What's the longest journey you've been on?

Reiketsu

Family holiday were we flew to Florida, rented a car and drove from there to NYC, stopping places along the way. Then the whole way back again. On a train it was from Prague to Warsaw, overnight. We should have been there around 11:30am (left at midnight) but thanks to a stopover in the middle of nowhere and the conductor sending us on the wrong connection train it was more like 3pm. Not a wink of sleep and straight to a concert....only to sleep 4 hours and get a 6 hour train to Berlin :pac:

mosstin

Hoop66 wrote: »

Beijing to Moscow on the "no 4" back in the late 80s. It takes about 8 days depending on border crossings, which could be tricky in those days. Although we were lucky and only held up for about 8 or 9 hours going China-USSR.

Met some "interesting" people on the trip, including a permanently drunk Russian guy whose only English was "Fúck Gorby!" - he was on his way to a "Fúck Gorby" demonstration in Moscow.

We drank more than a few Fúck Gorby! toasts with him. Couple of months later, the Soviet Union collapsed...coincidence?

Now I would have loved to have done this trip in the late '80s.

circadian

IK09 wrote: »

26 hrs on a bus from Chang Mai, Thailand to Vang Vieng, Laos. It was horrible.

The roads in Laos are mental at the best of times.

DainBramage

Not in terms of distance but 19 hours on a bus from Iguazu Falls to Buenos Aires including about 2 hours to get through traffic the last few miles to bus station :eek:

WilyCoyote

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Life.

36 years and counting.

So you're really 63?

MurdyWurdy

I went from Wellington to Dublin with our cat and it took three/four days.

We drove from Wellington to Auckland which is 8 hours, then dropped the cat off at the pet transport company and stayed in a motel that night. Early the next morning we flew to Sydney, then Singapore and then to Heathrow, arriving a day and a half later.

At Heathrow we hired a car and drove to the animal processing centre. We had to wait 5/6 hours for the cat to be cleared and then we drove 2 hours and stayed in a motorway hotel (with the cat).

The next morning we drove to Holyhead, dropped off the hire car and got on the ferry as foot passengers, carrying on the cat in his big crate and all our luggage (including my wedding dress!).

3 hours later we arrived in Dublin and were picked up by my parents.

So pretty epic journey but worth it - our cat is awesome!

timmy4u2

MurdyWurdy wrote: »

I went from Wellington to Dublin with our cat and it took three/four days.

We drove from Wellington to Auckland which is 8 hours, then dropped the cat off at the pet transport company and stayed in a motel that night. Early the next morning we flew to Sydney, then Singapore and then to Heathrow, arriving a day and a half later.

At Heathrow we hired a car and drove to the animal processing centre. We had to wait 5/6 hours for the cat to be cleared and then we drove 2 hours and stayed in a motorway hotel (with the cat).

The next morning we drove to Holyhead, dropped off the hire car and got on the ferry as foot passengers, carrying on the cat in his big crate and all our luggage (including my wedding dress!).

3 hours later we arrived in Dublin and were picked up by my parents.

So pretty epic journey but worth it - our cat is awesome!

And did you pay the same amount in the UK as the outlandish €230.00 charge for looking at the cat's paperwork at the facility in Swords?

anncoates

Flight was once cancelled from Argentina due to technical difficulties and took about a day and a half to get home because all the connections on replacement flight including a long nighttime stopover in Madrid.

HansHolzel

How about this journey?

errlloyd

Longest journey I've been on was Boracay Island back to Dublin in 2012 - with Salmonella poisoning.

I'd been at a "full moon party" (I get that it doesn't count in the Philippines) and got completely beyond messed up and went for a dodgy hot dog from the BBQ.

Woke up in bits, really really ill. Two days later I left the Island to head home - it consisted of.

Back of a pickup truck to the dock - 20 minutes
Boat to the mainland - 20 minutes
Bus to the airport - 2 hours
Internal flight in philipino sized seats - 3 hours
Getting from domestic airport across Manilla to bag drop, then on to international airport at rush hour - 2 hours
Going through 4 separate weird queues in the airport - 3 hours
Flight to Abu Dhabi - 8 hours
Layover - 8 hours
Flight do Dublin - 8 hours
Aircoach home - 40 minutes

The whole thing done between stomach wrenching diarrhoea and vomiting. Awful stuff.

MurdyWurdy

timmy4u2 wrote: »

And did you pay the same amount in the UK as the outlandish €230.00 charge for looking at the cat's paperwork at the facility in Swords?

