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Indolent Bastard
Oct 26, 2007

I WON THIS AMAZING AVATAR! I'M A WINNER! WOOOOO!

Residency Evil posted:

Ended up going all over. Saw the Musay d'orsay, Rodin museum/gardens, Louvre, St. Chapelle, Pantheon, Sacre Coeur, Pompidou, Arc de Triumphe, Eiffel tower, and Versailles. Oh, also the big flea market. I'm probably forgetting things. We walked at least 20k steps/10 miles a day and ended up seeing a lot of random places on foot. It was definitely a lot in a week, but we figure it's going to be our last chance to see Paris this way before we have kids and have to slow down. Food was fantastic. Public transportation was fantastic.

Eiffel Tower: even with timed tickets, we ended up having to wait a decent amount of time, especially for the elevator up to the summit/top. We went around sunset, so that probably didn't help. View was great and definitely worth it though.
Louvre: Honestly, I've never been overwhelmed by a museum before. The Louvre is the first time I've just been generally overwhelmed by the sheer size/magnitude of things to see.
St. Chapelle: Honestly, one of the best surprises of the trip. If you go on a sunny day the stained glass inside is gorgeous.
Versailles: We went on the weekend when the fountains were running. Awesome to see, and the weather ended up being fantastic for a walk between the fountains as they were going on/off.

When I type out that itinerary it definitely seems like a lot for a week.

Feel free to reminisce on the trip as you look at your pictures and update your post. I'm totally cribbing from it.

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Bollock Monkey
Jan 21, 2007

The Almighty

Indolent Bastard posted:

What do you mean by temporary exhibitions? I hadn't thought of grave yard tours. Thanks for that!

Lots of museums have special exhibitions that are not there all the time, and you can also find them in art galleries etc.

Saladman
Jan 12, 2010

dennyk posted:

If you want to visit some interesting and less well know sights, check out this site:

http://www.megalithicireland.com/

As for where to go, the Southwest is famous for a reason, but there are plenty of other beautiful areas. I really love the area around Galway and the Connemara region and County Mayo myself. Beautiful rugged countryside up there, with some really lovely views, and fewer tourists than you'll find around Kerry and whatnot. Northern Mayo (not pictured there) has some lovely spots as well; Achill Island is beautiful, and Downpatrick Head is a must see.


Thanks! We went to a handful of those megalithic sites that were near-ish to our general route like the Dromberg Stone Circle albeit that one is well signed.

We didn't make it really into County Mayo -- we had two beautiful days of weather and spent one on Aran Islands, and the other in Connemara. The weather was pretty 'eh' the third day we had in the area so we just stuck around Galway and went around Lake Corrib.

You definitely get ruin burnout pretty fast in Ireland. All of us were pretty disappointed by the Rock of Cashel; it looks great when you drive to it, but then you get up there and it's tiny and in similar condition to the many completely-unvisited ruins in the countryside like Athassel Abbey (which was a huge highlight), Menlo Castle in Galway, or the Ross Errilly Friary near Galway. It's more prominent, but ehh... there's something about the ruins that's just massively better when it's in the middle of nowhere and you have to climb over a fence and walk through a cow pasture to get to it.

Granted it'd be awful if everyone was doing that. I can't even imagine how people get through the Gap of Dunloe in the mid summer. We were staying at a house in the Blackvalley and had to commute up/down it to get to/from anywhere and it was fine, but with like 3-4x more traffic it would have been a nightmare.


One thing I loved about Ireland: the absolutely comical speedlimits they have, like 100 km/hr speedlimits posted regularly in some 4 meter-wide two-way windy road through the hills. I absolutely loved the driving here and it's kind of interesting how the smallest D roads are faster to drive on than the N-roads in the touristy parts of the Wild Atlantic Way -- we saw no shortage of people terrified of driving who were going 40 km/hr on the N## roads (where one could easily drive 80-90 perfectly safely), and you'd have to amble along for 5 km before you could safely pass, whereas the D roads were almost completely traffic-free or had locals on them, so you could go 60-70 the whole time without stressing about safe passing points.

Jaxyon
Mar 7, 2016
I’m just saying I would like to see a man beat a woman in a cage. Just to be sure.
Is there a particular sim card brand to buy that works across most of europe cell networks(my phones are unlocked), or do most countries have different cell phone systems making that not viable?

