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Ras Het posted:lol I took a six hour train in Sweden last year and the restaurant car's card machines were broken and Sweden is the most anti-cash country in the world, so the only option was Swish. Which I don't have, because Finland also has it's own country specific system, MobilePay (although that one is developed by DanskeBank so maybe, just maybe, it could also work in Denmark) You're in luck, it's also the standard in DK. Mobilepay was a lot of fun back when you could look up politicians' personal phone numbers by trying to send them a couple kroner- Fixed now, for obvious reasons
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Jul 7, 2023 14:28
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kind of a dumb question, but anyways: we're heading to vienna in a few days, and as I understand it, austria is still a place where cash is preferred every so often. so, coming from a country where I literally never pay with cash, are safe-ish ATMs (indoors, frequently monitored for skimming equipment, etc) easy to come by there?
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Jul 7, 2023 17:15
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ulvir posted:kind of a dumb question, but anyways: we're heading to vienna in a few days, and as I understand it, austria is still a place where cash is preferred every so often. so, coming from a country where I literally never pay with cash, are safe-ish ATMs (indoors, frequently monitored for skimming equipment, etc) easy to come by there? I was in Vienna in April, and ATMs were pretty common throughout the city, either standalone or in those little rooms with a whole bunch of them. 
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Jul 7, 2023 17:28
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I've traveled quite a bit in Europe and Vienna was the only place where I've ever seen a skimming device in the wild. But that was more than 10 years ago. As we discussed before in this thread, skimming devices have been extinct now for many years in Europe thanks to the ubiquity of chip&pin.
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Jul 7, 2023 18:38
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I was just in Vienna from Sunday through Wednesday. Every restaurant we ate at and every museum we went to asked "card or cash?". I only went to an ATM on the morning we left for the airport, so I had cash to give the taxi driver.
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Jul 7, 2023 23:03
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I miss Vienna what a great city
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Jul 8, 2023 15:50
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Everyone's still a cold rear end in a top hat there. But the museums make up for it.
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Jul 8, 2023 17:43
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ty for the replies, I managed to extract money from ATMs in the middle of the old town in florence in 2016 without issue, so sounds like vienna'll be a breeze, too WaryWarren posted:Everyone's still a cold rear end in a top hat there. as a scandinavian, this sounds extremely like my style
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Jul 8, 2023 19:41
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WaryWarren posted:Everyone's still a cold rear end in a top hat there. that doesn't bother me I live in Los Angeles where people get out of their cars and randomly beat on other cars for no reason cold assholes are a step up
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Jul 8, 2023 20:39
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My understanding is that if you go to the ATMs attached to Post Office's in Italy, they don't charge any fees - meaning the only fees and charges you will pay are those charged by your own bank We got money out today in Capri and weren't charged any fees
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Jul 8, 2023 20:55
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kiimo posted:that doesn't bother me I live in Los Angeles where people get out of their cars and randomly beat on other cars for no reason cold assholes are a step up You'll enjoy Paris!
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Jul 8, 2023 23:51
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I'm considering visiting Berlin by train in September. But usually I get bored after a couple days in the same place, even if there's plenty to see. And I'll probably have about a week to travel around. Do you have any suggestions of other places I could spend a few days? Anywhere within a few hours by train is fine.
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Jul 9, 2023 19:49
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How many is few for you, cause right now that's every major city in Germany and a fair amount of surrounding countries  e: 7-8 hours gets you to Amsterdam just to name one tourist hotspot as an example My Lovely Horse fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Jul 9, 2023 |
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Jul 9, 2023 20:55
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hamburg is a nice place, only two hours by train. skip hannover, that’s kind of a dreary shithole (mostly because it was completely obliterated by bombshells during the war)
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Jul 9, 2023 21:31
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Leipzig fuckin rules.
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Jul 9, 2023 21:35
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What's driving like on Sicily? Is it at least a little bit less terrifying than the mainland?
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Jul 10, 2023 00:09
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Julio Cruz posted:What's driving like on Sicily? Is it at least a little bit less terrifying than the mainland? Worse.
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Jul 10, 2023 00:18
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Palermo was pretty hectic, it’s probably the first and only time in Europe I’ve felt like I was driving in the developing world. Definitely worse than places like Bulgaria or rural Romania where you can round a freeway corner and encounter a horse-drawn cart occupying your lane. Outside of Palermo I actually thought it was pretty fine? We drove a clockwise loop around the island starting and finishing in Catania, and other Palermo the biggest issue was waiting 2 hours for our rental car - the only other auto available was a 12 seater van which, yeah.
