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Pablo Bluth posted:How much time and how far afield are you prepared to go? If you want the outdoors, you could do worse than jump on a train to Aviemore (2.5hrs each way) and go explore the Cairngorms National Park in the Highlands. Would definitely be up for that, looks like a good trip. Thanks pal.
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Jul 7, 2014 21:02
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Steriletom posted:The fiancee and I booked our honeymoon last week. We're going to Santorini and Istanbul for almost a week for each destination in early October. Just wondering if anyone has been and has advice on things to do, eat, and see that we probably wouldn't come across on travel related internet guides. We're staying on the outskirts of Fira in Santorini and smack dab in the middle of the Sultanahmet in Istanbul for reference. Any tips are greatly appreciated. Eat fish sandwiches in Istanbul, but don't get them from the restaurants on the Galata bridge--do you see any Turks eating there? No. At evening rush hour around the Karaköy ferry terminal, a few little grill-wagons will pull up and the locals will form queues to eat these delicious sandwiches for 6TL. Grilled mackerel, spices, some salad and lemon juice--simple and perfect. We tried at other places and other times of day but only during the evening rush hour from a street vendor were they really good. Fatih was really cool to walk around, we also walked along a section of the old city walls from the Topkapi tram stop towards the north. Go in all the mosques, they're really amazing and all different. Just walk around all over the drat place, it's a cool city. The Istanbulkart is easy to use and to top up (with cash) and you only need one for the two of you (swipe it for her, she goes through then you swipe it for you and go through). It shows your remaining balance on the little screen after you swipe.
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Jul 7, 2014 21:49
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Grouco posted:Would definitely be up for that, looks like a good trip. Thanks pal. Pablo Bluth fucked around with this message at 22:53 on Jul 7, 2014 |
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Jul 7, 2014 22:44
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Pablo Bluth posted:Another option is to get the train over to the west coast; Oban is three hours by train by Glasgow. The coastal landscape in that region of the world is spectacular. If you were around long enough you make the trip out to Mull. I'll be in Scotland for ~17 nights, so the west coast is definitely a good idea. I was thinking a Mallaig/Fort William trip, along with another trip to Oban. Speaking of Mull, I'd also like to get to Calgary Bay if possible. I'm from the Canadian version of Calgary, so I thought it'd be a cool idea. The only trouble is I can't drive manual, so renting a car might be a bit tough. I might just have to learn before I leave.
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Jul 7, 2014 22:53
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You shouldn't have an issue finding an automatic hire-car. Most places will have at least a few in their fleet (requesting an automatic hire-car used to be a trick at work to get a free bump-up to a larger class of car than we'd be other approved for.)
Pablo Bluth fucked around with this message at 23:20 on Jul 7, 2014 |
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Jul 7, 2014 23:17
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greazeball posted:Eat fish sandwiches in Istanbul, but don't get them from the restaurants on the Galata bridge--do you see any Turks eating there? No. At evening rush hour around the Karaköy ferry terminal, a few little grill-wagons will pull up and the locals will form queues to eat these delicious sandwiches for 6TL. Grilled mackerel, spices, some salad and lemon juice--simple and perfect. We tried at other places and other times of day but only during the evening rush hour from a street vendor were they really good. Yeah, fish sandwiches are something I've already put on my "to try" list. I'll follow your steps.
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Jul 9, 2014 17:29
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I never mustered up the courage to try a Turkish fish sandwich, but if I come back in my next life as a Kodiak Bear I know where to go. Maybe the ones in Istanbul look better.
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Jul 9, 2014 17:47
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I'm in Prague, but I have to meet a friend in Nuremberg for lunch on Friday, and then another friend for lunch on Saturday in Speyer (south of Frankfurt).. I should be ok to his this, right?
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Jul 10, 2014 08:22
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Hadlock posted:I'm in Prague, but I have to meet a friend in Nuremberg for lunch on Friday, and then another friend for lunch on Saturday in Speyer (south of Frankfurt).. I should be ok to his this, right? This is doable but dumb. I know there's a direct Prague-Munich bus, but maybe it stops (or there's a variation which does) in Nuernburg. From Nuernburg you can hop on the direct ICE to Frankfurt a.M., then from there catch a train to Speyer. There's probably a cheaper option for the trains, but I'm not going to  that up right now.
