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I found that showing my boarding pass was pretty standard in most countries in Europe - I never had to show my passport though. The one caveat to that was in Qatar in the Middle East, we had to show both and then they brought our purchases to us at the gate, possibly because we had alcohol though. In Paris we didn't have to show boarding passes but we might as well have, they love to stop you every 5 seconds for a check point search.
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Jun 22, 2013 16:48
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So, I'm in Switzerland getting my rear end handed to me with the Swiss Franc and I've ran into a problem. I could only get a train to Paris on July 4 instead of July 5. My hotel wants to charge me 150€ for one extra night. Anyone in France wanna couchsurf me two beds? Not set in stone yet, still looking for something decent. PM or message here.
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Jun 22, 2013 20:14
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I'm thinking about going to Scotland in a few weeks with my girlfriend, but I know nothing about the country other than it has good whiskey. I want the whiskey to be a big part of the trip, I would like to see a few of the distilleries and some whiskey bars while I am there, but that's not all we want to see. What else is there to do in Scotland? How should we get around, where should we go, and more importantly... how much money will we need? I hope this wasn't already covered in full, I'm trying to book the flights pretty soon so I don't have time to browse the entire thread.
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Jun 23, 2013 17:14
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Edinburgh is nice and well worth a visit. If you like hiking you should visit the Highlands. Glen Afric is beautiful, for example. If you want to see some more rough landscapes you can visit places like Isle of Skye (Talisker distillery is also there) or even the outer hebrides. The weather might be a bit poo poo, expect a bunch of rain! If you want to visit several distilleries maybe try and find some that have something unique going on, otherwise it'll be pretty samey after the first.
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Jun 23, 2013 23:43
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Has anyone been to Kaliningrad? While not a member of the EU, it's in Europe so I figured I'd ask here. It's strangely intriguing from looking on google maps. I sort of want to visit. Is it cool or interesting or just a waste of time?
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Jun 23, 2013 23:49
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sergio. posted:I'm thinking about going to Scotland in a few weeks with my girlfriend, but I know nothing about the country other than it has good whiskey. I want the whiskey to be a big part of the trip, I would like to see a few of the distilleries and some whiskey bars while I am there, but that's not all we want to see. What else is there to do in Scotland? How should we get around, where should we go, and more importantly... how much money will we need? As a kid/young adult I spent quite a lot of time in the Clyde estuary/inner Hebrides and I have to say that it is the most beautiful place I have ever been in if the weather is decent. However it is difficult to get to. We were in a sailing boat coming over from Ireland so it was a handy place to travel to for us, but I think it is pretty far away if you are travelling overland. I'd suggest renting a car and travelling as you choose - many of the best parts of Scotland are off the beaten track and having your own transportation will make you so much more flexible.
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Jun 24, 2013 00:41
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MrOnBicycle posted:Has anyone been to Kaliningrad? While not a member of the EU, it's in Europe so I figured I'd ask here. It's strangely intriguing from looking on google maps. I sort of want to visit. Is it cool or interesting or just a waste of time? Used to be called Königsberg, the former capital of Prussia before it moved to Berlin, and known as the unofficial birthplace of modern Germany. Unfortunately the whole city was wiped off the map during WW2, whatever is left is a modern reconstruction. Not sure it's worth the hassle of applying for a Russian visa.
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Jun 24, 2013 01:16
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Dj Vulvio posted:Used to be called Königsberg, the former capital of Prussia before it moved to Berlin, and known as the unofficial birthplace of modern Germany. Unfortunately the whole city was wiped off the map during WW2, whatever is left is a modern reconstruction. Not sure it's worth the hassle of applying for a Russian visa. That much I know. I thought it might be interesting to see a soviet era city, since it seems pretty unchanged. Or a little slice of Russia close to Europe. There is a special visa that allows you to stay for 3 days that you can get if you are a member of a Schengen agreement state. Which I am. Should be pretty easy to get.
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Jun 24, 2013 08:21
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So I'm pre-booked into a Sunday night dinner in Paris with this guy who was recommended on Trip Advisor and has had a bunch of news articles written about him over the years. Has anyone else been either to his dinners or something similar? I understand there's a few in Paris and New York. It's not the kind of thing I'd normally do, but it's bound to break up the loneliness of nights by myself and even if the food is terrible, I think it's more about meeting interesting people.
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Jun 24, 2013 09:20
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Supper clubs (as we call them here in London) were actually amazingly popular for a while , and I went to quite a few of them. There was honestly a different type for everyone - I had like a six course meal cooked by this astounding chef in his pokey Hackney flat, and also like "themed" dinners at this sweet couple's house. It's a good way to meet people and usually great value for money and nice food too.
