March 03, 2005

• I went at the same time a couple of years ago. What we did was went from Florence to Amsterdam to Paris to Barcellona to Rome. The Southern half of Europe was much cheaper, and I would emphasize having time in Italy and Spain over nearly everywhere else. We lived pretty much on the trains, and met a lot of people and had adventures. Which is what it's all about, right? Barcelona was the best city, rural Tuscany had the best food, and Amsterdam, well, we smoked pot. (And I did mushrooms at the Lourve...) Paris is kinda bunk if you stay out on the fringes- the trains don't run late enough for a real night out. Barcelona has a hostel called Del Mar, and it's the best deal around. $15 for a night for two. Use the international student IDs if you qualify, and find the hostel service as soon as you get to a city (as cheap, decent beds book quickly).
• Side trip from Northern Italy (Milan, for example) to Zurich. It's a beautiful city, deceptively small, on the edge of a bright blue lake surrounded by snow-covered alps. The streets are clean, the people are friendly and everyone seems to be happy and snappily-dresses, the bookstores are great (and half the stock is in English), the food is delicious and filling, and the trains run on time. :) I think it cost us something like 80 euro to travel return from Milan by train. If you do, go during the day. We went at night each way and missed the alpine scenery and all the mountain towns on the way through Switzerland. We had no trouble with language in Zurich - all the salespeople spoke English except at a Co-op food court where we just pointed at what we wanted anyway. The train trip is around 3-4 hours and we saw pretty much all we wanted to see in a single day - we went up in the evening, spent the following day there and came back to Milan that night. Milan is also cool but in an entirely different way. It's more like an American city - everyone's in a hurry, it's sort of dirty, but the streets are charmingly narrow and cobbled and there's a sense of history about everything. Fewer people seem to speak English but you can still get by with the basics and the people I spoke to really seemed to make an effort to be understood and to understand me. The pasta restaurants are to die for and the Castello Sforzesco is a fascinating place to walk through and see the evolution from Roman times onward. La Scala is there if you're keen to see an opera, the Museum of Technology has a fantastic Da Vinci exhibit - working models of his various inventions and hidden out the back is a collection of fighter planes (of course!). And, of course, the Duomo (the front of which was covered in scaffolding when we were there) - you can take an elevator to the roof for about 7 euro and have the most incredible view of all of Milan (do this on a fairly clear day; it'll be hazy and/or smoggy), or go inside for free and see the amazing stained glass windows. If you want to people-watch, there are burger bars and cafes on the perimeter of the Plaza where you can sit outside and watch the world go by (it's pedestrian-only aside from the odd crazy Italian driver). You can browse in Prada or Versace, or find the good bargains right next door in a lot of cases. The trains are cheap and you can get to Venice in about three hours. The trains can be complicated to a non-Italian speaker: #2 took a train to Venice once and didn't realise you have to also reserve a seat independently from your ticket, so he was stuck standing for the whole trip each way in a corridor. I think it depends possibly on the train company you go with, so it wouldn't hurt to get some local help. Really, those are the only two places I've been to in Europe. I'd also recommend going to a football (soccer) game, preferably between two top European teams if it's not too expensive, just to see the lengths the fans go to - there was a Bayern-Milan match while we were there and the Bavarian supporters were literally covered in red badges/patches/pins with red scarves, red hats, everything. From what I know, most Germans speak some English. If you learned Mexican Spanish you'll notice a very definite difference in Spain, and I hear that Croatia is cheap, warm and sunny, and has good beer. (Yeah, so Switzerland and Croatia aren't on your list, I just wanted to make it harder for you. :)
• Rick Steves has a bunch of guidebooks and info online for people that want to do whirlwind European touring. It's worth checking his stuff out. I could easily spend a month in Spain alone and not have it be enough time. At the least, see Madrid, Sevilla, and Barcelona if you can.
• If you do go to Paris, there's this way cool restaurant called Le Bistro des Dames on Rue des Dames (got that?) with an even way cooler garden where you can eat. It's magical. There is also a hotel. Here. The picture of the garden doesn't do it justice.
