|
Macdeo Lurjtux posted:I'm planning a trip to Amsterdam for Mardi Gras in February, I realize they probably don't celebrate much but I like to do something every year for it. I figured Amsterdam would be a good fit because A. it's when the city is cheapest and B. as a canal city I've heard it's breathtaking in the winter snows. a) We don't celebrate Mardi Gras at all. b) Amsterdam in February is pretty much dead. c) Just because it's winter, doesn't mean there will be snow. Last couple of winters we only had snow for maybe 2 or 3 weeks.
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2012 11:09
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 19:17 |
|
|
Macdeo Lurjtux posted:I'm planning a trip to Amsterdam for Mardi Gras in February, I realize they probably don't celebrate much but I like to do something every year for it. I figured Amsterdam would be a good fit because A. it's when the city is cheapest and B. as a canal city I've heard it's breathtaking in the winter snows. Go to cologne with a few friends for Karneval, it's a week of drinking, costumes and parties.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2012 17:36
|
|
|
Arnold of Soissons posted:Any advice on cell phones in Belgium would be very appreciated. We'll be there for at least a year. Proximus is in my opinion the best for normal phone use. If you're looking for a good mobile data deal, try Mobile Vikings.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2012 17:44
|
|
|
Macdeo Lurjtux posted:I'm planning a trip to Amsterdam for Mardi Gras in February, I realize they probably don't celebrate much but I like to do something every year for it. I figured Amsterdam would be a good fit because A. it's when the city is cheapest and B. as a canal city I've heard it's breathtaking in the winter snows. If it snows or freezes. If you are unlucky it will just be hail or ice cold rain (it will be ice cold rain and wind). I have to concur with Ekunnn, a good freeze (where you can skate on the canals) or a nice snow cover is a rare treat. Mostly winter is just miserable and grim. Don't mean to scare you away but "nice" winter weather is rare, don't expect it. Also no one in the Netherlands knows what Mardi Gras is. Edit: Oh Carneval? Yeah we have that, big time. But not in Amsterdam. Go to Tilburg, Eindhoven, Maastricht or Den Bosch (ranging from 1-2 hours travel from Amsterdam). Carneval is only a thing in the part of the country "below the big rivers" that is historically mostly catholic as opposed to the more calvinist north. Though you might find some small parties in Amsterdam. NihilismNow fucked around with this message at 20:13 on Sep 3, 2012 |
|
#
?
Sep 3, 2012 20:01
|
|
|
Edit: Will add my own questions here. Will be heading to Oktoberfest in Munich this year (opening week), and will be doing a tour through Busabout. Does anyone have any advice either about the Busabout side of thigns, or anyone who has been to Oktoberfest before? I'd imagine we won't have a lot of spare time to see many sites around the city, so moreso focused on making the most of the festival, and any hints or tips when it comes to navigating the beer halls and not sticking out like a sore thumb. Macdeo Lurjtux posted:I'm planning a trip to Amsterdam for Mardi Gras in February, I realize they probably don't celebrate much but I like to do something every year for it. I figured Amsterdam would be a good fit because A. it's when the city is cheapest and B. as a canal city I've heard it's breathtaking in the winter snows. I've been to Amsterdam in both mid-November and late February and travelled Europe in Winter twice, both times were a blast. Don't get too hung up on the weather. I also stayed at St. Christophers, and it was OK. We had a private room as my girlfriend was a little wary of hostel dorms her first time, and it was good depending on what you wanted to do and see. Its right in the smoking / party area of the city, so if that's not your thing then keep that in mind. There was also live music on pretty regularly which would have been annoying if you wanted an early night, but if thats your thing then its an organised, cheap, and clean hostel with a good atmostphere. sc0tty fucked around with this message at 11:50 on Sep 6, 2012 |
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2012 11:47
|
|
|
malder posted:Proximus is in my opinion the best for normal phone use. If you're looking for a good mobile data deal, try Mobile Vikings. Cool, I'll check them both out, thanks!
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2012 18:12
|
|
|
My boyfriend and I will be traveling to Malta, Montenegro and Dubrovnik from late October through early November and I'm curious as to what to expect weather-wise in those areas that time of year. I've checked weather sites and such, but I'm getting a wide range of temperatures from them and I'm not sure what to believe. Since you guys are so well traveled and helpful, I thought I'd ask here. Has anyone been to these places in the Fall? Any idea what we should expect? I want to make sure I pack appropriately. Thanks!
