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Saladman posted:Have you been to London before? If not, I would definitely drop Edinburgh or Dublin, and probably Dublin. You can’t/shouldn’t really spend less than 5 days in London if you haven’t been there before, and it eats an entire day to travel between those three places. IMO I’d look for places of interest between London and Edinburgh depending on your interests and willingness/ability to rent a car, eg York, Cambridge, Bath, Windsor, … there’s definitely plenty in England for 17 days, and with Scotland you can easily spend 17 days in Great Britain. If you do go up to Edinburgh I’d personally suggest getting a car but depends how much you like landscapes and how much you like driving. And season, I wouldn’t bother between mid Nov and late March. I’ve road-tripped all over England but never Scotland, but suggestions really depend on what you like, towns, food, landscapes, culture, … The UK in general has amazing food, despite the outdated stereotypes, but you’ll have to spend like five minutes looking and not just go in the first pub you see. I’m going late September. Ideally I’d rather not rent a car and deal with that headache and the stress of driving all backwards (I’m also going solo). I have a friend I’m meeting out there in Leicester for a couple days but otherwise it’s just me. And I’m down to just explore the cities themselves. The countryside is nice but it’s an extra layer of planning. Basically I want to hit up a broad swathe because god knows when I’ll ever get back out there again.
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Aug 15, 2022 19:53
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dms666 posted:Ended up finding a flight deal to the Azores. Going for 10 days in early Sept. Does anyone have any recommendations on which islands to visit for sure and which to avoid? We will be flying into Ponda Delgada. Definitely want to do some whale watching, maybe snorkel or a try scuba excursion, and hike. I went there and just stayed on the biggest island (Sao Miguel), which is where Ponta Delgada is. Really enjoyed it, lovely place to drive around and some incredible lakes. Also went to Furnas which was cool. There's some natural geyser/hot spring stuff going on there, and they cook food in the ground using the natural heat. Had fun wandering around an abandoned hotel somewhere, not sure where but it had a great view of the two lakes that are barely separated
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Aug 15, 2022 20:48
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AlliedBiscuit posted:I’m going late September. Ideally I’d rather not rent a car and deal with that headache and the stress of driving all backwards (I’m also going solo). I have a friend I’m meeting out there in Leicester for a couple days but otherwise it’s just me. And I’m down to just explore the cities themselves. The countryside is nice but it’s an extra layer of planning. Basically I want to hit up a broad swathe because god knows when I’ll ever get back out there again. Then London and Edinburg and a train to get between the two is what I did in a similar situation. Avoiding a flight I think is always a good thing. Rather than Dublin, why not catch a train to Paris?
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Aug 16, 2022 13:48
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AlliedBiscuit posted:I’m going late September. Ideally I’d rather not rent a car and deal with that headache and the stress of driving all backwards (I’m also going solo). I have a friend I’m meeting out there in Leicester for a couple days but otherwise it’s just me. And I’m down to just explore the cities themselves. The countryside is nice but it’s an extra layer of planning. Basically I want to hit up a broad swathe because god knows when I’ll ever get back out there again. Sounds reasonable but I’d still skip out on Dublin, doubly so if you can’t/don’t want to drive. Dublin is okay? But super non distinctive and it is quite far. Brussels Amsterdam or Paris are all much closer and will imho give a more interesting feel. Also again flying to Dublin takes as long as flying to Madrid or Marseille for all practical purposes, the flight time of 45 min vs 2 hours is like a rounding error in the total days travel time and the flight costs in Europe are super low and have little relationship to distance. I’ve been all over Republic of Ireland and England but have never been to Scotland so can’t suggest too much there. England has good trains everywhere but they’re absurdly expensive. I would strongly recommend spending at least 3 nights in any place you go, and 100% absolutely don’t spend less than 2 nights anywhere. It sounds like you were planning that already but just making sure as it’s a typical way for people to make a vacation into a hell zone. 1 night stays can be reasonable on road trips but absolutely not reasonable on public transport trips, with very few exceptions.
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Aug 16, 2022 18:03
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AlliedBiscuit posted:I’m going late September. Ideally I’d rather not rent a car and deal with that headache and the stress of driving all backwards (I’m also going solo). I have a friend I’m meeting out there in Leicester for a couple days but otherwise it’s just me. And I’m down to just explore the cities themselves. The countryside is nice but it’s an extra layer of planning. Basically I want to hit up a broad swathe because god knows when I’ll ever get back out there again. Liverpool York Bath Oxford Cambridge Brighton Inverness Glasgow Belfast And in Wales... you don't really go to Wales for the cities. It might be worth starting with some of those and seeing what's there/nearby that interests you. I think you only need to pick one out of Oxford, Cambridge and Bath, and I'd still go for Bath because the baths are rad and Stonehenge is easily accessible.