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Jun 24, 2013 09:32
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That's good to hear. It'd be great if I could find one in every city I'm going to (I know there's at least one in Rome) but a lot of them don't seem to run with much frequency.
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Jun 24, 2013 11:14
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MrOnBicycle posted:Thanks! Judging from the postings and pictures of a former colleague of mine, the city could very well be entirely full of people decrying what the vile Russians have done to this once proud Prussian city, and other stuff that smacks of German nationalism, nazi apology and revisionism.
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Jun 24, 2013 18:31
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Decrying what the Soviet Union did to their city is rather common in areas they occupied. I fail to see how that falls into the category of stuff that smacks of nazi apology and revisionism. Please elaborate.
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Jun 24, 2013 20:06
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EricBauman posted:Judging from the postings and pictures of a former colleague of mine, the city could very well be entirely full of people decrying what the vile Russians have done to this once proud Prussian city, and other stuff that smacks of German nationalism, nazi apology and revisionism.  I doubt there's a single ethnic German left anywhere in the entire region; Königsberg was deliberately removed from the maps, while Stettin, Danzig and Breslau saw the deportation of their entire population to Germany after the aforementioned pink regions were assigned to Poland right after the war. They aren't even called anymore with their original names. If you are interested in Soviet architecture/constructivism spend those 3 days in St. Petersburg. Königsberg sounds so... sad and cursed by history.
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Jun 24, 2013 20:44
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Waci posted:Decrying what the Soviet Union did to their city is rather common in areas they occupied. I fail to see how that falls into the category of stuff that smacks of nazi apology and revisionism. Please elaborate. All over central and eastern Europe cities were in many cases primarily German and Jewish in population. All over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the population composition has been changing, with the inhabitants of the land around the cities (Poles, Russians, Ukrainians, strange local minorities) coming into the cities. In many cases, like that of Danzig, ethnic Germans clung to power and forced crises. All of the Königsberg fan sites I've seen claim that cities like Königsberg, Danzig and the Baltic capitals have, or should have German identities. I'm not Stalin's biggest fan either (and I wouldn't defend Soviet soldiers raping their way to Berlin, obviously), but the campaigns of 1944-1945 only speeded up a process that was ongoing, in which the population of the country also took the cities. It might also have been the tone in the material that this guy showed me that irked me more than that, constantly repeating that the PRUSSIAN city, German this, German that. Dj Vulvio posted:I doubt there's a single ethnic German left anywhere in the entire region; Yeah, sorry, I meant the type of tourist that go there, rather than the original population longing back to the good old days when the SS liberated the Baltic.
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Jun 24, 2013 20:48
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EricBauman posted:Yeah, sorry, I meant the type of tourist that go there, rather than the original population longing back to the good old days when the SS liberated the Baltic. I don't know man, I think having a couple old people walking around that want Kaliningrad to be part of the Reich again wouldn't keep me from visiting. I don't think it will have a big impact on the overall experience.
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Jun 24, 2013 22:20
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Dj Vulvio posted:
There are a fair amount of ethnic Germans in Kaliningrad. Many of them are Russian Germans from Kazakhstan and look and sound the same as an ethnic Russians. Anyway, I'm heading to Europe for a month starting tomorrow. I'm going with a buddy from school and we're meeting up with some other friends and acquaintances along the way. Any recommendations of must see/do things in Munich, Prague, Split/Croatia in general or Berlin? We've got 5 days in Munich, 10 days in Prague, 5 days in Split and 10 days in Berlin. Most of our time in Split is taken up by some sort of EDM festival.
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Jun 25, 2013 01:51
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NewtGoongrich posted:There are a fair amount of ethnic Germans in Kaliningrad. Many of them are Russian Germans from Kazakhstan and look and sound the same as an ethnic Russians. Oh, oh! Go to the Munich Residenz. Yeah, it's another palace, but if you've got to go to any palace in Germany, choose this one. It's big and beautiful and it has something like 120 rooms open to the public. They're not empty either. You should also go to the Englischer Garten which is the German equivalent of Hyde Park except better.
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Jun 25, 2013 01:58
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I'm going to Greece for 16 days in mid-September (18, including flight time) and was wondering if anyone had good trip planning resources or recommendations on what to see/eat/do in Greece, it's kind of hard to find info on the forums. Budget: Around 100 euros per day per person (including lodging) - hoping for some days to be less, willing to spend more for a couple of nicer hotels for a few nights Tentative Itinerary: Athens-2 days Hydra-2 days Travel time (1 day) Naxos or Paros- 3 days Santorini- 3 days Rhodes- 4 days (flight to Athens) Athens-1/2 day before flight Thanks.
