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Hey there. Got a family trip to Greece this Christmas, and after they go home (New Year's Day) I'm sticking around for another couple weeks. The plan is to branch out a bit into neighboring countries, tentatively Albania and Macedonia, but I'm open to see more of Greece beyond the Athens area, or pretty much anywhere with a shortish nonstop flight from Athens Intl. Of the region I've only ever been to Istanbul, so I'm interested in anyone's thoughts on what's interesting in southeastern Europe. I've heard the ferries don't run that time of year, so if that's correct then the islands are mostly out, but I'm more of a history and culture person than a beach person so I'm not terribly broken up about that.
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Nov 2, 2022 18:05
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| # ¿ May 11, 2024 09:29 |
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Has anyone ever been to the Isle of Man? I'm visiting a friend in Manchester some time this fall, and since I've been through a decent chunk of England I wanted to throw in something novel as part of the trip. Looks like I could take a train over to Liverpool and then grab a ferry to the Isle. How long would be good to spend there? Is it nice? I don't need it to be exciting and full of tourist activities, but enough visitor infrastructure to get around (probably car rental, in this case?) and some scenery to wander would suffice.
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Jul 21, 2023 01:59
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Pookah posted:I visited the Isle of Man a several times when I was a kid (so, many years ago), and I always really liked it. This looks delightful, thank you! kru posted:Have you considered Scotland, the better England Scotland is bigger and will get its own trip at some point. I'll have like 3 or 4 days extra after visiting my friends, so I wanted a place where I can feel like I didn't miss too terribly much after that long.
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Jul 24, 2023 21:55
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Saladman posted:I’ve never heard an actual human being have a particularly bad time with an Uber/Bolt/Careem/whatever. You see outrage articles online by poo poo-stirrers who are either useful idiots to Big Taxi, or are Extremely Online people who never travel and are reactionaries to everything related to tech bros. Yeah, there’s a lot of stupid and bad techbro stuff, but I can’t even imagine stanning for traditional taxis. Not a Europe experience (I take public transit if I have a choice, and honestly "no transit" is a minus when picking destinations) but I've definitely had unsafe drivers with Uber. One dude was clearly falling asleep and had trouble staying in a lane. If there had been a non-highway portion of that trip (out to the airport) I'd have had him pull over and let me out early. I always report stuff like this but I've never seen the same driver twice anyway so I have no idea whether these things are acted on, or how many chances they're given.
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Sep 18, 2023 00:08
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If you can be flexible in your itinerary, Berat is a pretty cool castle town to the south. I realize that's most of the country in the opposite direction from Durrës, but it's a small country after all. If you rent a car you could do it as a day trip, or you might be able to hire a driver or something. To be honest, I got the impression that most of the older stuff was kind of down to the south, and Tirana had seen a lot of bulldozing in the communist era -- the signs at the ultra-modernist church in the city center indicated it was built specifically to replace an old one that was destroyed. The most well-known world heritage site unfortunately is way down at the southern tip (Sarandë) and is probably kind of out of range if you intend to only stay in the north, though it is a neat Greek/Roman/Ottoman layered site that's well-preserved and clearly presented. The closest to old stuff I saw in Tirana was a mosque from the Ottoman days, but they do have a archeological museum in the city. And if you just mean historical, not like centuries old, Bunkart is a neat relic of the communist era. As far as food, a lot of it felt kinda similar to Greek food (understandably, given the proximity) and on the whole I didn't find anything to rave about. To be fair, I spent most of the trip in small villages and even when in Tirana didn't go seeking top restaurants, and had just come from Crete where food was consistently amazing. I did enjoy a byrek, though, kind of a calzone-esque cheese pie. I got my most memorable one in Pogradec but I don't think you'll have to hunt too far to find a place that serves them. And if you're up in the east edge of the city, almost into the mountains, I had a nice meal with a view at Bar Restorant Olsi
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Oct 2, 2023 07:01
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mojo1701a posted:Boy, it's been a while since I've checked in on this thread. Hey, I just got back from England. Couldn't say as to special seasonal things for December, but as general advice I'll offer this: it's a terrific time to see smaller, less famous things as long as they're still open (some tourist things close or switch to limited hours Oct 31). I ranged a bit further than London but I had a surprising amount of attractions to myself. I got a private tour of Bath Abbey, because no one else showed up that hour. Even Stonehenge was pretty chill, just myself and a couple other folks on a slightly drizzly day. Salisbury (the city closest to Stonehenge) is a nice day trip from London, by the way. If you end up with a spare day. Got up, took a 9am train out, got a bus to the henge, dropped by a castle site called Old Sarum, looked at some old medieval stuff in Salisbury itself and saw an original copy of the Magna Carta, had dinner in a pub and caught the 6:30pm train back. (NB: low crowds advice will emphatically not apply to Stonehenge on the solstice, so look up what day that is if you want to go out there.) Also, most small cities seemed to have Christmas Markets opening up. I assume London has a few scattered around too. I found them kitschy and sort of irritating but if you dislike the holidays less, like buying crafts and drinking more, and/or are going with someone to sit and enjoy mulled wine with, then you might want to have a look.
