cager. Always on the look out for movies. Care to give us a one line synposis of Superbad. One to miss. We were in Venice in May. Definitely not a car city. For the best biking in Italy go to Tuscany.

because the city is under threat by rising water. Many of the homes smell because of rot about the base of the structures. You won't realize it necessarily, because the city appears to maintain the facade. But, if you look closely, many of the homes are abandoned.
Want a job to make you fit. Get a delivery job. Delivery people move goods about using hand carts. They have arms with greater circumferences than Lance Armstrong's quads.

Cager, bad time to visit Europe. Dollar is at all time lows vs. the Euro. Everything there will be insanely expensive if you are paying in dollars.

If money is no issue you might want to consider moving to New York! Most people live here car free and we have the best Mass Transit in America. Rent is expensive but it is offset by savings on not having a car.

If money is an issue have you considered Buenos Aries? It is an amazing city and Argentina is insanely cheap right now! Everything there is roughly 1/3 the price it is here and it is extremely pedestrian friendly.

thank you for all the postings. i still haven't left. I may just cancel my ticket. Seems it might not be the best way to go. i'll keep ya'll posted.

I think you'll find that American culture is pretty much taking over the world. If you think a McDonalds or Walmart looks ugly in Davis, wait till you see them in a historic area of Europe or Asia.

Here is a picture of a train that goes to Venice:
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q.../BikeTrain.jpg
And another:
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q...cycleTrain.jpg
The train has very ample space to bring your bike onboard.

However, Venice itself is not a good city to bike in, on account they got NO ROADS! It's all canals.

A pedal boat is the obvious solution.

Copenhagen might be considered. It has a relatively nice attitude towards bicycling.

http://www.i-sustain.com/learningCen...kab2004_UK.pdf

Germany is starting to finally follow the EU lead/pressure towards going smokeless (at least inside public buildings, restaurants, airports and train stations). Each state has to pass their own legislation.

I vote for 14-year-old girl. She'll be listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the grumpiest 14-year-old girl of all times. :D

Or just posing as a 14 yo girl to trap predators on television. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Or outing college grad loozers/Woodstock Nation wannabes/mental cases without a clue passing themselves off as bicycling advocates.

I resemble that remark!

http://www.pointhappy.com/gcf/GordonOnStiletto.jpg

Behold, 21st Century Man!

Why Italy and not Belgium or the Netherlands??

The food!

venice et al
 

oh, don't give up on venice sight unseen! it's true that it's a NO bike city *in the city center* but it's still a place that makes you really think about cars in your world, and noise pollution. and once you get outside of venice to mestre (where people actually live) and on, it's nice biking country.

for cycling around tuscany is decent but living there -- you've got to like hills. this summer i spent a month living in berlin and i absolutely adored cycling there. the bike lanes are obvious, the cars are used to bikes!! and they back up out of the bike lanes for you! i was in heaven : )

the netherlands is known for its bike-friendly cities. i believe that maastricht is nearly bike only, or at least the bike lanes are much larger than the car-lanes.

in krakow, naturally, people aren't sure what bikes are, or what they are doing in the road. they think i'm perhaps a stray dog, and should be run over...

Witamy, keflex. :) That's really sad to hear in the hometown of Karol Wojtyla. I was in Catholic grade school in the 1980's and we learned that the man really liked to ride his bike.

Here you go!

http://www.hobiecat.com/kayaking/models_sport.html

http://www.hobiecat.com/kayaking/ima...t_features.jpg

How much did the ticket cancelation set you back? Still suffering or laughing at the tribulations of camping out in Davis, Ca or have you drifted in to some other town?

Ugh - another "I hate American" post by troll Cagertools. You couldn't tell the person "dragging" you that you weren't interested? And there's plenty of dumber things than Superbad. Like Cheaters for example, and the Magic Bullet informercial. Oh wait I love the Magic Bullet informerical. Hazel is my favorite.

You need to examine yourself. If you think the entire concept of "America" is the reason you're unhappy my guess is that the problem is you. Sure there's lots of cars and consumption. I'm not a fan, but welcome to capitalism. But there's plenty of wonderful urban walkable neighborhoods, and wide open spaces out west. Every imaginable culture inside, wait why am I selling you? If you can't find anything good in northern California of all places the problem is you.

p.s. as the other posters mentioned why not go somewhere cheap. Czech or Slovak republic, Croatia, Thailand, etc. They're all beatiful places and cheap. Don't go to Argentina. That's my second home. Or how about hangin out with me and my Bulgarian friends at Barricudas and pick their brains at why they chose to move here for schooling and work instead of the utopia that is Europe.

Hey good post there JD. You hang out in Argentina from time to time? Whereabouts? I've been all over that part of the world, I like it there too, as well as Chile and Uruguay. Once you get away from the capital cities or a few of the resort towns of any of those countries, don't run into very many foreign tourists. Very nice lifestyle, pretty easy going. There's a few towns near Cordoba, Argentina that I wouldn't mind checking out to turn into a long term place to stay after I retire from my office cubicle world in 3 years or so. Nice weather, good public transit, pretty decent for bike riding and pretty easy on the ATM card compared to most places in the world.

Thanks. I've only taken one big trip to Argentina, for a few weeks in late '05. But my heart lives there :) I met some wonderful people there I still keep in contact with. I love the food, culture, political activism (I was there during the BsAs provincial elections) and passion of the Portenos.

I stayed in one neighborhood in Recoleta/Barrio Norte so really got to know once place well -- and did a side trip to Uruguay as well.

I'll be returning soon, maybe get to Cordoba and do some winery tours, or south to Patagonia. It's very affordable. Europe at 1/3 the U.S. dollar.

Where is CagerTools now anyways? He hasn't posted in a month, and I found his posts entertaining....

My guess, in his parent's basement. Or maybe a government/charity institution proving 3 meals and a warm cot.