Drone
Aug 22, 2003

Incredible machine
:smug:


Jaxyon posted:

Is there a particular sim card brand to buy that works across most of europe cell networks(my phones are unlocked), or do most countries have different cell phone systems making that not viable?

Any European SIM will work in any European country, and without roaming fees (provided they're in the EU and the SIM card is a European one with a European number).

The real question is which networks offer the best coverage, and honestly these days in my experience they're all pretty similar.

orange sky
May 7, 2007

Drone posted:

Any European SIM will work in any European country, and without roaming fees (provided they're in the EU and the SIM card is a European one with a European number).

The real question is which networks offer the best coverage, and honestly these days in my experience they're all pretty similar.

There are roaming fees, but they have been lowered recently. Please look into the prices of the SIM you're buying

Saladman
Jan 12, 2010

orange sky posted:

There are roaming fees, but they have been lowered recently. Please look into the prices of the SIM you're buying

Wait what? AFAIK there have been no roaming fees in Europe since July 2017, but they can shut you down if you’re roaming "too much" so you can’t use like your Romanian unlimited data for €2.99/mo forever while in Finland.

I thought Switzerland was like the only country out, as usual.

Entropist
Dec 1, 2007
I'm very stupid.
And even then some companies do cover Switzerland for free, but check carefully.

orange sky
May 7, 2007

Well, I stand corrected! Hah

webmeister
Jan 31, 2007

The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.
Yeah, just confirming there's definitely no roaming charges in the EU (aside from the "fair use" type policy mentioned by Saladman). Some but not all carriers will allow you roam for free in the "sort of EU but not" countries like Norway and Switzerland. In my experience it's only the micro-nations like San Marino and Monaco where you can't roam for free.

So just pick up a SIM card at the airport when you arrive, there's not really any reason to wait. Just do a quick bit of research on the main telcos available in that country, as most countries have a premium one, a budget one, etc.

If you're the anxious type, you can buy a SIM for your first country on Amazon or Ebay and have it shipped to your home before you leave.

dennyk
Jan 2, 2005

Cheese-Buyer's Remorse

Saladman posted:

Thanks! We went to a handful of those megalithic sites that were near-ish to our general route like the Dromberg Stone Circle albeit that one is well signed.

We didn't make it really into County Mayo -- we had two beautiful days of weather and spent one on Aran Islands, and the other in Connemara. The weather was pretty 'eh' the third day we had in the area so we just stuck around Galway and went around Lake Corrib.

You definitely get ruin burnout pretty fast in Ireland. All of us were pretty disappointed by the Rock of Cashel; it looks great when you drive to it, but then you get up there and it's tiny and in similar condition to the many completely-unvisited ruins in the countryside like Athassel Abbey (which was a huge highlight), Menlo Castle in Galway, or the Ross Errilly Friary near Galway. It's more prominent, but ehh... there's something about the ruins that's just massively better when it's in the middle of nowhere and you have to climb over a fence and walk through a cow pasture to get to it.

Granted it'd be awful if everyone was doing that. I can't even imagine how people get through the Gap of Dunloe in the mid summer. We were staying at a house in the Blackvalley and had to commute up/down it to get to/from anywhere and it was fine, but with like 3-4x more traffic it would have been a nightmare.


One thing I loved about Ireland: the absolutely comical speedlimits they have, like 100 km/hr speedlimits posted regularly in some 4 meter-wide two-way windy road through the hills. I absolutely loved the driving here and it's kind of interesting how the smallest D roads are faster to drive on than the N-roads in the touristy parts of the Wild Atlantic Way -- we saw no shortage of people terrified of driving who were going 40 km/hr on the N## roads (where one could easily drive 80-90 perfectly safely), and you'd have to amble along for 5 km before you could safely pass, whereas the D roads were almost completely traffic-free or had locals on them, so you could go 60-70 the whole time without stressing about safe passing points.


Glad you guys had a good time here!

It can get a bit old visiting a bunch of ruins in short order, I'd say. I think Cashel is certainly worth a visit, for the history if nothing else (it was the seat of the Kings of Munster for many centuries), but you're right that the ruin itself isn't much more impressive that many others (though it does have some nice features like the round tower and Cormac's chapel), and it definitely has a different atmosphere surrounded by the crowds of visitors and coaches everywhere and the tourist tat shops and such. It's much more fun when you're exploring some ruined abbey or tower house in the middle of a field somewhere with nary another soul around except maybe some curious sheep or cows, though, especially when it's in a beautiful location. Ross Errilly is definitely one of my favorite monastic sites (though I'd say Kilmallock and Quin are close seconds), but I haven't been to Athassel yet; will have to go check that out sometime.

