Hello And bonjour!
Guten Tag from Leavenworth, Washington!
And hallo from the Netherlands!
We’re live from India right now
But we’re not here to see any of that
Currently I’m taking part in a... kind of like a challenge
The Tim Traveller’s International Staycation Challenge,
...and I’m very excited.
So what he’s done is he has set his viewers a challenge
So what you have to do, you have to go to your local area, and you have to find something
That looks like it’s in a country it isn’t
And this challenge is called the International Staycation Challenge.
Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone else, welcome to the official
Tim Traveller International Staycation Challenge Awards Ceremony!
Over the course of four weeks in June and July this year,
hundreds of you went out and did your best
to travel around the world without leaving your own country.
You have found some amazing international buildings,
exotic landscapes, and even world-famous monuments
in places that you really wouldn’t expect them,
and you’ve been posting some brilliant photos, selfies, and videos of your adventures.
Today, I think you know what's happening:
I'm going to be giving out some entirely fictitious but extremely prestigious awards
to the best ones.
So get ready to see people in other countries pretending that they’re in your country,
people in your country pretending that they’re in other countries,
people in other countries pretending that they’re in other countries...
you get the idea.
And of course at the end of the video you will be able to vote for the ultimate winner
of the golden globule
for the best overall international staycation.
Now just like last year, you sent in so many fantastic entries
that unfortunately there’s no way I could put everyone into this video
so once you’ve finished watching this
please do check out the posts on my Facebook page,
there’s a whole hashtag to explore on Twitter and Instagram,
and there’s a big YouTube playlist
of all the amazing videos that you’ve been uploading here.
I’ll put a link to that in the description below.
But now, in the age-old traditions of YouTube,
we’re already nearly 3 minutes into the video,
so let’s get straight into it.
It is finally time for the official Tim Traveller International Staycation Challenge Awards.
And we’re going to kick off with an award that goes to a whole country -
it’s the award for the most popular destination for an international staycation.
Now I must admit when I set this challenge a little bit of me was thinking
what if everyone just goes to their nearest Chinatown, takes a photo, and says "here I
am in China"?
Luckily I didn’t need to worry and you found all sorts of places to go to
but there were certain types of locations and certain types of buildings
that a lot of you ended up visiting;
some of the most popular – apart from China –
were Japanese Gardens,
Indian temples,
and Russian churches.
And of course it wouldn’t be this channel without going into completely unnecessary
detail
so I ran some statistics!
Based on every single Twitter and Instagram post,
plus the ones you sent by email,
I can announce that the most popular destination for your international staycations...
was Japan,
who just edged out China in second, while Italy took the bronze medal.
So congratulations to the Japanese!
Your gardens have got absolutely everywhere.
Oh and I’ve just been told we’re giving out special award
for Outstanding Innovation In A Popular Destination For An International Staycation
and that goes to someone who did something a bit different.
Because out of all of you who went to your nearest Chinatown and said "here I am in China",
there was one person who went to Chinatown in Southampton England, and said
"here I am in Chinatown Los Angeles".
Dave in Southampton that is next level stuff, the judges loved it
and for taking a photo like this and then claiming you were in the USA
you fully deserve some sort of award, well done.
And from someone who was in the UK but pretended not to be,
we now move on to the exact opposite:
it’s the award for those of you around the world
who could have pretended to visit any country you wanted to
and you chose Britain.
I have to say, as something of an expert in Britishness,
I was impressed by the number of you from outside the UK
who managed to make pretty convincing trips to my homeland
despite being absolutely nowhere near it.
For example, Jean-Christophe in Quebec took this photo
of what appears to be one of the Queen’s Guards standing outside Buckingham Palace
in London,
except he’s not, he’s in Quebec,
meanwhile Tania captured this extremely British scene in Arras in Northern France,
and somehow a whole bunch of you independently made visits to Stonehenge
despite not only being outside the UK
but being in three completely different locations in the US.
Equally British in a more subtle way
is this rather nice red brick house straight out of leafy suburb in the south of England
but discovered by Gabriel here in Cebu City in the Philippines.
But in the end there can only be one winner for the best staycation to Britain
and that goes to Chris in Arizona,
who visited the original 1830 London Bridge
– in case you don’t know the story, it was bought by an American in the 1960s,
transported piece by piece from London, and rebuilt in its entirety in Lake Havasu, Arizona.
What really impressed the judges though was that Chris ate a fish and chips while he was there
and then his daughter did this...
