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Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

🪶Caw🪶





On driving in Italy - DO NOT DRIVE IN ROME.

The streets are tiny and mostly one way, people park absolutely anywhere - I've seen them parked across pedestrian crossings, or three deep on pavements.

People also stop in the middle of the road and wander off into shops whenever they feel like it.

Also, the kind of car usually driven is like this:



And yes, you do still see a lot of the older ones (the one on the right), they make smartcars look big.

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Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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I know there are lots of big megamarkets in France - the kind that have groceries and hardware on one huge shopfloor, so they aren't totally unheard of. You're still better off shopping in smaller shops though.

One thing; do NOT buy "american-style bread" in a francophone country. We did once, in France - it was a normalish looking sliced pan loaf bought to make morning toast out of. It was unbelievably nasty, even the local sparrows wouldn't touch it. I think it is created as a sort of subtle pro-french propaganda - their bread may go stale in less than 6 hours but drat it's good until then.

Also there are no Mexicans in Europe, so there is no Mexican food; sad but true :(

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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Check this out:

triple room in a b&b within walking distance of city centre for 50 euro a night

http://www.hotelclub.com/directhotel.asp?id=51019&checkin=2011-04-04&checkout=2011-04-09&hasSuburb=

Actually ratestogo.com is a very useful site, I use it all the time.


edit: Jesus, it's gone already :( I still recommend ratestogo.com though

Pookah fucked around with this message at 13:39 on Apr 1, 2011

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

🪶Caw🪶





Neris posted:

As always, would strongly, strongly urge you to skip Dublin and see some of the west coast of Ireland. Dublin, in my view, is such a grey flavourless tourist-let-down over priced part of Ireland. I grew up on the South West coast and you couldn't do better, in my view, than to rent a car and drive around Cork and Kerry - seriously, it's unbelievably gorgeous.

Agreed.

Dublin just isn't that great, there are loads of much nicer, more irishy places to see - Like Kilkenny; great castle, nice town, lovely riverwalks. Kerry is great except it's full of Kerrymen (little butty fellas in mauldy aul tweed jackets and trousers held up with string), The scenery is wonderful though. Galway is great too - a small and vibrant city with a very distinct feel to it. Plus driving through the south from Cork over to Waterford is great because there are lots of ruined Norman (800+ years old) castles along the way to look at.

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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The Viper posted:

Well now to be fair, we have Teletext, and I'm pretty sure the Kings of France, Germany and Ireland have a 28.8k modem.

Nope. Ireland's king only has a fax machine. And it's put of paper :ohdear:.

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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I'm going to be in Budapest for the next week - can anyone recommend any non-fancy traditional hungarian food providing restaurants? I've been googling but I don't think most of the good places have much of an internet presence. I love hungarian food but it,s hard to dig the good places out from among the tourist traps.


Recommendations for interesting day trips also gratefully received. We're planning to hit the city centre tomorrow and end up in the central market hall because it is awesome - so much good paprika! Seriously, I travelled light with the plan of stocking up on good paprika and other hard to get things, like tarhonya.

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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So I'm just back from Budapest, and it was amazing :D
Weather was perfect -A dry 25-35 degrees C and bright sunshine most of the time. We saw most of the main sights in the city and also made a couple of daytrips to see Lake Balaton and Szentendre.

Unfortunately the curse of Bruce Willis struck me again :(

It's honestly getting a bit weird at this stage; in 1996 I was in Chicago for the summer, and couldn't get down Michigan Avenue for most of one day because Bruce was filming The Jackal.

10 years later I was passing through L.A. on my way to New Zealand and the shuttle bus I was on had to make a big awkward detour; Bruce again, filming Die Hard 4.

Last sunday I was up on Castle Hill planning to visit the Budapest History Museum but the whole inner courtyard was blocked off by trucks so no access possible. we asked a couple of english tourists what was going on and they said that there was some film or other being shot today so no-one was getting inside. It was our last day, so a bit of a disappointment as you can imagine.

"What film is it?" I asked idly.

"Oh, its the new Die Hard" they said.

:argh: BRUCE WILLIS!!! :argh:

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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Alkazard.exe posted:

That's hilarious, and way too coincidental given times and locations. Are you sure you're not stalking him? :ninja:

It really is bizarre; I have only EVER been inconvenienced by Bruce Willis, never any other actor. It's sort of reasonable to expect that there would be filming going on L.A. - I think that's pretty much continuous, but Budapest? And it's not like I travel continuously or anything - last week in Budapest was the first time I have left the country in over 2 years.