• One month is a really short time to see Europe on, but I'm sure you're already aware of that :). Instead of going straight to college when I graduated HS, I did four months in Europe (Oct-Jan). Best thing I've ever done, bar none. Language won't be a problem at all. All of the Germanic countries speak english. On the off chance you run into someone who doesn't, the next person will. A general rule of thumb that I found was that the farther north you go, the more people will speak english. I didn't speak any language other than English when I went, but quickly learned how to say hello, goodbye, please, thankyou, count, and some basic food items. I got by just fine. It's kind of hard to suggest where to go; you could spend a month alone in Paris (I nearly did). That reminds me, parisians is notorious for being rude to tourists. As long as you're super-polite to them, you'll have no problem at all. My experience was that they have an ultra-high level of politeness, and if you maintain said level, then they're quite nice people. Anyways, I found the north to be my favorite of all of Europe, but that's just me. You'll probably end up spending between one and three days per city if you want to get the most in. Sleep on the trains if at all possible, but watch your luggage in Italy. One or two of those locks with the pull out cords should do the trick. Just keep an eye out and you'll be fine. I met a girl who was nearly raped and robbed on an Italian train, but she was traveling alone. If at all possible, get a sleeper cabin. While it is possible to sleep in one of the normal cabins (pulling two seats together) it's not very comfortable. Add to the fact that you can't lock the door, and that you'll have people coming in and out of the room all night, and those sleeper cabins for $15 more start looking really nice. I would highly recommend Paris and Rome (I went in the winter, so your experiences will vary. But I hear that Italy is notorious for pick pockets in the summer). Be sure to visit the Catacombs of Paris, there's nothing like seeing miles of human bones stacked up in tunnels. Don't climb on the ruins in the Forum/Palentine hill, you'll get kicked out (I learned that the hard way). Book your lodging ahead of time. When I went I just showed up in town, but that was during the off season. I hear that a lot of places fill up quick during the summer. Stay out of Naples unless you're heading straight to Pompei (awesome btw) or Capri. There's no reason to visit it, it's a shithole of a town. Munich is awesome too, I spent a week there. Copenhagen is one of my favorite cities of all time, nothing major, just a really nice city. Stockholm is beautiful. There's a hostel there where they converted a sailing ship into dorms, and you can stay on it for only a little bit more per night. Well worth it.
• In St. Goar (Germany, on the Rhine) you can stay in a Castle for E. 13 a night. It's _really_ cool, but you have to hike up a mini-mountain to get there. Bacharach (sp?) is close by St. Goar, and is home to the ruins of the largest castle on the Rhine river. E 8. and you can explore them all day. They didn't yell at me for climbing all over them when I was there, but I don't know if they will pay more attention during the summer. Venice is _really_ cool. It's an island, so you really can't get that lost. The best thing to do there is just start walking. Getting lost in Venice is the best part of it. But it's not really worth staying for more than a day or two. It's a dead city; tourism is the only thing Venice has going for it, so after a few days you'll pretty much see everything there is to see. Walking tours are a great idea. There's no better way to learn about the city. Most of the time you can get away without paying for them, just find out where they're going to start, watch them leave, wait five to ten minutes after they start, and catch up. Just pick a large group and stick to the back, and you'll be fine. Do a bit of research, and see if you can't visit during some local festivals, they'll add a lot to your experience. Eurorail passes will give you the most bang for your buck as far as trains go. However, if all you end up doing is visiting the major cities, consider airline travel. Ryanair and Easyjet are two ultra-cheap airlines in Europe. I flew from Rome to London for just $30 (one way, booked 3 days in advance). Often it's cheaper to fly to the city than take the train. But you do miss out that way; train travel is quite the experience, it's my favorite form of travel. Pack as light as possible. If you've never traveled anywhere before you'll try to pack for everything you might encounter. This is wrong. You can _always_ buy more stuff if you need it, but dropping three pairs of pants that you thought you might need is a bit of a pain in the ass. Unless, of course, you don't mind throwing things away. I started out with one of those huge backpacks that you see everyone with. A month and a half into my trip I traded it up for a 30L rucksack, not much bigger than a school bag. Never looked back. You'll be amazed by how little you need. My suggested packing list: - 1 pair of pants (some churches in Italy have a dress code) - 1 pair of shorts (maybe 2) - 1 pair of pajamas - 3-4 T-Shirts - 1 Nice shirt - 3-4 pairs of underwear - 7 pairs of socks (you can NEVER have too many socks) - Swimsuit - Sandles - GOOD walking shoes - Toiletries - Camera (You're only going for a months, so don't worry about finding places to download from a digital camera. Worst come to worst you should be able to find an internet cafe that'll let you do it.) - Notebook - Water bottle - Money belt, passport, etc. (I found the best way for me to deal with money was to goto the ATM each morning and pull out my day's budget. That way I never spent more than I thought I was. If I wanted to get a souvineer, I'd have to be thrifty for a day or two, and save up what was left over from each day)
• You really don't need much more than that. Of course, you may have to get past the idea of wearing clean clothes each day. Just look at it this way: you'll be on the road so much, no one will notice if you wear the same shirt two or three days in a row. I'd usually wear the same pair of pants every day for a week, swap t-shirts every other day, and do my laundry at the end of the week in my other pair of pants. If it's not stained, and it doesn't smell (too bad), it's good to go. But NEVER underestimate the unpleasantness of day-old socks. Especially when you've been on your feet all day. Always pack more socks than you think you'll need. You can do your laundry in the hotel or hostel, but I found it really wasn't worth the effort. Much easier to just pay E 8 (at the most) and get it all done in a real washing machine. You said that your sister speaks Japanese? You can have a _lot_ of fun with that. First, find a large Japanese tour group (shouldn't be hard). Next procure an umbrella. Hold it up in the air, start speaking some relevant Japanese, and lead the tour group off in a random direction. Eek, I just realized how much I wrote. Sorry if it seems like a lot; I just love traveling =). If you'd like to know more, or have any questions, feel free to email me
