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theOctagon posted:I rented a car and drove from Athens up to Delphi, it’s a beautiful drive and by the time you are in Greece it will probably be ski season. Highly recommend anyone interested in hiking and history visit the temple complex and stadium at Delphi, it’s a nice easy hike up the mountain with spectacular views of the valley. They also have a small museum with information on the area. That's nice you are in Greece. Did you get a chance to visit the Archaeological Site of Sounion south of Athens? I will also spend some time in Athens in the future so any recommendations besides the usual sights would be greatly appreciated!
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Nov 3, 2022 11:28
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We drove up to Meteora and it was fantastic, absolutely worth it. Spent today in Delphi and it's gorgeous as well. Due to time constraints we're just doing the islands instead of a mainland tour so can't recommend anything else specific (though tomorrow we're stopping at Hosios Loukas on the way to the airport) but yeah, Greece has a ton to offer outside of Athens and the islands. I fully plan on going back one day when we can do a proper Peloponnesian tour.
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Nov 3, 2022 13:37
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It's worth pointing out that mainland Greece gets cold in winter and you may well see decent snowfall in January. That's all good if you plan to fly to Crete but I would not recommend driving to Meteora that time of year.
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Nov 4, 2022 09:26
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Saladman posted:Naples is awesome, and its bad reputation is like 15 years out of date.
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Nov 4, 2022 17:44
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eat fried pizza
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Nov 4, 2022 19:02
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Bollock Monkey posted:Just booked 5 nights in Napoli in February - send me recommendations? I've just been a couple times, for like a week in total, but there's really a lot to do. I don't really know anything that's not on Wikivoyage, but there's a ton in the area for history (Oplontis, Ercolano, Pompeii), a bunch of natural beauty (Sorrento, Ischia, Capri), and even more natural beauty and history if you're willing to rent a car (Amalfi, Paestum). If you do rent a car just FYI that driving in Naples city center is an absolute shitshow, and I've driven through Beirut, Marrakech, Istanbul, Milan, Palermo, etc. Outside of Naples is fine, and city center is OK if you pickup on a Sunday downtown, or at the city airport -- just north of downtown -- somewhat off hours. Parts of the city are nice too, especially the big hill just west of the Spanish Quarter. The archaeological museum in Naples is great too. Somewhat further afield you have Caserta, although I haven't been there, but there's also a lot of 18th and early 19th century stuff in the area, back when Naples was a prime imperial capital. I guess I've spent like 8 days there as a tourist, and I could probably spend another 5 before hitting all of the "Best Of"s in the immediate area. IMHO Naples is more interesting than Milan, Florence, or Palermo, even if it's not Rome. I particularly like natural beauty, archaeology, hectic driving, and food though, so it probably depends somewhat on what you like.
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Nov 4, 2022 23:08
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Saladman posted:rent a car... No plans to rent a car, I know driving in Italy is a death sentence. My Nonna is from Salerno but I've not made it to the motherland my whole life so definitely want to go there. Herculaneum has been on my bucket list since age 10 so need to work out going there as well as Pompeii, Vesuvio etc. I like natural beauty, history, good food, good drink, bimbling around, always try to hit up a weird museum everywhere we go (toilet museum in Delhi, fluorescent art museum in Amsterdam, etc).
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Nov 5, 2022 00:24
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Italian drivers (at least the ones in northern Italy) are better on average than anywhere in America I’ve driven.
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Nov 11, 2022 14:17
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Residency Evil posted:Italian drivers (at least the ones in northern Italy) are better on average than anywhere in America I’ve driven. yeah, I lived there for five years and I never saw anyone drive over the middle of a roundabout like I have in the Midwest. Also, they yield instead of entering the roundabout at a high rate of speed in their brodozers.
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Nov 11, 2022 17:49
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Residency Evil posted:Italian drivers (at least the ones in northern Italy) are better on average than anywhere in America I’ve driven. That's probably true, but it is a very different style of driving in Italy, especially the further south you go. For instance you much more frequently have to "throw yourself" into traffic if you actually want to go anywhere in Italy, whereas in the US it's extremely rare to have to force yourself into traffic in a situation where there would never be a normal safe opening. It happens occasionally when turning left out of a business onto a busy street in the US, but not even that much since there are so many goddamn traffic lights usually there will be a directional lull in the traffic every couple minutes. OTOH this type of thing happens all the time in Italy, and roundabouts mean traffic flows more consistently which means you might never get a safe opening without just tossing your car into the middle of the road and daring oncoming traffic to hit you. I did a small roadtrip in Sicily in spring with two American friends and they were all "what the gently caress" when I was driving us around Palermo, especially at this one intersection where it was 4 lanes going east-west and 4 lanes going north-south, with a non-functioning traffic light at the intersection, cars were just interleaving in every direction simultaneously. They were similarly flummoxed by the like eight-lane roundabouts in Valencia, like this one: https://www.google.com/maps/@39.468...!7i13312!8i6656 . Yeah it has traffic lights and is pretty clear but (a) you have to predict where you're going pretty well, and know how to handle changing lanes inside a roundabout in heavy traffic. But yeah drivers are certainly more attentive, because there's so much more variety in what is going on besides "follow a grid, pay attention to traffic lights". OTOH Europeans are freaked out by how Americans turn left, since unprotected lefts on busy streets are comparatively rare, and with turning right on red since Americans could not give two fucks about the mythical "pedestrian". Also navigation is super different, in that street names are impossible to see and basically irrelevant in Europe, but they're critical for navigation in the US (or were, prior to the ubiquity of GPS). Probably this doesn't matter now that everyone has a smartphone and probably a car GPS.