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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Laminator posted:

any suggestions for like a 3 day itinerary?

Hmm - One thing you should absolutely do as soon as you arrive is buy a 3 day bus/metro/tram ticket (buy in any metro station). It is incredibly useful as Budapest's public transport services are awesome.

Once you have this, you can do multiple things in each day without getting tired out walking from one to the other.

So things to do in three days:

1. Get up to the Castle District - great views over the city, lots of beautiful buildings.

2. Walk down through Central Budapest - Vaci Street etc; sure its touristy as hell but it's still fun - also if you keep walking down to the end of Vaci Utca you end up right outside the Great Market Hall, which is a destination in and of itself and also a great place to get a cheap and authentic meal.

3. Go up Gellert Hill (get bus 27 from Móricz Zsigmond körtér) More great views, and a lovely walk down the front of the hill through the trees to visit the statue of Gellert himself and then you come out at the bottom near Elizabeth Bridge which is nice to walk across.

If you need a rest from walking for a little whie you can get on tram 2 from just across the bridge - it runs along the riverside so the views are nice :)

4. Hero's square( Hősök tere) - A great big open square with awesome statues of Hugarian national heroes. It's right on a metro stop and both the Museum of Fine Art and City Park are adjacent, also the walk up Andrassy Street from the City centre to the square is really nice.

5. House of Terror museum - I haven't been myself ( I wussed out because I was enjoying the sunshine and relaxation too much) but friends of mine have been and have recommended it very highly.

Edit: List not complete, I'm planning to add in other things as I think of them :) Also another thing is that my 8-day trip only cost me around 250 euro for flights and hotel so I was not feeling much pressure to rush around and see everything, the whole trip was kind of a last minute, "I have a week off, where will I go? " sort of thing.

Pookah fucked around with this message at 13:05 on May 3, 2012

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

🪶Caw🪶





Landsknecht posted:

Do you not honestly know how to dress yourself?



You got your swedish style formal, party-hearty, and going to school looks right there.

Just kidding :D

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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On the places to visit while in Ireland topic - consider Glendalough. It's a lovely glacier-formed valley in Co. Wicklow, about 30 miles from Dublin. It's sort of in two parts, near part is a ruined 6th century monastery with a beautiful 10th century round tower for hiding from Vikings, other part is a 3 mile walk through wonderful woods to a long abandoned mine.





Perfect for a long day out in the lovely countryside.

Seconding Kerry, Cobh and Galway

Pookah fucked around with this message at 18:24 on Jul 17, 2012

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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lucythenomad posted:

I will leave for Budapest tomorrow and stay for three days. Any recommendations on what's cool to do/see?

Here's a link to a post of mine from a while ago in this thread:

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3318901&userid=140126#post403267281

Budapest is awesome and you'll have a great time - the weather there looks really nice at the moment, sunny but not too hot for lots of walking around - have fun!

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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Cowboybot posted:

I'm leaving for Italy in about a week, and wanted to get some decent tips on good places to stay. I'm arriving in Rome, spending about 2 days there, then taking the train to florence, spending a day there, and then heading out to Venice for my last 3 days.

I've got my airfare all covered, and I plan on just bringing a backpack with me. I'm going by myself, and am really interested in seeing this part of the world. So, any recommendations, or websites, to help plan out a trip for myself would be awesome.

I'm currently using hostels.com to figure out my lodging.

I've had good luck using: https://www.ratestogo.com for the last few trips I've taken - you can pick up some very good last minute deals if you're lucky :)

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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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.

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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Miftan posted:

Awesome. Thank you, I found the site but wasn't sure about travel time.

No probs :) I haven't traveled that route in a ferry myself, though I've done Holyhead - Dun laoghaire many times, and oh god, Rosslare - Cherbourg; all 18 glorious hours of it...

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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Wagoneer posted:

So my wife and I are in Cork and this place seems kind of run down. We're staying at the Hayfield Manor by the University. I guess we'll go to the Blarney castle tomorrow... But really we want to drink and have a good time. Any ideas?