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2012 22:46
|
|
|
Bumblebee posted:My boyfriend and I will be traveling to Malta, Montenegro and Dubrovnik from late October through early November and I'm curious as to what to expect weather-wise in those areas that time of year. I've checked weather sites and such, but I'm getting a wide range of temperatures from them and I'm not sure what to believe. Since you guys are so well traveled and helpful, I thought I'd ask here. Has anyone been to these places in the Fall? Any idea what we should expect? I want to make sure I pack appropriately. Thanks! Not sure what kind of answer you are hoping for, since you already have weather data. Maybe it will be 10 degrees, maybe 20. Bring a jacket.
|
|
#
?
Sep 7, 2012 08:40
|
|
|
I went to Malta in March once. It was kind of chilly in the day unless you were in full sunlight. Depending on how much of an indian summer Europe gets, it might be lovely. In London last year in mid-October we were enjoying 25C or something, which was insane. Where are you staying in Malta?
|
|
#
?
Sep 7, 2012 09:29
|
|
|
Thanks very much for all the advice on visiting Paris, we had a great time. I likely wouldn't have thought to visit things like the Quai Branley and Musee D' Larmee had it not been for the advice in here. I just thought I'd share two (badly composed no doubt) photos I took, it really is a beautiful city. I loved the metro and the atmosphere, even in the more touristy places! 
|
|
#
?
Sep 7, 2012 16:32
|
|
|
I will be in Prague for just one day with a couple of friends in October. Obviously a day is not a lot of time to see a whole city. Does anyone have any recommendations on things to do/see? Sightseeing is obviously a good thing, but we'd also like to check out local beer (because who doesn't love beer?). So far the things I've seen that look interesting are the KGB museum and a nightclub in a nuclear bunker. So the question is, where should we go for beer, are the two things above recommended, and what else might we check out on a flash tour of Prague?
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2012 17:58
|
|
|
So I'm going to Paris in early October for a week. Is there a Paris megapost anywhere? Plans: Catch Racing Metro v. Munster on the 13th
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2012 12:32
|
|
|
Brian Fellows posted:So far the things I've seen that look interesting are the KGB museum and a nightclub in a nuclear bunker. So the question is, where should we go for beer, are the two things above recommended, and what else might we check out on a flash tour of Prague? When I was there I spent entirely too many nights gong to the Prague beer museum pub, they have many different kinds of Czech beer there. There might be too many drunk tourists, though.
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2012 15:38
|
|
|
Brian Fellows posted:I will be in Prague for just one day with a couple of friends in October. Obviously a day is not a lot of time to see a whole city. Does anyone have any recommendations on things to do/see? Sightseeing is obviously a good thing, but we'd also like to check out local beer (because who doesn't love beer?). Yeah, KGB museum and nuclear bunkers are generic tourist places that have pretty much nothing to do with Prague, local culture or anything, really. If you want to spend one day productively, visit the Prague castle. It's the largest castle in Europe, and features a cathedral, galleries, museums, parks and other things, all within a reasonably small area. As for beer, the aforementioned Beer museum is alright, but mostly offers standard brews and you won't be able to sample more than few of them anyway. Personally, I would recommend either Pivovarský dům which offers a selection of their own brews, beer liquors and more. Alternatively, if you want a more relaxed evening, try one of the Pilsner Unique Bars, they offer probably the best Pilsner Urquell you'll find and let you manage your own tap.
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2012 16:00
|
|
|
I was kind of taking for granted that we'd go see that castle for sure. Don't worry on that one, that's our first stop. The only brewery I'd heard of when making that post was The Strahov Monastic Brewery, which from what I'd read is nearby the castle. Both of those restaurant/pubs sound pretty nifty; I'll throw them out to my buddies and see if they want to partake. How does a self-managed tap work? Do they keep you on the honor system to tell them how many times you "filled up" or do they meter what you take, or charge a flat fee? Another place that looked pretty cool to me was Pivní Galerie, where you can buy bottles of lesser-known microbrews, and it brought up a good question for Europe in general: Are you allowed to take alcohol across country lines via train? In particular I will be leaving from Prague by train to Munich on my return. Am I going to have a problem with getting on the train or being allowed into Germany with alcohol? Bottled and sealed alcohol, I'm not talking about walking onto the train with a pint in hand. May be a stupid question, but I live in a US state that doesn't even allow shipment of alcohol via mail or over state lines... Thanks for the suggestions guys. I had absolutely no idea how well known the Czech Republic was in the beer world until I started reading up on your suggestions.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2012 18:47
|
|
|
Brian Fellows posted:Are you allowed to take alcohol across country lines via train? In particular I will be leaving from Prague by train to Munich on my return. Am I going to have a problem with getting on the train or being allowed into Germany with alcohol? Bottled and sealed alcohol, I'm not talking about walking onto the train with a pint in hand. I traversed 13 countries through late May -> start of July and can safely say you should have absolutely zero problem. Keep in mind that once you're inside the Schengen area it's essentially one bordered country. But the stations don't look twice at your bags, and as long as you have a ticket the people on board the train wont look twice at you. In fact even if you didn't have a ticket they wouldn't care what was in your bag.
|
|
#
?