Hmm, I'm not sure. We paid a lot of money to the pet transport company for various things (it was about $3000NZD for the flights and fees and things plus we had to get rabies vaccines done ourselves) so I don't know individual costs but I do think the fees were quite high. NZ and the UK have some agreement that makes it easier for animals to go through there so it was easier to get him into the UK (he even has a British pet passport) then go through to Ireland.

Qantas did lose our paperwork so they weren't going to release the cat to us. There was a way to get him through without the one piece of paper we were missing and it cost 100 pounds but Qantas paid that because it was their fault.

Makood

Lviv to Zaporozhye on a train, 26 hours. A stove in each carriage to keep us warm. Vodka and a bag of homemade food kept us going. Great experience.

Edit: A 4 berth carriage with some crazy Ukranians helped

major bill

I was working in Germany when that bastard Volcano decided to blow it's load shooting Ash out all over Europe.

I spent 3 days travelling from Germany/France/Dover/Birmingham then home

2 Buses - 1 Ferry - 1 rented car and eventually a Plane!!!

stressfull but enjoyable


Oh and France is easily the ugliest looking place in europe!!!

timmy4u2

MurdyWurdy wrote: »

Hmm, I'm not sure. We paid a lot of money to the pet transport company for various things (it was about $3000NZD for the flights and fees and things plus we had to get rabies vaccines done ourselves) so I don't know individual costs but I do think the fees were quite high. NZ and the UK have some agreement that makes it easier for animals to go through there so it was easier to get him into the UK (he even has a British pet passport) then go through to Ireland.

Qantas did lose our paperwork so they weren't going to release the cat to us. There was a way to get him through without the one piece of paper we were missing and it cost 100 pounds but Qantas paid that because it was their fault.

I was just wondering as I collected a cat for a neighbour at swords and it cost €230.00 at the veterinary clinic for three minutes looking at the cats paperwork.

HansHolzel

major bill wrote: »

Oh and France is easily the ugliest looking place in europe!!!

(from) Endgame, Samuel Beckett

HAMM:
I once knew a madman who thought the end of the world had come. He was a painter—and engraver. I had a great fondness for him. I used to go and see him, in the asylum. I'd take him by the hand and drag him to the window. Look! There! All that rising corn! And there! Look! The sails of the herring fleet! All that loveliness!

(Pause)

He'd snatch away his hand and go back into his corner. Appalled. All he had seen was ashes.

(Pause)

He alone had been spared.

Pause)

Forgotten.

(Pause)

It appears the case is... was not so... so unusual.

timmy4u2

errlloyd wrote: »

Longest journey I've been on was Boracay Island back to Dublin in 2012 - with Salmonella poisoning.

I'd been at a "full moon party" (I get that it doesn't count in the Philippines) and got completely beyond messed up and went for a dodgy hot dog from the BBQ.

Woke up in bits, really really ill. Two days later I left the Island to head home - it consisted of.

Back of a pickup truck to the dock - 20 minutes
Boat to the mainland - 20 minutes
Bus to the airport - 2 hours
Internal flight in philipino sized seats - 3 hours
Getting from domestic airport across Manilla to bag drop, then on to international airport at rush hour - 2 hours
Going through 4 separate weird queues in the airport - 3 hours
Flight to Abu Dhabi - 8 hours
Layover - 8 hours
Flight do Dublin - 8 hours
Aircoach home - 40 minutes

The whole thing done between stomach wrenching diarrhoea and vomiting. Awful stuff.

The old story: I had fifty pints last night and had one burger on the way home and the burger killed me:D

I was in California for an academic year a while back, and my dad and I were going to a course in Florida during the holidays, so he flew out and we drove it. 3000 miles in 7 days, taking our time and taking Vegas, Houston, and New Orleans among others in along the way. I don't know if that road trip can ever be topped.

Tar.Aldarion

wazky wrote: »

My Xfactor "journey".

This is the most important thing that has every happened in my life OMG OMG!

/says the 5 year old.

yizorselves

Tipperary, ****in length of the road!

Mr.Prodston

Flight: Singapore -> Dubin via Dubai: 22 including the 6 hours in Dubai airport.
Train: Bangkok -> Chiang Mai: 16 hours, in a sleeper but a mixture of sweat from the heat and aircon left me the flu.
Bus: Siem Reap -> Bangkok: 12 hours including 2 hours in 35 degree heat at immigration.
Fearing for Life: Phnom Penh -> Siem Reap: 5 hours in a mini-van on a gravel "road". Never been as scared in my life.

Yes I've been to Southeast Asia recently :pac:

mustard_igloo

Bus: Seven and a half hours from Krakow to Budapest. Torture! Going through the backarse of Poland and Slovakia with two fifteen minute stops on the way. Never. Again.

