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Oh I have no problems using public transportation, but some of the friends I want to meet up with are driving around the countryside one weekend, and trying to keep up using buses/trains would be a nightmare. I'll just suck it up and pay extra for an automatic for a couple days, sounds like it's definitely not worth the headache
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Sep 20, 2016 17:59
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Ras Het posted:Y'all need to give up on cars for a minute - you can take the bus to any remote backwoods hicksville basically anywhere in Europe. This isn't really true. Going between reasonably large towns will generally be fine, but if you're somewhere really remote (and, especially, non-touristy) that bus service is going to be a lot less reliable. Entropist posted:lol Americans I mean you could ride a bike the ~200km from Barcelona to Andorra but unless you're a professional cyclist I don't know why you would
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Sep 20, 2016 19:59
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drat, you Americans get so defensive about your cars. Who's talking about 200km? You wouldn't take a local bus for that distance either. The point was that there's an appropriate mode of transport for every distance, without needing to use a car, in Europe. Though admittedly in eastern Europe it gets difficult sometimes, everyone has cars there.The Schwa posted:I don't ride bikes here because we drive on the other side of the road at home and I'll get all confused, also on a bike I'll probably die I rode a bike in Ireland where they drive on the wrong side of the road and have terrible bike infra, and I survived. It's fine, you get used to it quickly. Entropist fucked around with this message at 01:40 on Sep 21, 2016 |
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Sep 21, 2016 01:35
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Entropist posted:drat, you Americans get so defensive about your cars. Who's talking about 200km? You wouldn't take a local bus for that distance either. The point was that there's an appropriate mode of transport for every distance, without needing to use a car, in Europe. Though admittedly in eastern Europe it gets difficult sometimes, everyone has cars there. Then your point is wrong because there is demonstrably not an appropriate mode of transport for every place or distance without a car. Tell me how you'd travel through the back roads of the Pyrenees? Is a bus driver going to turn down this cool looking mountain road because you asked him nicely? Are you going to take a bus to Puigcerda and bike up thousands of feet of road? Maybe you've never had a need for a car, but it's completely wrong to say there's never a time or place for it anywhere in Europe. It's also kind of stupid to single out Americans because several of us talking about using cars here aren't American and Europeans love using cars almost as much as anyone else. Why aren't more French and Italians taking trains and buses for their holidays in July and August? MagicCube fucked around with this message at 02:00 on Sep 21, 2016 |
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Sep 21, 2016 01:54
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Entropist posted:drat, you Americans get so defensive about your cars. Who's talking about 200km? You wouldn't take a local bus for that distance either. The point was that there's an appropriate mode of transport for every distance, without needing to use a car, in Europe. Though admittedly in eastern Europe it gets difficult sometimes, everyone has cars there. Renting a bike is good for exploring a city, but then no-one was talking about that. What the OP mentioned was "adventuring" which is not a bike-friendly activity. And just fyi, I'm not American.
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Sep 21, 2016 02:00
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Oh, I must have imagined my countryside biking holidays then.MagicCube posted:Then your point is wrong because there is demonstrably not an appropriate mode of transport for every place or distance without a car. Tell me how you'd travel through the back roads of the Pyrenees? Is a bus driver going to turn down this cool looking mountain road because you asked him nicely? Are you going to take a bus to Puigcerda and bike up thousands of feet of road? Maybe you've never had a need for a car, but it's completely wrong to say there's never a time or place for it anywhere in Europe. Well sure, if you stretch it enough you can probably find a place where nobody lives that you can't easily get to by bus + bike. But most of the time when people ask about renting a car in this thread, it is a situation in which it is inadvisable.
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Sep 21, 2016 02:15
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Entropist posted:Well sure, if you stretch it enough you can probably find a place where nobody lives that you can't easily get to by bus + bike. But most of the time when people ask about renting a car in this thread, it is a situation in which it is inadvisable. Many people here have terrible plans  Julio Cruz posted:Renting a bike is good for exploring a city, but then no-one was talking about that. What the OP mentioned was "adventuring" which is not a bike-friendly activity. And just fyi, I'm not American. Canadians and Australians are still American
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Sep 21, 2016 03:28
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Entropist posted:Well sure, if you stretch it enough you can probably find a place where nobody lives that you can't easily get to by bus + bike. But most of the time when people ask about renting a car in this thread, it is a situation in which it is inadvisable. In cities and going between cities, yes. But for exploring, especially in rural and/or non-touristy places, a car will be more reliable than buses and give you much greater range than a bike. Also if you think you're getting a bike on most rural European buses you're way off. caberham posted:Canadians and Australians are still American Not one of those either.
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Sep 21, 2016 03:46
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I know how to drive a manual anyway  Gonna ride that clutch all way to Scotland.
