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OhYeah posted:2. Go to see the Eiffel tower, but forget about standing in line for the lift to go to the top. You will be waiting for hours, if not half a day. Eiffel tower is an amazing feat of engineering and you can get the full experience by climbing to the second floor by the stairs. It's cheaper as well. The line to the stairs takes 15-30 minutes, not hours and hours. I agree with everything, but I would say while definitely take the stairs to the second floor, take the lift to the top from there. I've never waited longer than 10 minutes on the second floor to get to the top, and it is worth it (and I'm afraid of heights!) Also, go up Tour Montparnasse at night, get there around 9:30pm and at 10 the Eiffel tower does the light show, which is awesome to see from there. edit: also even though you'll probably read that it's 700 steps to the second floor of the Tour Eiffel, they're actually really well designed so you don't feel like you're going up hundreds of steps at all. I used to go up them with my granddad when he was like 70 years old and he had no problems.
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Aug 10, 2012 05:48
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HookShot posted:
The Eiffel tower lights up every hour on the hour (starting at 10, going until midnight, not sure if it changes in winter) for exactly 5 minutes. I don't remember how long tour montparnasse is open though, maybe just late enough for the 10pm one. Also you can do the Louvre in one day if you don't really like art but want to walk through and see some masterpieces. If you're a Philistine (I am when it comes to most pre-1800s art galeries like the Louvre), you can just walk through and try to find works by all 4 ninja turtles. Donatello's the only hard one, and it'll probably take you five or six hours. Re: person staying in Latin Quarter. Most of the restaurants there are awful tourist pits, but it's also kind of entertaining because it's crowdy and kitsch. Shakespeare & Co. is an awesome English bookstore which is also right by you and I recommend checking out. For a less kitsch, but still extremely touristy area, there's a little 'village' next to Sacre Coeur which is kind of fun for about half an hour. Also offers great views of Paris. Notre Dame is also pretty close and they have a lot of concerts, and frequently have good street artists performing nearby in the evenings. Champs Elysee is pretty 'eh' and not even all that fancy, you'd never know it was anything special if you didn't know the name. But I guess you should do it, and it's one of the spokes coming out of the Arc de Triomph so it's convenient.
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Aug 10, 2012 07:17
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The Montparnasse tower is a good idea, though we didn't get a chance to try it out (just kind of forgot about it). If you are staying near St Michel you should definitely go to see Notre Dame, it's absolutely wonderful piece of Gothic architecture. Not quite as magnificent in my eyes as the Milan Cathedral, but still. There are a lot of good restaurants in the Montparnasse area (about a 15-20 minute walk from your area), but many of them are closed for August: Le Timbre, Moustache, Le Plomb du Cantal (all which we wanted to try). Try the suggestions I mentioned previously. If you want a delicious, filling and cheap breakfast then try to find a sandwich shop belonging to the Pomme de Pain chain. There should be many of those around Paris.
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Aug 10, 2012 10:51
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OhYeah posted:1. Don't go to Louvre. Seriously, you need 3-4 days there. Yes, 3-4 whole *days* just at the Louvre. You will pissed at yourself because you are missing all the wonderful things you cannot concentrate on because you've got to keep moving (so much more stuff to see around the corner). I disagree. Go to the Louvre early as possible, grab the audio-guide and do the masterpieces tour on it. Was a lot of fun, only took an hour or two at most, and it's a great introduction to the museuem. Also, I would try and pre-plan where you want to eat at night, as going out on a limb and trying to find a place to eat was incredible hard (for us anyway). Everywhere seemed like a tourist trap, and the nice places were all very very packed. I like to think I'm good at finding the local places to eat when I travel, but I had no idea when it came to Paris. A lot of people don't like it, but I had an absolute BLAST at the Moulin Rouge. It's wayyy overpriced, and reallyyyyy touristy, but the show they put me on was hilarious and entertaining. Also the Paris metro is amazing. I've had friends that have been put off it in the past because of it's grimey feel, but its without a doubt the best transport system I've ever used in Europe.
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Aug 10, 2012 13:06
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sc0tty posted:Also, I would try and pre-plan where you want to eat at night, as going out on a limb and trying to find a place to eat was incredible hard (for us anyway). Everywhere seemed like a tourist trap, and the nice places were all very very packed. I like to think I'm good at finding the local places to eat when I travel, but I had no idea when it came to Paris. This. A thousand times this. Ask your hotel for recommendations and check Tripadvisor. Most of the places where we didn't book were filled with locals and we were lucky to get a table. Avoid the tourist traps. I wanted to try one out on our last day and the food was bland, uninspiring and expensive. A real contrast to the places we ate before.