Train: Eight hours overnight from Prague to Krakow in a sleeper. Longest one including stop overs was again, Prague to Krakow. 10 hours, three trains, and we almost missed the first one. The ten hours was definitely the worse! Everytime you dozed off you had to switch trains!

Flight: Dublin to Orlando with a stop over in Philedelphia. About twelve hours total. Stopped over on the way back but the airport was full of happy americans because it was the day Obama was elected as president.

Dublin Red Devil

Flight from Dublin to JFK. About 7 and a half hours

MusicalMelody

Dublin - Amsterdam - Beijing

13 hours of pure hell as I can't sleep on any form of transport

dpe

circadian wrote: »

The roads in Laos are mental at the best of times.

Best taxi ride of my life was a six hour trip from the Thai border to Siem Reap in Cambodia. The paddy fields had all flooded onto the road so we had to keep getting pulled through by tractors and the car was gradually filling up with water. It was both terrifying and hilarious, especially when a taxi in front of us decided not to pay for the tractor pull across one flood and ended up off the road and sinking vertically into the paddy field.

Merkin

Have done a lot of long flights etc but the longest single trip was last summer when Mr. Merkin and I were on our jolliers enjoying Route 66. We totally ran out of time. So to get back home in time we did the following: Drove 588 miles from Arizona to LA (reaching LA in rush hour traffic), got on a flight from LAX to JFK, caught another flight from JFK to LHR and then in LHR we got to our car (which had a flat tyre) and then drove 225 miles to home. We were speechless with exhaustion for about a week. Best holiday ever though.

Vinz Mesrine

Drove from Limerick to Rosslare, boat to Holyhead, from there we drove through the night to Dover, boat to Calais and then another drive to Paris. 25 straight hours of travelling in the back of a 1995 Corolla.

The same holiday had us drive from Paris to Munich and ended with us driving from Germany, through Luxembourg, Holland and staying in Lille before getting the boat back to Dover and driving on to family in Wales to stay overnight with them before getting the boat back to Rosslare.

That was long before planes were affordable for a family holiday.

josip

Vinz Mesrine wrote: »

That was long before planes were affordable for a family holiday.

Even with today's cheap flights I don't think you can beat a road trip.
It'll either be an ordeal that'll be a badge of honour, or, more likely, the journey itself will be the highlight of the holiday.
Given a choice between a road trip and Thomas Cook, I know which I'd choose.

Vinz Mesrine

josip wrote: »

Even with today's cheap flights I don't think you can beat a road trip.
It'll either be an ordeal that'll be a badge of honour, or, more likely, the journey itself will be the highlight of the holiday.
Given a choice between a road trip and Thomas Cook, I know which I'd choose.

Tbh, it was a great 2 weeks

old hippy

Dublin to New York. Should have been pretty straightforward enough, however, Aer Lingus were on strike so we got a Pan Am to an airport in Scotland, waited until refuelled and then on to Boston. Waited another hour or so & then on to New York. As it was the first time I'd ever flown, I wasn't narky at all. The parents were not so excited about the extra time...

Plane: 8 hours from Dublin to Abu Dhabi, followed by a mad dash through Abu Dhabi airport to go straight onto another 8 hour flight to Beijing.
Same trip in reverse a few months later.

Train: Shuyang to Chengdu. Journey was supposed to be 30 hours but it turned out to be only 29 hours and 40 minutes. WIN!
I splurged for the first class sleeper tickets, having already experienced the second class sleepers on a 10 hour trip from Beijing to Shuyang before. My roommates included an old guy who gave me cigarettes and a pregnant woman who had a bit of English. Wasn't a bad trip at all.

Bus: About 7 hours between Frankfurt and Munich (a trip which should take less than 4 hours according to Google Maps so don't ask me how it took us this long! :rolleyes: ) on a badly organised school tour.
Also had a few 6 to 7 hour bus rides in China.

Car: Can't remember.

Irish Musician

New Orleans to Los Angeles Amtrak train,46 hours.

gramar

I drove 1300km a couple of weeks ago. It took about 13 hours. Never again.
It was almost as bad a the bus from Waterford to Dublin before the motorway.

PanaDrama

23 hours via bus from Saigon to Pnomh Penh

Lawrence1895

Dortmund - Teplice (Slovakia) on the bus way back in 2000. The journey was so long, I can't even recall, how long it took :rolleyes:

ciaramc

41 hours

Car trip from Gold Coast, OZ to Brisbane Airport > Brisbane flight to Singapore Airport > Singapore flight to Abu Dhabi Airport > Abu Dhabi flight to Dublin Airport > Bus trip from Dublin Airport to Co. Donegal > Car trip home