Driving here is definitely fun as well; I never get bored except when I'm driving to Dublin via the motorway for a couple hours. The tourist trail N-roads can be a mess during peak times of the year, though, between the tourists gawking at the scenery or still trying to work out how to drive on the left and the tour buses everywhere. Like you said, taking a long-cut down the little L roads where the tourists fear to tread can often be faster than sitting in the queue on the N70 or whatever.

Saladman
Jan 12, 2010

dennyk posted:

Glad you guys had a good time here!

It can get a bit old visiting a bunch of ruins in short order, I'd say. I think Cashel is certainly worth a visit ... (though I'd say Kilmallock and Quin are close seconds), but I haven't been to Athassel yet; will have to go check that out sometime.

Oh yeah, I'm sure we would all have loved Cashel if it were the first site we visited instead of one of the last. We all did like Newgrange and Knowth even though those were at the end of the trip -- though they keep the crowd pretty low there, especially at Knowth (surprisingly, since it could easily support way more people than it does). We also visited a few places to find old graveyards where relatives were buried in the 1700s and 1800s, which was super interesting on a personal level as we found all the ones we knew where to look for.

I imagine I'll come back to Ireland at some point to do the northern third of the island -- seems like you'd need about 3 weeks to do a proper tour of the main parts of the island, and we only had 13 days which wasn't enough time to really go up to Mayo/Donegal/Ulster and actually enjoy it.

SurgicalOntologist
Jun 17, 2004

I'm considering a Northern Europe vacation in August or September when it's super hot here in Southern Europe. Only in the "thinking about it" phase of planning, but I'm interested in doing Vilnius -> Riga -> Tallinn -> Helsinki -> St Petersburg. It looks like there are bus tours between the Baltic capitals that stop in the countryside along the way (I like that kind of thing), obviously the ferry to Helsinki and I guess the train to St Petersburg. However, even before knowing how many days off we can take, I'm pretty sure this is too ambitious of a plan. My question for the thread is, how many days would you need before you consider this itinerary? I know everyone has different preferences for speed of travel, but let's just consider this a poll for those of you who've been to some of these cities.

It's hard to cut cities off because my priorities are Vilnius (where my family is from) and St Petersburg, and I like not having to fly between stops. But I'll probably end up having to compromise, or maybe split this into two trips and continue next year.

Ras Het
May 23, 2007

when I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child - but now I am a man.
Well, let me brainstorm. You can pretty much average out four hours travel time between each of the cities. If you wanted to see the country between the cities that would obviously change things, but all of the Baltic cities and Helsinki are small enough so that you can do a day trip to a national park with much less effort than doing a stop on the route would be, imo. In terms of sights in the cities St Petersburg obviously towers above the others, but of course it depends on what you're into. For all five cities I'd say three weeks is pretty good and two weeks is too little. I haven't stayed in Riga so I can't really say how it compares, but if you were to skip one of three inbetween stops you'd have an 8h trip on the bus/ferry one day (Vilnius to Tallinn, Riga to Helsinki or Riga/Tallinn to St Petersburg), which isn't too bad but something to acknowledge

I've lived in Helsinki and Tallinn and have visited all of the others (though of Riga I've seen very little) and honestly for my stupid preferences (people suck, cars suck, noise sucks, big buildings suck) Vilnius is really really good and St Petersburg is kind of a hell on Earth but ymmv. If you want any specific tips on the cities other than Riga I can probably help

webmeister
Jan 31, 2007

The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.
Honestly having spent time in all of those places, I’d say the capitals are all two-day cities unless there’s something particular you want to see that takes longer (eg family, a particular museum or gallery that takes your fancy). St Petersburg is probably more of a five-day city, or even longer if you can swing it.

If you’re keen to see stuff in the countryside maybe consider renting a car in the Baltics? The roads aren’t too bad if you’re a confident driver, certainly better than Russia, and better than other parts of the EU as well. You can’t one way rent across countries, but you could say fly into Tallinn, spend a few days, hire a car for a week and drive through the Baltics ending back in Tallinn, then get the ferry to Helsinki and then another ferry to SPB from there.

