OffThePost.org

You want to maximize your ability to go into town, so I'd take the longest one possible -- the long Atlanta one.

One (relatively) short ride on MARTA, and you can go anywhere. You'll have enough time too, though obviously you always want to play it conservative before an international flight. (If you'll have a cellphone with you, have flightstats.com or a similar site send you status updates to your phone in case anything changes).

I've never had issues with security taking a long time at Hartsfield, by the way. If anything, you'll wonder if they shouldn't maybe be checking a little closer than they are. But I think the inconvenience of security screening is vastly, vastly overstated anyway.

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Edit: here's some stuff you can easily reach on MARTA alone, coming from the airport--

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I'd agree - go with the longer stay in Hotlanta... That should be enough time to take in CNN (check ahead to see if they are allowing tours again; heard that they suspended that post-9/11), and see the Underground. The World of Coke is okay, too, if you want to taste want Fanta Orange tastes like in Mombasa...

Scratch that... found a different flight that I like better and is about $100 cheaper. And it's finally booked a month to the day before I leave. Northwest went down in price. Have an airport change on my way home in Chicago from O'Hare to Midway... but I have a lot of time to make the switch and there are shuttles between the two. It also puts me on the Kennedy Expressway right into the heart of Chicago, so I'll get a glimpse at one of my future vacation destinations.

On the way: Minneapolis --> Amsterdam --> Manchester
Way home: Manchester --> Chicago O'Hare; Chicago Midway --> Saskatoon (stopover in Minneapolis).

Taking my luggage around Chicago airports probably won't be very fun, but oh well. Minny to Amsterdam is a red eye flight, so I'll sleep for a good chunk of it. Arrive in Manchester at apporoximately 1 PM local.

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

Just listing out my potential destinations, a majority of which will occur:

Manchester
Liverpool
Leeds
Rome
Florence
Pisa (I know we discussed it negatively, but I don't think I can talk my sister out of it, besides it might only be a day trip deal)
Siena
Whitby/Saltaire (day trips from Leeds)
Carlisle/Lake District (near Scotland, my sister's boyfriend's hometown)
Glasgow

The Scottish one will depend upon where our costs figure to be for Italy and what I can afford beyond that trip. Well, particularily heading up to Glasgow. Looks like Edinburgh probably is about Plan C.

Actually, I'll assume 9 of the destinations will come to fruition. It'll be a freaking awesome trip. I've only been to Liverpool and Leeds of the places listed.

The Italian vacation looks like it'll be a full week (11th to 18th). Flights on the 11th are cheap (I know I said I have a free ticket, but there is one person who doesn't and we're all splitting the costs).

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

If you must go to the tourist trap known as Pisa, make it on your way to Florence. Seriuosly dude, its about 10 min walk from the train station, it'll take you 15 minutes to walk around the park, then you'll think "now what", and head back to the train station and make your way to Florence, which is a city that actually deserves your time!

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"if your parachute doesn't open up while skydiving, don't worry, you have the rest of your life to figure it out"

That's kind of the plan as far as I can tell. I have told my sister of the Pisa warnings, so we'll see how that goes. We are spending 4/5 nights in Florence, including my birthday. I'm going to convince her that we don't need to spend much time there, and if she wants, we'll spend an extra night in the Tuscany region as a compromise.

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

4 nights in florence is more then enough time, majority of the sites are in a section known as "Historical Centre" take the hop on hop off tour, and your set!

such a beautiful city! you could squeeze another night up in tuscany and take the commuter train to pisa and back as well. Tuscany is stunning!

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"if your parachute doesn't open up while skydiving, don't worry, you have the rest of your life to figure it out"

Heh, just realized I'll be spending almost as much time (if not the same amount of time) in Florence as I will in Leeds, which is where my sister actually lives. That's all dependent on the Scottish sojourn, I suppose. Not a ton of just visiting time... but hey, she's coming to Saskatchewan for Christmas, so there's plenty of that ahead.

Dear God I need this vacation.

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

The CDN dollar is trading at 92.8 today. Should I change for Yankeebucks today or wait until next week? I'm thinking I should go today.

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It's been sitting around there for a couple of days, but I wouldn't expect it to spike up. Some random news about the US economy might spike the USD up suddenly and leave you a little short. I'd exchange today. Maybe the CDN will go above 93, but it's more likely to go below 92, IMO.

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

you won't lose much or gain much if you wait till next week, just buy it today

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"if your parachute doesn't open up while skydiving, don't worry, you have the rest of your life to figure it out"

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Vegas this Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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I'm going to be on The Price is Right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One dollar Drew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One dollar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Back from Italy now... still in the UK. Had a blast... Rome is amazing, and I pretty much did everything you can in Florence. Have to go through the pictures now... might have some pictures uploaded tomorrow as I'm taking a bit of a rest day.

Found a great bar in Florence that serves the best mojitos ever made. Florence is pretty quiet at night, so it was cool to find a spot that was full... though after Happy Hour the place cleared out.

I'll go back to Rome someday for sure... did a whirlwind tour in essentially a day and a half and hit up all the major spots.

Got a couple days around Leeds here, then I'll be going to the Lake District on Friday and Manchester for Saturday and Sunday, leaving early Monday morning.

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

i forgot to mention the Joshua Tree Pub in Florence, freaking amazing! all backpackers, so always a good time! glad you had fun in my motherland!

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"if your parachute doesn't open up while skydiving, don't worry, you have the rest of your life to figure it out"

The Lake District is very green and pretty. The house where Beatrix Potter lived, in Sawry, Cumbria, is nice. We had a good lunch at a pub near her house. Lots of neat small towns in the area.

Just got back from Virginia, and am leaving this Sunday for my honeymoon!!

The Israel trip long in the making is finally taking place.

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Have a great time!

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Have a great time, Ian and Mrs. J21!