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Aug 10, 2012 13:26
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OhYeah posted:1. Don't go to Louvre. Seriously, you need 3-4 days there. Yes, 3-4 whole *days* just at the Louvre. You will pissed at yourself because you are missing all the wonderful things you cannot concentrate on because you've got to keep moving (so much more stuff to see around the corner). Yes skip the Louvre because you can't devote half a week to it. Great advice.
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Aug 10, 2012 14:17
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sc0tty posted:I disagree. Go to the Louvre early as possible, grab the audio-guide and do the masterpieces tour on it. Was a lot of fun, only took an hour or two at most, and it's a great introduction to the museuem. I found the Louvre kind of too much. yes, it's an amazing building but there's only so much old art you can look at before it all starts to blur a bit. I really, really loved the Pompidou centre, by comparison. Loads of strange installation art, it was really cool. Also I'm going to do a MASSIVE shout out for Fat Tire Bike Tours. I did one in Berlin and it was wicked, so much fun, friendly host, saw the city by bike, lunch, everything totally worth it. I also recommended it to my mate who went recently to Berlin and he agreed it was almost one of the best parts of his trip. I have no doubt that their Paris one would equally awesome.
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Aug 10, 2012 14:17
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Saladman posted:Re: person staying in Latin Quarter. Most of the restaurants there are awful tourist pits They served salad and french fries as the sides with every entree  And my steak was like shoe leather.edit: Neris posted:Also I'm going to do a MASSIVE shout out for Fat Tire Bike Tours. I did one in Berlin and it was wicked, so much fun, friendly host, saw the city by bike, lunch, everything totally worth it. I also recommended it to my mate who went recently to Berlin and he agreed it was almost one of the best parts of his trip. geera fucked around with this message at 14:39 on Aug 10, 2012 |
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Aug 10, 2012 14:24
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How is Europe in October/November/December? Is it horrible and dark and cold and wet? I'm vaguely considering going there for a few months then, possibly by motorcycle, starting in Germany (I like beer and why not go to oktoberfest), going south through the alps, then some combination of italy/france/spain, maybe Morocco. Though I have to say the prospect of spending 2/3 months being cold and wet is offputting.
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Aug 10, 2012 18:06
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Infinotize posted:How is Europe in October/November/December? Is it horrible and dark and cold and wet? I'm vaguely considering going there for a few months then, possibly by motorcycle, starting in Germany (I like beer and why not go to oktoberfest), going south through the alps, then some combination of italy/france/spain, maybe Morocco. Though I have to say the prospect of spending 2/3 months being cold and wet is offputting. Depends where you're from and what you're used to. This part of Europe does not in general get particularly cold (nothing like the middle of the US), except for a week or two of cold snaps per year. Some parts of Germany get colder, but anything < -10°C is honestly pretty rare, particularly for December (coldest is Jan/Feb). Motorcycling then sounds pretty awful to me, since even though it's not cold, it is drizzly. YMMV. It doesn't really rain in Europe very often, and the few times it does, it's in summer. (Not compared to the torrential rains common in most of the US, anyway. It's more like Seattle's pathetic excuse for 'rain.') Oktoberfest actually starts in September, so unless you're there the first week of October, you're going to miss that. The passes over the alps close end of Oct/beginning of Nov (depends on the snow) which makes them somewhat less interesting in my opinion. Driving on the autoroutes through the alps is about 2% as fun as driving through the winding overpasses. It is quite dark in December, but again depends what you're used to.
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Aug 10, 2012 18:20
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Yeah, the timing is not optimal. Ideally I would arrive last week of Sept, then be through the alps and such by November, and spend most of November/December in Italy, south France, and Spain, which I would imagine to be more insulated from late fall and winter weather. It would really suck to miss all the alp passes.