Sep 13, 2012 02:31
|
|
|
There is a limit on how much you can take across the border, it's "personal use" but the limits are usually absurdly high. The Swedish customs allow something like 10 litres of hard liquor, 100 litres of beer, plus almost as much wine, per person. If for some ungodly reason you decide to bring more and get caught you might get away with it if you tell them you are going to a wedding or similar.
|
|
#
?
Sep 13, 2012 08:03
|
|
|
We drank a bottle of whisky bought at a Swiss xmas market on a train ride from zurich-->munich-->prague, with no trouble whatsoever. Just dont be an rear end about it and no one will care.
|
|
#
?
Sep 13, 2012 16:27
|
|
|
Alkazard.exe posted:I traversed 13 countries through late May -> start of July and can safely say you should have absolutely zero problem. Keep in mind that once you're inside the Schengen area it's essentially one bordered country. But the stations don't look twice at your bags, and as long as you have a ticket the people on board the train wont look twice at you. Careful, Schengen is an immigration/passport control zone, it has absolutely nothing to do with customs control. There are customs checks in trains that cross over internal Schengen borders, mostly because of cigarette, and VAT related smuggling, but if you get caught with too much alcohol you'll get fined too and have your booze confiscated. Liquor import limits vary between 1 and 10 liters per person depending on the country, so a single bottle - especially an opened one - will always be fine though.
|
|
#
?
Sep 14, 2012 23:32
|
|
|
peak debt posted:Careful, Schengen is an immigration/passport control zone, it has absolutely nothing to do with customs control. Oh, I realise and don't mean to be misleading. It was more a generalised "I crossed through [Schengen] countries non-stop and didn't even get looked at twice as long as I had my ticket" thing. In fact I don't think I've been checked for alcohol once (minus the airport scans ofc) in all my time around Europe.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2012 02:05
|
|
|
On the Swiss->Italian border they often do customs check. Mostly they check the luggage for cigarettes and shake down tourists for the 20% VAT on watches.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2012 13:03
|
|
|
E: Nevermind.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2012 13:28
|
|
|
So when I asked my Fiance about what she wanted for our European trip next month to celebrate her taking the LSAT, I received the following answer:Ajaxify's Fiance posted:I WANT TO loving GO SOMEWHERE WARM AND MAGICAL AND AWAY FROM THE loving WORLD SO I CAN loving REST AND I WANT TO BE DRUNK THE ENTIRE TIME Any suggestions? We are planning on leaving on between the 10th and 12th and returning on the 14th to the 16th of October. I kinda wanted to smoke in Amsterdam and drive a BMW on the autobahn but she was thinking Italy/S. France/Spain because the weather seems nicer that time of year and and I'm pretty sure the booze she wants is wine. If this isn't enough information let me know and I'll provide some more. Thanks.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2012 07:39
|
|
|
I think places like Cyprus, Turkey and Israel have nicer weather. The places you mentioned aren't that great in October. I'd recommend looking into Cyprus.
jyrka fucked around with this message at 10:31 on Sep 16, 2012 |
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2012 10:25
|
|
|
Ajaxify posted:I kinda wanted to smoke in Amsterdam and drive a BMW on the autobahn jyrka posted:The places you mentioned aren't that great in October. Yeah, Amsterdam and north/central Germany are going to be cold, grey and rainy in the middle of October. Go to the south of Spain/Portugal.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2012 11:29
|
|
|
Malta would be a good pick too.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2012 11:32
|
|
|
Ajaxify posted:So when I asked my Fiance about what she wanted for our European trip next month to celebrate her taking the LSAT, I received the following answer: Go with Portugal. Last year it was beach time until middle October and this year seems to be going the same way. Plenty of extremily cheap and extremily good wine for her to keep the spirits up. Drugs are descriminilized so you can have your smoke as well without fearing arrest.
|
|
#
?
Sep 17, 2012 00:33
|
|
|
Evil Creature posted:Go with Portugal. Last year it was beach time until middle October and this year seems to be going the same way. Plenty of extremily cheap and extremily good wine for her to keep the spirits up. Drugs are descriminilized so you can have your smoke as well without fearing arrest. Croatia is another good choice. Beaches, cheap, and not as touristic as other places.
|
|
#
?
Sep 17, 2012 04:22
|
|
|
There's a lot of beach tourism in Croatia, perhaps not so much in October though.
|
|
#
?