Ras Het
May 23, 2007

when I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child - but now I am a man.
Oh yeah it's worth pointing out that you can do 72h without a visa in St Petersburg if you go and leave by the Helsinki ferry. It's kind of a silly racket but so is everything related to getting a Russian visa

Saladman
Jan 12, 2010

bones 4 beginners posted:

Hey looking for advice on where to stay in Switzerland in June for some easy to intermediate hiking. I've read a lot of pages suggesting the Bernese Oberland area, specifically Murren, Grindelwald, or Lauterbrunnen. I'm wondering which places are best for ease of access to a variety of trails(as in, not the same view over and over). I don't care about it being crowded or touristy, just looking for whatever facilitates hiking the best.

Just FYI that the snow-line is currently at a crazy low elevation for this time of year because we had such a cold and snowy spring that only finally broke yesterday afternoon. I was out at the Rigi massif yesterday, and I photo-matched yesterday to last late April in terms of the fully-covered-in-snow line. It's right at around 1900m all across the Swiss Alps right now, with some snow patches still on north-facing slopes down to about 1500m.

That said it's hot as poo poo for the next week so maybe you'll be in luck. Almost everything in the Grindelwald area is really high up; my in-laws are at Lenk right now for the Ascension weekend and can't do any hiking. For instance Allmendhubel is still in a lot of snow ( https://www.bergfex.com/muerren-schilthorn/webcams/c11661/ )

You can still have a good time of course! Just make sure not to expect to actually do any hiking above more than about 2100m, and bring waterproof boots and hiking poles if you want to go above 1900m.

Comb Your Beard
Sep 28, 2007

Chillin' like a villian.
Still can't decide between these 2 itineraries in September:

4 days Berlin (including some jetlag)
3 days Prague
3 days Vienna

3 days Berlin (including some jetlag)
3 days Prague
1 day Wachau Valley/Danube wine related day trip
3 days Vienna

This thing:
https://www.viator.com/tours/Vienna/Wachau-Valley-Small-Group-Tour-and-Wine-Tasting-from-Vienna/d454-3943BOUTIQUE

These are solid days, not rounding up including international travel. Will I miss any essential Berlin stuff cutting it down to 3? Heard Berlin is huge and the amount of stuff to do is huge. If I dropped the day trip I'd have to insist on finding a heuriger in greater Vienna.

Bollock Monkey
Jan 21, 2007

The Almighty
I had two and a half days in Berlin and wished it was more like five. I'd definitely favour the first itinerary.

e:

Bollock Monkey posted:

Teufelsberg was a real highlight of my trip to Berlin and if you like walking, forests, views, graffiti, and history then it ticks every single box. I'd allow half a day for this, and can recommend Scheune restaurant for a very hearty meal after your walk up to the site. We had lunch there and the pork knuckle (grillhaxe) - €15 - was amazing and super filling. I didn't need to eat until gone 9pm.

Berlin has a bunch of museums dedicated to ancient history, art, that sort of thing, that I didn't bother with during my limited time there because I felt time was better spent on more unique sites. Berliner Dom is really impressive and the audio tour was fairly interesting. If you've never seen one before, the Body Worlds exhibition is worth a go, though I could be biased because I met Gunther von Hagens when I was a kid and he really inspired my biology/anatomy nerd side.

That easily takes up a day and a half and there is so much more to see. I think any less time in Berlin would be a waste because you'll barely scratch the surface or get a feel for the city.

Bollock Monkey fucked around with this message at 11:34 on Jun 1, 2019

Aggro
Apr 24, 2003

STRONG as an OX and TWICE as SMART
My wife and I are spending 11 days in Spain this July. Yep, I'm aware it's going to be hot as balls, but it's the only time I have off for the rest of the year, so we're making the most of it. We're spending 4 days in Madrid, 4 days in Barcelona, and 3 in Malaga.

For traveling from Madrid to Barca, we are planning on taking the Renfe AVE train, but there are two options, and I can't find anything that explains the difference.

