Who's travelled to Europe?

[Lord of The Curry]

A friend of mine has proposed the idea of doing the backpacker/hostel dealy in Europe for a few weeks in the spring. What do I need to know? Countries likely to be visited include England, France, Germany, Holland and Sweden.

[CanadianChris]

I've been to England. London's incredible.

[Lord of The Curry]

Bring that content, baby. Bring it.

 

I'm thinking of "playing American" in a few places overseas and see how hostile the situation can get.

[Craig Th]

I've been there twice.

 

Once in 99 with my French class. We went to London, Paris, Naples and Niece(sp), which was one of the best times of my life. And I went to Dublin in 03, which was alright but the weather was horrible.

 

One tip is try to learn a little bit of the language that the country speaks. They appreciate it when you try to speak their tongue and will most likely start speaking to you in English.

[Lord of The Curry]

I can handle French fairly well and do a mean Cockney accent so I've got England and France covered. I refuse to learn German. The language of evil will not enter my body.

[Sideburnious]

I did a huge thing on Europe before but I'm too lazy to look now. I'll find it later and post it.

 

In short. Never been to Sweeden but it's supposed to be cold this time of year (and a little expensive).

 

London's great, I'm going myself in March (but the pound will probably rape you)

 

Come to Dublin and ill hook you up. (but again, its fucking expensive, and as mole mentioned, the weather is almost always terrible bar june-the first two weeks of september)

 

Never been to France.

 

Germany's great, I'd prob move there if they spoke english (but watch out for neo-nazi's...seriously)

 

Pretty much with alot of those backpacker "inter-railing" trips are supposed to be good fun. I had a few friends with them and most of the European hostels are cheap and in good condition.

[Lord of The Curry]

My friend that I'm going with has family in London so we're covered financially for that portion of the trip which is nice. The trip would most likely be March-April timewise but I wouldn't give a shit about the weather in Ireland, I'd just want to visit regardless. Give some family a holler.

[Murmuring Beast]

Ireland is beautiful and Germany is cheap. France is expensive, from memory. Depends where you go, I guess. A lot of the places in the Scandanavia region are highly expensive.

[Garth]

I know London, Cardiff and Salisbury (where Stonehenge is) all pretty well, so if you have any particular questions let them fly.

[Dobbs 3K]

Don't worry about "being American". People are generally friendly. We went to Europe last summer and had no problems. We didn't hide where we were from or put maple leaves on our backpacks, or any of that crap.

 

If you're going to Germany, I'd advise learning at least some basic German. English isn't as prevalent there as in some other cities. Sure, you can usually find someone who speaks it, but you don't want to be dinking around at a bus station trying to figure out where you need to head, etc.

 

If you like beer...you'll love Europe. The Germans have the best in the world, IMO. I recommend Radeberger and Kostritzer. A pint of beer is usually pretty cheap in most places (like 2 or 3 bucks tops).

 

Speaking of Germany, Dresden is a wonderful city. You can see how they've rebuilt all the old buildings since the firebombing in World War II. Berlin is...well, an industrial city that is a little bit underwhelming, IMO. We didn't really run into any neo-nazis, but we didn't go into any obviously non-friendly areas either.

 

Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, is a fun city, and EVERYONE speaks English there. We didn't go to any "coffee shops" or the red light district, and still had a great time. They have a really nice hostel there as well. Check out the museums for sure.

 

Hosteling is a great route to save some money. You'll need to purchase memberships with Hosteling International in advance. They can direct you to local hostels in each city you'll be visiting. As far as London, we stayed at a nice hostel about two blocks from St. Paul's Cathedral. Hostels usually have inexpensive meals available (especially breakfast...though European breakfast tends to consist of cold cuts, bread, and cheeses...sometimes eggs and sausage, but not always).

 

Mass transit is cheap, and the best way to get around. Train passes generally need to be purchased in advance. Sorry I don't know the website off hand.

 

Make sure you bring enough money, or at least have credit cards and/or travelers checks available. Get a good hiking backpack that will be easy on your back. Don't overpack. A lot of stuff you'll need can be purchased in local shops or at the airport, and then tossed before you fly back home.

 

Other than that, give yourself enough time. You'll probably need at least four weeks to adequately see everything you're planning on. We crammed our trip into less than two weeks, and while we still had a blast, it was hectic.

[Zorin Industries]

Come to Belfast, were the friendlist city in Europe!

 

 

 

 

Unless your Black, or Asian, or Arabic, Catholic, Protestant, in fact any minority!

[Lord of The Curry]

<-------- White Agnostic

[Sideburnious]

Yeah, Belfast will still spit you out.

[Zorin Industries]

I laugh at the fact were an up and coming travel destination, i've been round the world on my holidays and the unfriendlist people i've ever met are from Belfast.

[Murmuring Beast]

The most threatening accent anyway.

[Zorin Industries]

You fuckin' starting big lad? I'll have you fuckin' knees done!

 

Saying that in a Northern Irish accent never fails to get you out of trouble in a foreign country!

[Lord of The Curry]

Last night it was more or less decided that over three weeks we'll be definetly hitting up London, Paris and Amsterdam with likely stops in Austria and possibly Italy.

[Guest Paul]

I've been to Manchester (which was a SHITHOLE), London (nice, but expensive) and Amsterdam.

 

I too would say to learn as much of the languages as you can. While the only foreign speaking country I was in was Amsterdam, they ALL do speak English, especially when they hear you struggling to speak dutch. I've heard the hostels there are shitty, so I'd advise you to stay at "Hotel Sander" which is located at 69 Jacob Obrechtstraat. It's located near all the museums, main city and red light district. Nice and cheap, too. And DO go to the red light district. You'll never see anything like it, just watch the amount of eye contact you make with the hookers, or they'll come out and REALLY push themselves on you. They're hot, too.

[Zorin Industries]

I know some people aren't that keen on it, but I loved Paris. Its a really nice city, and I didn't find people as rude as some make out. Just watch out for the street vendors and guys that try to paint your picture, they come on real strong.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Check this shit out:

 

http://www.ukrcam.com/tour/tour_3.html

[Zorin Industries]

Is Lenin still on show, cause if hes not hes certainly spinning in his grave!

[Sideburnious]

Ah the soviets! If it was shittily built, they constructed it.