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Saladman posted:Get to London, then fly EasyJet to Izmir (actually it's probably cheaper to fly to Istanbul and take a Turkish bus, but only if losing 10 hours in additional transit is worth £20 to you). Thanks, though from the look if it flying Swiss might be cheaper going London > Zurich > Istanbul. Hmmmm..
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May 30, 2013 13:07
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Take a look at SunExpress, a joint Turkish Airlines/Lufthansa low-cost venture. If you can get a cheap ticket to Germany, they fly direct from there to Izmir.
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May 30, 2013 17:55
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I visited Bojnice castle the other week in Slovakia. It's pretty nice. A bit out of the way, even if you're in Nitra. But I recommend seeing it and maybe going to the zoo that's beside it. So next weekend I'm think of going to Budapest. Any suggestions on restaurants and attractions. I'll be there from Friday night to Sunday morning.
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May 30, 2013 19:05
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asaf posted:Take a look at SunExpress, a joint Turkish Airlines/Lufthansa low-cost venture. If you can get a cheap ticket to Germany, they fly direct from there to Izmir. Thanks for this, I'll keep this in mind when I'm planning my weekend in Istanbul while studying in Berlin. Can anyone tell me why it seems to take so much longer for a train to go from Berlin to Vienna than Berlin to Paris via train?
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May 30, 2013 19:51
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Berlin to Paris has amazing tracks where ICE/TGV blast through and Berlin-Vienna only has a sorta lame Eurocity that probably never can go past 150 km/h due to track constraints. I heard people say that the train from Berlin to Dresden today takes the same amount of time it took 120 years ago.
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May 30, 2013 22:04
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elbkaida posted:Berlin to Paris has amazing tracks where ICE/TGV blast through and Berlin-Vienna only has a sorta lame Eurocity that probably never can go past 150 km/h due to track constraints. The ICE isn't that fast unfortunately. It looks like Berlin-Paris will take you around 9 hours for 1000km. Compare that to Calais-Marseille that's also 1000km and you can do that in 6 hours, even with a 1 hour stopover in Paris due to the stupid layout of Paris train stations.
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May 31, 2013 17:58
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Any suggestions of things to do in Krakow for a few days/nights (exc. Auschwitz of course).
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May 31, 2013 20:50
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Alkazard.exe posted:Any suggestions of things to do in Krakow for a few days/nights (exc. Auschwitz of course). This place was p cool http://www.wieliczka-saltmine.com/ The castle is worth a day, especially the armory/treasury. There's lots of cool restaurants/bars in the cellars in old town. And this http://guidepal.com/krakow/restaurants/ice-cream-on-starowilna-street of course
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May 31, 2013 21:08
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I got a hotel in Bagnolet in paris. Fellow travelers are telling me to be wary of that neighborhood at night. Anyone wanna chime in and enlighten me?
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May 31, 2013 22:22
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Kolta posted:I got a hotel in Bagnolet in paris. Fellow travelers are telling me to be wary of that neighborhood at night. Anyone wanna chime in and enlighten me? You poor bastard. I hope you're going to Paris for work somewhere near that, and not going to Paris for tourism, since there's nothing even remotely close. Either way I hope you're staying near Gallieni metro stop, because otherwise I don't think there's any way to get around (does Paris have buses?? Jesus I've spent a lot of time there and don't think I've ever seen one, but I guess they must have them?) E: Not that I'm an expert on the outer ring of Paris, but my general understanding is that Stabville is in the northern banlieues, the rest are more or less OK. Saladman fucked around with this message at 01:25 on Jun 1, 2013 |
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Jun 1, 2013 01:21
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Saladman posted:You poor bastard. I hope you're going to Paris for work somewhere near that, and not going to Paris for tourism, since there's nothing even remotely close. Either way I hope you're staying near Gallieni metro stop, because otherwise I don't think there's any way to get around (does Paris have buses?? Jesus I've spent a lot of time there and don't think I've ever seen one, but I guess they must have them?) I lived in the northern banlieues for a little while and I did experience a little bit of trouble there. Paris is a little bit gritty, but like anywhere in the world, be alert and don't be stupid. You'll be ok.
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Jun 1, 2013 01:36
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Saladman posted:You poor bastard. I hope you're going to Paris for work somewhere near that, and not going to Paris for tourism, since there's nothing even remotely close. Either way I hope you're staying near Gallieni metro stop, because otherwise I don't think there's any way to get around (does Paris have buses?? Jesus I've spent a lot of time there and don't think I've ever seen one, but I guess they must have them?) I'm sure the area will be fine but I'd rater find a place in the city. There is a big grocery store at the Gallieni metro stop that we went to a few times but I wouldn't want to spend any extended time there.