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Aug 10, 2012 18:46
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I'm going to ask a really random question. I've been traveling Europe all summer. I've been in Barcelona for about 3 weeks now. I'm staying in El Raval, which is an extremely immigrant-heavy neighborhood with a lot of Muslim/Sikh residents from Pakistan and similar countries. Every single morning, I wake up to hear a man singing this extremely loud chant, kind of like, "eeeeeeeeee EHHHHHHHHHH"... it's like a 3-second thing. It gets repeated every couple of minutes for about 10 minutes. It kind of reminds me of The Lion King. And it's not just like a neighbor doing it, it's apparently someone doing this in a park about 10 blocks away. And they do it every single morning for the entire community to hear. Is this a Barcelona thing or a religious thing or just some insane person? I have no idea how to google this but I figure maybe someone else that has traveled through here or lives here might have some idea. Aimee fucked around with this message at 11:30 on Aug 11, 2012 |
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Aug 11, 2012 11:27
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Sounds like a muslim call to prayer.
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Aug 11, 2012 16:26
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Aimee posted:I'm going to ask a really random question. I've been traveling Europe all summer. I've been in Barcelona for about 3 weeks now. I'm staying in El Raval, which is an extremely immigrant-heavy neighborhood with a lot of Muslim/Sikh residents from Pakistan and similar countries. Every single morning, I wake up to hear a man singing this extremely loud chant, kind of like, "eeeeeeeeee EHHHHHHHHHH"... it's like a 3-second thing. It gets repeated every couple of minutes for about 10 minutes. It kind of reminds me of The Lion King. They do the same call 5 times a day, so you should notice it a bunch. (It's also banned in a lot of European countries, and honestly I'm kind of surprised it's not in Spain given their history with the Moors.*) *E: I realize that sounds ridiculous, but I'm actually a sentient 1400 year old bristlecone pine, so the Inquisition is still quite fresh in my memory. E2: Actually looks like it's only outright banned in Switzerland and some departments of other countries, but using loudspeakers to broadcast is banned in many countries (Germany, UK, etc) and that most mosques in Europe only have the muezzins call on Friday and not for the first call at 4/5am. To be honest I've never heard a muezzin's call to prayer in Europe, so I thought it was more restricted than it is. Saladman fucked around with this message at 17:02 on Aug 12, 2012 |
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Aug 11, 2012 23:56
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malder posted:Sounds like a muslim call to prayer. That's what I thought, but I wasn't positive! Also, I had no idea it was banned in certain places. Being from the Pacific Northwest in the U.S., it's not something I hear much of.
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Aug 12, 2012 14:54
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Does anyone know some good hostels in Rome? Me and a friend are going there during the 22nd-29th (very hastily planned trip) and I'm having trouble finding a good and relatively cheap place to stay. I've looked around at apartments but it would cost a bit more than I really want to pay, same for hotels of course.
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Aug 13, 2012 10:47
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Lehugo posted:Does anyone know some good hostels in Rome? Me and a friend are going there during the 22nd-29th (very hastily planned trip) and I'm having trouble finding a good and relatively cheap place to stay. I've looked around at apartments but it would cost a bit more than I really want to pay, same for hotels of course. I was just there and stayed at La Controra, it was pretty nice. http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/La-Controra-Hostel-Rome/Rome/46361
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Aug 13, 2012 10:55
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Yoda posted:I was just there and stayed at La Controra, it was pretty nice. http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/La-Controra-Hostel-Rome/Rome/46361 Unfortunately it's not available during the time we're there. I'm not used to looking up hostels at all and finding one that looks good (and is available) is surprisingly hard.
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Aug 13, 2012 11:43
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My friends and I had a great time here http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/Rome-City-Hostel/Rome/21658
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Aug 13, 2012 13:08
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For the person going to Paris, the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays(I think it was Tuesdays), so beware when planning!
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Aug 13, 2012 16:12
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Saladman posted:Actually looks like it's only outright banned in Switzerland and some departments of other countries... I'm so proud of my adopted homeland. Fun fact, when new minarets were banned in Switzerland there were only 4 in the entire country but I guess it's just hard to make a good poster design-wise with 4 
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Aug 13, 2012 16:38
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DNova posted:My friends and I had a great time here http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/Rome-City-Hostel/Rome/21658 Booked. Thanks for the help, this should work out great!
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Aug 13, 2012 18:23
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Lehugo posted:Booked. Thanks for the help, this should work out great! Nice. I really liked the location and the street it's on. When I was there (4 years ago) there was a pizzeria right across the street that was really good, a gelateria down the street with the best prices we saw, a 1-euro store, and an enoteca (your choice of 8-12 wines by the liter into re-used water bottles).