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Sep 21, 2016 03:48
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Entropist posted:I rode a bike in Ireland where they drive on the wrong side of the road and have terrible bike infra, and I survived. It's fine, you get used to it quickly. last time I rode a bike in a foreign country the USA that drove on the wrong side of the road, I got hit by a car and spent three days in hospital, so I'm a little cagey about it now I guess vv it was the USA I got hit in, yeah. I'm much more cautious around cars now and even crossing the road can make me really nervous at times, so I stick to not cycling. The Schwa fucked around with this message at 16:38 on Sep 22, 2016 |
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Sep 21, 2016 07:18
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For what it's worth, I've biked in every country I've ever visited and only in the USA have I ever been hit. Multiple times!
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Sep 22, 2016 14:45
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In Spain there's actually some rigour to the driver training programme, so you'd probably be more safe as a cyclist there than anywhere in North America, where I'm convinced you could shave an ape and train it to pass the drivers' test in under a week.
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Sep 22, 2016 19:30
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Cars are awesome. I drive everywhere. Public transportation is just depressing. Yes let me spend 3 times as long getting places on my expensive overseas holiday on overcrowded public transportation with dodgy climate control, this sounds like a great plan. (paying €7 for a hour of parking, also great).
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Sep 23, 2016 00:50
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Ras Het posted:Y'all need to give up on cars for a minute - you can take the bus to any remote backwoods hicksville basically anywhere in Europe. This is bad advice. It will take you forever to get to most places by bus, even if they are served by buses. Outside cities, the car will always be very efficient. You can go to Andorra from Barcelona
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Sep 23, 2016 19:29
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NihilismNow posted:Cars are awesome. I drive everywhere. Public transportation is just depressing. Also ridiculous: let me spend a huge part of my overseas vacation, mostly in countries that produce excellent, cheap wine, being sober enough to drive a car. gently caress that!
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Sep 23, 2016 19:37
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thistravel posted:This is bad advice. It will take you forever to get to most places by bus, even if they are served by buses. That's very relative. It doesn't really make a huge difference to me whether it takes me 7 or 10 hours to get to place X if I'm going to be reading, sleeping or drinking during that time anyway.
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Sep 23, 2016 20:20
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Ras Het posted:That's very relative. It doesn't really make a huge difference to me whether it takes me 7 or 10 hours to get to place X if I'm going to be reading, sleeping or drinking during that time anyway. I should mention that if you want to enjoy the Spanish nightlife you should really plan on napping between 2PM and 6PM. Whether thats in a hotel, on a bus/train or in a car while your hungover buddy drives is up to you. Hashtag Banterzone fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Sep 23, 2016 |
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Sep 23, 2016 20:28
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PT6A posted:Also ridiculous: let me spend a huge part of my overseas vacation, mostly in countries that produce excellent, cheap wine, being sober enough to drive a car. gently caress that! I'm going to drive my car to a winery and fall asleep in the cellar. And before doing that, make a post here. Or call and UBER to where ever. If we are all endlessly circle jerking about cars I guess we in this thread are getting old. Yeah. Goons are getting old Hashtag Banterzone posted:I should mention that if you want to enjoy the Spanish nightlife you should really plan on napping between 2PM and 6PM. Whether thats in a hotel, on a bus/train or in a car while your hungover buddy drives is up to you. Does dinner unofficially start at 8pm like Italy? And  for following German time.
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Sep 23, 2016 20:34
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Shout out to Holland    I really don't want to talk about cars in Europe, but this chain of rest stops in Italy rocks. You can find them on foot but they are everywhere on the highways. http://www.autogrill.com/ Holy poo poo even their sandwiches and salami tastes a thousand times better than everywhere else I don't know why. Sorry Holland. caberham fucked around with this message at 20:48 on Sep 23, 2016 |
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Sep 23, 2016 20:43
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caberham posted:Does dinner unofficially start at 8pm like Italy? And 8PM in a big city like Madrid is a little bit early for dinner -- some places won't open for lunch until 2PM and will close the lunch service at around 5PM, so there's lot's of people who don't go out for dinner until 9-10PM.
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Sep 23, 2016 22:10
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Ras Het posted:That's very relative. It doesn't really make a huge difference to me whether it takes me 7 or 10 hours to get to place X if I'm going to be reading, sleeping or drinking during that time anyway. Hell yes brother. Never drive yourself anywhere if you don't have to.
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Sep 23, 2016 23:05
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hackbunny fucked around with this message at 03:53 on Jul 2, 2020 |
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Sep 23, 2016 23:21
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hackbunny posted:I'm curious, is 8pm oddly early or oddly late to you? Because I'm Italian and reading this I'm nodding like "yep that's dinner time" As an American that feels late to me but maybe that's because our restaurants are usually always open and we can go whenever we want. I just got back from France and they usually opened at 7pm there which felt fine.