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Jul 10, 2023 00:54
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Julio Cruz posted:What's driving like on Sicily? Is it at least a little bit less terrifying than the mainland? Completely fine outside of big cities. If you’re worried about it just pick up and drop off your car at the airport or make sure your pickup and drop off are late evening or on Sunday so you don’t have to deal with traffic as much; that’s what I did for years before gradually getting enough experience to no longer care. I think my favorite Palermo driving experience was a six-lane roads meeting at an intersection with a four-lane road with no light, so all the cars going N-S and E-W had to just drive through simultaneously and interleave with one another to eventually get where they wanted to go. I’ve done a lot of third world driving by now but that was still a spectacularly lol moment.
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Jul 10, 2023 07:47
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Carbon dioxide posted:I'm considering visiting Berlin by train in September. What are you interested in? Culture? Nightlife? Nature? Food? Do you speak German? Depending on your interests, there are lots of places that could be an option, even within a +/- 2h train radius. There is a neat visualization here: https://www.chronotrains.com/en/station/2950159-Berlin/2
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Jul 10, 2023 08:02
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Hollow Talk posted:What are you interested in? Culture? Nightlife? Nature? Food? Do you speak German? Culture and history, but I like nature walks as well (but not if it's raining). I can understand some German and if someone doesn't speak English I can make myself understood if I really need to but I'm not very good at it.
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Jul 10, 2023 10:56
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Carbon dioxide posted:Culture and history, but I like nature walks as well (but not if it's raining). Dresden was fun for me and is near a national park called Sächsische Schweiz--Saxon Switzerland. The rock formations are like Utah, but in a forest. (No arches, though.) It's neat!
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Jul 12, 2023 19:15
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Holy poo poo that place looks amazing
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Jul 12, 2023 19:49
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Probably okay in the larger cities, but going to Sachsen does introduce a "how non-German do you look" factor into the decision making process.
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Jul 12, 2023 20:23
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Carbon dioxide posted:Culture and history, but I like nature walks as well (but not if it's raining). Relatively obvious (since you can get there via local train or S-Bahn from Berlin) is Potsdam, which has lovely gardens (Sanssouci & Neuer Garten), and as far as history is concerned, you also get things like Glienicker Brücke (where spies were exchanged during the Cold War) and a bunch of remnants of Imperial Germany, as well as things like the Potsdam Conference. The city has been extensively renovated the last two or so decades, and it's really very lovely. There is also a film studio (Filmpark Babelsberg), but that's probably only really fun with children. Dresden is another good choice for culture and history, with lovely churches and some excellent art museums. The opera building (Semperoper) is quite famous as well. If you want something smaller and care about German classicism, Weimar is also rather pretty, and full of Goethe and Schiller stuff. If you are interested in Nazi things, Weimar can also be combined with visting the KZ Buchenwald, which is just outside the city. Alternatively, Erfurt isn't much further -- the city centre and cathedral are both very nice and there are some nice medieval corners (though the areas outside the city centre look decidedly more East Bloc-ish). For another big city, Hamburg is good fun. The harbour is nice, you can do things like Miniaturwunderland, and it has a lot of hanseatic flair. There's a lot to see here. If you are up for a bit of nature and maybe a boat tour, the Spreewald (around Lübbenau) is quaint and relaxed, and also not too far away. If you are instead interested in somethig less quaint and more industrial, a bit further east, you can instead take a tour through an active open pit coal mine in Welzow. My Lovely Horse posted:Probably okay in the larger cities, but going to Sachsen does introduce a "how non-German do you look" factor into the decision making process. This is unfortunately kind of true. Shouldn't be an issue in Dresden or Leipzig etc., but this might be a factor in more rural areas. Otherwise, it might be this: 
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Jul 12, 2023 20:31
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How is anything historic in Dresden still standing edit: Greg12 posted:Sächsische Schweiz--Saxon Switzerland. The rock formations are like Utah, but in a forest. (No arches, though.) It's neat! This place might be the closest I've seen as a real life Star Wars planet kiimo fucked around with this message at 20:45 on Jul 12, 2023 |
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Jul 12, 2023 20:41
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Hollow Talk posted:If you want something smaller and care about German classicism, Weimar is also rather pretty, and full of Goethe and Schiller stuff.
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Jul 12, 2023 20:44
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My Lovely Horse posted:And Bauhaus! Indeed! I was thinking about mentioning Dessau as well for Bauhaus proper (as well as the Meisterhäuser), but you have to be quite into architecture, since there isn't much else to look at there, and it's a bit out of the way, too!