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Aug 13, 2012 18:39
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greazeball posted:I'm so proud of my adopted homeland. It's too bad no one other than UDC can make a halfway visually-attractive political poster.
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Aug 13, 2012 18:50
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MY GIRLFRIEND'S sister is going to the London School of Economics for a year starting this September, so we're going to go visit her in London over our winter break from school, 2 weeks at the end of December. I only spent 2 days in London on my trip this Summer so I only have a pretty basic familiarity of the city and am excited to get to spend more time there. We can't stay with her sister so we're thinking about doing an apartment rental. We've been checking out AirBNB, are there any other sites we should be looking at? Maybe like the London equivalent of Craigslist or something? We're also interested in eating lots of awesome food, though on a budget. I know London's expensive and we'll probably try and cook for most of our meals, but what are some people's favorite places to eat? Bars/clubs we should check out? Any cool events around Christmas or near New Year's (we won't actually be in London on New Year's, will probably be leaving the 30th)? If we're interested in doing some daytrips, what are places that aren't too expensive to get to? I know rail is pretty pricey in the UK, so should we be looking at taking a bus, minibus, etc., Sorry I can't be more specific, we haven't really discussed going outside the city much yet. Hell, we will probably be pretty occupied with just staying in London and the surrounding areas.
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Aug 15, 2012 04:00
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Laminator posted:MY GIRLFRIEND'S ... This isn't E&N. AirBNB is OK, but VRBO is in my opinion the best for getting nice apartments that are all to yourself (albeit a bit more pricy). There are some others but I've only personally used those two and had great success. I'm pretty sure Craigslist -has- a London site, but it's really not as much of a thing over in Europe. I -really- like Clos Maggiore (in Covent Garden) and it's the only restaurant in London I've been back to multiple times. It's fairly expensive (~£40pp) so it'd be a special dinner. Also you'd need to book several days in advance or get a poo poo timeslot like 6pm or 10pm. If you do book there, ask for the courtyard, as it's way nicer than the upstairs. Food's great either way. Oxford and/or Cambridge are pretty close, but will probably be shut down since you're going during winter holidays and they're college towns. Brighton's pretty close but I wouldn't recommend going there in winter. Stonehenge is not too far but honestly it's pretty lame and probably sucks even more in winter. I'd just stay in London since the countryside will be dark and bleak at that time of year. VVV Well I'll be. Wish I'd seen that thread when my girlfriend was still living in London. Saladman fucked around with this message at 15:29 on Aug 15, 2012 |
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Aug 15, 2012 08:04
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Clos Maggiore is lovely but yeha, pretty drat expensive for people on a budget compared to what you can get - there's heaps of advice and stuff in the London food thread.
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Aug 15, 2012 09:27
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I'm moving from Finland to Berlin to study business in HTW until February. Accommodation and such are taken care of, but I'd like to know if some cell phone operator is abowe others. I don't need much of minuters or sms, but a limitless data would be really handy. Also, how expensive are internet connections?
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Aug 15, 2012 10:03
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My German is horrible (read: 99.98% non-existent) so I couldn't check, but I got on t-mobile in the UK a month ago. 26/month for unlimited data(21/month if you signed up for 12 months) I assume Germany would have roughly the same prices/deals. They seemed far and away the best option here.
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Aug 15, 2012 12:33
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Sorbus posted:I'm moving from Finland to Berlin to study business in HTW until February. Accommodation and such are taken care of, but I'd like to know if some cell phone operator is abowe others. I don't need much of minuters or sms, but a limitless data would be really handy. As you'll be in Berlin for just a few months, your only option will be a pay as you go plan (even if you'd be here longer I would always go with a pre paid plan, gently caress 2 year contracts). http://www.phone-guide-germany.com/overview-prepaid-plans-germany/4299/ I use blau.de: calls 0.09 Euro sms 0.09 Euro data: 1 GB UMTS 9.90 Euro (> 1 GB same price, but max 56 kbit/s) As far as Internet goes, I pay 35 € for 100 mbit down, 5 mbit up. You should look into your living situation and find out if it isn't provided. If it's not, it doesn't really make sense to order dsl, cable or what have you. Those usually come with a 1-2 year fixed contract and knowing customer service in this wasteland, you'll be long gone before anything really works anyway. So, if it's not provided, you should again look at mobile solutions.