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Jun 1, 2013 04:21
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The hotel is Novotel Est. it's about a 5 minute walk to the metro. I'm only there for 5 days. My flight home leaves from paris.
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Jun 1, 2013 08:34
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Saladman posted:You poor bastard. I hope you're going to Paris for work somewhere near that, and not going to Paris for tourism, since there's nothing even remotely close. Either way I hope you're staying near Gallieni metro stop, because otherwise I don't think there's any way to get around (does Paris have buses?? Jesus I've spent a lot of time there and don't think I've ever seen one, but I guess they must have them?) Paris has tons of buses. There's at least half a dozen different bus lines near Novotel Est. It's also like 200m from Gallieni metro station, and you can catch the tram at Porte de Bagnolet (~600m). It's not in Paris itself, but just outside. It's not the most touristy place, but hotels inside Paris tend to be crazy expensive anyway. The Père Lachaise is close by if you want to visit that. Most of the things people tend to visit are located in older parts of the city, smack dab in the middle (Ile de la Cité, Louvre) so you usually need to take the public transport anyway, or walk a couple hours. It might not be as secure as the Champs Elysées, but Bagnolet is still better than Pantin (to the north) for example. It's not a death trap at night. It's just an ugly place where people who don't have the means to rent in Paris live. Close up map of the areas' public transport:  Hotel is in red. Fat lines are metro. Small lines are buses. Medium green line is the tram. pylb fucked around with this message at 14:20 on Jun 1, 2013 |
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Jun 1, 2013 14:03
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I snagged the hotel for me and my fiancé at 75$ CND a night. That's only like 55$ +/- euros a night. It's got great reviews and it's relaxing stop to finish our 2.5 months of euro travel before we head back home. E: Now, before everyone goes ape poo poo and says "you could of gotten a hostel for half of that close to the center". By then I'd be sick of hostels. Heck I'm living in one. Ya, 6 weeks straight so far and another 2.5 weeks after that of various hostels. So a cheapish, remote hotel with A/C is going to be nice. Kolta fucked around with this message at 15:03 on Jun 1, 2013 |
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Jun 1, 2013 14:59
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Kolta posted:The hotel is Novotel Est. it's about a 5 minute walk to the metro. I'm only there for 5 days. My flight home leaves from paris. You'll be fine. You're close to the metro and it will bring you to the center of the city in like 15 minutes. You won't be spending much time at the hotel anyways.
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Jun 1, 2013 15:19
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Omits-Bagels posted:You'll be fine. You're close to the metro and it will bring you to the center of the city in like 15 minutes. You won't be spending much time at the hotel anyways. Exactly. Plus, one of those days I'm heading up to London. Maybe even spending a night. So that's one less day at my hotel. Kolta fucked around with this message at 17:55 on Jun 1, 2013 |
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Jun 1, 2013 15:26
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I'm in Split right now and all I've been doing is drinking my face off night and eating gelato by the sea during the day. Am I doing this right? I'm at the tail end of my trip and sort of don't give a drat about trying to be touristy anymore.
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Jun 2, 2013 00:47
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Kolta posted:I snagged the hotel for me and my fiancé at 75$ CND a night. That's only like 55$ +/- euros a night. It's got great reviews and it's relaxing stop to finish our 2.5 months of euro travel before we head back home. Yeah, that's a great price. Even if you were going in February that'd be good. Should be reasonably convenient next to Gallieni, I guess I was a bit dramatic in my first reply. Also completely agree about hostels vs. hotel at some point. Enjoy. (Still can't remember ever seeing a bus in Paris. I must be completely bus-blind, probably an effect of growing up in the south of America.)
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Jun 2, 2013 08:51
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WYA posted:I'm in Split right now and all I've been doing is drinking my face off night and eating gelato by the sea during the day. Am I doing this right? I'm at the tail end of my trip and sort of don't give a drat about trying to be touristy anymore. You can visit one of the islands. Hvar is nice and Vis is exotic although the ferry ride is long.
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Jun 2, 2013 11:34
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Saladman posted:Yeah, that's a great price. Even if you were going in February that'd be good. Should be reasonably convenient next to Gallieni, I guess I was a bit dramatic in my first reply. Also completely agree about hostels vs. hotel at some point. Enjoy. Paris has a ton of buses but it seems to be mainly used by old people (since it is much easier to use than the metro). I rode them all the time but the metro is much more convenient.
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Jun 2, 2013 14:45
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Omits-Bagels posted:Paris has a ton of buses but it seems to be mainly used by old people (since it is much easier to use than the metro). I rode them all the time but the metro is much more convenient. Totally true, but buses offer you a great view of the city.
