5 questions meme

[ckd]

These are from yhlee. I'm not sure I can come up with questions for others at the moment, so no promises if you comment.

1. What's your favorite city to visit?

No contest: London. The famous quote about being tired of London meaning you're tired of life is an understatement; even when I've been depressed (and tired of life) I've never tired of London.

The incredible number of museums alone makes the city hard to leave, though I have objections to the collection practices of some of them (*cough*British Museum [of stuff stolen from elsewhere]*cough*). Many are free admission with a suggested donation (which I often exceed), making it practical to dip into a museum if I just want to see one or two items without feeling like I've wasted money.

Add in a transit system I can experience in ways both historical and practical, good food (despite the stereotype of British cuisine), bookshops, parks, plays, and everything else and it's always tough to leave.

2. What is the nicest experience you've ever had at a hotel?

I'm utilitarian about my hotels; I want them to be clean, conveniently located, and not too expensive. I appreciate the occasional upgrades, even when ridiculously overdone; several times I've been upgraded to a 1 or even 2 bedroom suite for a trip where I was staying by myself!

Since I'm not coming up with any particular experience of note, I'll pivot to some of my favorite hotel features: in room mini fridges (increasingly common); in room hot tubs (increasingly rare; the Penguicon hotel removed them in the last renovation, apparently due to one too many overflows); TVs with easy to use inputs (or even better, streaming from your device; I've only seen that at one hotel so far); and sufficient seating (at least two comfy chairs, or one plus a couch).

3. What is your favorite animal that's not a friendly blue shark? :)

Otters! Intelligent, playful, supportive of each other (holding hands while they float together). Not a bad role model.

4. What is your favorite comfort food?

Two categories:
(a) that I can easily make or acquire: pasta, usually spaghetti with meat sauce.
(b) when visiting my parents: sauerbraten and dumplings.

5. Who is your favorite historical figure?

Assuming that "historical" is defined by "did not overlap with my lifetime" (because otherwise I wind up saying Fred Rogers), I'll go with Ignaz Semmelweis. He was right even though he wasn't believed despite the evidence, and it took years for his hypothesis to become accepted wisdom...but in the end his ideas have saved countless lives. (Not, sadly, his own; he died at 47 shortly after being committed to an asylum and beaten.)

I could also make a case for Nikola Tesla (in part because we share a birthday), though unlike Tesla I will never be played by David Bowie in a movie.

Comments

[davidgoldfarb]

Katie and I spent five days in London this last summer, and we found it quite easy to find good food, that wasn't expensive either. (The two worst meals I had during our two week trip were both in France.)

[cmcmck]

I spent some years living in London and you CAN get tired of it that way.

That said, it's always nice to go back for the reasons you mention.

[ckd]

I didn't seriously consider transferring there when I was looking for a new team in 2015, though Dublin was on my short list. (To some extent, it's for the same reasons I didn't move from Boston to NYC - for living, I prefer a smaller city that still has enough of the city things I want without the same problems of scale.)

[sartorias]

I still dream about London and I was last there in 1975.

[ivy]

I recently commented to a friend that luxuries are those things you enjoy but wouldn't pay for yourself, heh. That's pretty much how I feel about extravagant hotel upgrades. Would I go for that? Never. Do I enjoy them when I get them? Totally. Nothing is ever going to be better than the Shangri-La in Kowloon, though. For some reason I got a penthouse suite. All marble floors, chandeliers in every room, bigger than any home I've ever lived in... and it was just me. I enjoyed the heck out of it while I had it, though.

I share a birthday with Amelia Earhardt. Yours is also very cool, though!

I would take questions if you've got 'em, but I'm fine if you don't.

[ckd]

Yeah, that sounds about right...and that suite sounds amazing.

[minoanmiss]

I like your choice of Dr. Semmelweicz.

[calimac]

I don't know if London is my favorite city, but I certainly like it a lot, and agree with everything positive you have to say about it, including the transit and the food. It's often struck me how much more comfortable I feel in London than in New York, even though I'm an American. But then, I'm from the opposite coast and have been in London much more often than I've been in New York.

I'd classify nice hotel experiences as really thoughtful and helpful service from the staff, which I've often had. The time last summer I arrived in Atlanta without a lost bag, I needed a lot of incidental help from the hotel staff, and they really stepped up.

I like such German food as I've had in good ethnic restaurants, but I'm not sure if I've ever had sauerbraten.

[drwex]

For me it's a toss-up between London and Amsterdam. For the city alone I might choose London, but when you add in the people A'dam edges it out for me.

I'm pretty sure my nicest experiences at hotels have had nothing to do with the hotels themselves.

[ckd]

I'm pretty sure my nicest experiences at hotels have had nothing to do with the hotels themselves.

Certainly some of my most enjoyable experiences at hotels had little to do with the hotel and a great deal to do with the company I was keeping. But since those experiences are not mine alone to tell about.... ;-D

[secretagentmoof]

Man, my reaction to London was almost the opposite; I thought the food was expensive and/or crap, the public transport slow and underwhelming, and its highbrow culture to be not all-that. Many of these are due in part to living in Tokyo immediately prior to living in London, though.

[ckd]

Tokyo is certainly far ahead of London on the transit front; I've only been there once for a few days, but would love to go back. I didn't get to explore the food options much that trip and also didn't have time to visit many museums; we did get out to the aviation museum near NRT though.