At 8:30AM, there's a train that has 2nd class and 1st class seats. At 9:30AM, there's a train that has Standard, Comfort, and Premier. What the hell is the difference? And is it worth it to upgrade for the 3 hour train ride?

webmeister
Jan 31, 2007

The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.
Man in Seat 61 goes into it a bit. My understanding is that basically second class is just a normal fabric seat in a fixed position, while first class will have more space, leather reclining seats and an included at-seat meal. Standard and Premier are basically second and first class, while Comfort is just a nicer seat without the meal or other fringe benefits like lounge access. I think.

Saladman
Jan 12, 2010
As long as you avoid major commuting routes during commuting hours, first class on trains in Europe is pretty much a waste of money unless you're an exceptionally large person, or if you really absolutely 100% need a power plug and think the train will be fully booked (for daytime trains -- sleepers are a whole different story).

I mean yeah the seats are marginally larger, but 90%+ of the times I've taken trains, there were so many open seats open you can take two pretty much anywhere.

SurgicalOntologist
Jun 17, 2004

Yeah, all the seats are fine. Also, book through loco2.com instead of the Renfe site for reduced headaches. And if you don't have a printer, the machines at the station to print a ticket with your order code are easy, like <1 minute.

PS thanks for everyone's thoughts on the Baltic itinerary. I'll be back with more questions if the trip makes it out of the hypothetical stage.

Cheesemaster200
Feb 11, 2004

Guard of the Citadel
Trying to take a train from Bucharest Nord to Halkali outside of Istanbul with a stop in Veliko Tarnovo for three nights. I can book Bucharest->Veliko Tarnovo and Bucharest->Halkali tickets on the Romanian railways site, but I can't book the Veliko Tarnovo->Halkali online. Will I be able to book the ticket into Halkali in Bucharest a few days before, or even in the Veliko Tarnovo station? Mind you it will be a sleeper (hopefully).

Also, should I book domestic trains in Romania in advance online, or just do it at the station?

Cheesemaster200 fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Jun 2, 2019

Sheng-Ji Yang
Mar 5, 2014


Cheesemaster200 posted:

Trying to take a train from Bucharest Nord to Halkali outside of Istanbul with a stop in Veliko Tarnovo for three nights. I can book Bucharest->Veliko Tarnovo and Bucharest->Halkali tickets on the Romanian railways site, but I can't book the Veliko Tarnovo->Halkali online. Will I be able to book the ticket into Halkali in Bucharest a few days before, or even in the Veliko Tarnovo station? Mind you it will be a sleeper (hopefully).

Also, should I book domestic trains in Romania in advance online, or just do it at the station?

lol I am taking the Istanbul Halkali to Sofia train in a few hours, apparently you cannot book that online but I just walked into the old Istanbul train station (Sirkeci) and bought it at the international ticket booth. I didn't look from Istanbul to Veliko Tarnovo, but I assume it would pretty similar coming from there as well... or it might be a train to Sofia and then a switch to the one I'm getting on? I didn't see anything about an Istanbul to Veliko Tarnovo train online.

I also bought the ticket this morning, so the same day, and I've read/heard that the train is usually not too busy. It is a sleeper.

Paper Clip Death
Feb 4, 2010

A hero in the anals of Trivia.

Some friends and I will be driving from Stralsund to Kaunas. The plan is to hug the Polish coast and then follow the highway from Gdansk through Olsztyn, making stops along the way. Any tips for things to see and do along the way? History is always interesting, bonus for weird or unusual stuff in general. I'm given to understand that there's some cool nature to see as well, anything in particular? We have a car, so we're free to see stuff that's a bit out of the way.

greazeball
Feb 4, 2003



I was only in the area for a wedding so I didn't get to see much, but the Słowiński National Park was just spectacular and I want to go back one day: https://pomorskie.travel/en/-/slowinski-park-narodo-1

mmkay
Oct 21, 2010

It's like a 30km sidehop from the expressway, but there's the Teutonic castle in Malbork to see: https://pomorskie.travel/en_GB/-/zamek-krzyzacki-w-malborku

Paper Clip Death
Feb 4, 2010

A hero in the anals of Trivia.

greazeball posted:

I was only in the area for a wedding so I didn't get to see much, but the Słowiński National Park was just spectacular and I want to go back one day: https://pomorskie.travel/en/-/slowinski-park-narodo-1

mmkay posted:

It's like a 30km sidehop from the expressway, but there's the Teutonic castle in Malbork to see: https://pomorskie.travel/en_GB/-/zamek-krzyzacki-w-malborku
Both of these look great. Thanks!

webmeister
Jan 31, 2007

The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.
Seconding Malbork castle, it's actually really great. Make sure you get the audio guide as well, since it's really well done and quite useful. Audio guides for me can be hit and miss because sometimes they go super heavy into detail while assuming you know all the context of eg Polish history, but this one was really good.