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Jul 11, 2014 07:05
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This is a pretty specific question, but has anyone spent much time in eastern Switzerland, like the Davos/St Moritz/Scuol area? We're headed up there for four days next week but I'm having a hard time finding any particularly useful information about the area especially from the official sites (yes I'm sure every hike is lovely, but are there any particularly lovely ones). I've been to Graubunden a couple times before, but only in March and November, so it wasn't particularly prime hiking season. I'm thinking maybe we camp in Scuol all 3 nights, do a hike in the Swiss NP, randomly selected, then do a hike near Scuol, randomly selected, but not sure if there's anything particular, like if I'm missing the Matterhorn of Romanscherlanden. E: Lonely Planet is particularly useless here too, surprisingly ( http://www.lonelyplanet.com/switzerland/graubunden/swiss-national-park )
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Jul 12, 2014 15:09
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There's a hut inside the nature park, the Chamanna Cluozza, which is quite nice. Bring binoculars if you got them for critter watching. There are a few at the hut including one really powerful one but you obviously can't take them with you for the hike. In late summer/early autumn you can see babby ibexes and goats with a bit of luck. There is a quite adventurous white-blue-white hike from S-chanf to the hut which looks spectacular if you're into bare mountainscapes but you need to be hella fit for that one. There is also the much easier path from Zernez and then east to the Lai da Ova Spin. The hike to Munt la Schera is nice too. peak debt fucked around with this message at 16:39 on Jul 12, 2014 |
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Jul 12, 2014 16:34
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So, I'm sure it's been mentioned a million times in this thread (I've looked through the first third and the last ten pages), but anyone have any more recommendations for Berlin? I'm going on Friday (arriving lunchtime, leaving Monday evening) with my girlfriend. In general we like walking around and seeing the sites and getting a general feel for the place (when we went to Paris we must have walked across the entire centre), going to a couple of good museums, etc. So far on our list is: Bundestag roof Friday night Fat Bike Tour on Saturday Mauerpark on Sunday We thought that anything interesting we saw on the bike tour we could go back and look at in more detail afterwards. Also we plan to go to the DDR museum, maybe the Deutches Historiches Museum, East Side Gallery. For food, we are aiming to try Burgermeister, Monsieur Vuong, and some currywurst and falafel. Am I missing anything obvious? Also if anyone has any interesting bars they can recommend that'd be great, we're likely not to go raving or clubbing but wouldn't mind going to some cool places to have a drink. I'm a fan of different beers so somewhere serving more than just pilsener would be nice.
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Jul 13, 2014 15:37
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Lady Gaza posted:So, I'm sure it's been mentioned a million times in this thread (I've looked through the first third and the last ten pages), but anyone have any more recommendations for Berlin? I'm going on Friday (arriving lunchtime, leaving Monday evening) with my girlfriend. The Pergamon Museum is very impressive, and I've been to a poo poo ton of history museums. It's probably unique in its scale (recreating or simply -taking- large ancient temples; sorry Iran, your best temples are now in Berlin). I thought the Aegyptisches Museum was terrible (presentation: 1, lighting: 1, interesting information in English: 0 on a scale from 1-10) but I was there in 2007 and I think they've renovated it since? They don't have anything particularly cool like the Rosetta Stone or King Tut's tomb. Neferttiti's Bust is the big thing but it's a small, painted wooden bust and like the Mona Lisa it's disappointing.
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Jul 13, 2014 16:53
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You can't go to Berlin and not visit Mustafa's (about 3,20€ when I was there last December, dunno about now) near U-Mehringdamm. I also heard something about a Schokodöner in Kreuzberg, but can't comment on it since it opened after I left.
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Jul 13, 2014 18:06
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Lady Gaza posted:Also if anyone has any interesting bars they can recommend that'd be great, we're likely not to go raving or clubbing but wouldn't mind going to some cool places to have a drink. I'm a fan of different beers so somewhere serving more than just pilsener would be nice. Berliner Unterwelten offers guided tours through the literal underground of Berlin. I linked the English version of the site but they offer even more tours in German, if you speak it. I went on one of their tours once that led through a permanently flooded WWII bunker (doesn't seem to be on offer anymore though) and it was definitely an experience.