• I've lived in europe for the past four years and visited it lots before, so I'm a huge fan of the place. I second js's endorsement of Barcelona. If I had to pick one spanish city for a whirlwind stop, this would be it. It's different to the rest of Spain, but it's a wonderful city in it's own right- by far the most cosmpolitan. Madrid, Cordoba, Grenada and Seville are great too, but I think you could save on trains and leave them for another time. Barcelona is great for the food- spanish cooking is undergoing a renaissance, and the Catalan have always had some nifty ideas. I recommend breakfast at Bar Pinotxo in the main market (La Boqueria), you can sit there with some locals and lots of tourist who are also in on the 'secret' and enjoy your clams with egg first thing in the morning, for lunch. The architecture is stunning, walking up Las ramblas into L'Eixample, you pass many of the modernist highlights on the street. The Sagrada Familia is worth a visit, plus there's the Picasso museum and MACBA if you're in to more recent art. The nightlife is cool too. I'd spend an evening in El Born, soaking up the atmosphere, and venture into El Raval if you're feeling confident. Email me for more details, I could go on and on. General impressions of the rest: France: Paris is cool, and very, well, French. I'd spend at least 4 days there, soaking up the history, art, architecture and pastries. I don't know how you're getting around, but if you're training it and you're heading to central europe from Paris, Strasbourg is worth a day for its choucroute and pleasantness- you might skip it if you're going to another pretty town on the German side though. If you like Chateaux, Tours is a day trip from paris and they run tours (!) out to the chateaux. And also a good day trip from Paris is Versailles. Lots of booty. Germany- I like Berlin- again cosmopolitan, painfully cool in parts and grimy (soviet apartments) in others. the Pergammon museum is excellent for antiquities (loot).Good for history- the wall, checkpoint charlie. Email me if you'd like more details, esp on Barcelona. I could go on and on...
• Go to Portugal. Especially in the summer. Another tip: There are lots and lots and lots of really cool arts & music & culture festivals in Europe in the summer. Jazz festivals, photography festivals, and so on. Search for the kinds of festivals you're interested in, in the countries you're going to visit, and you might get some ideas for places to visit you might not have thought of otherwise.
• and I will. Netherlands: nice convenient size for travellers. We daytripped to the Hague, but didn't find all that much there. Amsterdam can be a little full of louts ogling in the redlight district, but is worth a look. You might try the local 'coffee', but even if you're not there for that, there's the Rijksmuseum and Anne Frank's house as highlights. Just follow the tourist trail. It's a nice city to wander around and get lost in. Italy- the Uffizi and Academia in Florence if you love art, and even if you don't. Lines can be ridiculously long in the summer. If you're in Milan, stand around one evening and watch people checking each other out. It's the local pastime. Also, walk into an expensive flagship store, like D&G and get sneered at by the staff. It's a laugh. Rome is well documented; as well as the usual haunts, I like Trastavere, south of the vatican- still has a local feel to the neighbourhood, and nice to wonder around. The vatican museums are amazing, but there's quite a line to get in. The path down to southern italy is much less travelled as there's less for tourists to sightsee. As well as vesuvius, Naples also has great pizza, but is a sketchy port city and feels really edgy, like Marseilles. You can daytrip it down from rome to both if you don't want to stay for a long time. Czech republic- Prague is again beautiful, and will be full of college students and stag parties on cheap drinking holidays. Czesky Krumlov is a peaceful UNESCO listed town, but still on the backpacking path, short trip away from Prague. I hear hungary is the new czech rep, but it's likely to suffer less from the invasion.
• Language- you'll be fine. As long as you don't stray too far off the path in western europe you'll be understood. Spanish will see you through spain and likely italy. Being polite is a good rule anywhere you go. The thing that gets nasty responses anywhere in europe is the loud, arrogant stereotype, so as long as you don't fit that you should have no problems. All dutch people learn english in school and the same is true for western germany; even Berlin speaks enough english that you'll get around fine. Hungary and Czech rep could be more of a problem, but again, where there are backpackers and tourists you'll be taken care of. Having said that, learning the basics of where you're going is always a good idea, and earns you bonus points (especially in eastern europe, but then Hungarian's a tough language) Cautionary tales: keep your wits and common sense about. I've heard lots of horror stories, especially about being gassed in trains, but never had a problem. Lock your backpack and keep it in sight if possible, don't carry large amounts of cash etc. Be careful in busy places- train stations and internet cafes. Pickpockets trawl the largest cities at the most touristy locations, so watch out (carry your valuables in secure pockets, watch your daypack). In southern europe (Rome, Seville and Florence in my experience) you sometimes encounter Romany (aka gypsies) who are out to take advantage by telling your fortune or straightout pickpocketing you. The latter are particularly easy to see because they travel in packs and carry bits of cardboard/paper to wave in your face. Just give them a 'I know what you're up to look' and they'll leave you alone. The only place where people were overtly rude was Italy, and that was racism because they thought I was a japanese tourist and they could get away with it. Travel- you could eurail it, but this dictates your schedule, often people feel the need to sleep on the trains and see as much as possible during the day. There are lots of cheap lights in europe, through companies like Ryanair (based in UK and ireland), Virgin (brussels I think), Easyjet, etc. If you look online, you can get some good point to point flights, cheaper than the train. the only setback is usually the time of flight, and that sometimes the airport isn't all that convenient, so you'll need to take the bus/train to get to the main point. Check the details before booking. Other options are Busabout, but you'll end up sticking to their routes; or even more constrictive Contiki- if you're an independent traveller you'll run from the suggestion.