Cork is full of squeaky Corkonians - go to Galway it's much more fun.

(Mostly kidding, but the Cork accent is quite annoying and high-pitched)

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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dopaMEAN posted:

My husband and I are going to Dublin in June, and we're trying to plan right now.

I'm going to be in Dublin for a week before he arrives, for a conference. He's flying in on 6/30 and we're leaving on 7/7, so we'll have 7 nights together.

I absolutely want to see Belfast and I want to get some hiking in around Belfast and Dublin. However, the cheap airfare has us seriously considering a 2 night trip to either Stockholm, Edinburgh, or Paris. Is this a terrible idea, or could it be fun?

We really love museums and we generally just enjoy walking around and taking things in, but we get really stressed out when we try to shove too much into a trip.

Edit: My husband is arguing that we should skip Belfast to save time for better stuff. I have it in my mind that Belfast will be awesome, but I can't really defend it beyond "Giant's causeway is cool! Hiking!", so I guess we might skip it.

Thing is the Giant's Causeway is a good bit away from Belfast,( also the cheeky shites want £7.50 to allow you to look at this ancient natural formation, that's just shocking)
I haven't been there that much and the last time I was there it was getting blown up pretty often but I honestly didn't find Belfast that interesting.

For hiking, have a look at http://www.wicklowway.com/

It's a 127 km hiking route that starts in suburban Dublin and ends up somewhere in Wicklow. I've done bits of it over the years and it really is beautiful. You might be surprised by how quickly you can get from urban Dublin to really mountainy countryside in Ireland, but the truth is that this country tends to pack a lot of changes into a small space. Bad for long-distance travel, good for localised exploration.

In the line of museums, the natural history museum in Dublin is one of my own favorites; it's free and is incidentally a perfectly preserved Victorian museum. It's all mahogany cabinets full of specimens collected in Bechuanaland by Lieutenant-Colonel Webster-Brooks-Cholmondeley during the Zulu uprising of 1847. Everything smells of formaldehyde and dust and you have to flip over big leather covers to view the collections of insects and butterflies.

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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Engin3 posted:

I don't know about a week in Rome. A day for ancient city, vatican city, villa borghese (and the gallery), a day trip to Pompei/Napoli, and a day for odds and ends. And that's taking it slow enough to enjoy the evening and night however you want. I am currently on day 6 of Rome and I can't think of anything more to do. I guess if you're a huge Roman history buff I can imagine spending more time elsewhere, but I would say 5 days in Rome and 2 days in Florence seem like a more appropriate split.

I say this every single time this comes up but...

GO TO OSTIA ANTICA!

It's about 20 minutes on the train from the station near the Piramide metro stop and it was the absolute highlight of my week in Rome.


vvv M.A. in Classics here - seriously, go to Ostia. vvvv

Pookah fucked around with this message at 10:22 on Jun 9, 2013

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

🪶Caw🪶





HookShot posted:

You're doing it wrong. We spent two weeks in Rome, with a packed schedule, and didn't even get to see everything we wanted to.

Go to Ostia Antica, the National Museum, the Appian Way, the dozens of interesting churches with famous artwork (have you seen the Ecstasy of St Theresa yet? Or the tomb of St. Paul?). Did you know there's a church that literally has the remains of a Mithran temple underneath (San Clemente) that you can walk through?

I could spend another month in Rome, easily. A week is definitely not too long.

Oooh that Mithran temple is well worth a look if it's the one I remember; it's in a quiet part of Rome with no tourists around and you go into a Church, then underground, then it gets weird. Strange grottoes and completely subterranean avenues of columns abound.

Also in the museum on the Capitoline they have marble slabs with list of the consuls from the start of the republic; Augustus had them made so if you are an early imperial Roman buff you can see the names of some of your favorite people listed up among their peers just as they were carved 2000 years ago. The muesum also has the most amazing collection of mostly comtemporary portrait busts of the early emperors. You see the Romans learned to carve stone from the Greeks, but where the Greeks went for idealizations, the Romans went for really accurate portraiture. The second is far more interesting from a historical perspective.

Pookah fucked around with this message at 22:32 on Jun 9, 2013

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

🪶Caw🪶





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?

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.

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.

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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Kolta posted:

Can anyone tell me the direction to 28 Rue Lecourbe,Paris ,FR from Gare de Lyon using public transit?

