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Lady Gaza posted:Oh that's your site? I stumbled across it while searching for tips for travelling light. Found it very useful! That's me. Glad you found it useful!
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Nov 9, 2014 04:36
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I have a overnight coming up in Rome, arriving at FCO at 8:40PM, and I don't expect to get into the city until 10:30PM. My flight next day departs at 3:10PM. I want to do some exploration in Rome, and I was looking at this self walking tour. Is it better to walk through the sights at night (midnight to early morning hours) or sleep and then go in the morning before I have to head for the airport?
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Nov 10, 2014 00:19
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So I'm thinking of moving back to Switzerland next year and I'd love some suggestions for cool things to see/do in a reasonable area around there. (Zurich specifically, but I've seen a fair bit of Switzerland, so I'm more curious about the surrounding countries.) Last time I was there I kind of wasted away my time, aside from one concert in Florence and a daytrip to Colmar. I think it would be good to have some ideas so that I'll be prepared. I love history and pretty things. I want to check out the abbey in Einsiedeln, and I'd love to see some of the sights in Ticino again. I really enjoyed Paris but it's a bit far. Any ideas along those lines? 
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Nov 10, 2014 13:24
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TheImmigrant posted:You'll likely end up at Delirium Village at least once, true enough, which is particularly close to where you'll be staying. It's very touristy, but has an amazing beer selection. Way better, and closer to your hostel, is Cafe Kafka, on rue de la Vierge Noire. This is one of my favorite bars in the world, and often has live music. Mappa Mundo and A La Mort Subite are cool places nearby for drinks too. These are all excellent anwers. However, I'd add Nuetnienough on Rue Lombard - however they don't ever do reservations, so you just have to show up and hope there's space. Forget about a group larger than 6 for here. Excellent Belgian/Flemish food and good beer. I'd like to add Moeder Lambic on Anspach for your first two-three beers (ie. when you can still taste the difference) - they're an amazing beer bar that doesn't do any 'industrial-process' beer that you'd never find anywhere else. Plus, it looks really nice. You will certainly end up in Delirium, but that's like the 2nd or 3rd bar to go to. My favourite hole-in-the-wall in that area is Au Bon Vieux Temps, which is in a small alley just behind the bourse building. My favourite restaurant in Brussels is not to far either, it's called Viva M'Boma close to Place St. Catherine, but it's really offal-centric so maybe not for larger groups. When you're in the EU section, by far the best place for lunch is Caffe Italiano on Arlon, just round the corner from Place Luxembourg. Get there before 1pm when the line explodes with 5 million Italians. If you're here on a Thursday, then have the first beers on Place Luxembourg with all the EU interns/young folk, even though it's not so crowded now that the weather's turned for the worse. What kind of class is it? I could join for a pint as I work as a lobbyist/policy officer in Brussels. Junior G-man fucked around with this message at 13:43 on Nov 10, 2014 |
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Nov 10, 2014 13:40
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Saladman posted:Rome to Naples is a lot further than one hour. He'd be looking at ~4.5 hours of travel, so I can't imagine doing that as a day trip especially if you're only in Rome for 4 days in the first place. To clarify. Rome to Naples by train is 1h 10m on the high speed train. I have just done the trip last Tuesday. Laverna posted:So I'm thinking of moving back to Switzerland next year and I'd love some suggestions for cool things to see/do in a reasonable area around there. (Zurich specifically, but I've seen a fair bit of Switzerland, so I'm more curious about the surrounding countries.) Around Zurich: (other than Jungfrau, Luzern etc.) Go up Rigi - great view, you can see 4 lakes from the top. Technorama - In Winterthur, it isn't amazing but is a great place to spend a wet afternoon if you like science. Think a more grown up Science museum in London. Ballenberg - http://ballenberg.ch/en/Welcome Gruyere - Cute hill top village, if you like the cheese it is worth a visit Chateau De Chillon - Bit further but a pretty little castle on the lake Solothurn - great place to walk around in Most of the Swiss towns are pretty - Baden, Basel, Zug etc. Castles in Bellinzona - 3 castles spread across the valley CERN - book ahead but it is a great tour - combine with the UN buildings if you have an interest in the history. Outside Swissyland Mad King Ludwig and his castles - Neuschwanstein is the pick but Lindenhof and Herrenchiemsee are equally bonkers and worth your time. WWI trenches trip - Verdun is only 3 hours away Wine tour in Alsace - Stay in a village near Colmar (Eguisheim is my favourite) and drink free wine all day. Munich is 4ish hours away - Lots of Hitler stuff, Dachau, Englischen Garten, Nymphenburg, Andechs. Easily worth a weekend, more if you want to drink beer Salzburg - stunning castle and no none has ever heard of the Sound of Music, although I think they now do a tour. Milan - Great Cathedral, rest of the city is a bit meh, although the train station is brilliant if you like your Facist architecture. Verona - Great amphitheater Lake Garda - avoid peak tourist season. Otherwise it is a pretty lake surrounded by pretty villages.