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Jul 13, 2014 19:38
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Hadlock posted:I'm in Prague, but I have to meet a friend in Nuremberg for lunch on Friday, and then another friend for lunch on Saturday in Speyer (south of Frankfurt).. I should be ok to his this, right? For posterity, I found a $20 USD direct double decker bus from Prague to Nuremberg via studentagency.cz which I guess is run by DB (german transmit) And yeah, simple enough getting from Nuremberg to anywhere else in Germany, thanks to their stellar rail transit system. Speyer is awesome, gateway to a ton of charming wine country villages.
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Jul 14, 2014 00:13
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Saladman posted:The Pergamon Museum is very impressive, and I've been to a poo poo ton of history museums. It's probably unique in its scale (recreating or simply -taking- large ancient temples; sorry Iran, your best temples are now in Berlin). The only thing I'm not sure about is what parts of the Pergamon are closed right now due to construction work, or if any are closed at all; it's worth checking out though. Here they are telling you what is going on: http://www.smb.museum/en/museums-an...2776a9a50116bd8 If you already plan to see the Mauerpark, you could complement it with the "Museum am Checkpoint Charlie" which isn't too big, centrally located and quite well done. Jerry Manderbilt posted:You can't go to Berlin and not visit Mustafa's (about 3,20€ when I was there last December, dunno about now) near U-Mehringdamm. While true and despite being very good, Mustafa's isn't the "original" Döner, so if you want a more "traditional" version, the Döner place at the Rosenthaler Platz isn't bad, and neither is the one on the Rosenthaler Straße/Hackescher Markt opposite the Hackesche Höfe.
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Jul 14, 2014 15:04
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Hollow Talk posted:The only thing I'm not sure about is what parts of the Pergamon are closed right now due to construction work, or if any are closed at all; it's worth checking out though. Too bad! At least it looks like it's mostly open until Fall 2014, but after that it looks grim until 2019. That's a drat long renovation.
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Jul 14, 2014 15:37
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peak debt posted:There's a hut inside the nature park, the Chamanna Cluozza, which is quite nice. Bring binoculars if you got them for critter watching. There are a few at the hut including one really powerful one but you obviously can't take them with you for the hike. In late summer/early autumn you can see babby ibexes and goats with a bit of luck. Excellent, thanks. A lot of those nationalpark.ch routes look pretty good. Will have to see where the snow line is... I'm pretty sure it was snowing at like 1800m last week, but maybe three days of heat will be enough to make most of these routes hikeable. (I always hike in trainers, gently caress hiking boots.)
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Jul 14, 2014 15:38
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Hollow Talk posted:While true and despite being very good, Mustafa's isn't the "original" Döner, so if you want a more "traditional" version, the Döner place at the Rosenthaler Platz isn't bad, and neither is the one on the Rosenthaler Straße/Hackescher Markt opposite the Hackesche Höfe. While Mustafa's makes a decent Döner I don't think it's worth queuing 20 minutes for. For a similar experience without the queue you could go to the small booth on Heinrichplatz. Cheaper than Mustafa's, too. Also, for a great veal Döner check out Tadim at Kottbusser Tor (where Rossmann is). For a great beef with lamb fat one check out Imren (several locations, Karl-Marx-Str., Kottbusser Damm and one in Wedding (?)).
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Jul 14, 2014 16:23
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Planning a trip in Spain, I fly into and out of Madrid August 9th-September 2nd. My tentative schedule is Madrid-Granada-Valencia-Barcelona-San Sebastian-Madrid. I am trying to shoot for spending 2500-3000 dollars for the 23 or so days, does this seem doable with a combination of couch surfing/hostels/airbnb? Is there anywhere else I should look at hitting or anything else I should look at doing? I was going to try to hike in either the Sierra Nevadas outside of Granada and/or the Pyrenees which I guess I would use Barcelona as a base does anyone have any experience hiking or fly fishing in these areas?
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Jul 14, 2014 18:43
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Swarmin Swedes posted:Planning a trip in Spain, I fly into and out of Madrid August 9th-September 2nd. If you want to save money, take buses instead of trains**, but at €100 day it should be no problem at all either way. You could do your trip for €1500 without breaking a sweat. **specifically the high speed trains are crazy expensive, like 3x the price of a bus for the equivalent distance.