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Aug 17, 2022 13:37
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Carbon dioxide posted:I've also encountered the other way around just the once, a local store in a small Scottish village up north not accepting England bank notes. I'm pretty sure that was just a case of nationalism but yeah. Bank of England notes were popular with forgers, who would then try to exchange them in Scotland and Northern Ireland where people handling cash are less familiar with them. One of my first jobs was part-time in a small corner shop in Northern Ireland and we were told to be suspicious of people doing things like buying a packet of gum or cigarette papers with a Bank of England £20 note. Meanwhile nobody is going to be forging our weird notes that are hard to cash out even if they're genuine.
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Aug 17, 2022 16:36
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Any Venice recommendations? Hoping to find a nice restaurant that isn't catering to tourists. ( I may be in the wrong city for that)
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Aug 19, 2022 17:41
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Spelling Mitsake posted:Any Venice recommendations? Hoping to find a nice restaurant that isn't catering to tourists. ( I may be in the wrong city for that) Go to the station and get on a train to Bologna. In all seriousness, I think you have to kind of take cities as they are, and accept that you are a tourist in our of the most intensely touristy places in Europe. I had good food there, just walk around, don't eat on the main squares or by the monorail and you'll have a good time.
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Aug 19, 2022 22:09
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A friend of mine lived in the center of Venice for several years working at the uni and she almost exclusively ate pizza slices from a good pizza counter that she found, or made pasta at home. So do that, I guess.
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Aug 20, 2022 00:06
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Speaking of Italy sit-down restaurants, is it easy to just wing it and find a place to eat or should I be pre-planning that? It seems like for every website/forum that says you need reservations for dinner in Italy, there's another that says it isn't a problem unless you're going somewhere crazy fancy or popular, especially since we'll likely be eating during the earlier times with all the other tourists.
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Aug 20, 2022 02:07
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kuddles posted:Speaking of Italy sit-down restaurants, is it easy to just wing it and find a place to eat or should I be pre-planning that? It seems like for every website/forum that says you need reservations for dinner in Italy, there's another that says it isn't a problem unless you're going somewhere crazy fancy or popular, especially since we'll likely be eating during the earlier times with all the other tourists. Depends where you are and when you are there. Very hard to generalize for "Italy" but I only ever reserve if it is a very nice restaurant. If you just want good Italian food then basically every Italian restaurant in Italy has good Italian food. The average local restaurant in Italy is miles better than the average local restaurant anywhere else in the world, with exceptions for Florence and Venice where I expect good food is much harder to randomly stumble across. Just in any especially touristy city (central Milan, Sienna, Rimini) don’t eat on main squares or in direct line if sight with a major tourist site (eg Trevi Fountain), or if you do, realize you’re there for the view and atmosphere and you are not there for the food, which is totally fine and cool.
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Aug 20, 2022 06:05
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Saladman posted:with exceptions for Florence and Venice where I expect good food is much harder to randomly stumble across. Just in any especially touristy city (central Milan, Sienna, Rimini) don’t eat on main squares Florence is also fine outside of a couple of streets around the cathedral and palazzo. I stayed there for 6 weeks somewhere just south of the river and ate great (although not as good as Rome or Trento imo). I personally prefer just walking around and picking somewhere I like, unless I want to eat something I'm particular. The criteria you mentioned are good, also think about what the restaurants business model is. Is it selling the view, convenience, familiar food, (commercially) prime location, atmosphere, quality food? Is it targeting lazy foot traffic, the neighborhood, or review site users? You'll generally get what you pay for with successful restaurants nowadays and unless you're paying £60+ a head you're not getting everything.
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Aug 20, 2022 07:49
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yeah, I think review sites have really chopped into the cynical restaurateur model and nowadays just winging on foot it will still get you a reliable meal in the larger cities. Still, a quick run of the review sites generally gets you a bit of min-maxing or ensuring no surprises.
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Aug 20, 2022 12:17
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I never book, it's almost always fine and if a place is full there will be another good place nearby. An exception I guess is if you're in the countryside and there's only one good restaurant in the place where you're going.