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Nov 10, 2014 14:06
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PlantHead posted:To clarify. Rome to Naples by train is 1h 10m on the high speed train. I have just done the trip last Tuesday. Wow, no kidding. I checked TrenItalia and saw that. Google Maps needs to get its poo poo together. I drove it recently but would've just gone on the train if I'd known how much faster it was. I didn't even know Italy had trains that went faster than 60 kph with constant unannounced stops, as this has been every single experience of mine with trains in northern Italy.
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Nov 10, 2014 17:28
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Laverna posted:So I'm thinking of moving back to Switzerland next year and I'd love some suggestions for cool things to see/do in a reasonable area around there. (Zurich specifically, but I've seen a fair bit of Switzerland, so I'm more curious about the surrounding countries.) Planthead covered it pretty well, but additionally in Switzerland (nearby Zurich) there's: Hiking in Graubunden, particularly the Engandin valley Waterfalls of Schaffhausen are neat and quite close, good hiking on the Rhein around there too Actually all of the Lake Constanz area is pretty nice, the more interesting cities being Lindau and Konstanz Appenzell is nearby, you can watch a cow rodeo and the European equivalent of rednecks. Naked hiking is now banned there, though! Jungfraujoch is pretty neat if you have a halbtax or a GA, otherwise it's ridiculously expensive. One of the James Bond villain's lairs is a differnet building on top of a mountain somewhere near Lucern (never been to that one personally) There's a new train to Lugano opening up in 2016 that will cut the time from Zurich to Ticino by like half, and it's the longest rail tunnel, making Ticino way more accessible Zurich airport is great and connects you anywhere
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Nov 10, 2014 19:45
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I am in Istanbul all of next week. I am staying in Sultanahmet, about 500 meters from Hagia Sophia. I have never been before, so I will hit up the usual spots (Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Cistern, Taksim, Galata, İstiklal Avenue). So, where are the best places to smoke hash? Boat tours? Places to buy a leather jacket/boots? Grazie mille.
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Nov 10, 2014 23:31
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So I just read on that Savvy Babkpacker site (great site by the way) that European adults don't wear shorts. I'm going to be in southern Spain in the spring/summer for a large amount of my trip, I'm assuming this isn't the case there?
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Nov 11, 2014 06:55
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Unless you're at the beach it kinda is, though of course it's not quite as absolute as no adult ever wears shorts, and in any case if you want to wear shorts while walking around the town the worst that might happen is that people will recognise you as a tourist.