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Jun 2, 2013 16:03
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Hey goons, I've stumbled onto a problem. Maybe it's easily fixed, maybe not. I activated my eurorail pass in Bratislava on the 18th of may. Today I noticed she did not write my passport number and the first and last date on te pass. It's a flexi pass, so 10 travel days in 2 months. Should I fill the pp number in and put the first date (day of activation) and last date two months from then? Or should I go all the way back to Bratislava. Kolta fucked around with this message at 11:43 on Jun 3, 2013 |
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Jun 3, 2013 11:40
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Kolta posted:Hey goons, I've stumbled onto a problem. Maybe it's easily fixed, maybe not. I'd just fill it in yourself.
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Jun 3, 2013 22:32
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So I'm going to Europe alone at the end of this year. I've been twice with family (England twice; Scotland, France, Belgium, Germany once). I'm planning on at least three weeks, but possibly four if I can get enough money together. Anyway, I'm spending a couple of days in London to recuperate and see a few things outside it, but I have a rough plan of going to Madrid, Paris (I spent a week there and I still didn't see everything), Rome and Venice. Does anyone have suggestions for cities/countries to add? I know I shouldn't try to cram everything in but this is likely to be the only overseas trip I ever take alone and I want to make it as good as I possibly can. I have a hankering to go to Istanbul (the culture and history really interest me being a classics major) but with the civil disturbances, that mightn't be a good idea. Vienna was another option as I quickly looked at the wiki and saw there's a lot of stuff. I mean, I'm mainly interested in ruins, churches, gardens and palaces and not so much the nightlife/cultural activities of a city. I suppose I've already been spoiled with Britain and Germany in that regard and while I'd eventually like to return to those countries properly, I'd prefer not to be retreading old ground now. Also, what are people's experiences with Airbnb? I was considering it for at least one city because otherwise I'll probably end up speaking to no one out of shyness and it sounds like a good way to interact with the locals and get a lot more out of visiting than you would otherwise.
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Jun 4, 2013 09:09
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I just did two nights of airbnb in Bilbao last week. It was my first time and I definitely recommend it, but you might get more interaction at hostels. I rented a whole apt so my experience wasn't the only type, but I would try renting a room through airbnb or couchsurfing if you want to get in touch with locals
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Jun 4, 2013 10:38
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I'm flying into Istanbul in two days. I had been planning to spend a week there then going into the Balkans. The situation in Turkey has me moving the Balkans bit of my trip up a bit. Will it be fairly easy to find a bus out of Turkey upon arrival? Is the bus terminal easily accessible from the airport, and do buses run regularly? I don't want to arrive, trek all the way across town and then have to wait 10 hours (even though I guess I won't have much of a choice).
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Jun 4, 2013 13:15
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Octy posted:So I'm going to Europe alone at the end of this year. I've been twice with family (England twice; Scotland, France, Belgium, Germany once). I'm planning on at least three weeks, but possibly four if I can get enough money together. Anyway, I'm spending a couple of days in London to recuperate and see a few things outside it, but I have a rough plan of going to Madrid, Paris (I spent a week there and I still didn't see everything), Rome and Venice. Does anyone have suggestions for cities/countries to add? I know I shouldn't try to cram everything in but this is likely to be the only overseas trip I ever take alone and I want to make it as good as I possibly can. I have a hankering to go to Istanbul (the culture and history really interest me being a classics major) but with the civil disturbances, that mightn't be a good idea. Vienna was another option as I quickly looked at the wiki and saw there's a lot of stuff. I mean, I'm mainly interested in ruins, churches, gardens and palaces and not so much the nightlife/cultural activities of a city. I suppose I've already been spoiled with Britain and Germany in that regard and while I'd eventually like to return to those countries properly, I'd prefer not to be retreading old ground now. You want it to be a great trip, it will be MUCH better if you get to have a decent amount of time in four cities rather than feel like you've rushed through six.
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Jun 4, 2013 16:43
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HookShot posted:I can't speak for Venice or Madrid, Venice is a couple of days, maximum. It's not that big and it gets old really fast. Also: plan to go there with good weather. It's poo poo when it rains, but it's also quite poo poo when it's too hot and the entire city reeks (of what, I don't know).
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Jun 4, 2013 18:56
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EricBauman posted:Venice is a couple of days, maximum. It's not that big and it gets old really fast. Also: plan to go there with good weather. It's poo poo when it rains, but it's also quite poo poo when it's too hot and the entire city reeks (of what, I don't know). A ton of people living on a lagoon with only three (relatively narrow) outlets onto the open sea will do that to a city. You could stretch Venice out to three days, but no more than that. If you want you can spend a couple more days visiting villas and towns in the countryside.
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Jun 4, 2013 21:57
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If you're doing the ruins of Rome and want to understand what you're looking at, get this book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Oxford-Archaeological-Guides-Amanda-Claridge/dp/0199546835 The other classic destination would be to do a few days in Florence.