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Aug 20, 2022 13:27
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Electric Wrigglies posted:yeah, I think review sites have really chopped into the cynical restaurateur model and nowadays just winging on foot it will still get you a reliable meal in the larger cities. Still, a quick run of the review sites generally gets you a bit of min-maxing or ensuring no surprises. Nah I don’t really agree with this, I think there’s still a huge number of places where you can easily get overpriced garbage food if you don’t do some basic research first. Not sure if I’ve posted this before, but these are my criteria for getting a good meal that’s been pretty reliable in 70+ countries now: - Google Maps has the best and most useful reviews, since they’re generally written by locals - TripAdvisor is typically useless for reviews, because if you want to eat local food why would you trust the word of non locals - Yelp (if it still exists, I stopped using it ages ago) never had much coverage outside the US - Foursquare basically has no users any more so has huge gaps in coverage and very dated reviews - If you’re in a place with very poor Google Maps coverage, go with the busiest place - Avoid eating at hotel restaurants if you can, as they’re almost always terrible and if they have low patronage the food isn’t going to be fresh. The worst food poisoning I’ve ever had was from a hotel restaurant in Cambodia where we were probably the only customers all day, so the curry we ate at 9pm had probably been in a bain-marie since 11am, and we paid the price - As per above posts, anywhere with a view means you’re paying for that, not the food, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing - you just need to be aware of it. I once paid 15€ for a cappuccino on Piazza San Marco; stupid price and an average coffee, but a great spot for people watching and not something I regret - though I wouldn’t make a habit of it!
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Aug 20, 2022 14:20
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I agree on google maps being reliable and is what I rely upon if I have data. Eating food where others of the same nationality are eating is my second go to (in a Korean restaurant with a lot of Koreans in it in the middle of Africa? probably good Korean unless it is the only Korean restaurant in the city). Just that my experience before smartphones were common was way worse than what it is now. All my meals in Rome where poo poo unless I got referred by a fellow backpacker or found an internet cafe and wrote down the places to go to specifically. More recently, it may not be the best meal but it will nearly always be passable and sometimes had some great feeds on the hoof.
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Aug 20, 2022 17:28
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In Amsterdam there are certainly still straight up scam, food poisoning type places, or fake supermarkets that list no prices and charge whatever they feel like. They have a 1.4 or whatever on Google Maps but apparently enough people still blindly go there for them to stay in business. I normally advocate Google Maps in here too but it had surprisingly bad coverage in Spain, many places were simply not listed. There, the old fashioned method of just walking around and seeing what was popular with locals outperformed the method of looking at Maps ratings. Entropist fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Aug 20, 2022 |
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Aug 20, 2022 22:11
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Electric Wrigglies posted:I agree on google maps being reliable and is what I rely upon if I have data. Eating food where others of the same nationality are eating is my second go to (in a Korean restaurant with a lot of Koreans in it in the middle of Africa? probably good Korean unless it is the only Korean restaurant in the city). Yeah, discovery is a lot easier than it used to be - I won't argue that. But I might suggest as well that your budget now is probably a bit higher than when you were backpacking? And honestly, a lot of central Rome is kinda poo poo for food, you really have to hunt out decent places. The trash-tier places still exist though, I suspect they've probably shifted their MO a bit these days. Whenever we've done a group tour somewhere (usually somewhere that's inaccessible via PT or needs a special vehicle etc), the lunch stop has always been at an overpriced junk place. And I seem to remember Lisbon of all places had a bunch of straight-up scam restaurants where they'd do things like offer you the "daily special fish platter" or whatever, serve you a bunch of microwaved frozen fish and then present the bill for 300 euros. And the classic of having prices next to the fish on the menu, but miniscule text at the bottom saying it was the /100g price, and then giving you a 1kg portion - so your bill is 10x higher than you expected. Entropist posted:I normally advocate Google Maps in here too but it had surprisingly bad coverage in Spain, many places were simply not listed. There, the old fashioned method of just walking around and seeing what was popular with locals outperformed the method of looking at Maps ratings. A couple of years back pre Covid we did a two month road trip around Spain, hitting basically every province and major city on the way, and yeah we found much the same actually. After the first couple of weeks, we ended up eating McDonalds and poo poo a lot of the time, because getting off the freeway, driving into town, dealing with tiny streets, locals-only zones, expensive parking, finding if anywhere is open because it's siesta time, ending up at a crummy local restaurant where they literally all serve the same stuff (rubbery octopus, oily chorizo, undercooked patatas bravas etc) and paying way too much. At least with McDonalds it's on the highway, easy to park, you can use the touchscreen order things in English (my Spanish is terrible), and you've got a reasonable idea of what you're getting. Not proud of it, but yeah.