(Impressively tuneful) #London Bridge is falling down, my fair lady#
I mean let’s be fair she’s nailed that performance,
there’s no way I’m not giving you an award.
Well done to the whole family!
And speaking of internationally famous monuments that ended up in the wrong country,
next up it’s the Award for Internationally Famous Monuments In The Wrong Country.
There were some great entries here,
including Grady in the US, who found the Leaning Tower Of Pisa just outside Chicago;
Chris and Miki, who took this snap of the Statue of Liberty in Tokyo;
Diane who found the Singapore Bay supertrees in Chester, UK,
and Jessica and Bill who visited the Ancient Greek Acropolis in Nashville Tennessee.
Lovely touch by Jessica there with the passport.
But in the end the winner,
which I enjoyed for the sheer nicheness of this entry,
is Martin in Romania,
who found the Berlin World Clock in the town of Falticeni.
Now admittedly it’s a much less internationally-famous monument than some of the other nominees
but in a way that makes it more impressive that someone bothered to copy it.
And judges were also impressed by the fact that Martin managed to find anything for this
challenge
in a town of 25000 people in northeast Romania.
Truly outstanding work all round.
And before we leave this category,
a special mention to Bernd in Germany
who discovered a cheat code by going to a place called Miniwelt,
where he visited the US capitol, the Eiffel tower,
and some Dutch windmills, all in about 5 minutes,
before topping it off with a trip on the Wuppertal Schwebebahn.
Right a couple of quick special awards now,
because as you know this whole thing started when I made a video
trying to visit every international building I could find in Paris during lockdown here
so first it’s the But Tim I Live In Paris Too award
for the incredible achievement of finding something in the Paris region
that I hadn’t already put in one of my videos.
And that goes to Thibault and Vitor
who visited this amazing Vietnamese temple in the southern suburb of Evry.
And in related news,
the I’ll See Your That And Raise You This Award
goes to Elis in Stockholm
who saw my Swedish Church in France
and raised me his French church in Sweden.
Touché!
As they say in English.
Ok next it’s a big one,
because I’m delighted to announce the return of one of last year’s most prestigious awards,
it’s none other than the Medioscars,
the Mediocre Awards For Dramatic Performance.
And here are the nominees:
First up, it's Pierre from Saskatchewan, who is lost in the Sahara…
Where am I? Am I in the Sahara?
How long have I been lost for? It’s been so long…
Urgh, just a few minutes?!
Hey! We’re in Saskatchewan – the Great Sand Hills!
Our second nominees are a Texan couple
who show incredible acting range in just a short clip.
Watch for the moment a few seconds in
when they suddenly transport us to deepest Bavaria...
We’re enjoying our International Staycation
here at an authentic German beerhall here in New Braunfels, Texas.
Guten Tag, y’all!
Ein Prosit der Gemütlichkeit, YEEHAAH!
I mean it’s like we’re in Munich itself...
Well done Kevin and Jillian, the judges absolutely loved that one!
And our third nominees, well...
it wouldn’t be the Medioscars without an appearance from these two.
Hellooooo
We’re back!
Yes, once again Maarten and Maarten have produced an absolute masterpiece,
and you can watch their full adventure over on the YouTube playlist,
but the judges were particularly impressed by their moving portrayal
of a slight disappointment during a visit to France.
So we kept on driving and went to visit Tim in France.
But either he wasn’t home, or he wouldn’t let us in,
so we just visited this thing instead.
As always with the medioscars, some very stiff competition.
But the winners of this year’s Medioscar,
for their incredible nature documentary, direct from the Amazon Rainforest:
it’s Moritz and Jenny from Berlin.
Hello, I’m in the Amazonian Rainforest.
There are lots of wild animals,
weird plants,
and some extreme humidity.
Superb performances from the entire cast there,
and fully deserving of winning this year’s Medioscar.
And while we’re here supporting the arts,
there’s just time to give out the Mediocre Grammy For The Best International Artist
and that goes to Swedish Flute Metal Band, Lombolo.
It is of course very hard for musicians to tour at the moment
and that makes Lombolo’s trip to China even more impressive than it would have been anyway.
Ok we’re almost there,
but before we get to the Golden Globule itself,
we’ve got one more award to give away first,
it’s the “Wait. What?” award for the most confusing entry to the challenge.
And let’s face it the challenge itself was quite confusing in the first place,
but a few people took it to another level.
Catching the eye of the judges in this category was Comrade JdV
who managed to visit Venice twice at the same time while being in Barcelona,
...standing here in St Mark's Square in Venice, Italy, next to the famous campanile...
wait. Why are there two of them?