• 1. Europeans greet people they meet by grabbing them and biting them on the face. Do not be afraid to bite anyone you meet - they'll appreciate your effort to "blend in". 2. Spain is closed in June - Malta is open late, although it's a long walk just to get some milk. 3. No-one in Belgium wears pants. If you're not letting it all hang out, you may be turned away at the border. 4. Pack plenty of dried cockroaches - they are still rationed in France, and hence make an ideal gift in that country. 5. Most German people are nicknamed "Adolf". It's "cool" to use this familiar term! 6. Monkeyfilter meetups in London are an ideal chance to beat the fuck out of people who have given you spurious "advice" about travelling in Europe.
• I'm another Londoner with a fair bit of European travelling under the belt. Personally, if you're going by rail I'd suggest stopping off in Nice- or even better Antibes, there's a nice little youth hostel but you need to book in advance. The train follows the coast along there, beautiful. Plus, don't forget us here in the UK!
• toey's suggestion about low-cost airlines is a very good one - if you catch Ryanair on the right day, for example, you can find flights for 99p/99c. Seconding the Barcelona recommendation too. Get this guide book, edited by our very own prandial, which will show you all the excellent stuff off the beaten track. Also Stockholm. I'm not just saying this because I'm Swedish; it is one of the prettiest capital cities in Europe, especially in summer. Amazing museums, great bars (expensive, though - alcohol costs a fortune in Sweden), gorgeous architecture, fascinating history. Everybody speaks perfect English. (I can give further Scandinavian suggestions if you're interested) Vienna. Glorious hot chocolate and a kicking modern art scene. I've not been myself, but I hear every kind of good thing about much of Eastern Europe - Prague, Budapest, Bucarest. Catch 'em now before they become too Westernised. Ditto Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzigovina - still bearing the scars of the war, but beautiful countryside, friendly people, great food (and very cheap). Italy: There's so much to see here that it's hard to know where to begin. Trains are cheap and more-or-less reliable unless there's a stike on. Food and drink are going to be mouthwatering wherever you are in the country. See if you can get tickets to a football game - it's like a religion here. Rome is incredible, but chaotic, especially in the height of the tourist season in June; Venice is exactly as stunning and otherworldly as you imagine it to be and pretty much unmissable, but you can see everything you want to see in about two days; I'm not a big fan of Milan, it's very industrial and not particularly friendly in my experience; if you like opera, try the open-air amphitheatre in Verona; if you're into walking and hiking, nothern Italy in the Val d'Aosta and the Piedmont is fantastic; and if you're in Florence, come and have a drink with DangerIsMyMiddleName and I! We'd be happy to show you round if you like. (email in profile) Many people speak English, more the further north you go - but learning how to say at least 'hello' and 'thank you' in the native tongue is always appreciated. Have a great trip!
• Two little tips from me -- if you're a history buff then you can be excused for wanting to see as much as possible in the shortest possible time. If you're visiting Europe for the experience, then you don't need to move around a lot. Most parts of Europe have a huge variety of things to do in a small area. Pick an area or two that are attractive to you and stay there. Try to meet people, ask locals for advice on what to see, drink a lot. Eastern Europe is cheap and fun. Prague is pretty much like a western european city - clean and easy to get around. Budapest is much more interesting but requires a sense of adventure since parts of it are a bit dirty.
• You know, I'm still trying to get over the fact that Swashedbuckles advised the spookster on the precise number of underpants to take.
• Make up a theme! And follow it (until you're sick of it of course). Europe is way too big, and full of tourists. I travelled extensively (a couple of years total; it helps if you're self employed and lived there) and I always tried to stay away of the tourist tracks. Hey, I spend weeks in paris without entering a museum (that's not true, I went in a couple of times to pee, because they ask outrageous sums of money to use the bathrooms elsewhere). So pick a theme that you'd like to procure. It can be anything, a color (red: go to France's rose perfume industry in Grasse, visit the Amsterdam red Light District and sleep with a hooker, etc), a time period (2nd World War: go to Auswitch (very impressive), visit the Anne Frank house, visit Hitler's Bergtesgaden, etc), a food item (eat dishes with lamb in ten different countries), a painter (visit his birth and death place, visit all museums that has his work (ignore the rest), go to an auction at Christies and raise your hand), etc. You'll have a lot of fun and you've done different things than other tourists who only saw the Eifeltower and the Tower of Pisa (the latter is very nice BTW, I have to admit, especially in spring when the grass around it is still green and there aren't that many toursist.) Ah well, there is so much to see. I'm almost getting homesick. But I still haven't seen huge parts of my new country/continent so I'm not going back soon.