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Nov 11, 2014 08:28
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It's not all European adults. Germans for instance wear shorts like there's no tomorrow, but they're also famous for their lack of style -- whether this is true or not. But pretty much the only people who ever wear shorts off the beach are dads with children, hikers, countercultural punks/artistes/whatever, Germans, or North American tourists. This remains even more true when it's hot in Spain/Greece/Italy/France. That said it doesn't really matter unless you go to a nice restaurant, in which case quite a few have no shorts policies -- even for beachside places -- so like California might have been 50 years ago back when people cared about shorts and sandals. What's more extreme is flip flops. If you ever see an adult wearing these, then they're American or Canadian. So far I haven't seen an exception to this, especially if they're Rainbows. I see shops selling Havaianas everywhere but have yet to see a man older than 12 wearing them in Europe. But yeah it doesn't really matter. I wear shorts all the time in summer because, goddammit, it's hot. Saladman fucked around with this message at 12:12 on Nov 11, 2014 |
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Nov 11, 2014 12:10
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Yeah, we don't. No one wants to see your fat hairy legs. You can usually get away with 3/4th length pants though. And on the beach, for a picknick in the park or for lakeside/countryside outdoorsy activities it may be okay.
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Nov 11, 2014 12:50
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French guys wear shorts, but only when they're on vacation.
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Nov 11, 2014 13:19
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Has anyone ever been to Ceuta? If so, any restaurant/bar/hotel recommendations?
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Nov 11, 2014 13:29
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I've been in Barcelona since early August and they really don't wear shorts here. That being said unless you're super concerned about seeming local no one cares. What's a nice place in Europe to go to in the winter? I've been working in Barcelona and Germany for about six months now. I'm leaving soon to be home for the holidays but I'm coming back in January and I'll have a week off at the end of the month. I've already been to Paris, Frankfurt, Aachen, Munich, Cologne, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Andorra, London, and Luxembourg. I'm considering Rome right now, what's it like in the winter? Pokemon OH SNAP! fucked around with this message at 20:10 on Nov 11, 2014 |
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Nov 11, 2014 20:03
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The Slippery Nipple posted:So I just read on that Savvy Babkpacker site (great site by the way) that European adults don't wear shorts. I'm going to be in southern Spain in the spring/summer for a large amount of my trip, I'm assuming this isn't the case there? Some people do, some people don't. It depends on the weather and which country you're going to, even on the specific part of the country. Contrary to the myth, European people actually do wear shorts. Almost everyone you'll meet in Southern Spain is a tourist anyway, so doesn't matter.
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Nov 11, 2014 21:32
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DanTheFryingPan posted:Some people do, some people don't. It depends on the weather and which country you're going to, even on the specific part of the country. Contrary to the myth, European people actually do wear shorts. Almost everyone you'll meet in Southern Spain is a tourist anyway, so doesn't matter. Now you are going too far in the other direction. An Italian or Spanish guy is very unlikely to wears shorts off the beach. Among acquaintances he'd raise about the same amount of eyebrows as a guy in a speedo in the US would. It's even common to throw on a pair of long trousers when walking across the road from a beach to get an ice cream. Now of course, with the usual "tourists don't know any better  " goodwill bonus it's really not that big of a deal. You will get turned away at churches though.
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Nov 11, 2014 22:27
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PlantHead posted:Around Zurich: (other than Jungfrau, Luzern etc.) Saladman posted:Planthead covered it pretty well, but additionally in Switzerland (nearby Zurich) there's: The Technorama is pretty cool and I'm actually usually based in Baden when I'm there, I still need to check out the renovations they've done to the Roman baths there. To be honest I'm pretty soured towards a lot of the Swiss places, being half Swiss I've been dragged along to all the places every time we visited during my childhood and I'm only just trying to find things I enjoy doing in my own right. I don't think I've been to Bellinzona, it sounds like it's in the Italian part which I haven't seen much of. I'll keep that in mind! Is the James Bond villain lair you're talking about the spinning restaurant? I vaguely remember it having to do with James Bond but I don't actually watch those films. I've heard about the new tunnel, I am eager to go to Ticino so it's great that it will be more accessible. I recently took the train from Ticino to Zurich and my grandad told me to look out for a small chapel on a hill that you could see from the train which you wouldn't be able to see anymore once they've changed the route. I wonder if that's the same one. Any other cool things in southern Germany? Last time I visited a friend in Reutlingen/Tübingen and she gave me a little tour of that area which was pretty cool. I am pretty super fond of castles and ruins and such since where I live the closest we have to that kind of history is a corrugated iron shack in the middle of a field somewhere. 