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Jul 14, 2014 19:07
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Saladman posted:If you want to save money, take buses instead of trains**, but at €100 day it should be no problem at all either way. You could do your trip for €1500 without breaking a sweat. Last time I was in Spain we used busses most of the time and it worked out pretty well. I definitely plan on primarily using busses since the I don't have too many super long treks. I might rent a car for a day or two depending on how easy/tough it is to get to the national parks. Has anyone been to La Gracia Festival in Barcelona?
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Jul 14, 2014 19:13
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Lady Gaza posted:So, I'm sure it's been mentioned a million times in this thread (I've looked through the first third and the last ten pages), but anyone have any more recommendations for Berlin? I'm going on Friday (arriving lunchtime, leaving Monday evening) with my girlfriend. If you speak any German at all (or if they have English speaking guides as well, I don't know), take a tour of the Hohenschönhausen Stasi prison. The guides are former inmates. The woman that guided us around had been in there in the 1980s because her husband was a Stasi officer and she had gotten into an affair with an American. The prison and the inmates' story really paints a good picture of how good at repression the East Germany state had become by the end of the Cold War.
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Jul 14, 2014 19:16
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schoenfelder posted:If you're thinking of the Döner place on the Torstr./Rosenthaler Str. corner across from St. Oberholz which also sold pizza etc.: that one closed. I was thinking of "All in One" next to Edeka! 
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Jul 14, 2014 21:24
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I'm going to be studying abroad in Spain come the fall term, and I was wondering if there are any resources in this thread specifically about long-term stays.
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Jul 15, 2014 17:00
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Lady Gaza posted:
Did you book a ticket for this? If not, try to do that right now! I think online has to be a day or two in advance or something.
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Jul 15, 2014 22:50
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elbkaida posted:Did you book a ticket for this? If not, try to do that right now! I think online has to be a day or two in advance or something. It can be kind of tricky to get spots on popular days (all summer, especially weekends), because last year they implemented new fire safety rules which reduced the number of people and required at least a few days notice. My Bundestag staff ID card (for a MdB Mitarbeiter) lets me go nearly everywhere besides the roof, you have to book that like 5 days in advance, and even then you can't be sure of spots for your visitor groups.
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Jul 16, 2014 04:23
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OK, me and my husband are in the early stages of planning a RTW trip. We think Europe will be the last place we go, since I'm pretty sure it will be the most expensive. We wanted to start with Central America and SE Asia, where we for sure would come in under budget, could bank that money and then have extra for pricier Europe. I am also pretty sure when we go, we'll max out the full 90 days we have under Schenegen (so, 3 months). What 12 cities do you recommend visiting in those 3 months? We'll probably have to limit movement between them to weekends, because I'll be working on weekdays (online job FTW). We'll probably do exclusively hosteling in Europe, maybe an occasional AirBNB.
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Jul 16, 2014 04:26
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elbkaida posted:Did you book a ticket for this? If not, try to do that right now! I think online has to be a day or two in advance or something. I did book it, yes Thanks for all the suggestions everyone, my list is now super long so am sure I will do a ton of things while I'm there.
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Jul 16, 2014 06:45
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Hip Hoptimus Prime posted:OK, me and my husband are in the early stages of planning a RTW trip. Having just come back from Rome, Paris and London, I have to recommend with all my heart: Rome, Paris, London. Others can recommend the other 9!
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Jul 16, 2014 16:55
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Hip Hoptimus Prime posted:OK, me and my husband are in the early stages of planning a RTW trip. What time of year do you expect to be in Europe? And you've both travelled around Europe quite a bit before, I think, or maybe it was just France?
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Jul 16, 2014 17:45
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Saladman posted:What time of year do you expect to be in Europe? And you've both travelled around Europe quite a bit before, I think, or maybe it was just France? I am thinking spring 2015 (we'll probably do Central/South America this coming September through November, SE Asia in January/Feb and then Europe in March/April/May). I did go to only France 2 years ago for a couple weeks (you have a good memory!). I went to Paris, Nice, and Aix-en-Provence with some day trips to Monaco, Cannes, Avignon and Marseilles. I wouldn't mind Paris again just so that my husband could see it.
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Jul 16, 2014 23:39
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ThatBasqueGuy posted:I'm going to be studying abroad in Spain come the fall term, and I was wondering if there are any resources in this thread specifically about long-term stays. In the Basque country? No specific questions? I just did 9 months in Asturias.
