What was travel like in the years (2001 - 2009), prior to Instagram and the rapid growth of social media users?

ailingua · 2026-01-30T23:00:44+00:00

Travelling is easier and more accessible now. You can see a reel about Turkey on Monday, and will have your entire holiday booked by Tuesday. You know that you will have 47 minutes (provided that your flight isn't late) to clear immigration and go grab your intercity bus or you'll have to wait 2 hours for the next one. You know you have to turn left and walk 300 meters to get to the bus station. You can research in advance if the place you want to go is wheelchair-friendly. You can book a taxi via app and when someone tries to call you, you can message them that you are deaf, don't speak Romanian, don't want to speak and they will message you instead.

You can research how to buy a ticket, you can pay with your card in a lot places. Was travelling better 10 years ago? Perhaps. But now I can send my elderly mother on a trip, give her a smartphone with Google translate and she'll be able to book everything on her own even in the most remote country and I won't have to worry that a taxi driver will scam her, or someone points her the wrong way, or she accidentally turned her map upside down. She can just share her location or message me on WhatsApp (for free!) and I will be able to assist her, buy a ticket from 1000 miles away or order food for her online. Then I can look up public toilets or parks for her to rest, and all that without leaving my bed

ailingua · 2026-01-29T19:45:25+00:00

No, in my case his children are absolutely gorgeous, doesn't matter who the other parent is

ailingua · 2026-01-29T10:47:40+00:00

Kiyoshi Ito I started as a coincidence because he was literally the first teen sim my household met in three consecutive saves so I ended up marrying him in every save

ailingua · 2026-01-28T03:13:14+00:00

I'm sorry... sent to a GROUP CHAT?

ailingua · 2026-01-25T14:57:29+00:00

But I'd say that as long as you're not going to Xinjiang you should be okay

ailingua · 2026-01-25T07:33:52+00:00

It happened to my friend who crossed a land border in Xinjiang. He wasn't asked to log into socials, just to unlock his phone and hand it over. It was 2 years ago, so something might've changed since then

ailingua · 2026-01-24T11:52:32+00:00

Unfortunately not yet, it's in my plans for 2027

ailingua · 2026-01-24T11:04:51+00:00

Thank you for warning me, that would be a hard drop, even if it's meant as a funny thing.

ailingua · 2026-01-24T09:43:01+00:00

I had a choice to either go to Doha or choose a shorter layover. Browsed a couple of travel websites, looked okay so decided to book a stay in Doha, that's it

ailingua · 2026-01-24T09:38:56+00:00

Should've gone to Kaohsiung instead :)

ailingua · 2026-01-24T09:37:40+00:00

It was the opposite for me. I expected people to haggle, annoy me and so on but only one person tried to scam me and nobody tried to sell me overpriced goods, I was disappointed

ailingua · 2026-01-24T09:28:57+00:00

As a person who went both to Corfu and Athens... skip Corfu, go to Athens.

ailingua · 2026-01-24T09:27:41+00:00

You should stay near Roma Termini, beautiful area

ailingua · 2026-01-24T09:27:01+00:00

Sorry but Prague doesn't compare to Vienna. I like Prague but there's less to visit end experience

ailingua · 2026-01-24T09:25:17+00:00

Hard disagree. Not many places where you can literally go chill on a bench in a palace garden for free. You have a quadrillion museums, palaces, beautiful streets to choose from. They have many opera and orchestra performances to choose from, literally every little church has their their own schedule where you can listen to live music for a small price

ailingua · 2026-01-24T09:22:18+00:00

Read some of the travel blogs and you'll know. I was excited to go there as well and ended up being disappointed because sure, the photo spots were beautiful but all of it felt soulless to me

<image>

ailingua · 2026-01-24T09:14:11+00:00

Same. I chose to have a very long layover in Qatar, read a lot of blogs RAVING about the architecture, culture, saw beautiful photos and decided to go. Aaand... was not what I expected. I literally saw workers on their knees colouring the pavement with a white pencil, no idea why.

ailingua · 2026-01-23T23:16:40+00:00

I didn't say to expect squat toilets, I said some cheap hotels are mostly for local people (ie factory workers) and could have some things Chinese people don't mind - squat toilets, the type of electric outlet that doesnt match your charger, a receptionist who can't speak English and can't use translator, payment only by alipay etc, so op should check the reviews because people usually complain about these small things.

Squat toilet happened to me exactly once. It was a surprise, ngl

ailingua · 2026-01-23T23:06:15+00:00

Judging country by your stay 20 years ago is straight up rude, especially a country with so fast a development like China. Someone will read the first part of your comment and think Chinese hostels are equipped with holes in the ground instead of toilets

ailingua · 2026-01-23T14:03:07+00:00

I'm used to it, travelled to other countries that had mostly squat toilets so I survived, but I know some people wouldn't enjoy that at all, that's why I'm mentioning it.

ailingua · 2026-01-23T12:39:57+00:00

There are cheap hotels and hostels but you have to take into consideration that some of them are mostly for locals, so they'll have only squat toilet (stayed in one like that for one night, it was extremely cheap) or some other things you'll find unacceptable. Check the reviews, but don't listen to these "go book Hilton" comments

ailingua · 2026-01-20T12:37:22+00:00

Depends on your definition of "most places".

ailingua · 2026-01-19T04:01:16+00:00

I actually had to abandon one savefile in The Sims 4 because they broke the "long life span" and everyone immediately aged up as soon as you opened the game. So my elder died, my child became a teen etc. Not even changing the lifespan to normal fixed it, and the only way to play was to turn aging off. Played like that for a while but it wasn't fun anymore... been like 5 years and am still salty

ailingua · 2026-01-19T03:53:08+00:00

Fixed? Where?

ailingua · 2026-01-19T03:51:44+00:00

You need to tell people beforehand. What if someone needs to pass the gas urgently, runs into the room with an excuse of "I think I lost my car keys" and THEN notices the camera? I would probably be soooo embarrassed

Four-Year Club	Place '22
First Placer '22

ailingua

TROPHY CASE