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Jun 25, 2013 04:05
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Octy posted:Oh, oh! Go to the Munich Residenz. Yeah, it's another palace, but if you've got to go to any palace in Germany, choose this one. It's big and beautiful and it has something like 120 rooms open to the public. They're not empty either. You should also go to the Englischer Garten which is the German equivalent of Hyde Park except better. I will be in Munich from the 10th of July until the 15th. I am leaning towards the Residenz, one of the Pinakotheks and a day trip to Regensburg. I highly recommend the Englischer Garten as well. Make sure to enter the park from the south end, the first meadow you encounter is the nudist sunbathing area. I don't need to go to the Hofbrauhaus again (there's one in Rosemont next to Toby Keith's Kick 'em in the Turban Steakhouse!!!) and want to make it to the Augustiner Braustuben and the Hirschgarten. Does any goon know where Fassbinder filmed this scene in Ali: Fear Eats the Soul? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zx23kZOoh0 I'm leaning towards Augustiner Keller. I already know where this great man is buried and where the Italian restaurant is that was Hitler's favorite place to eat lunch in Munich.
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Jun 25, 2013 06:34
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WaryWarren posted:I will be in Munich from the 10th of July until the 15th. I am leaning towards the Residenz, one of the Pinakotheks and a day trip to Regensburg. I highly recommend the Englischer Garten as well. Make sure to enter the park from the south end, the first meadow you encounter is the nudist sunbathing area. I don't need to go to the Hofbrauhaus again (there's one in Rosemont next to Toby Keith's Kick 'em in the Turban Steakhouse!!!) and want to make it to the Augustiner Braustuben and the Hirschgarten. drat, if only I'd known about the Osteria Italiana. As for beer halls, I went to the Hofbraukeller which is where Hitler gave his first speech as a member of the DAP. Less touristy than the Hofbrauhaus apparently.
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Jun 25, 2013 07:17
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If you have not been, check out Deutsches Museum, it is pretty cool. Also come to the Germany thread for more advice!
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Jun 25, 2013 09:23
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I'm in Berlin Tegel again. At least this other terminal has air conditioning. Still no food or clean bathrooms. At least the other one had a bar? This one has a closed duty free shop and a pretzel cart. Seriously? This is the plane to JFK from Berlin
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Jun 25, 2013 12:12
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WaryWarren posted:I will be in Munich from the 10th of July until the 15th. I am leaning towards the Residenz, one of the Pinakotheks and a day trip to Regensburg. I highly recommend the Englischer Garten as well. Make sure to enter the park from the south end, the first meadow you encounter is the nudist sunbathing area. This. I really liked the garden as well, If you enter from the south end as WaryWarren suggested then on the opposite side is a buffet style eatery that has some good food. Bit pricey though. Also if your entering from the south side then about 200-300m before you reach the garden is where the surfers are, if you see the nudists turn around and follow the river back up the other way until you see the crowd at the mouth of a tunnel. We spent a couple of days watching these guys and girls on and off and it was really good fun. Wind, hail or shine they were there. I am by no means a fan of surfing but the finesse some of these people navigate the thin river with is a bit addictive.
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Jun 25, 2013 12:21
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Just gonna tell everyone: go to Slovenia. I did not know anything about it but it's absolutely gorgeous and so drat cheap. This is Lake Bohinj where we were staying. Pretty much no one else around! The lake was freezing cold but swimming in it was totally worth it.  It's a pretty great place for hiking.  And this is Bled.  Wine and beer will cost you about €1.20 - 1.50! Staying somewhere overnight is €15-20. Meals in pretty nice restaurants are about €6 for a main course. The one issue is that there aren't many cheap airlines flying there, but WizzAir does from London Luton.
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Jun 25, 2013 14:29
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WaryWarren posted:I highly recommend the Englischer Garten as well. I don't need to go to the Hofbrauhaus again (there's one in Rosemont next to Toby Keith's Kick 'em in the Turban Steakhouse!!!) and want to make it to the Augustiner Braustuben and the Hirschgarten. Someone here suggested Hirschgarten and AuMeister to me on my third trip to Munich. They were (to me) better than Augustiner (still awesome) and the Chinese tower (super awesome) because I knew I was dining and enjoying the sun with locals, no tourists. Do the residenz too. To me the one in Würzburg was more interesting, but the grand hall in the Munich one was cool too. We made a day by renting bikes in town, riding past Hirschgarten (had eaten already) to Nymphenburg (something I also suggest) for a drink, then through Olympic park, up to AuMeister in the English garten, back down to Chinese tower for a drink, back into town (maybe to the residenz). In cooler weather continue south to Waltwirdshaft in the southern half of the garten. Then back to town. Munich (to me) is a town perfect for casual biking and frequent beer stops... My favorite town in all of Europe.