I must have had too much to drink last night...
Then there was Henry in the UK,
who managed to film a British train
crossing an Australian bridge
above some Japanese fish,
and Henry wasn’t the only person to mix three different countries
because Kieran and Ryan both separately visited Dromana Gate in Ireland,
one of the most confusing buildings that anyone sent in.
I’ll let Ryan take up the story.
This is Dromana Gate, it's the main entrance to Dromana House and Gardens.
The distinctive Hindu-Gothic design is believed to have been inspired by John Nash's Royal
Pavillion in Brighton.
Now the Royal Pavillion in Brighton was itself inspired by Indian architecture,
so technically what we’re looking at here
is Ireland doing an impression of Britain doing some mad impression of India.
But even that wasn’t quite enough to be the most confusing entry
because that title goes to Ben in Victoria, Australia,
and you may need to listen carefully to this one.
Ben visited London Bridge,
but not the American one,
not even the British one,
the Australian one:
a rock formation on the Victoria coast
that supposedly resembles the original London bridge from London, UK
that - as you know - is now in Arizona, USA.
Or at least it used to resemble it,
until 1990 when one of the arches suddenly collapsed into the ocean and disappeared forever.
I’ll let Ben have the final word here:
So this is me taking a selfie of something
that used to look like something
that used to be in London
but is actually in America now.
Yeah, that's a bit confusing.
There we go, I hope that’s cleared it up for everyone!
Because now the time is finally here.
I can announce the nominations for the ultimate prize -
the Golden Globule for the Best International Staycation.
Now honestly it was incredibly hard for me to cut this down to just five nominees
because so many of you put in so much effort and time and talent,
but in the end I had to pick five
er, because that’s the maximum number of options in a YouTube poll.
So I’ve chosen people who really took me on a journey,
whether it was through a series of brilliant photos,
or a particularly entertaining video tour,
that is what got these people into the final five.
I’ll explain how you can vote after you’ve seen them
but without further faff
here are the nominees.
Nominee number 1 is TheFrenchiestFry or nerdcat42 on Twitter
who posted this fantastic thread visiting nine locations within the city of Melbourne
Australia.
Judges were impressed by the great photos of some spectacular locations
as well as textbook usage of the thumbs up to indicate you’re still smiling under your
face covering.
Nominee number 2 is arewethereyet on YouTube
who takes us around the world in one minute in Brussels, Belgium.
And this is just a very well-made video,
it’s beautifully simple, there’s some great locations,
it’s everything you need and nothing that you don’t.
And the channel has less than 100 subscribers at the moment
– carry on like this and I think that will change pretty quickly.
Nominee number 3 is Wyatt or wickedwy over on Instagram,
who posted a collection of 10 photos from Amsterdam
including this gorgeous row of 19th century houses,
where each one mimicks the style of a different country.
From left to right that’s England, the Netherlands, Russia, Italy, Spain, France and Germany.
If you’re ever in Amsterdam these can be found on
(uh oh)
Roemer Visscherstraat,
not far from the Vondelpark and the Rijksmuseum.
Nominee number 4 is William from Washington DC
who explored the abandoned international buildings of National Park Seminary.
This is the National Park Seminary, which is neither a national park, nor a seminary.
Yes I said abandoned and yes that’s why this went straight into the top 5.
There is also this Italian villa, or what's left of it.
So what was this place?
And what happened?
And finally nominee number 5, I love this one, it’s Thoomas and his magical bicycle
trip to America.
And so on my merry way I went,
I travelled over to the USA, biking through an ocean...
It is Fall Creek, Wisconsin, ok?
Just trust me on that.
...the green forests of Washington....
...oh hey would you look at that, Mount Rushmore!
So there we go there are your 5 nominees.
To vote for your favourite all you need to do is click on the link below this video in
the description,
that will take you straight to a YouTube poll and you can pick the one that you like.
There are also links to all 5 nominated entries
so you can go and see those photos and videos for yourself - in full and uncut.
And that’s it!
All that remains is for me to say is a massive thank you to everyone who took part in the
challenge,
especially those of you didn’t make it into this video
(I’m so sorry! But I hope at least you had a blast going your adventures anyway)
Here’s a montage of some more entries that I just couldn’t leave out,
and after you’ve watched this please do go and check out the playlist on YouTube,
there are some brilliant videos on there.
Meanwhile, I will be back soon with some of my own adventures,
and you never know,
I might even be going outside France.
Until then, well, from me and from everyone...
thank you all for watching
and we will see you soon!