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Nov 12, 2014 10:46
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Laverna posted:I don't think I've been to Bellinzona, it sounds like it's in the Italian part which I haven't seen much of. I'll keep that in mind! Yeah, the Piz Gloria. I saw all the James Bond movies and don't remember it either, so I'm guessing it got about 10 seconds of screentime, just like the fake "Arc Lemanique" that featured in Goldfinger. Heidelberg in southern Germany is nice and lively, so long as you go when school is in session, because otherwise it's a ghost town. It has prominent castle ruins and all that. There are plenty of other things in southern Germany that are cool and (long) day trippable, but might be kind of boring to do by yourself or annoying to do without a car, like Rothenburg ob der Tauber.
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Nov 12, 2014 10:59
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Laverna posted:The Technorama is pretty cool and I'm actually usually based in Baden when I'm there, I still need to check out the renovations they've done to the Roman baths there. The James Bond thing is Piz Gloria, and yes it is the revolving restaurant. I was going to go there after Jungfraujoch, but it's a pretty long trip so I ended up skipping it. I have heard it is nice though. I have only lived here (Zurich) for a year, so I haven't seen a lot, but my favorite area is Interlaken, but I'd imagine you've been to most of the things there before. If you're in the area and have a couple hours though, the St. Beatus caves are pretty cool if you haven't gone there. The Rheinfalls are pretty cool too for something a little north of Zurich (I think it was an hour and a half or so by train). There's not a whole lot to do there but it was a fun half day trip. The Schloss Laufen restaurant was pretty nice (although expensive, but what swiss restaurant isn't).
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Nov 12, 2014 11:59
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Pokemon OH SNAP! posted:I've been in Barcelona since early August and they really don't wear shorts here. That being said unless you're super concerned about seeming local no one cares. You're also not going to be terribly uncomfortable in a pair of pants, it doesn't get oppressively hot or humid in Catalonia even in August.
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Nov 12, 2014 13:34
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wear linen pants
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Nov 12, 2014 14:46
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Saladman posted:Yeah, the Piz Gloria. I saw all the James Bond movies and don't remember it either, so I'm guessing it got about 10 seconds of screentime, just like the fake "Arc Lemanique" that featured in Goldfinger.  If I go I would be scrounging off/living with my mother (yay incredibly high living costs) so I'm sure we could get a car to go somewhere together. I'd catch a train if I was going somewhere by myself though. Trains are nice but there is a lot you miss out on, like stopping in the small villages and just taking a look around at all the cool sights.We saw this fountain while driving through a town that I unfortunately didn't catch the name of: http://i.imgur.com/cpRBbeU.jpg (the sign says "Kein Trinkwasser") I've heard of Heidelberg before, I'll add that to my list of places to check out! Murphy Brownback posted:e: beaten on the james bond thing What brought you there, if I might ask? Zurich is one of my favourite cities in the world and I'm wanting to go back there myself, but I haven't actually got an acceptable reason yet other than "I'm sick of where I am now". I haven't heard of the caves, I'll look into that. The restaurants everywhere are pretty nice, but very very expensive. One thing I like about Switzerland though is that almost every mountain seems to have a restaurant at the top, how convenient! I had to go and get a quick refresher on where Interlaken is but yeah, I have family in Thun so I've seen quite a bit of that area. Lake Thun is lovely in the summer! Actually I just love lakes in general. The Blausee is quite nice if you haven't seen it yet, although like everything else it's probably expensive. Thanks for all the responses! Sorry if I'm getting a bit too chatty
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Nov 13, 2014 03:06
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Unless you speak the local language like a native, you're not going to fool anyone. Don't wear shorts to church or a fancy restaurant, but you're not going to cause an international incident by strolling Las Ramblas in your cargo shorts and Tevas. You'll never be as gauche as the Germans anyway (unless you are German). Italians and Spaniards generally are better-dressed than Anglos and Saxons, but they aren't offended by the fact.