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Jul 17, 2014 18:54
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I'm hoping for some advice on getting a SIM card in Europe primarily for GPS use for biking over a couple weeks. I'm planning on buying a GSM sim card on arrival at the airport, which I understand is easy enough. I don't plan to make many calls, but I want to be sure I have a reliable data connection with enough bandwidth/data to use GPS for 5-6 hours a day. Is there some particular provider that would be optimal for this (ie good coverage in Germany and France, and not too expensive)? I'll be biking ~7 days total during my trip, so I'm also wondering how much data I should buy. (I guess I can top it up if I run low, hopefully that's easy to do via the phone itself.) Also I'm wondering if I can expect decent coverage in the French Alps. I have a Tmobile prepaid phone in the US. I hear Tmobile offers some sort of service to its US customers in Europe if they have a postpaid plan but it appears I do not have access to this.
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Jul 18, 2014 04:14
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In many European countries you can buy cheap prepaid cards in the supermarket. Prices vary from place to place and unfortunately there is no single Europe-wide provider, so you will need to buy separate SIM cards for every country you visit if you want to avoid expensive roaming fees. Reception in the mountains can be very tricky because it's often only a few hundred metres between perfect and rather bad signal.
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Jul 18, 2014 07:17
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bitt3n posted:I'm hoping for some advice on getting a SIM card in Europe primarily for GPS use for biking over a couple weeks. GPS doesn't use data, you can use it in flight mode if you want to test it. If you have your maps offline (Maps With Me/MAPS.ME was what we used when Google maps offline was giving us poo poo, and it was ok), the only thing you'll be missing is the directions feature. If you're a good navigator you should be able to manage. Battery life could be an issue, do you have some kind of solar charger or spare batteries?
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Jul 18, 2014 07:46
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greazeball posted:GPS doesn't use data, you can use it in flight mode if you want to test it. If you have your maps offline (Maps With Me/MAPS.ME was what we used when Google maps offline was giving us poo poo, and it was ok), the only thing you'll be missing is the directions feature. If you're a good navigator you should be able to manage. Battery life could be an issue, do you have some kind of solar charger or spare batteries? The turn by turn navigation is really nice when biking, since it allows one to remain focused on the road and not have to stop and fiddle with the phone. Offline maps would certainly be workable, but I wish there were some way I could just buy a SIM with 5GB of data for $30 like I do with Tmobile prepay. From what I understand it will be necessary to buy separate SIM cards in Germany and France, and the data is considerably more expensive. I'm bringing one of those Anchor supplementary batteries so hopefully that will be sufficient.
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Jul 18, 2014 16:41
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I'm going to Germany on August 1st for a couple of weeks to do a course. I'm flying to Frankfurt and should arrive at about noon local time, then I have to get a train to Jena. Is it better to book a DB ticket now online, or can I wait and get a ticket for a slow train (or trains) on the day from Frankfurt Flughafen to Jena? Time isn't much of a factor - I'm prepared to spend a few hours on a train. I know in 2007 that there was a ticket that cost about €32 and allowed you to go anywhere in one day, as long as it was on a RE train, but I can't find anything that sounds like that on the Deutsche Bahn website. (It's either a lot more expensive now, or it's a lot cheaper but I'll only be able to travel within one Bundesland.)
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Jul 18, 2014 22:59
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If there are still discount tickets listed for the train you want to take, that's likely to be cheaper. This does restrict you to taking that train only (unless there's a delay and you miss a DB connection). There are indeed a bunch of specials like that, I think the one you mention is/was called Quer-durchs-Land ticket. Apparently it's 44 euros now, which is unlikely to be worth it for a single trip, as discount tickets for even 8 hour trips including ICE can be like €50. But compare that to the cheapest discount option that's still listed (they start disappearing as you get closer to the date of travel, so booking earlier tends to be better). e: Indeed there are still discounted tickets for €49 for your trip on the website, so the time it saves is probably worth that extra 5 euros. Seems like a lot for such a short trip... but I guess it's pretty close to the date already. Also, if you buy the ticket at the station for local trains only, it is €48, so the €44 is not a big discount... Entropist fucked around with this message at 23:29 on Jul 18, 2014 |
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Jul 18, 2014 23:22
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