Chevy Slyme
May 2, 2004

We're Gonna Run.

We're Gonna Crawl.

Kick Down Every Wall.
Is doing a night train from Budapest to Prague in lieu of a hotel room a worthwhile idea?

Planning an ~8 day swing that's mostly Budapest/Berlin, but figured I'd do one night in Prague in between the two to break up the travel time and just add some variety. I currently have a hotel in Buda from Tues-Fri, and a hotel in Prague for Sat, and a hotel in Berlin for Sun-Wed of my trip, but am debating whether I'm better off losing some of my last day in Budapest to travel earlier on a high speed train and just staying an extra night in Prague, versus, trying to do a sleeper situation on a slower train and getting a little more time to hang out in Hungary.

(Prague to Berlin, definitely just gonna do an afternoon high speed I think)

Thoughts?

Edit: I should note, I'll be traveling solo, I've done the "Sleep on the Alaska Marine Highway Ferries overnight" thing, so I'm not completely foreign to such situations, etc.


Edit 2: I suppose I should also say, taking any and all specific suggestions for stuff to do in Budapest in particular.

Chevy Slyme fucked around with this message at 21:23 on Jun 11, 2019

Entropist
Dec 1, 2007
I'm very stupid.

CaptainPsyko posted:

Is doing a night train from Budapest to Prague in lieu of a hotel room a worthwhile idea?

Planning an ~8 day swing that's mostly Budapest/Berlin, but figured I'd do one night in Prague in between the two to break up the travel time and just add some variety. I currently have a hotel in Buda from Tues-Fri, and a hotel in Prague for Sat, and a hotel in Berlin for Sun-Wed of my trip, but am debating whether I'm better off losing some of my last day in Budapest to travel earlier on a high speed train and just staying an extra night in Prague, versus, trying to do a sleeper situation on a slower train and getting a little more time to hang out in Hungary.

(Prague to Berlin, definitely just gonna do an afternoon high speed I think)

Thoughts?

Edit: I should note, I'll be traveling solo, I've done the "Sleep on the Alaska Marine Highway Ferries overnight" thing, so I'm not completely foreign to such situations, etc.


Edit 2: I suppose I should also say, taking any and all specific suggestions for stuff to do in Budapest in particular.
I did that, but in the opposite direction, with 3 people, and it was some years ago.
It worked okay, we got cheap 'normal' seats but they could be folded down and we had a 6-person cabin to ourself. Well, except for the drunk old guy that came to hang out with us for a while. We also got a rough awakening from a border guard at one of the borders. Not the best night of sleep ever but it was good enough and it was an experience. It also gave us more time in Budapest where we didn't have that much time in the first place and that time was well-spent as Budapest is cool.
I'm sure there are higher-class options than what we did too, we were poor students.

Saladman
Jan 12, 2010

Entropist posted:

It worked okay, we got cheap 'normal' seats but they could be folded down and we had a 6-person cabin to ourself. Well, except for the drunk old guy that came to hang out with us for a while. We also got a rough awakening from a border guard at one of the borders.

I've taken the long distance night trains a few times from Vienna to a bunch of places within like 10-ish hours of it, and my wife has also taken a handful of overnight trains, and in our fairly limited experience it's about a 50/50 chance to have a drunk homeless person show up in your 6 person berth room at like 4am, and there's a 100% chance to be shaken awake by the border guards.

The sleeper cars won't have the drunk homeless people (or drunk and never taken a shower in their life, maybe they have homes), and the sleepers also have little places you can put your ticket and a copy of your ID so that the border guard won't shake you up, although you might wake up just from having someone open your door.

OTOH the sleepers are a lot more expensive and it kind of eliminates the financial benefit of not spending a night in a hotel. I took the sleeper once just for the experience and it was solid, but so expensive. I don't think I'd ever take a 6 person 'normal seats room' night train again. If I wanted to save money I'd go with FlixBus, since it'll be cheaper and it won't stop and have creepers get in the train and sit next to you in the middle of the night. If I didn't want to save money, I'd fly or take a sleeper.