Bit late, but if you still need directions, I just had a look on google maps and it looks like the thing to do is get on the M6 metro line at Bercy (in the direction of C de G) and get off at Sèvres - Lecourbe

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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Kolta posted:

I'm thinking for my next trip I want to hit up the UK and Ireland. Is it fairly easy to get around? Or are both countries completely different when it comes to the transportation links they provide?

Also, is it just me or are the Mosquitos in Europe different from the ones in the US and Canada. Cause these bites are rediulous.

Ireland's aaaalright I suppose - here's the rail network's website http://www.irishrail.ie/ (they handle the intercity routes and the Dublin suburban rail service - aka the DART). The buses are run by http://www.dublinbus.ie/ (Dublin and surrounding area) and http://www.buseireann.ie/ (cross-country network).

FYI buses usually work out a lot cheaper than the train and are not much slower.

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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Istari posted:

I'm thinking of heading to Cork this weekend (Friday 20 - Monday 23). Will anything be open ?

Like what? I'm not from there, but I'm pretty sure most things will be open; things generally don't start closing for Christmas until midday Christmas Eve.

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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The train trip from Dublin to Wexford is particularly nice; it goes along the coast most of the way and also passes through some pretty towns too.

Note: you'd need to go on to Rosslare to meet up with the rail-line across to Waterford.

Kilkenny is also on a trainline and is a really nice town with a big castle.

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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The massive storm that just passed through caused a lot of damage across the south and south-west of Ireland; lots of trees down all over the place and something like 200,000 people with no power tonight; so you may want to call ahead to anywhere in that area ( Cork/Limerick/Clare/Kerry/Waterford were all hammered )you plan on staying next week just to be sure they are back up and running. The winds hit hurricane force for a while in some places so it really was unusually nasty weather for this country. For example, the biggest ever recorded wave in Irish waters happened today - all 82 feet of it.

There has also been a lot of flooding in the same areas over the last few weeks and may well be more to come this weekend (another storm - hooray!) Just something you might want to factor in to your plans.

Pookah fucked around with this message at 23:28 on Feb 12, 2014

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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prinneh posted:

Yeah... I spent almost all of yesterday looking up and booking stuff... Then I went on twitter and found out about the storm! And the next one! Jesus!

As it turns out, I only booked a week and not 10 days as I originally thought, dont't know how I messed that up, but I did. Anyway, the train from Dublin to Wexford should be fine according to irishrail. I don't have time for dingle, sadly, but kinda glad I didn't book there now, so I'll be going from Cork to Galway via Limerick Junction. The tracks are flooded between Ennis and Limerick, but there's a bustransfer in place. Galway to Dublin should be fine and on schedule, but I'm waiting to book nights in Galway until after the second storm hits. As for Wexford to Cork I'll have to take a long rear end busride, but my b&b in cork should be fine as it's supposedly on highground, but I've mailed them and the one in Wexford to make sure.

Thank you for looking out for me :) 82 feet sounds insane!

Grand so; hope you have a lovely time!

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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Go to the big market building in Budapest: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Market_Hall_%28Budapest%29

It's really interesting and you can get a v. nice lunch at one of the counters on the second floor.

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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Chips Challenged posted:

Here's one for you guys.

So I've been living in Malta for the past 8 months now and its been an absolute blast. One of the best times of my life. Unfortunately, as a US citizen, I've never really acclimated myself to the use of 'a lot of coins.' Tons of coinage just breaks my balls (and christ the 1 and 2 euro cents are smaller than a baby's nostril), so naturally I've just dropped the remaining coins from a days worth of spending into a jar and continued on with my life. This habit has now come back to bite me...

The local banks will do nothing for me. Its bad enough they have to sift through the coins of an account holder, why should they help an unwitting foreign resident?

I'm leaving in about a month and a half, but I'll be flying up to Italy to spend a few weeks there first. Problem is that bag's heavy and I'm hesitant to toss it in a suitcase in hopes of finding a sorting machine up north. I've asked around and they don't have any sort of coinstar-like machines anywhere on the island. Do I bite the bullet and just throw it at currency exchange? Establish a bank account? I've got time to think on this, sure, but I'd love to get this problem out of my way asap.

