Berry is shamelessly begging for new places to visit ;-)
Meme Instructions: Share 1 to 5 of your favorite places on the grid. I feel like exploring and discovering new places. Share places you think everyone should visit and also tell us why they are your favorites. Don’t forget to leave a link to your post in the comments!
Only 1 to 5? Hmf! I’m not stopping at five, nor am I differentiating between full locations and stores that look bloody awesome. Because I’m contrary like that :p
1: Venexia
This is built by the same people who made Kingdom of Sand and, like KoS, it’s a roleplay sim (although with less emphasis on capture roleplay). Daros and I have been roleplaying in Venexia for a couple of weeks now, and it’s a beautiful build.
Note: You’ll need to pick up a free explorer tag at the landing point in order to visit the sim. It’ll last for three days (if you want to go back after three days, discard that tag and pick up a new one). The roleplay is based around a world where vampires are the dominant species. The dress code (preferable, if you can manage it) is as follows:
– From a game play perspective the period is almost anything before industrial Victorian.
– We say this as we do not really want too drift to far into late Victorian steampunk look.
– Renaissance to 18th century could be good. Obviously the Masquerades of Venice can throw up many ideas. In Venexia it is like a permanent Carnival look. And Venetian Masks can be worn almost any time.
– What it definitely is not is contemporary or futuristic.
– No actual count Draculas please and sorry, no wings.
– Basically if the whole sim looked like a Gothic interpretation of Venetian fashion through the ages we would be well pleased.
2: Crtl Shift H
Home of the Empyreal Dreams art exhibits. These are several intensely-gorgeous animated exhibits wherein classic books and poetry come to life. Shown above is The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (the swelling water in this is incredible). Another highlight is the Les Miserables build.
3: Adrian
This is a store build: home to JOMO Skins. I love this place. The entire sim is a water-enclosed Japanese castle.
Another store build, this is great for photoshoots when you want an urban build. Also, I love being able to just buy the stuff I’m admiring when I’m taking photos ;-)
NOTE: Virtual Decay does ask that, if you use the location for photoshoots only, you make a small donation. I think that’s only fair, to be honest. You can find the donation kiosk by the gas station.
5: Mythopoeia
Another store location, this time for The Curious Prim. I could wallow here for hours (and bankrupt myself in the process). Multiple amazing builds out back (I wish I could fly that brilliant little rocketship in the foreground!) which make for great photoshoot locations. I shot my Flat Rodvik Linden meme pic in the Roman bath here.
Aaaand, since I’m not going to stop at five…
6: Elven Mist
Home to Bentham Forest, by turns cute, spooky, and eye-gougingly-glowy. Bright textures, giant trippy mushrooms, trees with eyes, winding paths where the tree roots grow thick and get in your hair. Great place. Just wander and get deeper and deeper into the forest.
7: Furizona
Home to La Perla, Old Italy. My landmark will drop you off at this lovely little rooftop cafe. It’s a simple build, but I adore it. Just like being in Florence :-)
This is a massive, multi-level sim. You could spend days here and still not see it all (a bit like The Louvre). Next door is Bladerunner City 2, which is an art sim. Down on one of the lower levels of the first sim, you’ll find the familiar zapping-neon white dragon bar where Gaff first confronts Deckard in what is the greatest movie EVER.
Home to Marcus Inkpen’s beautifully-delapidated The Looking Glass. The stores have now moved, but the sim build is still there, and as amazing as ever (I really do need to check out the new stores landmark, though; they had a great hippie store tucked away down a side street, and I want to go back!). My favourite part of the main build is the ruined theatre. Check out the floating islands, too.
10: Night Whispers
Here’s a perfect little oddity for you. Home of the B&B Spiritual Supplies Store (and I don’t mean ‘spiritual’ in any conventional religious sense!) it’s a little bit of voodoo bayou in Second Life. I fucking love this little store, and poking around to find quirky goodies therein.
Bonus store coming up, not so much for its location as much as for what it sells…
11: Masan
Here’s a treasure trove, quite literally! Masan is home to Glimmer Moon. If you love spending Sunday afternoons poking around antique stores (I do!) then Glimmer Moon is right up your street. Hundreds of unique antiques, and two items on the porch are just L$1 each every time there’s a new release.