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Nov 11, 2022 18:49
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I live in Los Angeles and let me tell you something about roundabouts. They assume people aren't such entitled drivers that they don't comprehend the concept of yielding.
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Nov 11, 2022 19:32
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Watching people driving around Rome was just amazing. We were staying fairly close to the Vatican, so the streets were all really narrow and mostly one-way. Stopping mid-street to hop out and go shopping for bread, or just to chat to a friend, was commonplace. Abandoning your tiny, old-school fiat 500 on a pedestrian crossing, or in an alleyway, or on someone's doorstep, was commonplace. Staying up all night to have extremely loud conversations at 3 am while revving your vespa was apparently required behaviour.
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Nov 11, 2022 20:43
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Thanks now I miss Rome
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Nov 11, 2022 21:56
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Posted a while back about going to Serbia but trip was cancelled because of Ukraine conflict uncertainty, but I'm here now and it's great. My hosts have fed me so much and I've been here about 2 days, will only be here for a week or two to go to my stepdad's Slava. It is my first time flying since I was a kid and first time leaving the US ever. Wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, but the currency machine at the Belgrade airport was busted so I had to move some money around. There's not really a big holiday right now afaik here but the plane was PACKED completely. My host doesn't speak very good English and I don't speak very good Serbian so translator app has been a LIFESAVER. I'm from a small town in the US so the village I'm in feels very homey. The food is familiar feeling despite being stuff I haven't tried before. Very straightforward and a bit bland - bread is served with every meal as well. Even though I'm here on family stuff, I'm enjoying the little vacation! Serbia I don't think is for someone looking for a lot of excitement, but as a "testing the water" trip it's been nice. If you like fishing it's really nice for that. I just wanted to share my initial thoughts!
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Nov 11, 2022 22:05
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Congrats. It's a lovely experience.
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Nov 12, 2022 00:27
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Yeah, it sounds really great to just hang out with the locals in some village somewhere. In a way that gives you a much better feel of what a place is like than rushing from tourist thing to tourist thing.
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Nov 12, 2022 08:03
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Yeah for sure! If I visit Europe again I'll definitely want to have a friend/guide, I feel like it makes the experience a lot more manageable. 
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Nov 12, 2022 12:16
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I'm going to Dublin this weekend with some people. Are there any lesser known things worth seeing? Cool places to eat, nightclubs, festivals and things like that.
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Nov 14, 2022 08:09
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Oh I almost forgot, pics for the thread - mostly Pančevo and Kacarevo.     
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Nov 14, 2022 13:20
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Spermando posted:I'm going to Dublin this weekend with some people. Are there any lesser known things worth seeing? Cool places to eat, nightclubs, festivals and things like that. Against The Grain - craft pub, had tasty hot wings here too Grogan's - just good vibes Fade Street Social - cocktails Yamamori Izakaya - Japanese/steak/sake McGuinness takeaway - absolutely insane portions, good for post-pub The Little Museum of Dublin - super interesting, would definitely recommend though it's not food, club, or festival.
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Nov 14, 2022 16:47
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The Irish Whiskey Museum in Dublin was a lot of fun. Maybe 60-90 minutes of a historical guided tour, then ending with some sampling. Didn’t take itself seriously at all, especially compared to something like the Guinness tour.
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Nov 14, 2022 19:26
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I was in Dublin in August and I wish I had prepared better. Literally all of the touristy things were booked full, you really have to book ahead of time online.
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Nov 14, 2022 19:30
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Coco13 posted:The Irish Whiskey Museum in Dublin was a lot of fun. Maybe 60-90 minutes of a historical guided tour, then ending with some sampling. Didn’t take itself seriously at all, especially compared to something like the Guinness tour. The Guinness tour is basically just a 90 minute ad where you get a pint of beer at the end. Not saying it's not worthwhile, but it probably helps going in to realise that's what it actually is.
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Nov 15, 2022 01:07
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It is a very nicely done ad, and you can drink your pint with a pretty great view of Dublin.