If you bag it will the bank accept it? I had a pile of about 50 euro in small coins and I just got a bunch of coin bags from the bank and bagged them up using an electronic scale once I'd done a bag of each denomination manually and weighed it. Only took about an hour after that to do the rest of the coins.

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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Lady Gaza posted:

Any tips for Budapest? Going there Friday-Monday with my girlfriend. Among other things we like: unique food, beer/cool bars (well that's mainly for me), walking, historical/political sights, photogenic landscapes. We aren't too fussed about museums unless it's really stellar, or one that is important for understanding the city/local region (e.g. we found the DDR museum and topography of terror in Berlin really interesting). It seems Budapest has a lot of landmarks and is quite walkable, but just wanted any tips if anyone has them.

Go to the Great Market Hall for lunch and a look around one day - it's awesome.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Market_Hall_%28Budapest%29

Also get the 3 day travel pass - it's cheap and incredibly useful - the subways and trams are very easy to use and reliable, the buses are a bit confusing though.

http://visitbudapest.travel/budapest-info/getting-around/

Pookah fucked around with this message at 10:22 on Sep 23, 2014

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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HookShot posted:

My favourite hobby is going to tripadvisor and reading the one-star reviews for places like the Louvre and the Sagrada Familia.

This is amazing; I just looked up a mountainside path in my area and...

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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mojo1701a posted:

My hope is that being behind the steering wheel on the right side will reinforce being on the left side of the street.

It 100% does; from my own second-hand experience with my parents driving on the right in France, they were nervous at first but it became second nature in less than a day. Having other cars on the road actually helps you remember too - they really help reinforce the correct way around roundabouts, lane-changing etc. The biggest challenge will probably be the size of roads - apparently Irish roads are very small compared to US/Canadian ones, and 'locals' tend to drive very quickly because they know where all the hairpin bends and humpback bridges are. Honestly though, you'll be grand - take it at your own pace and try not to panic if some gombeen in a flat cap charges up behind you in a muddy ford escort - he'd do the same to anyone.

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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As an irish person of long standing, I'd be way keener to hear about Phil Hartman than Wayne Gretzky.

(He's an ice-hockey player, right?)

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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I would blow Dane Cook posted:

What's the best way to see the battlefields of World War 2 in and around Normandy? Bus/own car/guided tour etc. I was thinking of catching the Eurostar to Calais from London and starting from there.

Also will I see a lot of Poodles in France? I love poodles.

No-one has answered the most important question - will there be poodles?

It's not 100% guaranteed you'll see poodles, but there is a decent chance you'll see one or two - French people genuinely do still like to keep poodles. They are right to, poodles are great dogs.

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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I would blow Dane Cook posted:

Wish I could take mine with me



FYI I just asked my mother, (who spends a month every year in Brittany and down the west coast) to confirm the popularity of poodles in France and she said 'yes, loads of them, all over the place especially golden brown ones', so I showed her yours and she says he's exactly like the ones in France, so bring pictures to show to fellow poodle fans :3:

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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Shifty Pony posted:

My wife and I will be traveling to Ireland in a few months and want to get a pair of prepaid SIM cards to use while we are there. We both have unlocked "international" model iPhones which should work no problems with an appropriate SIM.

Ideally I would like to order them ahead of time and just swap them over on the plane so we never have to worry about our phones trying to connect to some tower and getting dinged with some insane Verizon international roaming charge. Any suggestions on ones that we can order online and have delivered in the US?

A few gigs of data is all I'm after, maybe 5-10. We're taking a tour that will be going out into the countryside so it can't be a Dublin-only type deal (I have no loving clue how cell providers work there but here there are some providers that are effectively unusable outside of major cities).

Tescomobile do a 15 euro sim only 15gb package plus free calls to other tesco mobile numbers but I've heard they aren't a great provider in more rural areas. I seriously doubt you'd encounter any totally dead zones unless you're planning to spend a lot of time on the backside of a very isolated mountain though.

https://www.tescomobile.ie/sim-only-plans.aspx

Vodaphone are supposed to have better coverage away from the cities, but it looks like their comparable plan/s are around 20 euro for 20gb of data

http://shop.vodafone.ie/shop/sim-only/pay-as-you-go

Basically there are only 3 actual networks to choose between - Eir, Vodaphone and Three - every other provider is just renting infrastructure from one of them, so Tesco runs off Three's network but offers their own packages.

