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Fortean Traveller

James_H

James_H

And I like to roam the land
Joined
May 18, 2002
Messages
7,647
9/12/12 - this post previously had a large index of location-related threads. As we now have a dedicated Fortean Traveller section all relevant threads have been moved into this forum.

Many of the threads previously listed were redundant links, subsumed into other threads, etc, and as the remaining ones are now all corralled here the list was no longer needed. Many thanks to H James for compiling it - made my life much easier :).

Stu
 
Nothing interesting has ever happened in Surrey.

Even when we do get a decent ghost story, like the Silent Pool it turns out to be a victorian fake.

One of my mates did see a ghost near witley station once, though, and we did used to have an abc although that was very local to us and we always suspected that many sightings were of an unusually large black house cat that lived somewhere nearby.
 
I bet surrey isn't really a Fortean drought :p
any interesting local history?
 
We had a couple of sailors famously murdered nearby in the devil's punchbowl and a local church has a cauldron that belonged to the fairies, but aside from that surprisingly little interesting history to the area. The southern part of the country was pretty much forest for most of history and the soil is very sandy and poor so it didn't really encourage people to live around here.

The villages are quite old, but any sense of local tradition or folklore has broadly been lost as the area became the commuter belt and the local community was increasingly priced out of the area.
 
Oh, Breakfast, you are wrong! Go further afield to Kingston-on-Thames. I lived there for a while in a very lucky position-a flat overlooking the market in the town square. My bathroom overlooked the graveyard of the church where some of the Kings of England have been crowned (nope, can't remember which ones, or any years, I think some were wearing those pointy shoes you see in medaeval art!).
It was the best 12 months of my life (I could fall out of bed and into work, many pubs in staggering distance). The building was listed, from C16th I think. I decided to find out some local history about the place and found a shoddy book in Waterstones. On flicking to the "Haunted Kingston" chapter I was shocked, surprised and a little bit sick to see a pencil drawing of my building-listed as the most haunted in the town:eek:
I still love Kingston, it has a lot of history, spooky and otherwise.
I live in Essex now.;)
 
The Fortean Traveller

A little input requested here (and I'm not sure if this is the best place for this thread, so any mods out there watching feel free to move it - as if you need my permission ;)).

I have recently had a little good fortune in the property market, and as a result I have been able to jack in my dreary drudge of 9-to-5 existence (bear with me, there is a point, I'm not just boasting). With some of the cash burning a hole in my bank account I have booked various trips to places I've always wanted to go. What I'm after is any advice on what might be on offer to the discerning Fortean (although these are all organised tours, there should be a chance to have a little unguided time).

Right, destinations are:

Borneo - clearly various cryptids/apemen, but what else is there?
Budapest - no idea what there might be here, but it's a long weekend on the lash with some old school friends, so the only inexplicable thing is likely to be how we got back to the hotel. Still, you never know ...
Nepal - yeti, Shambala, general mysticism. Any specific pointers?
Thailand, Cambodia, Laos - bit of a whistle stop, but what else apart from Angkor, the killing fields, and naga are Fortean.

I will naturally be taking a photo or two or 200, and if anybody's interested I'd be more than happy to share. The only real pain is that I'm flying back from Kathmandu on the 31st October, so I miss Uncon. Boo.

Absolutely any info, recommendations or comments would be most welcome.
 
My brother's been to Nepal, I can see what he says. There's a thread in chat all about Escargot's adventures in Hungary. Do ask her.

Congratulations, very happy for you. That's way cool.
 
Thank you very much - I am sooooo excited, it's like being a kid again at Christmas! One worry I have is that my flight to Borneo departs on, yes, you guessed it, September 11th. I honestly don't think I'll ever be able to be 100% comfortable flying on that particular date. Still, lightning never strikes twice and all that ...
 
Budapest- just gorgeous. Fantastic. I absolutely loved the place, beautiful. It's a place with lots of vantage points so you can see for miles, and you can visit every building and monument that takes your eye.

AND you can get to Vienna from there for a day trip. Another stunning city.
 
Excellent - the Budapest trip totally came out of nowhere - one of my friends rang up and said "Do you fancy going to Budapest for a long weekend?", I checked my incredibly hectic diary, and said "Okely-dokely!"

Is it one of those places that is fantastic in nice weather, but you just know it would be truly spell-binding in the midst of a gripping winter? That's how I felt about Prague (another superbly Fortean city IMHO) - stunning in June, but I would love to see Wenceslas Square covered in frost, with skeins of snow being blown across it ...

That's given me the shivers just thinking about it :)
 
The river is very wide and has lots of bridges to wander along, gawping at the astonishing views. In the caves above, there are giant bats to ride on. :cool:

Well, you could have a look at the 'does anyone know anything about Hungary?' thread on here. :)

Take binoculars.
 
I think I might just do that - thanks for all the info :D
 
Local Forteana / folklore

There has just been a lady on excess baggage (Radio 4) called Sue Clifford this morning (30th October) talking about local folklore and a project to document it as part of a common ground project. I suppose if anyone reads this within 7 days they should be able to listen to it on the Listen again feature on Radio 4s website (link below: click on listen to most recent Excess baggage)


http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/excessbaggage/

Mr P
 
Off to Barcelona as a Birthday treat in a few months. Lots of useful info online about standard things which we're bound to do. Good advice too about street-scams to avoid. But I've not found much so far about Weird Barcelona. Except this, which includes a School for Clowns and "In the toilet of time we fife."

Here

Well I hate clowns and it's a long time since I fifed in any toilet. Honest! Any weirder suggestions welcome. Maybe. :)
 
Bit late for you but any future visitors to Barcelona ought to check out the Wax Museum. Don't expect Madame Tussauds, it is worth it for the comedy value. I'd swear Camilla Parker-Bowles is just Prince Phillip in drag and the Star Wars exhibit has to be seen to be believed - it is Holiday Special bad. Building itself is also very atmospheric and spooky.

Best bit is the bar EL BOSC DE LES FADES which is next to the Museum. I won't ruin the surprise but I'd advise staying at least 1/2 an hour or so to get the full experience. One of the best bars I've ever been to and perfect for a chill and break mid-way through a day traipsing the Ramblas.

http://www.museocerabcn.com/eng.htm#
 
And thanks for the dating tips!

NOT!

</wayne's world>
 
Is there an existant thread on Warwickshire or would I need to start it?
 
crystophalax said:
Is there an existant thread on Warwickshire or would I need to start it?
Click to expand...
I've justed shifted one into this forum - it's here.

Look forward to your input :).
 
Thanks! I submitted my first post on Warwickshire, and time permitting (which is uncertain with a full time job and a three month old baby) there will be more.
 
Also I think I would like a teeny bit more reassurance that geiger counters were going to be involved somewhere along the line.
 
Spotted this earlier today near my hotel in Reykjavik:

PSX_20171116_212559.jpg

Liked the matter-of-fact instructions about how to commune with elves.
Can't say I sensed anything strange at the time and I carried on walking towards downtown Reykjavik. I took a photo a few minutes later of the Tjörnin pond, which I had never seen completely frozen before, and then a photo of the "Gimli" building. Between those two photos, however, is one I cannot explain.
It looks far darker than the others and definitely more crepuscular than it should for around 11:30 this morning. It also features a figure I certainly don't recall seeing. As my mobile (a BlackBerry PRIV) is set to make a 'shutter' noise when it takes a photo, I don't recall hearing an accidental shot being taken.
What do you make of this?

PSX_20171116_215257.jpg
 
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