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Jul 12, 2023 20:54
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I decided to book a couple days in Hamburg because I've not been there yet. Depending on how I'm feeling and what I want to do while I'm there I may use your tips for some day trips as well. It's not like Germany is far away, I don't care if I "miss" any must-see, I can always just go back.
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Jul 12, 2023 20:57
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Carbon dioxide posted:I decided to book a couple days in Hamburg because I've not been there yet.  Also, you can go up into the Elbphilharmonie, which is a really cool building, and which grants you lovely views of the harbour and its surroundings: https://www.elbphilharmonie.de/en/plaza#besuch
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Jul 12, 2023 21:20
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Thanks to the United States Army Air Corps, Dresden Neustadt is ironically the old part of town. The church, palace, etc, where they have classical music concerts and all that was rebuilt with some old stones pockmarking the gleaming new stones to remind everyone. It's fun to think of the AfD having to look up at that when they march around.
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Jul 12, 2023 23:06
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Me and my SO are going to Costa del Sol and are thinking about visiting Gibraltar to look at the monkeys and perhaps taking the ferry to Marocco. Anyone know how often they travel across per day? And is it really worth it? Googling this was a mess.
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Jul 13, 2023 13:41
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Has anyone ever traveled from Italy (Trieste) to Croatia (Rijeka, Zagreb) by train or bus before? Is it possible, internet searches muddy the waters. I've only made it as far east as Trieste by train, and I went to Ljubljana and Zagreb from Bolzano/Trento by car.
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Jul 13, 2023 16:14
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Carbon dioxide posted:I decided to book a couple days in Hamburg because I've not been there yet. The maritime museum in Hamburg is great, it has thousands of model boats which I think basically everyone will enjoy.
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Jul 13, 2023 16:25
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WaryWarren posted:Has anyone ever traveled from Italy (Trieste) to Croatia (Rijeka, Zagreb) by train or bus before? Is it possible, internet searches muddy the waters. I've only made it as far east as Trieste by train, and I went to Ljubljana and Zagreb from Bolzano/Trento by car. Well, you can definitely go Trieste - Ljubljana (2x/day, 9am and 7pm, 3 hr) and Ljubljana - Rijeka (3x/day, last leaves at 15:40 arrives 3hr later) . I see a train line connecting Divaca to Rijeka (and Divaca is a stop from Trieste to Ljubljana) but I don’t see any way to get that ticket, so either it is out of date or freight-only. So you could definitely take the 9am from Triest to Ljubljana and then the 3:40 to Trieste, for 9 hours of total transit time. You could probably also take a Flixbus that drives it directly in like 90 minutes. E: Nevermind you can go Trieste - Pivka and then Pivka - Rijeka. Same 9am from Trieste, then arrive in Pivka at 10:30, then unfortunately you have to wait in Pivka 6 hours and wait for that train coming from Ljubljana. So it is the exact same travel time but probably cheaper. You just get 6 hours in Pivka instead of 3 in Ljubljana and it saves probably a few Euros. Hopefully it will get better now that Croatia is in Schengen, but the Italy-Slovenia connections are pretty bad, so also maybe not. Saladman fucked around with this message at 18:14 on Jul 13, 2023 |
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Jul 13, 2023 18:10
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Seems important to the conversation https://twitter.com/AP/status/1679537189909061637
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Jul 13, 2023 18:14
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WaryWarren posted:Has anyone ever traveled from Italy (Trieste) to Croatia (Rijeka, Zagreb) by train or bus before? Is it possible, internet searches muddy the waters. I've only made it as far east as Trieste by train, and I went to Ljubljana and Zagreb from Bolzano/Trento by car. I've done this to Slovenia by bus before, because there was no train service between Italy and Slovenia in 2019. I don't know if that's changed. For what it's worth, the Trieste-Slovenia bus (we went to Koper) was super easy. You just get off the train, find the bus station office that's right outside the station, pay your 2-3 Euros per ticket, and then wait for the bus. From there we rented a car so I can't help you on how to get to Croatia afterwards.
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Jul 13, 2023 18:53
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I had to get from Venice airport to Piran on the Slovenian coast in 2016 and it was a huge hassle. No train options and only a few bus connections per day. I hope it has gotten better.
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Jul 13, 2023 19:00
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HookShot posted:I've done this to Slovenia by bus before, because there was no train service between Italy and Slovenia in 2019. I don't know if that's changed. did you go to Lake Bled I want to go to Lake Bled
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Jul 13, 2023 19:45
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kiimo posted:did you go to Lake Bled I went it was very good despite being a tourist spot. We rented bikes and cycled around the park to the north which was even better than the lake itself.
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Jul 13, 2023 19:54
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