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Nov 15, 2022 07:23
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Thanks for the suggestions, everyone.
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Nov 15, 2022 08:43
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I’m in London through Sunday and I came across an advert on the underground that I think said something about travel fares being rate capped per day if I NFC pay with the same device/phone? Is this accurate? It’s my first day here so I bought a £14 day pass because I just wanted to get from Euston to my hotel to whatever I needed to do today to set up camp, all without worrying about whether my NFC cards work just now. Honestly I did a lot of travel today on that day pass so I was thinking about just getting another one on travel heavy days, but if it’s rate capped then I’m not sure what the value prop is here. Why would anyone buy the day pass? I guess there’s some nuance I’m not getting, or I imagined the whole thing? Alternately, if it’s a legit thing then hell yes I’ll use it. In this case is it just automatic and you don’t get charged after a certain threshold? E: Wait nevermind I found it https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/find-fares/tube-and-rail-fares/pay-as-you-go-caps OK so I think I get it. The £14 day card gets you through zones 1-4 anytime, whereas the caps are Z1-2 and .. uh .. I guess they’re £7 each for on and off peak? So if you take the underground all day, you’ll spend £7 max on peak and £7 off peak putting you at 14 either way? I guess I don’t get it after all and I remain a little confused. some kinda jackal fucked around with this message at 22:03 on Nov 15, 2022 |
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Nov 15, 2022 21:51
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some kinda jackal posted:https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/find-fares/tube-and-rail-fares/pay-as-you-go-caps Also consider the amazing buses, which are a fixed price of £1.65 for as many changes as you need in an hour, with a daily cap of £4.95. If you mix bus and Tube, those will be charged separately rather than counting towards one capped price.
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Nov 16, 2022 16:58
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Thank you! I’ve got a bus planned tomorrow too just because it’s one of the stupid iconic tourist bucket list things, even if it would be easier for me to use the underground
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Nov 16, 2022 18:40
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A few of the standard bus routes incidentally double up as sightseeing routes for a fraction of the price of a bus tour: https://www.visitbritainshop.com/gb/en/articles/top-3-bus-routes
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Nov 17, 2022 09:55
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Bollock Monkey posted:A few of the standard bus routes incidentally double up as sightseeing routes for a fraction of the price of a bus tour: We took one of the hop on/hop off bus tours years ago, mainly because it came packaged with good discounts to a bunch of stuff we were already going to see anyway. So it essentially saved us a bunch of money on entry fees and then the trips were effectively included for nothing. Don't rely on them to get anywhere though, we only used it I think 3 times and two of those we got stuck in traffic for aaages.
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Nov 18, 2022 09:54
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Got two free days in Amsterdam at the tail-end of a conference. Recommendations for stuff worth seeing? Would like to book a table for some delicious food as well for one of the days. Spent a couple days there before but all I really remember is the Rijkmuseum (which was great), bedbugs and regretting booking a hostel in the bar district. Fruits of the sea fucked around with this message at 18:04 on Nov 19, 2022 |
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Nov 19, 2022 18:02
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Fruits of the sea posted:Got two free days in Amsterdam at the tail-end of a conference. Recommendations for stuff worth seeing? Would like to book a table for some delicious food as well for one of the days. I always hit up the Tropenmuseum, an ethnographic museum that always has good special exhibitions alongside the main collection. Moeders is fun for traditional Dutch fare, Kartika does delicious rijsttafel.
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Nov 19, 2022 18:19
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Have a Europe trip booked for next year. 3 days in Copenhagen, 6 days in Berlin, and then about 5 days in Munich. I've scheduled it out (vaguely), so that my last week of September is in Berlin, then the first few days of October are in Munich, until the 8th. How bad will Munich be in terms of crowds? I'm arriving at the tail end of Oktoberfest - according to a cursory Google search - but I kind of just want to watch the Oktoberfest insanity from a distance, or experience it with some family I'm visiting while there. Will museums and things be totally slammed too? Also, any craft beer, street food, museum, or casual restaurant suggestions for Copenhagen?
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Nov 24, 2022 16:02
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Captain Hotbutt posted:Have a Europe trip booked for next year. 3 days in Copenhagen, 6 days in Berlin, and then about 5 days in Munich. I've scheduled it out (vaguely), so that my last week of September is in Berlin, then the first few days of October are in Munich, until the 8th. Munich will be busy but the vast majority of the shitshow will be in the metros and right around Marienplatz. Honestly the atmosphere is just like "what if a bar, but absolutely massive", the atmosphere is not as chaotic as a football match or whatever. Super famous international tourist sites like Nymphenburg and Neuschwanstein are probably particularly busy, but if you're just walking around the city it's not like you're walking around Disneyland, except right around Marienplatz. But it's also been about 10 years since I last went, so maybe crowds are bigger now. For Copenhagen, there is an absolute poo poo ton of great craft beer and food. In particular the Mikkeller brewery is there and they have a couple / few bars there. Just walking around though you won't have a hard time finding a brewery with 20 completely different types of beer on tap. There are also so many absolute :fire emoji: brunch places there, like this place:  It looks like that restaurant was Sidecar ( https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g189541-d9974088-Reviews-Sidecar-Copenhagen_Zealand.html ). I'm not really a "take pictures of food" kind of person but that meal was really something else. Everywhere else that we all found through TripAdvisor or similar was also good. Get reservations or get to places very early or get ready to stand and wait. Doesn't apply to bars, but definitely to brunch places.
