back to parc asterix and do 2 days and nights in the same hotel. The hotel (quese de letuce) is incredible to stay in, in terms of scenery, better area and rooms than the disney hotel we stayed at. although if your not a big eater id say avoid the buffett they offer at night as its £44 per adult without drinks. Although there was lots of option and we got to take deserts to the room for later. we also tried room service, which although expensive (£20 for a 10" pizza) was a better choice than the buffet for us. If you require nessesities like milk, sugar, other things then be prepared to head back towards to airport unless you have a car as there is no onsite shop available. we lost our lighter on day 1 and spent 2 days asking to borrow one from park guests or having to swap my passport to borrow one from the reception of the hotel as they dont sell lighters or matches anywhere onsite, although they sell cigarettes within the park if you ask. they offer a shuttle server from the front of the park, the airport shuttle is 6 euro each if i remember correctly.

So spawned in top of the map, by the train tracks/bridge. You know the spawn where you can be the second team to catch the train if you run to the bridge area, when its headed towards the airport. Anyhow I was looting that area and of course you have the ammo supply/buy station point as well often right there this season. I was inside that building and I get a call out Platoon nearby and a helicopter shows up on the mini-map at the same time. Shit!. Mind you, we are not even 5 minutes into the game yet. My team is spread apart.. random (with no mic) couple buildings down and my buddy one building over.
All of a sudden the random goes down. Then my buddy runs out from next door and is put down instantly. I can hear two on my roof top/above me running. I'm trapped in a lower center room with one doorway. I bring out a grenade to cook it in hopes that I'll take one with me, as I can hear them pushing me. But before it cooks I'm shot out of nowhere. Watch the replay and it shows the guy shooting from the balcony and then drops directly in front of me to finish me. Problem is I NEVER saw the guy. I originally thought he wall banged me through the ceiling, till I saw the replay.
So we get at least a 4 man team (platoon) within 5 minutes of the game. Pushes us via helicopter. Kills all three of us within 30 seconds in different buildings. I never see the guy standing directly in front of me, till replay.
I tell him he's sus as fuck and they all start laughing at this point. I'm like dude you was invisible, kill cam shows exactly what you did. They then try to claim that I was cheating and it was the anti-cheat making them invisible.
So either these guys got lucky by going to our exact location and to our exact buildings, at the same time, I'm blind, Or someone was running pre-made lobby with wall hacks and a has a cheat allowing them to take advantage of the anti-cheat system for invisibility.
This game is so broken.

So I've asked a couple questions here previously and got some good input.. now I've actually worked out a plan and want to know if it jives... We'll be going with a 2 year old and have never been in the area before so will probably be slower than most.. that said we are huge national park nerds so want to still do a lot.
Flights: round trip to/from Bozeman Route: based on recommendations from others, it seems good to do a bit of a loop.. we'll go South from the airport and tackle the Northwest parts of Yellowstone. We'll then loop around the western side of Teton which sounds like a nice drive with some cool stops, even if it is less direct. Then back up through the South side of Yellowstone and go up through Canyon Village and Lamar Valley. Hotels: night 1- mammoth (main hotel) Night 2-3- old house old faithful inn Night 4-5- Jackson Lake Lodge (Teton).. splurged on one of the rooms with a view Night 6-7- lake Yellowstone hotel (cabin) Night 8- canyon lodge (deluxe newer room)
My questions I'm still wondering: 1) I'm hoping by setting the multi nights up like that it will give us some flexibility.. for instance Day 2, we can either spend it around mammoth if we still want to see things up there, or get an early start and spend it near old faithful.. also by doing this loop, I'm assuming it gives us some options in case weather is very bad (I e. If weather is very bad day 2, then we can maybe hit the old faithful area in the return part when we're at the lake).. does this make sense or should I switch things up (hopefully not)?
2) what's the draw of going around the west side of Teton, rather than going straight to the closest entrance? Going through Jackson sounds cool, but that seems close enough we can go from Teton for dinner or something. Sounds like Teton isn't so big, so even if we spend most of day 3 driving the longer way, we can still get 2 full days in Teton.
3) any reservation activities/entries/dinners that need to be booked early? Glad I got hotels worked out early, but want to make sure there's no coveted tickets that are hard to get like some other parks