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Nov 13, 2014 06:55
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Laverna posted:What brought you there, if I might ask? Zurich is one of my favourite cities in the world and I'm wanting to go back there myself, but I haven't actually got an acceptable reason yet other than "I'm sick of where I am now". I work at one of the universities here in Zurich - it was just a two year contract though so I'm out of here in less than a year unfortunately. I feel like I've barely seen a tiny fraction of all there is to do despite trying to do vacation stuff whenever I can on the weekends.
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Nov 14, 2014 09:16
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WaryWarren posted:I am in Istanbul all of next week. I am staying in Sultanahmet, about 500 meters from Hagia Sophia. I have never been before, so I will hit up the usual spots (Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Cistern, Taksim, Galata, İstiklal Avenue). I asked about Istanbul a few pages ago and nobody answered. Maybe nobody here has been to Istanbul  Regarding shorts, I am from the UK and last time I went to Spain it was shorts during the day and trousers at night. This was one of your typical built-by-Franco fake tourist towns though, when I went into Barcelona I put trousers on.
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Nov 17, 2014 15:00
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This is a last minute long shot hail-mary question, but does anyone have any recommendations for a tattoo parlor in Paris (close to Antony if possible) that takes walk-ins or may have a last-minute booking available for next week (for something small)? A good web presence/email response would be a great bonus since I'm stateside.
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Nov 18, 2014 00:44
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What are decent neighbourhoods to stay in four a four-day trip to Stockholm just before Christmas? I don't think we can afford (airbnbing) to stay right on Gamla Stan, but the areas directly north and south of it should be pretty good, right? How decent is public transport? Is walking going to be an option for three Australians in the middle of winter?
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Nov 20, 2014 14:37
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freebooter posted:What are decent neighbourhoods to stay in four a four-day trip to Stockholm just before Christmas? I don't think we can afford (airbnbing) to stay right on Gamla Stan, but the areas directly north and south of it should be pretty good, right? How decent is public transport? Is walking going to be an option for three Australians in the middle of winter? Can't help you too much specifically, but Stockholm (and the populated areas of Scandinavia in general) don't really get that cold in winter; it'll probably be between -5 and +5. It's dark and grim though!
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Nov 20, 2014 17:21
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Public transport is good, and unless you get unlucky it wont be all that cold (Stockholm's south and on the coast) so walking is an option. As for areas, anywhere that seems reasonably close on a map (the areas around Gamla Stan) to the interesting bits is fine is fine.
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Nov 20, 2014 18:50
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You say that but watching an Aussie try and fail to dodge black ice the first winter he was here in Switzerland was hilarious.
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Nov 21, 2014 14:43
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Why exactly do you think I say that?
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Nov 21, 2014 16:40
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I'm heading to London in May. I'd like to buy secondhand tickets for the Ride show at the Roundhouse. What options do I have? I found stubhub.co.uk and seatwave.com, but the selection is slim and, I think, expensive. Are there similar sites that might have more, possibly at a cheaper price? In other news, is £200 per ticket for Ride a ludicrously expensive amount? For me, that's $320, which is crazy expensive for most shows. I'm pretty sure good McCartney tickets are way less than that here. But it might be normal for Britain? I don't know, so I thought I'd ask. Thanks in advance.
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Nov 22, 2014 07:08
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Are you travelling independently of the Show? If so, just roll up on the day and buy from scalpers, that will be more like 2x or 3x door price. Alternatively, check on gumtree. Tickets tend to pop up there too. 200 for a 30£ show is completely ridicolous!
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Nov 23, 2014 13:27
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Abel Wingnut posted:I'm heading to London in May. I'd like to buy secondhand tickets for the Ride show at the Roundhouse. What options do I have? I found stubhub.co.uk and seatwave.com, but the selection is slim and, I think, expensive. Are there similar sites that might have more, possibly at a cheaper price? In other news, is £200 per ticket for Ride a ludicrously expensive amount? For me, that's $320, which is crazy expensive for most shows. I'm pretty sure good McCartney tickets are way less than that here. But it might be normal for Britain? I don't know, so I thought I'd ask. Our major non-scalper (I say that but some of their processing fees are quite high) are seetickets and Ticketmaster, and sometimes ticketweb, keep checking from time to time as they release extra tickets. An example for me is last night I went to see The National after work and they released more tickets on the day. Also keep your eyes on on Twitter as people tend to do long hours at work in London then you get last minute cancellations.