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Nov 24, 2022 17:00
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For Copenhagen, if you like to combine your craft beer with meat eating, I've heard good things about Warpigs. I didn't get to go when I was there last month but it was recommended glowingly to me when I was asking for recommendations. https://warpigs.dk/
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Nov 25, 2022 12:14
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The meatpacking district is great in general for eating out. I like Warpigs' beer selection but for food it's hard to pass up Magasasa which is on the other side of the parking lot. Best dim sum in Denmark (which isn't saying much but its also p good by Toronto standards  ).Bollock Monkey posted:I always hit up the Tropenmuseum, an ethnographic museum that always has good special exhibitions alongside the main collection. Cheers! Kartika is right up our alley, we'll definitely check that out. We're probably going to be biking. I think we're as prepared for that as possible, coming from Copenhagen. Probably the only other city that even comes close to Amsterdam in terms of 2-wheeled commuting. That said, if we do end up taking public transportation is there a 48-hour ticket or metro/museum pass that's worth getting? Fruits of the sea fucked around with this message at 13:35 on Nov 25, 2022 |
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Nov 25, 2022 13:31
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Hedgehog Pie posted:For Copenhagen, if you like to combine your craft beer with meat eating, I've heard good things about Warpigs. I didn't get to go when I was there last month but it was recommended glowingly to me when I was asking for recommendations. https://warpigs.dk/ We went there, now that you reminded me. It’s also a Mikkeller place, although I guess Mikkeller is everywhere in Copenhagen. I thought the meat was okay but I grew up in the south of the US so I would be hard to impress for that kind of cuisine. It’s extremely ersatz Americana. It’s very much edible and they have a good beer selection but don’t expect to be impressed by the food if you’ve lived in the US and have ever eaten at a southern bbq place.
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Nov 25, 2022 13:39
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Since we're talking craft beer in Copenhagen, I'd also recommend Søernes Ølbar. They do an awesome job curating good beer, and it's a nice spot to chilll when the sun's out. It isn't a Mikkeller joint, so you'll get to see a bunch of stuff from Denmark's smaller breweries. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g189541-d4942859-Reviews-Soernes_Olbar-Copenhagen_Zealand.html The negative reviews are all people outraged that there isn't table service  This is probably a rant for another thread but Mikkeller is kind of a crapshoot - for every excellent beer they have a weird novelty beer that's more interesting than good. I will never forgive them for that pint of balsamic vinegar IPA Fruits of the sea fucked around with this message at 14:06 on Nov 25, 2022 |
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Nov 25, 2022 13:48
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Fruits of the sea posted:The meatpacking district is great in general for eating out. I like Warpigs' beer selection but for food it's hard to pass up Magasasa which is on the other side of the parking lot. Best dim sum in Denmark (which isn't saying much but its also p good by Toronto standards There's this, but it's a bad deal: https://reisproducten.gvb.nl/en/toeristen/amsterdam-travel-ticket Public transport only, no discounts or access to anything else, and €22 for two days. A train ticket from the airport to the city center is 2.82. So that's 5.64 both ways. I'm not sure you can actually buy these at the airport, though. One hour tickets for the tram are 3.40, and Amsterdam is incredibly walkable. It's a super small city. So you'd have to take five tram trips to make the 48 hour ticket worth it. I guess you could just get it and not have to worry about whether or not you're taking a tram because it's going to rain. It's a convenience, but not a great deal like other cities have EricBauman fucked around with this message at 15:15 on Nov 25, 2022 |
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Nov 25, 2022 14:08
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Fruits of the sea posted:This is probably a rant for another thread but Mikkeller is kind of a crapshoot - for every excellent beer they have a weird novelty beer that's more interesting than good. I will never forgive them for that pint of balsamic vinegar IPA 100% agree. It’s nice that they’re creative, but creativity doesn’t necessarily lead to good things. I remember r having an undrinkable sour berry beer, like someone dissolved a dozen Warheads into a lambic. It got passed around as a particularly disgusting specimen. Still they have so many options that there will always be something for anyone. Well, except for alcohol free people.
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Nov 25, 2022 14:42
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