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moonrainbow January 16 2014, 03:28:36 UTC
Hi!

I liked Tennessee, though I can't tell one specific reason why. It was something in the air. I like music, and Nashville had some distinctive fun and party feeling. And the Southern cuisine is lovely (nothing like the North of the US), and the people were relaxed and friendly like nowhere else (not even in a holiday destination like Florida). We had fun chatting with taxi drivers, with receptionist ladies, with waiters and waitresses, and there were so many restaurants and cafes with really good music inside.

I would love to visit it again and to go to Smoky Mountains. I think Smokies are popular because they are really close to very many highly populated areas, and you can take a day trip off there from your home. National Parks of the West are a lot more remote.

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peacetraveler22 January 16 2014, 14:04:48 UTC
I didn't know you traveled to Tennessee! The North and South are VERY different, and it's true what you say about Southern people being extremely friendly. Even I was shocked at how pleasant they are. I think I already showed you one of the big cabins my family sometimes rents in the Smoky Mountains. Definitely worth doing if you have the time. I haven't been to many national parks out West. It's a real goal of mine to drive cross country in the next few years and stop at a lot of them. Happy New Year to you and Maria! :)

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moonrainbow January 17 2014, 01:32:26 UTC
I visited Nashville for a corporate conference two years ago. I wasn't able to see the other parts of the state though. Even so, Nashville did give me that feeling of difference of the South, and I'd love to visit it and the pother parts of the South again.

National Parks of the West are my dream that still fails to come true. I just can't allocate so much time as needed to travel there. Low chances that a trip to the National Parks will happen this year unless i leave my job for a few months.

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peacetraveler22 January 17 2014, 13:12:01 UTC
It would be great to leave our jobs for a few months! But how do pay bills? :) Btw, how much vacation time does the average worker get in Russia?

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moonrainbow January 19 2014, 07:46:45 UTC
We can't complain too much at our vacations in Russia. They are four weeks by law, this is more than for an average American.
The employers often request to take no more than two weeks at a time, this is more restrictive.

But there is so much to see that you can't get a deep immersion in two weeks. When you want to stay in a National park for at least a couple of days - and this is barely enough just to see its major sights - you will run out of vacation days not even crossing the border of a single state.

I calculated that this journey has to be at least a month long. That is only feasible when you have a special agreement with your employer or when you quit the job. And then traveling makes your account empty in a few months. What to do?

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peacetraveler22 January 19 2014, 16:20:26 UTC
Actually most professional jobs in America will give you three - four weeks vacation from the beginning. Then you continually accrue more and more based on year's of service. The crappy vacations are in retail or service sector jobs where you only get two weeks a year. Of course, no job would like you to take the full month at one time. I don't really have a set amount of vacation time as a lawyer. We're simply required to bill so many hours to clients per year and as long as this threshold is met, they don't care when you do it or from where. So, although I'm often quite tired of working as a lawyer it would be difficult to find so much flexibility for continual travel in another job.

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