I've never had anything bad happen (or heard of anything bad happening) but it really disrupts your sleep and fucks up your next day when someone smelling like vomit, urine, and feces comes into your room at 4am. My wife did Erasmus in Vienna and back then (maybe still) its airport is absurdly expensive, so her and a lot of her friends were taking trains from there back to wherever they came from, and the cheap seats experiences were, at best, almost tolerable.

It's possible our 50% odds of lovely travel were exceptional, and almost always the travel was Fridays or Sundays.

Saladman
Jan 12, 2010
I usually hate NYTimes' travel articles -- they're way too focused on high-end food -- but they have a good one today about "where to go instead of Santorini/Barcelona/Amsterdam/Florence/Dubrovnik" that seems pretty spot on:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/12/travel/traveling-europe-summer-crowds.html

PT6A
Jan 5, 2006

Public school teachers are callous dictators who won't lift a finger to stop children from peeing in my plane

Saladman posted:

I usually hate NYTimes' travel articles -- they're way too focused on high-end food -- but they have a good one today about "where to go instead of Santorini/Barcelona/Amsterdam/Florence/Dubrovnik" that seems pretty spot on:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/12/travel/traveling-europe-summer-crowds.html

They could've simplified the Barcelona portion by reducing it to one sentence: "literally anywhere/everywhere else in Spain."

I'm more than happy to cede Barcelona to the tourists, though, because I have zero interest in visiting it and it keeps tourists from mobbing the many places in Spain I'd rather go. There's only one place I've been in Spain that made me go, "oh dear, I would not like to spend more time here at all," and that was Zaragoza. Even so I'm willing to concede there's probably a nicer part of the city I would enjoy, which is not directly visible from the entrance of the train station I was smoking near during my transfer.

Shy
Mar 20, 2010

Is Prague very crowded? I went to Vienna a week ago, it was fine and I assumed Prague is about the same.

Saladman
Jan 12, 2010

Shy posted:

Is Prague very crowded? I went to Vienna a week ago, it was fine and I assumed Prague is about the same.

I'd guess you'll be fine in Prague right now since students are still in university and it's far more of a young person's travel destination than it is a cruise ship / family / tour bus destination. The old town is especially packed in July and August when young Europeans are out of high school / university and make their typical pilgrimage to Prague. I've been a handful of times in just off season (September / May) and found it to be crowded but fine, but can imagine that certain areas get super packed in full summer, especially since unlike other places that are tourist hotspots (London / Paris / Berlin), the of-typical-interest-to-tourists part of Prague is quite small.

Personally I find the cruise ship / tour bus destinations to be much more disruptive than family / backpacker / whatever hotspots, since the cruise ship / tour bus groups will be like 60 people standing in the exact same spot and not moving, tuning out the world while listening to some guide on a headset, while smaller groups of travellers will be more evenly dispersed and also paying attention to the world around them.

Cheesemaster200
Feb 11, 2004

Guard of the Citadel

Saladman posted:

Personally I find the cruise ship / tour bus destinations to be much more disruptive than family / backpacker / whatever hotspots, since the cruise ship / tour bus groups will be like 60 people standing in the exact same spot and not moving, tuning out the world while listening to some guide on a headset, while smaller groups of travellers will be more evenly dispersed and also paying attention to the world around them.

Might I recommend Venice as a nice spot to travel too during cruise season.

webmeister
Jan 31, 2007

The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.
The tourist area of Prague is pretty crowded a lot of the year, but for me the biggest issue is that Prague is basically a stag party destination for a lot of young Brits. I've actually done work in the past with the Czech tourism board, and their great challenge is essentially getting people to Czech and then getting them out of Prague. It's such a great country with beautiful sights everywhere, but everyone just goes to Prague for a piss-up.

Also if you want a great insight into life in a tourist city, check out Honest Guides on Youtube. It's a channel by two young Czech guys who go around Prague highlighting all the worst aspects of living in a tourist place like Prague. Taxi mafia, scam money changers, love locks on anything near a river, "traditional" food originally from elsewhere, ripoff ATMs etc.

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Saladman
Jan 12, 2010

Cheesemaster200 posted:

Might I recommend Venice as a nice spot to travel too during cruise season.

Every now and then I think about doing a cruise just to see how it is, but then I realize how I break out in hives any time I'm in any small city that has docks suited for cruise ships.

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