Finally, in the spirit of gorgeous places, and because I always seem to add something to Berry’s memes, here are some places that I’ve loved and lost :-(
Alchemy Immortalis/Ceangeal/Empress and Hierophant
I was going to add these three sims to the above list, and I was nigh-on heartbroken to find they don’t exist anymore. They were the places I used to go to when I wanted wild and windswept landscapes remeniscent of the Scottish Highlands. Gone, but never forgotten. Link to my Strider Flickr set shot there.
Cadeling Gardens
Once home to the BND (Bird Next Door) shop, this shallow-water sim had so many lovely spots for photo ops, deliberately placed by the builder. Such a shame that it’s gone.
S.I.C.49
Similar to the (still-existing) Kowloon, S.I.C.49 (aka: SICK) was an urban Japanese-themed sim. Great for Bladerunner-style roleplay before Bladerunner City really grew huge.
The Block
God, we’re going back some years here! The Block was the best collection of stores for its time. It was just like a small city block, perfectly-built for simply walking around while you shopped. This was where I discovered the great stores like Sinistyle, Mechanism and FORM that kick-started my love of fashion in SL. I used to go there almost every day just to wander around and feel like I was back in the big smoke.
Little Nepal
I can’t think that I was the only person who was So. Damn. Happy when the Yak & Yeti store came back inworld after a couple of years’ hiatus. Annapurna’s lovely free Indian clothing and jewellery store used to be on the restful Little Nepal sim. The store itself (seriously, if you love Indian-style jewellery and Nepalese furniture, you should visit; everything in the store is free) is currently on Desperado, but I miss the original Little Nepal sim.
La Reve
*sigh* It’s still there, but it’s been a private sim for years. Is there anyone who doesn’t miss La Reve? (And yes, that’s me with the ragged wings in the pic. Still one of my favourite shots I’ve ever taken in SL.)
Airship Outpost
That’s all I have of this amazing build: four old, old screenshots. Airship Outpost once hovered in the skies of Maggiore sim. It was one of the first jaw-droppingly original locations I visited in SL, waaay back in 2007, and I’ll never forget the sound of those old rotors thumping away.
And, finally, one art installation that was short-lived, but that I was privileged to experience: a collaboration between Eshi Otawara and Dizzy Banjo. I sat here for hours, just listening to the ambient music and watching the water and the swirling notes…
Everything Is A Tribute To Mozart
And, since I’m rockin’ the David Sylvian look here, I should give some credits:
Jacket: SF Design – Mesh Wool Overcoat (colour-change) [ swaffette.firefly ]
Pants: Just Because – MG Leisure Slacks [ annie.melson ]
Shirt: SF Design – White Shirt [ swaffette.firefly ]
Shoes: Pixelfashion – Oxford Shoes (black) [ amandine.arai ]
Glasses: ZOOM – Aviator Classic (white gold) [ jonas.acanthus ]
Hair: Exile – Pulse (chardonnay) [ kavar.cleanslate ]
Cigarette: Hermony – Ultimate Cigarette [ hermanni.laville ]
Ring: Lapointe & Bastchild – Sugar Skull Ring (all diamond) [ paul.lapointe ]
Skin: KOOQLA – Gray (04) [ rocketta.haven ]
Large trunk: FANATIK – Vintage Travel Trunk (edited to be closed) [ funatik ]
Other luggage: POST – Vintage Luggage Set [ van.auster ]
A W E S O M E ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
(that is all)
*grins* Thank you :-)
I had no idea Little Nepal is around. I remember I used to get their free outfits a long time ago. In the picture, it looks the same as it was. Thanks for sharing:)
The Yak & Yeti store is back, yes, but sadly the Little Nepal sim itself is now gone. Daros and I still have some of Annapurna’s Tibetan furniture rezzed in our various homes, and I still sometimes wear some of her gorgeous jewellery.
WOW! :O
That’s it! I am making you the official SL tour guide! Thank you for sharing all of these, so awesome! <3
LOL, thank you! (Do I get to wear a fetching outfit and wave something in the air so people can follow me as I guide them around? *g*)