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Jun 4, 2013 22:11
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^ I did a course on the cityscape of Rome last year and that was one of our textbooks. HookShot posted:I can't speak for Venice or Madrid, but you definitely will want to spend at least a week in each of Rome and Paris. I wouldn't add anything else to your schedule, especially if you've only got three-four weeks and a few days already planned in London. Yeah, I have more of a romantic idea of Venice but realistically I know there's not much to see so currently I have it on the schedule as spending about two days in it. One for sightseeing, the other for exploration and taking in the atmosphere. I just think back to my last trip in 2010 where I saw 10 cities in four weeks, although arguably half of those were in England and of the type you can mostly see in a day, e.g. York, and I never felt particularly rushed. But anyway, I've got a few more weeks to decide. I may even forgo Madrid because the idea of constantly zipping across the continent is bound to get tiring (plus the expense), and I feel that maybe a second trip to spend a few weeks in Spain is a better idea. It's just a pity I can't extend the trip as it's got to be between when I finish uni in mid-November and Christmas (I missed Christmas once and it's not nice for anyone). Octy fucked around with this message at 23:37 on Jun 4, 2013 |
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Jun 4, 2013 23:34
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I'm currently backpacking across Europe right now, and am In Istanbul at the moment. I was planning on goin to Croatia from here, but looking at plane tickets it seems to be really expensive. So I'm looking at taking a train instead. Seems to be pretty difficult to get a direct trip there, any suggested routes of getting there?
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Jun 5, 2013 16:03
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mister ginger posted:I'm currently backpacking across Europe right now, and am Trains are terrible in SE Europe since the terrain is difficult in the first place, there has never been a serious engineering effort at overcoming the mountains and the little lines that were built suffer under constant neglect. Therefore everybody that can't afford planes just takes the long distance bus, but that's still terribly slow. I don't think you can do that trip in under 48 hours, of which 20 are going to be spent on the road. If you want to reschedule to also visit Sofia and Belgrade, this might be workable, otherwise I'd suggest paying the extortionate last-minute plane prices.
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Jun 5, 2013 19:05
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Smeef posted:I'm flying into Istanbul in two days. I had been planning to spend a week there then going into the Balkans. The situation in Turkey has me moving the Balkans bit of my trip up a bit. There's a bus station in Istanbul that has services connecting to Plovdiv and Sofia in Bulgaria, at least. It's pretty reasonable all things considered, but it's kind of a pain in the rear end to find info about it. There's also a pretty good night train that runs to Sofia (although it's considerably more expensive than the bus lines).
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Jun 6, 2013 00:01
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I feel like I'm in the (deep) minority when I say that I didn't find Paris all that great. Don't get me wrong, I can definitely understand why people enjoy it, but I just wasn't that fond of it. There were some things I enjoyed (the catacombs, Dutch/Flemish/German art section of the Louvre, and the Pantheon) but I felt a little disappointed overall. Although I think it might have to do with the crowds and I'm just projecting that. I suppose going back in the off season would be much better (I think?). But I mean after spending an hour and a half to get into Versailles in the heat I felt like I couldn't really appreciate it. I guess I felt the same about London as well with the absurd crowds. I feel like a lot of these places are much better to visit in the off season when they aren't inundated with massive amounts of people. Oh and I almost got robbed by some Roma children, so at least that's part of the authentic Paris tourist experience.
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Jun 6, 2013 20:52
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MagicCube posted:I feel like I'm in the (deep) minority when I say that I didn't find Paris all that great. Don't get me wrong, I can definitely understand why people enjoy it, but I just wasn't that fond of it. There were some things I enjoyed (the catacombs, Dutch/Flemish/German art section of the Louvre, and the Pantheon) but I felt a little disappointed overall. Although I think it might have to do with the crowds and I'm just projecting that. I suppose going back in the off season would be much better (I think?). But I mean after spending an hour and a half to get into Versailles in the heat I felt like I couldn't really appreciate it. I guess I felt the same about London as well with the absurd crowds. I feel like a lot of these places are much better to visit in the off season when they aren't inundated with massive amounts of people. Slightly. I was there in early February and there were still at least three thousand people at Versailles when I visited. We were lucky to get one photo without people in it. We even had to queue up for the Eiffel Tower, although admittedly it wasn't a long line. London was similarly packed with people.
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Jun 7, 2013 00:48
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There's no real offseason in Paris. We get over 27 million tourists per year.
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Jun 7, 2013 01:31
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Yeah, Paris is always packed. The trick is just to get to everything just around when it opens.
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Jun 7, 2013 02:28
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What size are the sim cards for smartphones in Poland? I want to get a prepaid card for my Galaxy S3 while I am there. My phone is unlocked.
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Jun 8, 2013 01:09
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