• Tracy- Il Duomo is in Florence (Firenze). Florence is about a million times better than Milan for food, art, entertainment... Even when we were talking to people from Milan on the trains (Milano, Milanese?), they all told us that Florence was much better to see. As for Venice, I've heard that the canals stink. (They certainly do in Amsterdam). If you're into art, you should hit Florence's Uffizi, The Vatican, the Louvre and Barcelona's Museum of Contemporary Art (which is far better than Centre d'Georges Pompedeau, even though it's smaller). While Amsterdam's museums were great, they're not necessarily worth it unless you plan on being there anyways. There are many other museums worth seeing (like the Picasso house in Paris) but if you stuck to those, you'd get the most bang for your buck. You're going at a really good time: right before the real season starts, but after the European holidays have begun. That means that there will be a lot of people your age from around Europe that you can hook up with for travel, but there won't be the crushing hordes, especially of Americans. Beware though, while the weather was generally warm when I went (except for Paris, where all it did was rain and stay steady at about 50 the entire time), the oceans were not. Barcelona's beaches were all covered with naked sunbathers, but no one was in the water. You may not need that swimsuit. You won't ever need much cash, as ATMs give you a really good rate of exchange (better than buying the cash over here) and internet access is easily had across Europe at the orange EasyCafes. For some reason, if you buy credits in Amsterdam, they work in Paris, but if you buy credits in Paris they won't work in Barcelona.
• Oh, and Italian is the easiest language in the world to learn, until you've been speaking Spanish for a week or so... I had enough Italian to be conversant (well, like a retarded child) within a couple of days of getting there, but when I had been speaking Spanish in Spain and came back to it, all of my words got all muddled into a Spanish-Italian hybrid. Ugh. Get a simple phrasebook. The natives will appreciate it.
• TAKE EXACTLY 3-4 PAIRS OF UNDERWEAR SPOOKY!! REMEMBER THE UNDERWEAR GODDAMIT YOUR BOYS NEED A HOUSE!!1!
• >Tracy- Il Duomo is in Florence (Firenze). js, tracicle is right, as are you. Duomo means cathedral and both Firenze and Milano have them (last time I checked). While Florence's is more dome-like (false-friend alert), they both still count. mare's theme idea is a good one. I recall an Australian who set some crazy tasks for himself across europe, like eating breakfast in Belgium, lunch in Luxembourg and dinner in Deutscheland, all in the same day. Ultimately your trip has to be about what you want, some like racing about trying to see everything, others like just hanging out and trying to fit in. Personally, I liked at least three/four days in each city to get the feel of the place and so that I wasn't always on the road. Others would say that's not long enough, and others would have been out as soon as they'd seen the largest attraction. One strategy is to see as many places on this trip and then come back another year to examine the bits you liked best
• All of the above destination advice, packing advice is good (pack light, as elaborated thoroughly above). My one piece of eurotravel advice is: Spend a couple of weeks with language tapes for the language of your primary destination. You will be pleasantly surprised at how many doors this will open for you. Two typical conversations I experienced in France: 1 Me: "Hello, do you speak english?" Frenchman: shrug/sneer/walkaway 2 Me: "Bonjour, comment ca va" Frenchman: "Yoor Franch ees 'orrible! We speak English." (2) usually leads to all kinds of fun. (1) can make you out to be sorta presumtive, don't you think?
• Toey- No, while both Milan and Florence have cathedrals, the one in Florence IS Il Duomo. Try me. Do a quick google search for Il Duomo and see what comes up. Il Duomo is the cathedral built in Florence by the Medici in about 1550, with the striated marble (in red and white).
• Oops. My HTML is apparently too weak for the task. It's kinda like saying that both South Bend and Paris have a Notre Dame, but if you say The Notre Dame you really do mean the one in Paris.
• Stomper- That trick worked on everyone but the French subway workers, who refused to make even a modicum of accomodation with regard to speaking English (or Spanish or German). We could tell they understood, and we we tried in broken French to get our questions across, but they had absolutely no use for it. Luckily, some of the other people on the subway helped us out.