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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Shibawanko posted:

Why are British beds so short. Every airbnb I've stayed in had a tiny rear end bed where my feet would stick out, I'm not even ridiculously tall.

You just prompted me to look up standard mattress sizes in the US vs UK/Europe and while the US has longer Double/King/Queen mattresses, your singles are actually shorter. It's always puzzled me that mattresses aren't longer - I'm definitely not tall (5 ft 7) and with pillows and lying full length with my feet pointing downwards, my toes usually reach the end of the mattress or beyond, which tends to get bloody cold in winter :( How do actual tall people not have chronically frozen feet?

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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Seconding Ostia - the day I spent there was the highlight of the week. I'm a classics grad who loves late republic/early empire Roman history so there were 1001 place and things I needed to see in the week I was in Rome, but Ostia was so big, and quiet and immersive, it managed to be the most evocative place of all. Since you're going offseason, it probably won't be crowded at all, but the weather will probably be still nice. I was there in January and got really lucky - weather was cool but very sunny.

Getting there is very easy - Piramide metro stop is right beside the local train station that takes you there in about half an hour.

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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To add to the 'that is an insane itinerary for two weeks in Spain' comments, you say you're going to be there in early October, so your day isn't even going to be all that long - sunrise at 8ish, sunset 20:00

You are going to spend about 80% of your time in the car, a lot of that will be driving lost and angry around the middle of an endless succession of strange cities and then a large portion of the rest just checking in and out of accomodation. Plus you are escorting somewhat older people, one of whom may be quite frail, neither of whom will be able to communicate at all with 99% of the people they meet without someone there to interpret.

It sounds absolutely hellish to me.

You'd be much better off picking a few places, setting up a base in each for 3-4 days and making day trips. Give yourselves the time to relax a little and actually enjoy the places your in.

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

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BMX Ninja posted:

It is kind of weird. I've been to places like Egypt when the temperature was regularly in the high 30s/low 40s and I was fine with it. I think a lot of it has to do with humidity, since in Ireland higher temperatures often come with high humidity. Also in Egypt the temperature would drop by 15-20C after sunset whereas in grey overcast Ireland a daytime temp of 26C might only drop a couple of degrees at night.

People in warmer places also build their homes to suit the climate. Irish houses are built for mediocre unremarkable weather so they're heat traps when it's unusually warm and a pain to heat when it's unusually cold.

Ironically people in Reykjavik would probably fare better. Their super-insulated eco-friendly houses would be just as good at keeping hot air out during a heatwave as they are at retaining it in winter.

This is extremely accurate - my house is pretty old (1860-ish) so in hot weather it's grand because it takes days for the ambient temperature to catch up to the outside, but if it's cold and windy it can get extraordinarily cold. Last winter when we had about 10 days of easterly gales, the temperature in the kitchen never got about 3 degrees (37f) so cooking meals meant putting on extra clothes and working fast :(

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Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

🪶Caw🪶





Saladman posted:

If 8 degrees higher than the ambient temperature of 60°F makes you sweat and unable to go under the sheets, you might literally want to see a doctor about that? Either that or it's actually way hotter than you are estimating.

But yeah many places in Europe heat absurdly in winter, it's as bad as many places in the south of the US cooling everything off to 68° in the middle of summer. My wife used to work in a bookstore when she was in uni, and I would absolutely not go in its upstairs section during winter because it was at least 30°C, I don't know what the hell was wrong with the management there, as it was unbearable to enter there in winter clothing and they got numerous complaints from customers... plus it must have cost them a fortune. Buses tend to have the same issue. You don't need to heat a goddamn bus to 25°C in winter; everyone is already dressed for walking around outside where it's 5°C.

I stayed in a friend's dorm in NYC quite a number of years ago and they had to have their dorm room window open the entire winter, as the heating could not be controlled by the students, and for some reason the entire building was on "Qatari summer" setting. Which meant that part of the room was unbearably cold, and part of it was unbearably hot. At least it wasn't suicide-proof back then. I don't even know what kids living in that dorm do now.

Oh god this - I spent a week in Budapest in February a couple of years ago, right in the middle of a cold snap, and the hotel room was ridiculously overheated with no possibility of adjustment. We had to open the window to let in the -10 celcius breeze.

Very handy for chilling beer though.

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