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Aug 20, 2022 22:55
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Average small town Spanish tavern-style food is also probably among the worst in Europe, alongside Portuguese food, at least for my tastes. At least podunk German/English/Czech village restaurants have filling meals, unless you’re vegetarian or vegan in which case gl not starving. I guess to each their own tastes but I’m almost always happy if I stop in a restaurant in Nowheresville, Italy or France, and okay with it in most other countries, but have been shocked at how bad food is in small towns in Spain (I’ve also been around most of the country by road-trip several times including stops in a number of no name villages) or Portugal (only a 2 week road trip & hit mostly more famous towns so maybe not representative).
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Aug 21, 2022 10:09
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I also found Spain super hard for food, in a way that I haven't encountered anywhere else in Europe. When we got suggestions from people we knew the food was great, but neither reviews nor just walking around reliably led to an even passable meal. So, so much overpriced, mediocre food. True experts in extracting money from tourists!
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Aug 21, 2022 10:29
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I'm going to be in Istanbul solo for two weeks in October, the first week I'm studying full time but the second week is for touristing. I'm interested in food, wine, and byzantine/ottoman history. Don't really care about nightlife and I don't want to sleep right in the middle of tourist central, althought I accept I will be going to a bunch of touristy places during the day Karakoy looks like a good place to base myself for the second week, close to sultanahmet without being in it and lots of cafes etc. Kadikoy on the Asia side looked interesting too, but a bit more of a commute to the tourist sites. Any other recommendations?
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Aug 21, 2022 13:11
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Don’t stay on the Asian side, it is way way less interesting and even with the new subway tunnel kind of annoying to get to/from. Imho stay in Galata, it is within walking distance to most things, it’s cute, it has loads of cats everywhere, and it’s just generally nice. Just make sure to stay closer to Galata tower and not at the seafront there, which is not so nice as it’s separated by a major road with few good crossings. The hill nearer Galata tower is by far the nicer part of that district, although I guess if you get an amazing / much cheaper place on the east / wrong side of that street ("Kemeralti") it wouldn’t be the end of the world. There are other nice districts like Besiktas but they’re pretty far from what you want to see and you’d have to Uber or take buses to do anything outside of that immediate area. Tbh from what you described you actually do want to stay in tourist central, anywhere else and you’ll have to take tons of Ubers to do anything. Just don’t get a place like right on Istiklal street and you’ll be fine. Tons of actual Turkish people live and go to Galata too, it is not overrun by the fridge magnet and shot glass shop mafia. E: Sultanahmet is overwhelmingly touristy though so don’t stay there even though you’ll of course have to spend a couple days in that area. Anyway I’m not an expert in Istanbul but have spent around 15 days there on three trips. Stayed in Sultanahmet once, Galata once, and Sisli (quite a bit north, a modern upper middle class district) once. Saladman fucked around with this message at 14:50 on Aug 21, 2022 |
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Aug 21, 2022 14:41
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There’s a thread on here about Istanbul as well, it was a couple of years back but given how much traffic this forum gets it’s probably on page 2. Seconding not to stay on the Asian side, it’s interesting for a day trip but most of the stuff you really want to see is on the other side, and it’s further across the water than it looks. Don’t miss Topkapi Palace, especially the Harem which is the best part. The Roman cistern is very impressive too. Hagia Sofia is one of my favourite buildings in the world, though you might need to check opening hours because 🙄it’s a mosque again 🙄. The Blue Mosque is very impressive too, but better on the outside than in. The Theodocian Walls are also pretty cool, particularly if you’re into Byzantine history.
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Aug 21, 2022 16:59
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when i was in istanbul i only had shorts so i wasn't allowed to enter the blue mosque
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Aug 21, 2022 17:15
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Trimson Grondag 3 posted:I'm going to be in Istanbul solo for two weeks in October, the first week I'm studying full time but the second week is for touristing. I'm interested in food, wine, and byzantine/ottoman history. Don't really care about nightlife and I don't want to sleep right in the middle of tourist central, althought I accept I will be going to a bunch of touristy places during the day Old thread but perhaps helpful: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3687966 I enjoyed staying in Sultanahmet, to be honest. It was quiet, safe, and super easy to get everywhere. We stayed at Emine Sultan and the worst thing was the call to prayer waking up the stray dogs, who then had a good old shout about it.
