[ZaidH]

@DoctorEldritch Goodness gracious that sounds amazing! One of my dreams in life is to visit countryside like this one, and just throw my phone and other electronics with communication capabilities, in the bin. Just be in the present moment.

So, I wasn't familiar with the Rocinante reference, so I looked it up. Now my head is filled with the Don Quixote jingle 😁

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH It was ok. Things like that are interesting in principle, but realistically speaking, the execution is always lacking. Old English houses were never designed to be converted into something like spas, there are a lot of alterations that need to go into it, and even then, they will not be as good as spas that were built with that function in mind from the start. So although it was interesting to visit and see it, in the back of my mind, there was always that notion that some old things better be left alone and admired for what they are and not turned into something they were never intended to be.

But the countryside was quite charming indeed, as is often the case in the UK. On that note, rather than getting rid of electronics, why not visit an island? Like the Isle of Sark:

It's so small that it has no roads or cars, one small village and a very limited broadband connection. They even turn off all the lights at night to admire the night sky without any light pollution. You'd fully disconnect there. And that's just one example, there are many islands that allow for a nature escapism without the drastic measures of binning your possessions 😅

Indeed, before Don Quixote was the shop franchise, he was the Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha, and before Rocinante was a yacht, he was a horse. Times have changed...

[ZaidH]

in the back of my mind, there was always that notion that some old things better be left alone and admired for what they are and not turned into something they were never intended to be.

Word! There are countless options if you want to go for a sauna, but actually experiencing things from the past is rare and a much more intriguing prospect. Even here, they've modernized the interiors of historical buildings, and on top of that, they hand out VR headsets to "experience how people lived before." Should’ve just kept the place as it was instead of this nonsense smh.

God, it hurts watching this video while sitting in a desert city 😂 I've never seen this much water in my life. Perfect vacation destination right here!

Yeah, funny how things work. Now if you mention Rocinante to anyone, they'll probably think of the spaceship from The Expanse series.

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH More so as there are many historic thermes as well that are still performing their original function, and you can soak in both mineral waters and history when you visit them. I very much enjoy such visits, historic thermes are a delight for all senses. Like Friedrichsbad, for example:

Enjoy the water, admire historic architecture, and leave old British country mansions out of it 😅

Desert cities can be hard, but Saudi Arabia has its share of invigorating beauty, too:

Surely a day trip to one of those places could be a possibility?

I would not be so sure. I'd like to think Rocinante became a symbolic name in its own right. That is, in Expanse, they named their ship that, and we, the readers, can deduce that the author intended to add an extra layer to how the crew feels about their ship and their mission. That extra layer may be lost for those who do not know where Rocinante came from originally.

But then, it became so symbolic now that even people who did not read the books would often know the origins of the name. Like with Schrödinger's cat, you do not need to understand quantum mechanics to get the overall meaning of the name. Or, more towards the literature, I would imagine at least some people who know who Frankenstein, Dracula or Doctor Jekyll are have not read the original stories. I'd like to think Rocinante and, indeed, Don Quixote, are similar in that sense.

[ZaidH]

@DoctorEldritch I hope the Friedrichsbad is fitted with a decent audio setup, cuz with a dome like that, you HAVE to play some OST inside. At night, no lights, and the Interstellar soundtrack playing? That’s ultimate relaxation right there!!!

Ah, Wadi Al Disah! Such a beautiful place. It's far from the major cities and is a bit underdeveloped, but it’s a great spot for folks into hiking. Definitely a place I'd love to visit.

That extra layer may be lost for those who do not know where Rocinante came from originally.

That’s me, unfortunately 😅 The Frankenstein bit never fails to amaze people. I usually see that fact pop up on trivia sites, and everyone’s always shocked that Frankenstein was the scientist.

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH I don't know about Friedrichsbad, but I know of Lake Bath in Hévíz:

The whole lake is a bath, and you can swim in most of it, though the bath building itself is built over the place where hot water streams out. The rest of the lake is colder. They have this announcement system where a speaker announces emergencies and the time on the hour so that visitors would know how long they have spent in the water while in the lake.

And at certain times of day (not always) that system also plays some music, sometimes classics (it is Hungary, after all), sometimes music you can do water gymnastics with, things like that. So there are musical options out there.

I thought visiting Wadi Al Disah would not be that hard for you; what stopped you so far?

I want to believe that people recognise classics 😅 As for Frankenstein, name and identity is indeed one of the main themes of that book, the monster is deliberately not properly named, so people who make this error have not read the book, I would think. That being said, from a purely legal viewpoint, if we see the monster as Frankenstein's child (probably not the case if you look into it, but an argument can be made for the contrary), and if Viktor acknowledged him as such, then they could share the second name as kids inherit those from thier parents. But it is a very weak argument that is flawed on fundamentals.