Two weeks ago I went on a girls trip with 2 friends (27F & 30F). We bought a package from a promoter that arranged the hotel and the entry to the day and night events etc. It's a popular trip to a Spanish island, so many other party goers were staying at the same hotel and all the events took place in clubs nearby the hotel area.
On the second day we met a group of 3 people (2 were siblings (L&D) and the other one was their bestfriend (K), all in their mid 30s. We kind of hit it off with them and started to hang with them at the parties or for breakfast & dinner. On day 3 at the night event K grabbed my private part and I immediatley told him off, my friend E (30F) saw the commotion and came to check on me. I told her what happened and she went off on K and we went to the hotel. In the morning I told 27F (my roommate) what happened and told her I will no longer be hanging out with that group because of what K did and she said "She was sorry, that she didn't know that was the reason why I left the party early and that she understands why I would want to distance myself". I asked her if she's going to have breakfast with me and 30F, she said no because she wanted to sleep in.
I go to have breakfast with 30F and when I came back she wasn't in the room, I didn't think anything about it so I started getting ready for the day event, headed there and some time later I see her walking in the party with the the group (K,L,D) and she was walking holding hands with K, the same man that touched me inappropiately the night before. I ignored her at the party, then she went to have dinner with them. At the night event she wanted to hang out with me and F30 but we were disgusted by her behavior so we were admittedly a bit distant.
We get back to the hotel she asks us what's our problem? I explained to her that I was very disappointed and disgusted at how she can still hang out with someone like (K) that was so inappropiate and disrespectful to her friend. She told me that she talked to K about what happened and K denied it so she doesn't know what or who to believe and then they went to grab lunch and dinner together because I and 30F didn't seem like we would want to grab food outside the hotel. I told her that that was no excuse to hang out with someone that did that to a friend and that she can choose who she hangs out with but I'm not gonna associate myself with someone that finds it okay to hangout with a man like that. She started crying & apologized for not understanding the gravity of the situation, that she just wanted to hang out with her new friends. But that she will no longer hang out with them because of what happened.
The next day we had a late check out of the hotel and a late flight. Me and 30F just wanted to have breakfast, hang around the pool then check out, have dinner and head to the airport. She told us she was not going to have breakfast with us because she wanted to pack and wasn't feeling hungry. While me and 30F were at the pool, we saw her walking with the same group and holding hands with K, some time later I went to my room and I was sitting on the balcony with the curtains closed. She entered the room with K and then when she saw my stuff that I was back in the room she quickly ran out, but I did manage to see her and K walking in the hallways towards the elevator.
So I called her and explained to her that I cannot be friends with someone like her, that finds it okay to associate with a man like K, that questions a close friends "SA" because of someone she just met, that goes behind my back to still hang out with someone like that. She started crying again, apologizing, saying that she was just trying to get both sides of the story and that K was very persistent on her talking to him so that was easier to do than ignore him, bunch of excuses. She again said that she will no longer hangout with them and that we can go grab dinner and then go the airport. Dinner went fine. On the way to aiport she was constantly on her phone and then at the airport she was constantly looking around as if she was looking for someone.
When we were boarding the plane, I saw that she was messaging K on insta and they were sending hearts and kiss emojis and one of the messages she sent him was "I'm so sad I didnt get to see you one last time at the airport, I hope we get to see eachother soon again & was nice meeting you" So I told her "insert name, do you really think that I cannot see who you are still talking too and who you were looking for? Do you think I'm stupid? " and she panicked went into defense mode again, the same excuses that she got carried away because she normally has issues socializing with people, but with K she had an immediate click.
I told her that I cannot stay friends with her after her breaking my trust 2-3 times in such a short span & being dishonest and that she clearly loses all common sense when she meets someone new. She tried to argue with me but I told her "you not understanding where I am coming from and why this is such a dealbreaker to me is all I need to know about you as person for me to know that I no longer want to be friends with you". I let her speak and told her and told her that "at the end of the day I am not okay with what happened and that I can't pretend nothing happened and continue being friends with her". We got back home took our trains to our cities and all the way home she was texting me and calling me, I didn 't reply. She then deleted me on every social media, then added me again and apologizing again that she doesn't want to lose me as a friend and to give her another chance. I blocked her again but now she's harassing other friends that she met through me to get me to unblock her and talk to her. '
I explained to her in details how hurt, violated and disrespected I felt. I put it into perspective for her, gave her a second chance that she threw away and she still doesn't understand why I can no longer be friends with her. I do not know what else to do to make her understand and stop harassing my other friends.
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Edit: fixed some mistakes