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Aug 21, 2022 18:05
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I stayed in Sultanahmet twice for about 20 days total. It was quiet at night and a five minute walk to Topkapi or Hagia Sophia. Next time, I will try another area, like the one the salad man mentioned.
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Aug 21, 2022 19:18
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I guess if you’re really into history Sultanahmet can be nice. I’ve been to Topkapi once and I think that’s good for a lifetime, it’s a nice site with a weird fake history museum and a bunch of knockoff relics inside. I’m sure a large number of Christian relics are fake too but Topkapi museum really takes the cake there. Hagia Sophia is amazing and I’ve been a couple times but the second time I think we spent about 15 minutes inside it. The Grand Bazaar is actually pretty neat and prices there can be fine if you have a rough idea of what things should cost, like my wife and I bought our engraved, designed wedding rings there and the first price he gave was like 10% over the market price for gold so we didn’t even bother haggling (if even possible). I’m more of a restaurants cafes and independent shops kind of person than a museum person though, so ymmv. There’s definitely enough on Sultanahmet for 3 very full days of tourism even if you are a half-philistine like me and couldn’t care less about the ruins of some horse racing stadium that are nearly indecipherable today. The food there is also bad, which is unusual for Istanbul. We spent a couple days there in April 2021 again as it had the only open restaurants in the city on the weekend when Turks were locked inside but tourists didn’t have weekend curfew because tourists to Turkey were immune to COVID. I’m not sure I’d go back to that area again though. Anyway I think it’s hard to go all that wrong, just stay somewhere central-ish. Istanbul is hands down a top 5 European city by any metric, whether food, culture, natural beauty, shopping, history, maybe even nightlife, … after more than 2 weeks purely as a tourist there I feel like I’ve hit most of the tourist sites to do but I could easily go back for another 5 days and just enjoy like, hanging out and absorbing the vibe, and like any huge, ancient, and massively wealthy cosmopolitan city you could spend a year there and not know it all. I normally get sick of large cities after like 4 days too. Istanbul is massively underrated on the tourist circuit.
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Aug 21, 2022 21:52
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Thanks all, Istanbul is a bucket list destination for me and I'm ridiculously excited to be getting the chance to get a full week of touristing there. In the first week I'll actually stay in Besiktas or further north because I'm studying at Koc University which is up that way. I'm very into history so I think I'll spend a lot of time at Sultanahmet, just trying to avoid staying right in the middle of the 'fridge magnet and shot glass shop mafia' (which is the perfect description of what I'm trying to avoid). Basically trying to avoid the Istanbul version of La Rambla or Times Square or Roppongi.
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Aug 22, 2022 00:51
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i have no idea if it's still there but back when i was in europe a decade ago someone itt recommended the arsenal cafe. i think it's near the golden horn? it had cheap, good food and i'd kill to have their iskender kebab again
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Aug 22, 2022 01:20
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I'll throw my hat in the ring for Galata as well. It's been some years but we stayed on Serdar-ı Ekrem street nearish to Galata Tower and it was a really nice area just to walk around and absorb the atmosphere.
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Aug 22, 2022 12:28
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Thanks all. If you take Galata tower as the centre of a clock, it sounds like anywhere in the arc from 1 to 6pm is good up to Kemeralti street?
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Aug 22, 2022 13:50
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Trimson Grondag 3 posted:Thanks all. If you take Galata tower as the centre of a clock, it sounds like anywhere in the arc from 1 to 6pm is good up to Kemeralti street? IMO yeah, or really any direction within like a 100m circle centered on the tower. You can also streetview around and check it out and see if it matches your style of place to hang out in / budget / apartment-or-hotel availability. I wouldn’t stay any further away than Taksim, and even Taksim is quite far from where it sounds like you mostly want to be. Public transit is good and Uber is easy to use though so I wouldn’t worry about getting the perfect location too precisely.
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Aug 22, 2022 16:12
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Thanks again all, I've booked in to Bebek for my first week to be near the uni then Galata for the second week.