Sep 17, 2012 09:09
|
|
|
Is there a web site that tracks discounts and last minute deals for airline fares? For instance, I want to travel from city X to city Y and I want to be notified when the price drops below Z. I'm posting here because I'm primarily interested in European destinations.Morholt posted:There's a lot of beach tourism in Croatia, perhaps not so much in October though. September is considered the vacation month for connoisseurs because the weather is still great and it's already less crowded. October takes it a step further, but you can run into some bad weather.
|
|
#
?
Sep 17, 2012 10:04
|
|
|
Doctor Malaver posted:Is there a web site that tracks discounts and last minute deals for airline fares? For instance, I want to travel from city X to city Y and I want to be notified when the price drops below Z. I'm posting here because I'm primarily interested in European destinations. I don't know, but there is a Saving money on a plane ticket? thread.
|
|
#
?
Sep 17, 2012 23:31
|
|
|
If you had two weeks of free leave, loved reading about the cold war, and were able to go to Eastern Europe in February, where would you go? I have a car and am living in the northeast of Italy. My basic plan looks like this: Slovenia -> Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia -> Croatia -> Slovenia I'd have a car, but I really don't know what to look at. I hate toursity crap, but love off the beaten path stuff. Even if I can't read I'm entirely fine with looking. I love hiking, camping etc. I went caving in Slovenia earlier this summer too. Planning on staying in hostels and meeting people. I've was on a work trip to Bulgaria for a month last March and loved the place. I was in Plovdiv and hiked to the top of the little hills, went to the mall, took a day trip to Sofia and bought cold war antiques at some random street market... Speaking of which, is that big street market still open in Sofia during the winter? I'd love to get more cool stuff.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2012 00:43
|
|
|
Hungary is gorgeous, and there's a lot of great hiking in Romania. Honestly, Romania is one of my favorite countries to visit due to how cheap everything is there and the fact that their language is a lot easier to get the hang of than Hungarian or the slavic languages.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2012 00:48
|
|
|
Xibanya posted:Hungary is gorgeous, and there's a lot of great hiking in Romania. Honestly, Romania is one of my favorite countries to visit due to how cheap everything is there and the fact that their language is a lot easier to get the hang of than Hungarian or the slavic languages. Yeah, Romania is definitely where we were planning on spending most of our time. (Me and another dude buddy)... And hopefully picking up super hot Romanian chicks.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2012 00:50
|
|
|
DrCuntmuffins posted:Yeah, Romania is definitely where we were planning on spending most of our time. (Me and another dude buddy)... And hopefully picking up super hot Romanian chicks. If you're in the west, Timisoara and Cluj are both college towns, so you're most likely to get lucky there.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2012 00:56
|
|
|
Any other cool stuff to do in Romania? February will be cold, so I don't know what all there is to do in the winter... Any open outdoor markets in Bucharest?
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2012 01:07
|
|
|
I've never been to Bucharest, but they do have some little outdoor markets in Timisoara. One time I went to Siria and climbed the mountain there with some friends and drank in the ruins of an old fortress. There are a lot of old structures in Romania that in America would be protected monuments but are just out in the open. There are also a lot of great rock bars (rock is a big deal in RO, unlike Western Europe) and some nice discotheques, if that's you're thing. By the way, it will be COLD in February, possibly with snow still on the ground, so be sure to dress accordingly. Also, if you're coming in via road by Hungary, there are two things you should be prepared for: 1. the roads will immediately become worse in RO. 2. the passport control guys will think it's bizarre if you're from America and might try to make a big deal of it. I usually fly into Romania, but I did drive in once through Nadlac, and the passport control guys didn't exactly give me a hard time but they definitely treated me like an oddity. Edit: To give you some idea, here are some pictures I took Timisoara market  The Stone Fortress at Siria. Some friends and I climbed up here one afternoon and drank and smoked weed until the sun went down.  Xibanya fucked around with this message at 01:25 on Sep 18, 2012 |
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2012 01:19
|
|
|
Xibanya posted:I've never been to Bucharest, but they do have some little outdoor markets in Timisoara. Good to know. I have an Italian license also so although I have an American passport it will probably be even more awkward... Cool stuff though. I live right next to the Dolomites so I have a bunch of cold weather clothes, shouldn't be a problem. Thanks for the infos
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2012 01:27
|
|
|
What would be the best way to get from Scotland to Ireland? I'm not a fan of planes so it's pretty much ferries, right? How much can I expect them to cost or how long would it take?
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2012 14:40
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 19:17 |
|
|
Miftan posted:What would be the best way to get from Scotland to Ireland? I'm not a fan of planes so it's pretty much ferries, right? How much can I expect them to cost or how long would it take? This site might be helpful: http://www.directferries.ie/ I think the three scottish ferryports you'd be interested in would be Troon, Stranraer and Cairnryan and I think the fare is in or around 30-35 pounds 1 way for a foot passenger and the duration around the 2 hour mark.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2012 15:51
|
|