• I was totally jazzed to click this link and bestow upon you all the wisdom I collected on my 3 month trip from a decade ago only to find out that all of my best tips had already been given out. Southern Europe is definitely cheaper. I will second the pack light and the sleep on the train advice. If you get a Eurail pass and sleep on the train, you can pack in about 30% more siteseeing instead of wasting days in transit. When you arrive somewhere new, plan an exit strategy before you leave the station. If you go to some of the smaller places Rick Steve's suggests, the people you meet actual know him and treat you like one of his personal friends. Bring a few large ziplock bags. They are good for keeping the stuff in your pack organized and make a good place to put your socks if they are still damp after a wash in the sink. Make sure to buy a good pair of shoes and start walking a lot now. I had no problem with muscle aches, but got a lot of blisters. Other suggestions - if you find yourself near the southern tip of Spain, take the overnight ferry to Morocco, but get the hell out of Tangiers as fast as possible. It is the armpit of the world. I went to a little town just down the road called Asila (sp?) and got a nice feel for the place without being hassled by the very aggressive, self appointed 'guides'. I had an awesome couple of days in Cinca Terra on the Italian Riviera. It's a bout a 1/2 day south of Florence which is not to be missed. Prague was very cool but a little off the main circuit. I agree with all the comments about Spain, with Barelona being first on the to-do list. I did spend nearly a month checking out various places and it still wasn't enough. Cordoba & Seville are good choices. If you can't make them, Rhoda has a lot going on for being such a small town. The Louvre is overrated, Musee d'Orsay is better. Also really liked Musee Rodin. I expected the Eiffel Tower to be cheesy and was shocked at how neat it actually was. Don't go to the top though. The best view of the city is from Sacre Couer. Definitely see some catacombs. The ones in Paris are huge, the ones in Rome are much smaller but have elaborate displays where the bones are arranged in crazy patterns. I found the French outside of Paris to be MUCH nicer, but I do sympathize a bit with the Parisians situation. The place is crawling with tourists and it must get very old. Germany - Berlin is 2-3 days easy. Pergammon & Checkpoint Charlie were already covered, I was also impressed w/ the Bauhaus Museum and walking around on the East side and still seeing rubble from leftover from WW2. Skip the zoo. Polar bears look the same in Germany as they do everywhere else. Rotenburg is a nifty alternative to Munich. Consider visiting Bruges, Belgium. During the middle ages the harbor silted in and development just ground to a halt. Now it is one of the most charming places I visited because so much of the town retains the look & feel of it's heyday. If you find yourself in Austria, I liked Salzburg better than Vienna. If you are looking for a holiday fling (and who isn't?), there are plenty of guys to accommodate you at the Pink Palace in Corfu, Greece. I know there never seems to be a shortage of horny guys anywhere (you will get grab assed in Italy) but the beauty of the Pink Palace is breakfast until noon and a Spring break Daytona atmosphere. Plenty of people will turn up their nose as such low brow activities, but after a couple weeks of being roused from the hostel at 7am and a steady diet of churches and museums. You'll find it a refreshing vacation from your vacation. I am sooo envious. You are going to have such a good time. Any chance of you ignoring my advice about packing light and putting me in your backpack?
• If you want to actually experience a place, then you need to stay in one place as long as you can. While there, you need to actually meet people. You need to hold actual conversations with them. Only then will you have any sense of what the place is really like and what it might mean to live there. I don't travel across the world to hang out with other Americans, so I try to avoid the tourist stops. I can see plenty of Americans here at home. I have not visited the two largest tourist attractions in my own hometown. Perhaps I will someday. But I have a pretty good handle on what it means to be a resident here.
• "Rick Steves has a bunch of guidebooks and info online for people that want to do whirlwind European touring. It's worth checking his stuff out." Rick Steves scares the hell out of me. He's one of those " I didn't suspect it was him" kinda guys.
• js, it's really not that big a deal, and I don't want to step on anyone's toes... but tracicle said 'the Duomo' rather than 'Il Duomo', so she was right. Had she said 'The Duomo', then your point would be stronger, but I still wouldn't see her as being wrong. Anyway, Il Duomo isn't exclusively the hold of Florence: Try me. Do a quick google search for Il Duomo and see what comes up. OK, Turin's cathedral comes up first:www.comune.torino.it/telecamera/duomo.htm Florence's has more hits (159000) under google:il+ duomo+florence , but milan still has 69700. If we use their italian names, the order is reversed: milano (240000) to firenze (192000). Not that I trust google ranking as irrefutible proof, but you did suggest google. if you say The Notre Dame you really do mean the one in Paris You might, but I may not. Especially if I had been talking about South Bend for the entirety of the paragraph in context. I'd say the cathedral of notre dame de paris if i wanted to distinguish. Or just 'notre dame in paris' if I were lazy. But I'm getting side-tracked. I'm not italian, so I don't have the final authority on anything. I do know enough of latin languages to have my definite articles flagged, and to parse the Duomo as being exactly that- the cathedral, and in this case in Milan
• Wow! Top banana work all around! Let's review: - Italy is a mixture of dirty smelly cities and beautiful perfumed cities. Florence and Milan have some sort of rivalry (its not the guelphs and ghibellines again, is it?) and if I get lucky I can be at the Vatican when the pope dies. -No one likes the "DO. YOU. SPEAK. ENGLISH?" speech. Try the native tongue first. My ineptitude will only lull them into a false confidence, which will make it easier for me to bite their face. -Trains are for sleeping, unless you are Italian. In which case you should be picking someones pocket. -Berlin is the only city in Germany. Paris is the only city in France. Barcelona kicks the pants off both countries combined. -Eastern Europe is the untouched holy land of euro-tourism. Going there and bring back photographic evidence will automatically induct me into the Secrect Society of Indepently Contratrian Travellers, which will meet whenever we can agree on a time and place. -Bananas for everybody.