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Sep 23, 2016 23:36
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In Spain/Italy and the Mediterranean in general things run later because of siesta. Shops are often closed 12-2ish then open till 7-8pm, dinner starts at 8 or 9, and if you're going out drinking you don't leave the house till at least midnight.
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Sep 23, 2016 23:59
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HookShot posted:Trying to figure out road signs in a foreign language, For the most part, you dont have to know any language to understand european road signs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_European_road_signs
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Sep 24, 2016 10:08
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hackbunny fucked around with this message at 03:52 on Jul 2, 2020 |
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Sep 24, 2016 13:37
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My passport expires in February 2017. I'm planning on going to France October 2016. The State Department website says France does accept passports with 3 months left on them, which does give me just enough window. Am I hosed? I think it might be too late to renew it, I don't want to risk having no passport at all. I'll do the standard stuff like be well dressed and polite and have proof of an exit flight. Comb Your Beard fucked around with this message at 15:02 on Sep 28, 2016 |
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Sep 28, 2016 14:59
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There's a minimum time for which your passport must be valid after your trip and yours will be valid past that. If you have issues, this is not the primary cause. If you want to renew your passport beforehand for whatever reason, though, even expedited renewal might take too long depending on when you're leaving.
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Sep 28, 2016 15:08
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As long as your passport expires > 90 days after the day you arrive, then you should be OK. I'm not an immigration lawyer though. Usually they warn you to not travel with a passport with < 6 months left of validity. Edit: You might want to consider the expedited passport service though, depending on when specifically "October" is.
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Sep 28, 2016 15:20
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It's up to the discretion of the immigration officer to deport you. And when it comes to the discretion of border guards, they can cast a wide net and can throw the book at you if they feel like it. For the comedy option besides Expedited service you can lose your passport in France and apply for a temporary travel document. Fun times at the embassy
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Sep 28, 2016 16:14
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If you live in a city with a passport office, or can drive to one, you can get a passport in a day.
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Sep 28, 2016 23:56
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caberham posted:It's up to the discretion of the immigration officer to deport you. And when it comes to the discretion of border guards, they can cast a wide net and can throw the book at you if they feel like it. This is the cardinal rule of travel. Do not expect governments and their agents to accommodate you. Play by their rules on their schedule, or have a nice flight back home.
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Sep 30, 2016 03:28
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caberham posted:It's up to the discretion of the immigration officer to deport you. And when it comes to the discretion of border guards, they can cast a wide net and can throw the book at you if they feel like it. That assumes you've been admitted to France with the passport in the first place. No idea what your experience would be like but passing through CDG a few weeks ago the immigration agent's attitude seemed to be "You're American?" *stamp* "Next, please". A few pictures from my trip to Paris and Switzerland:              
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Oct 1, 2016 04:07
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In my experience of having close calls, it's always the airlines throwing a fit instead of immigration because airlines are responsible for your ticket back home when you are refused entry Most immigration officers do stamp things like a mindless drone but it's when there are other flags showing that this small thing might become a big one
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Oct 1, 2016 05:54
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Only at airline check in have I ever been questioned about visas, passport validity and/or return tickets.
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Oct 1, 2016 10:33
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We're going to be spending four days in Florence in about two weeks. I have two questions. First: Has anyone explored Tuscany via scooter? We were thinking about renting one for a day. Second: I'd love some restaurant recommendations for Florence.
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Oct 3, 2016 03:47
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Omits-Bagels posted:Second: I'd love some restaurant recommendations for Florence. Coquinarius has a really good pear ravioli and the staff are very friendly. It is small, I remember them being iffy with reservations, so check that before you go. Palle D'Oro has the best Bistecca alla Fiorentina out of all places in Florence I tried. You'll pay between 50 and 100 Euro for an enormous fire-grilled T-bone you are meant to share and is awesome. I fratellini if you want to keep going and only need a sandwich to eat while walking. Long line, but it moves fast and your lunch will cost less than 5 Euro
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Oct 3, 2016 08:47
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I'm in Florence right now so I'd be down for some recommendations too. I'm a weird beer nerd if you know any spots for that. I also like places with cool street art and poo poo.
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Oct 3, 2016 12:11
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Omits-Bagels posted:We're going to be spending four days in Florence in about two weeks. I have two questions. I'Brindellone for bistecca alla fiorentina.
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Oct 3, 2016 16:51
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hackbunny fucked around with this message at 03:52 on Jul 2, 2020 |
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Oct 3, 2016 19:29
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