Emma's home

[ritaxis]

Heavily drugged, still in pain, but playing Pokemon D&D with Frank and some of their friends. Doing really well. She has had pudding and hot and sour soup, which helps. Jason is being really helpful for her too. So's Frank.

The nice fellow and I and I had a screaming argument about whether to use a rental car or public transportation while in Europe. Any informed opinions?

On another front, who'se done voice posts while travelling? Is it a good idea?

Comments

[del-c.livejournal.com]

Don't think of the car as something you "can" do without, as if it were the superior convenience. In large European towns, it may be a ball and chain instead, with public transport the clearly superior convenience. There's parking, and the density and speed of road traffic, to consider, both of which are much less tourist-friendly in Europe than in California.

On holiday in CA in 1997, I was surprised how quickly I was able to fall into a mindset that considered hopping into a car, driving from San Francisco to San Jose for an evening in a restaurant, and driving back to SF, to be a reasonable and relaxing activity. Why not? The parking was easy to find, the roads were wide and free, and it took minutes to get on the freeway at one end, and to get to the destination after leaving the freeway at the other.

It's not that I couldn't do the same thing between London and Reading, but that it would suck all the enjoyment out of an evening out. How much easier to hop on a train for the fifty mile trip and be there in thirty minutes!

Both sides of this question have their disadvantages, of course, so inevitably the "loser" in this argument is going to have plenty of opportunities to say "This wouldn't have happened if we'd done it my way...", and be right. Remember, whether you go by private or public, you've spent good money to be where you are, don't waste it by getting stressed. If you're delayed for any reason, just chill out and use the time to look around.