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Aug 15, 2012 13:19
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Thank you for your replies! My place of living ( http://www.studentenwerk-berlin.de/en/wohnen/studentische_wohnanlagen/biesdorf/index.html ) doesn't provide an internet connection, so I'll probably just use my cellphone's connection for internet.
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Aug 16, 2012 01:29
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Sorbus posted:Thank you for your replies! Courtesy of Google translate: Wireless LAN for a fee
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Aug 16, 2012 04:50
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has anyone been to Budapest? I want to go but my knowledge about the city and the sights is pretty limited.
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Aug 16, 2012 12:09
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DoctorPresident posted:has anyone been to Budapest? I want to go but my knowledge about the city and the sights is pretty limited. http://wikitravel.org/en/Budapest http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3485394 Some more details about your travel dates, company, wishes and budget, and I can perhaps give you some hints and tips.
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Aug 16, 2012 21:03
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DoctorPresident posted:has anyone been to Budapest? I want to go but my knowledge about the city and the sights is pretty limited. This is seriously such a low effort post. Can't you use google or anything?
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Aug 17, 2012 10:10
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Neris posted:This is seriously such a low effort post. Can't you use google or anything? Sorry, I'll try to be more specific. OperaMouse posted:Some more details about your travel dates, company, wishes and budget, and I can perhaps give you some hints and tips. Before going to Budapest, I'll spend some time in Paris and thus, I'll be using Euros. Now, it is my understanding that while most places will accept Euros, Hungary still uses its own coin and it's better if you exchange the Euros for Forints. I'm travelling on a somewhat short budget and I don't want to exchange more than needed. (Mainly because after my stay Budapest I'm planning on travelling to Italy and I really don't want to deal with exchange rates). So, is it possible to buy Forints on a day to day basis or would you recommend making a budget and exchange all the money at once?
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Aug 17, 2012 14:08
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DoctorPresident posted:Sorry, I'll try to be more specific. Many places in Hungary will simply not accept Euros (although a lot will), so it's not just that they give you bad rates for using Euros. As for withdrawing on a day-to-day, this depends entirely on how your debit card/moneycard works. Some have serious "per-use" ATM fees, while others have low/no "per-use" ATM fees. The rates that you will get from an ATM using your card will always be better than what you get from a money trading booth (I have literally never seen or heard of an exception, except in countries like Burma and pre-USD Zimbabwe with hosed economies). Look on the back of your card(s) and if it has something like Cirrius or Plus then it means you can withdraw money at a foreign ATM using your card. It might work even without those signs, so if you don't have them then ask your bank about it. They'll probably ty and set you up with a "traveler program" which may or may not be a good deal, so it's probably worth hearing the details.
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Aug 17, 2012 14:13
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You can always just get money out of an ATM when you get there.. v vWhat people need to know: When are you going to be there: Who are you with: What are you interests/what type of thing do you want to see there**: Rough budget for time there: **eg. Museums, animals, historical locations, foodplaces, cultural points of interest etc etc etc etc etc
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Aug 17, 2012 14:14
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Sorry, I should have specified that my bank rates for money withdrawal in other countries suck, and thus I'll have to carry most of my money in cash (for big expenses like traveling and hotels I'll use my card). As for the other questions, I'm traveling alone and I'll arrive at Budapest in September 12. Im staying for a week in a Hosteling International Hostel. I would love to know more about the local music scene (traditional and modern) and the museums. I have a rough budget of 500 Euros (around 139.301,024 HUF).
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Aug 17, 2012 15:17
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There's been some great advice on going to Paris in the last few pages, but I was wondering if anyone had any advice on good things to do during a slightly longer stay. I'm going for 7 days at the start of September and I've never been before, but I think 7 days will be long enough to see a lot without feeling rushed? I was tentatively planning a day spent around the Eiffel tower/surrounding area, and taking 2 days to see the Lourve (I'm not super cultured but I do enjoy museums). Is it worth taking a whole day each to see individual things like the Pantheon, Pompidou , Champs-Elysses, Musee D'Orsay etc? I'm staying in the 15th Arr; is there anything in particular I haven't mentioned that you would recommend visiting? Edit: At the moment I'm budgeting 100 Euro per day, excluding flights/accomodation, so only for food/entry tickets/postcards etc; will this be enough? Aromatic Stretch fucked around with this message at 01:07 on Aug 19, 2012 |
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Aug 19, 2012 01:04
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