• Are you coming to the UK for a beer with me? WE WILL CHECK THAT YOU HAVE SUFFICIENT UNDERPANTS FOR YOUR VOYAGE.
• Rome is cool; Don't plan on spending more than 1 day in Venice; If you can swing it, take the ferry to Capri from Naples. Capri is amazingly beautiful. Take the bus up to Anacapri and take the lift to the top of the island, fantastic view. It's cool to check out Pompeii, but beware the stray dogs and grueling temperatures. I lived in Paris for two months, and that wasn't nearly enough time to see "everything" While the Louvre and the D'Orsay are staples, I'd recommend checking out the Georges Pompideau Center for Modern Art; If you're the religious type, check out the Vatican. I found it to be an obnoxiously commercial spectacle, but that's my spin. As for Germany, there is a little city called Rothenburg (sp?) that is quite charming. Get a "snaball" (again, spelling butchered) If you find yourself down south, take a peak at Konstanz, cool as if you take left off the train you're in Switzerland, take a right and your still in Germany. Magnificent view of the Alps. Florence is a worth checking out, but I didn't enjoy it as much as everyone else, for some reason. I second the recommendation on the Catacombs in Paris, very chilling, yet cool experience. In Germany, be sure to get your fill of snitzle and "Doner-kabobs" like a gyro, but made by Turkish (I believe) street vendors. Tasty! Prague is cheap and gorgeous, definitely worth a day or two. Definitely take a trip up the Eiffel Tower, the view is astounding. Amsterdam is cool, for various reasons, but is dirty; Avoid the red light district unless you haven't encountered a seedy situation in your travels. Brussels is cool for the beer and atmosphere, there is a light show every night in the town square that is noteworthy. Picking up a "let's go" is definitely worth it, just don't walk around with your nose in the book or you're asking for trouble. I suppose as parting advice, don't be afraid to take public transportation (local that is, subways and busses.) It can be intimidating, with the smells and confusing rates, and the like, but you'll save yourself a lot of frustration, and in your case, time.
• Hey Monkeys, this is a very helpful thread. I'm heading over to Europe for a 2-3 month fling NEXT March, staying til about mid June or so. I intend to spend one full month in Ireland (family heritage) so I was wondering if any monkeys have advice about fun stuff or just helpful information about Ireland?
• ALL MONKEYS VISITING EUROPE MUST COME TO FLORENCE BECAUSE A) THE ART IS BETTER HERE AND B) WE SHALL HAVE BEERS. THIS IS COMPULSORY, ALTHOUGH UNDERPANTS CHECKS ARE NOT wow. that was kinda fun.although I feel sort of dirty now.
• mothninja, I still hope to come to Dante's city soon. However I must save up to purchase the necessary quanta of underpants. I will not purchase Italian underpants, as my testicles must be swaddled at all times in English-speaking fabrics so that my children will not grow up liberals.
• quid, if you're not fixed on a date for visiting, how 'bout making it April 23rd for the par-tay? (Actually, I might fpp this as opposed to derailing other threads...)
• NO NO NO THAT IS MY BIRTHDAY OR THEREABOUTS I WILL NEED MANY UNDERPANTS AT THAT TIME sorry ;)
• Where better to spend your birthday? It'll be like a combo-party! Bring friends! Bring family! Bring fortheloveofgod underpants!
• Thanks for clarifying, toey. I still maintain that Milan's Duomo is well worth a visit. :)
• What a long thread, I can't read all this. Has anyone mentioned Riomaggiore/Chinque Terre?