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Nov 27, 2014 22:48
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I got back from a 3-4 day solo trip to Rome on Monday thank you for the advice,I did the following: Stayed in a hotel off Via Cavour which was about 20 minutes walk to the Colosseum, seemed like a nice base, just far enough from Termini at night it also had a few nice bars that I could go to, and met quite a few people over there. I did a group tour of the Vatican, met a girl on the tour and we went for a fantastic meal afterwards. The next day was the Colosseum tour which was a good four hours and went up to Palatine Hill, in the evening I went on the Eating Italy Trastevere food tour which was greats, again met some really nice people in our group of about eight people. A good option if your travelling solo as you get a tour of the best haunts and it beats a table for one in a tourist trap. The other highlights were the Villa Borghese and I met a mate over there for the big Lazio vs Juve game which was fantastic, I also went on a tour of catacombs where we checked out those skeletons. Thanks again to everyone for the recommendations, one of the only holidays were I didn't really feel like coming home again. I have also got the Italian bug now so will be looking at other places.
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Nov 27, 2014 22:50
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Hey I got back from my first overseas trip! Spent a week in London and five days in Edinburgh (did two rabbie's tours, one of Loch Lomond and the other was St. Andrews and Fife). I think I'd like to check out the main continent, but I was wondering about rail tickets. The first question would be what is the best site to buy tickets at considering I am in the US? The second question is will some rail lines not let you select your seat? I ask because I am quite prone to motion sickness, so I can't be sitting backwards. I was able to select my direction for East Coast Rail when I went to Edinburgh, but for the other rail lines in Europe (Thalys, ICE, TGV) it doesn't seem to be an option. I wanted to do something like fly to Paris, then use the train to go to Zurich, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Brussels and then back to Paris.
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Nov 29, 2014 22:37
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actionjackson posted:Hey I got back from my first overseas trip! Spent a week in London and five days in Edinburgh (did two rabbie's tours, one of Loch Lomond and the other was St. Andrews and Fife). Rabbie's are great! Normally, you can only choose "table/two-seater" and "isle/window" on something like Deutsche Bahn. That said, if it causes you problems, book a seat on a table, since they are 2 & 2 opposite each other, which means one set of seats is always facing the right way for you (non-table seats might all be going "backwards" if the train changed direction). Then, if you are facing the wrong way, just ask the person opposite if they would be willing to switch seats. I have yet to experience that people would say no to that. Also, Frankfurt is a terminus, so if you plan to simply go through there, you might have to switch half-way through your journey. If you want to stay in Frankfurt for a bit then that obviously won't be an issue. You can have a look at the Deutsche Bahn website, since they go to all the places you want to visit with German trains (ICEs), but I doubt you could book say Paris → Bruxelles via them. You might have to look at either SNCF or SNCB for that. How much time do you plan to spend in each of the cities? Hollow Talk fucked around with this message at 22:59 on Nov 29, 2014 |
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Nov 29, 2014 22:56
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Thanks. I really have no idea yet, it will all be based on what days I can find the cheapest flights to and from CDG from here. Just a day or two I think. I take Xanax for flying, and used it on the train as well, though that kind of takes the "enjoy the scenery" part of the trip out of the picture. It looks like the site you mentioned lets you choose your seat for first class, so that's probably fine for at least that part of my trip. I also can fly into AMS non-stop if I want to go for more of low country trip. actionjackson fucked around with this message at 23:31 on Nov 29, 2014 |
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Nov 29, 2014 23:19
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If you book general seating, chances are there will be a seat facing forwards available. If there's not, chances are you'll be able to get someone to switch with you once you explain the problem. And if all else fails, the conductor should be able to accommodate you somehow. I wouldn't make the seat direction too much of a priority when booking.
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Nov 30, 2014 14:03
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