A Austin Airport Pickup is a type of serviced that's intended to provide a customer with a limousine as well as a limousine driver. The limo is usually rented by the hour and the rental cost depends on the type of limousine; the type of services as well as some requests that the customer makes; and fuel charges in the area where the service is hired. A limo service is typically promoted as a really safe way to transport kids to their prom or as a fun way to travel to and from different kinds of special events such as parties...

Destination Covered New Delhi – Agra – Jaipur – Goa

TOUR ITINERARY DETAILS

Day 01: Arrive New Delhi

On arrival Incredible Tour To India representative shall meet you at the airport to welcome you and transfer you to hotel. Overnight at the hotel.

Day 02: Delhi

Enjoy full day city tour covering Laxmi Narayan Temple – The Place of Gods, India Gate – The memorial of martyrs, Parliament House – The Government Headquarters, Jama Masjid – The largest mosque in Asia, Red Fort – The red stone magic, Gandhi memorial – The memoir of father of the nation beside these some other places to visit are – Qutub Minar Complex and Humayun’s Tomb. Overnight at the hotel.

Day 03: Delhi to Agra

Today we shall drive you to Agra. Agra is 205 kilometers away from Delhi and take 5 hours drive to reach. Arrive in Agra and check in into hotel. Later, we shall take you for a city tour covering -Taj Mahal – a poem written in white marble, the most extravagant monument ever built for love, Red Fort – a visit to the fort in ‘Agra’ is a must since so many of the events which lead to the construction of the Taj took place here, Itmad-ud-Daula’s Tomb – The tomb is of particular interest since many of its design elephants overshadow the Taj. Overnight at the hotel.

Day 04: Agra to Jaipur

Early morning, drive to Jaipur. The city is 235 kilometers away from Agra and take 5 hours drive to reach. En route visit Fatehpur Sikri (Old Deserted town of Mughal Dynasty) and its monuments which include Jama Masjid, The Buland Darwaza, Palace of Jodha Bai, Birbal Bhawan & Panch Mahal. Arrive in Jaipur and check into the hotel. Later relax in the hotel. Overnight at the hotel.

Day 05: Jaipur

Today morning we shall take you for a tour to Amer Fort. Take joy ride on Elephant (presently Elephant Ride closed at Amber Fort for the time being). Afternoon enjoy city tour covering City Palace – occupies a large area divided into a series of courtyards, gardens & buildings and a perfect blend of Rajasthani & Mughal architecture, Royal Observatory – An observatory with some rare qualities to its credit, Nawab Sahab Ki Haveli, and the Bazaar etc. Overnight at the hotel.

Day 06: Jaipur to Goa

In the morning, you’ll be transferred to airport to board connecting flight for Goa. On arrival in Goa met our representative and get transferred to your Hotel. Rest of the day is at leisure. Overnight at the hotel.

Day 07: Goa

In the morning, enjoy half day sightseeing tour of Old Goa. Evening is at leisure. Overnight at the hotel.

Day 08: Goa

Full day relax by the poolside/Beach. Overnight stay.

Day 09: Goa Departure

Morning is at leisure. In the evening, you’ll be transferred to the airport to board connecting flight for your onward destination.