• Ireland is fantastic, LoopyG. In the summer of 1999 I worked in Dublin for 5 weeks, and then went to Cork for 3 weeks and then went all up the west coast, and through the North. I did Ireland, baby. Advice...let's see. If you can get to the little town of Dingle on the west coast, it's worth it. Lovely little place that has a dolphin living in the harbour. From there you can also take a ferry over to the uninhabited Blasket Islands, which are just so Ireland - rugged, and isolated, and there's tons of rabbits and a beautiful beach. Though the swimming is iffy. I stayed in exactly 2 minutes. They have a hostel there too, so you can stay over, or you can bring a tent and stay in one of the abandoned houses. Be sure to bring enough food so you don't have to flirt with the hostel owner's son for some like we did, and don't attempt going home in a major storm, like we did, wherein the waves were bigger than our boat. We actually kissed the ground when we got back to shore. After we stopped puking. Ugh. Some of the more "touristy" stuff is really worth doing in Ireland, such as going on a tour of the Ring of Kerry, and visiting Blarney Castle (kissing the Stone optional.) Both are amazingly gorgeous and it's not too hard to make it less touristy if you try. Cork is a nice city but there isn't very much to do there at all. I disliked Galway and didn't stay there beyond waiting for the next bus. If you like exploring caves, go up to Cong in Co. Mayo, which is also a lovely little town where The Quiet Man was filmed, and the hostel in town shows the film for free every night. Easy to meet the locals in the pub, too. Dublin is definitely worth spending a lot of time to explore, and heading north and south out of Dublin on the train (the DART) is cheap and fun. We went to Bray Head one day and it was wonderful. I also liked the town of Sligo up in the northwest, and Derry in Northern Ireland is totally fantastic. I wasn't nuts about Belfast though, it didn't seem like anything too special. Going up to the Giant's Causeway is another touristy thing that's too amazing to pass up, so do it. As to the thread generally, I've never been through southern Europe, though I'd like to. After Ireland I went to the Isle of Man (really recommended), and then through Scotland, Liverpool, London, and finally the Netherlands for a week at the end of August. All were wonderful and I'd give advice, though it certainly would be cheaper to explore Spain, the Czech Republic, etc.
• If you're staying in hostels book in advance they do fill up rather quickly in the touristy seasons and the nice ones fill up even in the off season. make at least an effort to speak the local language even if just to ask if they speak english. Amsterdam - Van Gogh Museum -- it is nearly impossible to get lost in this city so don't worry about just aimlessly wandering around. Luxembourg - American military cemetary(they have patton) theres also a german one but i didn't have an opportunity to get to it. this place may be small but i think it's well worth stopping by to see -- Dikirch a short train ride out of luxembourg city has a great Batlle of the Bulge(Ardennes) Museum Innsbruck austria- smack dab in the middle of the mountains, has some great sites to see -- The Gold Roof, churches, museums etc. Nuremberg Germany- Nazi era ruins, great museum in the Kongresshalle, great food and beer got to one of the Landbierparadies Luzern switzerland - great place to wander around Cologne - The Dom
• Also, check out the World Stompers folks. They're good for travel tips for doing things on the super cheap.
• Oh, the Van Gogh Museum...that was sweeter than sweet. Absolutely fantastic. I don't know if they still do it, but if you're in the Netherlands and want to go to any more than like two attractions, they had a student card that made it free or almost free to get into all sorts of things, and not just in Amsterdam but all over the place. I got to climb to the top of a windmill whose name escapes me at the moment for free, etc. A very good deal.
• also if you have an old university id they can get you some discounts at a lot of museums.
• Weimar, Potsdam and Dresden can be good for history/old culture buffs. Had a great time in each. Spent most of my time in Berlin (taking a class). In Berlin: the best gem in the rough is the Bröhan Museum. It's usually close to empty, and several times I was the only person on the floor. It's a wonderful way to enjoy art deco design and get away from the the Charlottenburg crowds. One of my favorite thrift/vintage clothing shops is in Berlin: Garage (on Ahornstrasse). they price clothes by the kilo, so you can augment your wardrobe as you go. keep an eye out for any local festivals or events, especially flea markets--you can meet all kinds of folks and see a lot of odd stuff (WW II rationing card, ladies who have a hat-making club, etc). Enjoy an ice cream sundae at a restaurant or cafe in the afternoon (they have wonderful varieties, usually with a huge menu). unless you like techno music or huge crowds, avoid the Love Parade.
• One minor detail on Amsterdam: thanks to some strange city coordination, both the Rijksmuseum and the Stedelijk Museum are closed for renovation, and someone had this great idea of digging a new subway through the inner city as well. But for the rest everything is ok.
• One other piece of advice: if you can, hitch hike whenever possible. If you live, you will not regret it. (and if you don't, it'll be up to other people to regret it) Also, check out the World Stompers folks. They're good for travel tips for doing things on the super cheap. Hey js, that's my kind of people!
• If I had your month, I'd hit the following places in the following order: Naples (and Pompeii) Rome Florence Venice then wander through Switzerland and Austria with the remaining week and a half.
• dear lord. Commence the seethingest seethe that ever seethed.
• Oh, dear. That comment was supposed to land over here.
• You might want to check out places like the Hospitality Club that offer advise and even free lodgings from locals. I've used it and gotten great advise on places I'm not familiar with when I'm traveling and had a few travelers stay in my guest-room at home as well.
• Oh yeah - I Bike Italy had a fun day trip through the Tuscan countryside outside Florence. Really beautiful and fun.
• when conversing with the locals in europe, remember that they love to hear comparative analyses from a visitor's point of view. spend some time explaining how things are done back home. the french and germans especially appreciate negative feedback, as this encourages them to strive harder.