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Aug 23, 2022 04:38
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I have a little more than a month left before I have to leave Seville and the Schengen Area, and I'm considering spending the required 90 days outside of it in Cyprus (Larnaca, specifically). Is there anything I should know before making plans, such as whether there's another city on the island that the thread feels would be better for a long-term stay? I'd also appreciate any knowledge on the prevalence of English in Cyprus, I plan on learning a little Greek but I'll probably only have time to study the very basics between now and then. Thanks!
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Aug 23, 2022 12:57
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English is near-universally spoken in Cyprus except maybe for some pensioners and maybe there is like a farmer somewhere on a mountain who doesn’t speak English. If you don’t want to rent a car for the entire time then I guess Larnaca, Nicosia, or Limassol would be your best options. I’ve never been to Limassol but I liked Nicosia a lot, Larnaca felt a bit generic like those seaside towns in Spain with a bunch of mid-sized apartment buildings built in the 80s and 90s. Not awful but also not at all charming or particularly interesting. Depends what you like doing, cafes, beaches, hiking, cultural stuff, …? Or if you don’t mind renting a car for the entire time I guess you could stay anywhere, even in the mountains - it’s not like it takes all that long to get anywhere. I haven’t been to the west coast of the island but from what I understand the whole Paphos area is primarily large hotels and vacation rentals. I haven’t seen Grape here in a while but iirc his wife is Cypriot and they’ve spent a lot of time there, so I guess you could PM him.
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Aug 23, 2022 13:20
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Much obliged! Happy to hear about the prevalence of English, it reminds me a bit of the situation I encountered in Malta where just about everyone I encountered (except, of course, the airport taxi driver) spoke the language. I'm leaning towards Larnaca because I love the sea and because it seems to be the easiest/cheapest city on the island to fly into. Definitely interested in hiking and cultural sites too, not as concerned about restaurants as I'll be eating the vast majority of my meals at home. I won't be able to afford a car rental so I'll have to rely on the bus system, which thankfully seems pretty robust and reasonably priced.
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Aug 23, 2022 21:28
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Saladman posted:Average small town Spanish tavern-style food is also probably among the worst in Europe, alongside Portuguese food, at least for my tastes. At least podunk German/English/Czech village restaurants have filling meals, unless you’re vegetarian or vegan in which case gl not starving. I guess to each their own tastes but I’m almost always happy if I stop in a restaurant in Nowheresville, Italy or France, and okay with it in most other countries, but have been shocked at how bad food is in small towns in Spain (I’ve also been around most of the country by road-trip several times including stops in a number of no name villages) or Portugal (only a 2 week road trip & hit mostly more famous towns so maybe not representative). distortion park posted:I also found Spain super hard for food, in a way that I haven't encountered anywhere else in Europe. When we got suggestions from people we knew the food was great, but neither reviews nor just walking around reliably led to an even passable meal. So, so much overpriced, mediocre food. True experts in extracting money from tourists! Funny enough, we had the same issue in Spain last fall. For the most part, the food in Spain seemed pretty average overall no matter where we went. The best food we ate was actually at an Israeli restaurant in Madrid. In France/Italy we ate pretty much amazing food wherever we went (except for one restaurant we made the mistake of going to in Florence). Heck, I even prefer the food in London to the food in Spain. FWIW, getting food recommendations from the NYT has rarely led us to outright bad food, especially in new places.
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Aug 24, 2022 16:12
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I still remember how desperately I wanted something green after a few days in Granada. 
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Aug 24, 2022 16:23
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Residency Evil posted:Funny enough, we had the same issue in Spain last fall. For the most part, the food in Spain seemed pretty average overall no matter where we went. The best food we ate was actually at an Israeli restaurant in Madrid. In France/Italy we ate pretty much amazing food wherever we went (except for one restaurant we made the mistake of going to in Florence). We had decent food in a few places in Spain, like Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Valencia, and of course San Sebastian. But it was always pretty expensive, so if you don't mind forking out (heh) for fancy food it'll probably be okay. I think the biggest issue really is just that the quality floor is really low. In France, any random boulangerie will generally serve you a decent baguette. In Italy, cheap pasta meals are always okay (though you need to stick with local styles). Germany even a train station hot dog is going to be fine, or the UK has all of those pre-packaged supermarket meals. In Spain, there isn't really much of that - as I said you're just stuck with garbage taverna food.
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Aug 24, 2022 19:50
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when i was in germany i wouldn't be surprised if a straight up majority of my meals were doner
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Aug 24, 2022 19:56
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