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Nov 19, 2023 20:08
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Bollock Monkey posted:Has anyone been to Albania and/or North Macedonia and have tips they'd like to share? I was in Albania last January, and had a nice time. Went hiking in the mountains east of Kükes, near a small town called Novosej by the Kosovo border. We stayed in a really nice guest house whose name I can dig out if you're interested in heading that direction. The last part of the drive east was gorgeous, through this fantastic mountain pass. The hiking itself was pleasant. Not its best due to the season making the day short and the vegetation brownish, although supposedly the alpine meadows there are a rainbow in the springtime when all the wildflowers bloom. I'd still honestly recommend taking the overnight side trip out there. Trails are ill-defined but it's just a big open area on a slope so you can pretty much see where you are all the time. The other part of the country I visited was the south. Pogradec I didn't love, although lake Ohrid is pretty. If you're going to North Macedonia it's maybe better seen from their side of the water, but we didn't cross that border. We did really like Gjirokaster and the ruins down at Butrint. January seemed to be pretty dead tourist-wise. We had almost everything to ourselves, but also some hotels were just sort of closed. One place we reserved through a travel site ended up just refusing our money and sending us an email saying "yeah we're not open in winter, not sure why they let you book this." So it might be worth springing for the extra couple bucks to get a cellular internet thing for the rental car. (and for the insurance; it's a push-your-way-through type of driving culture and I don't think I saw a functioning traffic signal outside Tirana.)
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Dec 24, 2023 16:19
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I enjoyed Crete, although I was there in January so I couldn't speak to the summer climate. But the poster above who suggested sticking to the mainland has a decent idea too. And if you don't end up out in the islands, see if you can fit a couple days up at Meteora! It's a really beautiful spot, and I believe it stays cool. At the very least, the terrain shades most of the paths, and there's lots of trees.
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Jan 2, 2024 11:37
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I was in here about a year and a half ago inquiring about Albania, and while I was lazy and shameful and didn’t put up a trip report in exchange, I did have a good time! There’s a lot of interesting places up and down the whole country! Though I will say that Bollock Monkey seems to have gotten the better side of Lake Ohrid; Pogradec seemed vaguely sketchy and a bit dull, both in excitement and literal color. Albania has some great mountains in the northwest (which tragically are rebranding away from Accursed Mountains to Albanian Alps) as well as neat castles and archeological sites down toward the south end. I’m phone posting for the next month at least since I’ve embraced career-death and run off to Asia to distract myself while the job market maybe possibly hopefully becomes less catastrophically bad for my field, but if anyone gets sold on Albania enough to start planning by the above posts I’ll throw in a couple other spots in the country.
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Mar 31, 2024 11:44
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Jean-Paul Shartre posted:For the Vatican Museum we did the goddamn way too early tour which includes breakfast, and it was so very worth it because it got you in to the Sistine Chapel before they let general admission folks in. In the course of rescheduling flights back from Central Asia, I’ve ended up with a two-day stopover in Rome so I’d love to see if I can get on this tour. I’ll be jet-lagged out of time anyway so the time isn’t even a problem. Would you mind linking the specific one you took? Thanks!
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Apr 10, 2024 07:36
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Thanks so much! e: drat, already gone for the 26th. Book early, people! (Or, stop doing that, so disorganized folks like me can sneak in  )
Akratic Method fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Apr 11, 2024 |
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Apr 11, 2024 01:13
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| # ¿ May 11, 2024 09:29 |
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Carbon dioxide posted:I'll find myself in Manchester tomorrow. Any must-sees? Depending on how much you like gimmicky bars, the Washhouse can be a lot of fun. It's basically a conspiracy theory themed bar. You're definitely paying in part for the presentation but I enjoyed just reading the menu and the drinks are pretty tasty. I enjoyed the nightlife generally, so if that kind of tongue-in-cheek place sounds fun just start the night there and then move on somewhere cheaper once you've had a round. Also, I liked the art gallery but I don't know if it rises to "must-see" if you have limited time and other things to do. But it was better than I expected for a smaller city's museum.
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May 4, 2024 09:19
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