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Jun 25, 2013 14:35
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Slovenia talk: My wife and I almost went this year, along with Budapest, but couldn't make it fit. How's the biking around Bled and the surrounding area? We really want to make this happen next year.
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Jun 25, 2013 14:38
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LaserWash posted:Slovenia talk: I didn't cycle but there do seem to be plenty of places that rent them. Roads aren't very good and traffic is pretty sparse. Ljubljana had absolutely excellent segregated cycling facilities that really impressed me. That makes me think the attitude towards cyclists is pretty good, but I'm sure you can find more info on this somewhere else.
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Jun 25, 2013 15:25
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Well, after I got the heck out of $witzerland and landed in Rome, I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that paying 8€ for a pizza compared to 33francs for a Kebab feels pretty drat good.
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Jun 25, 2013 20:45
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Insane Totoro posted:I'm in Berlin Tegel again. At least this other terminal has air conditioning. Still no food or clean bathrooms. At least the other one had a bar? This one has a closed duty free shop and a pretzel cart.
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Jun 25, 2013 21:10
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Dear tourists in Amsterdam: please realize that the reddish part of the sidewalk is, in fact, a bicycle path. If you're standing there for any reason, you're fair game. No, my new bicycle bell which sounds like Gabriel's horn is not "too much". That is all.
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Jun 25, 2013 21:42
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I'm looking for Croatia/Bosnia advice. We only had 5 days to plan, but we (stupidly?) decided to fly into one city and out of another and just do whatever to get from one to the other. We're flying into Dubrovnik on a Friday night in August and out of Sarajevo Wednesday. It's obviously not enough time to see everything but we are as interested in the scenery in-between as we are in the two cities. I was originally thinking that we could take a bus and from Dubrovnik to Mostar and eventually the scenic Neretva River train to Sarajevo. But since timing is tight, it would be nice to not be tied to the public transport schedule and have the option of stopping at various places along the way (such as the Kravice falls and various small towns), so we're thinking about renting a car. I'm a bit apprehensive about renting a car internationally, but the more I think about it, the better of an option it seems. Any advice on that? At one extreme we could rent the car at the DBV airport and return it at the SJJ airport. At the other extreme we could just rent a car for one day and do a day trip from Mostar and possibly return the car in Sarajevo. We would save the extra cost of doing a one-way rental between countries but we would still have to deal with transport to and from the airports, and Dubrovnik to Mostar. Very specific, I know, but maybe someone has been there before and has some advice. E: We would also like to camp but figure this isn't possible since we won't have equipment. But if there's something we haven't thought of, let me know. SurgicalOntologist fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Jun 25, 2013 |
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Jun 25, 2013 22:23
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I thought it would be a good idea to save going up the Eiffel tower until my last day in Paris. And then I get there to find out a labor strike started today. gently caress. At least I'll be in Amsterdam tomorrow.
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Jun 25, 2013 23:19
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Mr.AARP posted:I thought it would be a good idea to save going up the Eiffel tower until my last day in Paris. And then I get there to find out a labor strike started today. gently caress. Honestly, you aren't missing anything (pickpocketing opportunity from strangers closely huddled next to you aside) that you wouldn't see at the top of any other big city. Says the guy that has done it twice...
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Jun 26, 2013 00:02
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I loved going up the Eiffel Tower. If you missed out, it's an excuse to go back to Paris someday. Have fun in Amsterdam!
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Jun 26, 2013 00:20
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Yeah the Eiffel tower does rule, if you haven't been up Tour Montparnasse though use this as an excuse.
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Jun 26, 2013 00:38
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HookShot posted:Yeah the Eiffel tower does rule, if you haven't been up Tour Montparnasse though use this as an excuse. I haven't and I will gladly do so. What does it cost to go up?
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Jun 26, 2013 00:43
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DNova posted:I haven't and I will gladly do so. What does it cost to go up? I did this a week ago. I think 15euros
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Jun 26, 2013 01:04
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Mr.AARP posted:I thought it would be a good idea to save going up the Eiffel tower until my last day in Paris. And then I get there to find out a labor strike started today. gently caress. Ha, the Louvre was closed because of a labor strike when my mum was in Paris, but that was fifteen years ago. You've got me worried now.
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Jun 26, 2013 02:06
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I lived near Paris for a semester and near the end of my time there, the garbage men went on strike and spread tons of garbage on the big plaza in front of l'Hôtel de Ville. I think going on strike is a national hobby in France.
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Jun 26, 2013 02:12
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