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Finally made it to Istanbul on our trans-european train journey from Madrid to the Bosphorus. Istanbul is currently a mess: - The Blue Mosque's dome is under renovation and completely covered by scaffolding. The main courtyard is also under complete renovation and not visible. - The Hagia Sophia's main dome is half-obscured by scaffolding, and most of the upper gallery is obscured by wooden construction walls. Entrance fees have also been increased dramatically, from 40 lira a few years ago to 72 lira today. The pace of increases is so great that their own signage isn't completely updated. - The Basilica Cistern has probably about 60% of its area closed off and the entire thing has been drained of water. The closed off sections are not continuous so it feels like you are walking through a construction site. In case that wasn't enough, they added a "dress like an ottoman sultan" photo booth to one of the areas that aren't closed off; complete with bright white lights that kill off any ambience the place had left. - The archaeological museum is mostly closed for renovations, with only a few token galleries open. For some reason they still charge you the full entrance fee and are open to begin with. - Topkapi Palace treasure rooms and half of the palace is closed for renovation. You still pay the full entrance price. - The Chora Church and Museum is under near complete renovation. Don't worry though, they will still charge you the full entrance fee. - Every other building in Istanbul being under construction or renovation; which again creates an environment of wandering through a construction site rather than a 3000 year old city. The real kicker for us is that our trip coincidentally lies on the Eid al-Adha holiday, where half of the muslim world is on vacation in the city. Public transit is jammed. The already smaller portions of every site is jammed. The sidewalks are jammed. The restaurants are jammed. The grand bazaar is closed, and the parts of the city which are not Sultanahmet or Taksim are completely empty and closed up. While the crowds may be mostly due to the holiday, the construction here is so bad that I probably would have changed my plans. If anyone wants to visit Istanbul I would suggest pushing it off 2-3 years until they finish all the restoration work on the main historic sites. Cheesemaster200 fucked around with this message at 14:10 on Aug 13, 2019 |
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Aug 13, 2019 14:08
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So I am looking at my photos from when I was there in 2010 and the Hagia Sophia still had scaffolding then to, albeit on the side of the main dome and not as prominent. I guess they are constantly moving around the place to restore it. I'll admit I dropped the ball on Eid al-adha. My schedule was concerned with planning 35 days from Madrid to Istanbul by train and that's just when it ended up being. Just kind of frustrated at the situation, made worse by the massive amount of construction going on.
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Aug 13, 2019 20:22
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Book the Anne Frank house well in advance. I believe they take reservations two months before. The house is very small and the throughput of visitors is limited. Obviously it is very popular.
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Nov 4, 2019 01:54
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I have 8 days in Europe in late march; should I got to Scotland or Southern Spain?
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Feb 4, 2020 04:08
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Waci posted:Do you have interests or preferences? We were just in Madrid and Barcelona last year and really liked Spain. I wanted to do Seville, Cordoba, and Granada on that trip but just didn't have time. I have 7-days off (Friday-Monday) off in March and am looking to do a trip which is within reasonable direct flight distance to New York. I don't really want to rent a car, and I would figure that Spain would have a lot better weather at that time. However Scotland is real cheap for our dates. Spain also has a more defined itinerary with what we would like to see, but I I am completely unfamiliar with Scotland sans Edinburgh. I guess my question is what would be possible in Scotland for our time frame and whether a longer trip at a different time of year would be warranted; or whether late march would be a good time to visit due to the crowds, decent weather etc. Scotland just seems very spread out and difficult to visit without a car, and I am having trouble putting together a competing itinerary. I am not trying to visit both, though we may do a one-night stopover in London. We usually do this while visiting Europe and it breaks up the flight over.
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Feb 5, 2020 03:54
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Bollock Monkey posted:My husband and I are considering being stereotypical and going to Paris for our 10 year anniversary in October. Looking for suggestions for places to stay and a 3-4 day itinerary. I have no interest in going into the Louvre, art museums/galleries just don't interest me but I love museums more generally.
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Feb 11, 2020 03:49
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Bollock Monkey posted:Looks lovely but is about double our budget! Yikes, yeah it gets up there for October. We were there in July and it was like 150 euros a night.
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Feb 12, 2020 01:14
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pointsofdata posted:They have loads of money they just refuse to invest in modern reliable infrastructure, it annoys lots of European wonky types, they claim it's damaging the whole EU economy and is preventing Germany from achieving its green goals. Seems to be the cool thing to do nowadays.
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Feb 25, 2020 14:38
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Elysium posted:I know it's hard to say, but what are the chances my trip to Spain at the end of next month is hosed due to Coronavirus? You can hang out with me if you want. Leaving from JFK the end of next week to Andalucia, though doing a couple nights in London first. Unfortunately our $5k of flights and hotels is all non-refundable at this point. Its all covered under travel insurance, but the insurance does not cover "Your disinclination to travel due to an epidemic or pandemic" quite specifically. The coverage also states: "Quarantine of You or Your Traveling Companion imposed by a Physician or by a competent governmental authority having jurisdiction, due to health reasons" as justification for a claim, but in calling them they say you have to actually have the virus for this to take effect. Therefore, if I get quarantined in Spain because they decide to lock down the country, then that won't count. Personally I think that is the insurance company covering themselves and a class action lawsuit waiting to happen. Regardless, I am forging ahead with the trip unless someone tells me otherwise. I probably have a better chance of avoiding this poo poo in the warm dry air of Seville than commuting on the NYC subway. Cheesemaster200 fucked around with this message at 23:50 on Mar 11, 2020 |
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Mar 11, 2020 23:27
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I believe it is only european passports. US Citizens are exempt, though I doubt there will be many flights to the EU after tomorrow.
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Mar 12, 2020 03:54
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I am flying into London on Delta, EasyJet over to Seville, and then Delta from Madrid to JFK. I am expecting the Madrid flight to get cancelled but I think Delta is going to be scummy and not do so until the last minute. EasyJet is already taking the scumbag approach to it with their Coronavirus FAQ stating you should still go on your holiday and here are our change fees otherwise.
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Mar 12, 2020 22:46
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Saladman posted:When is your trip? Madrid might very well be one of the "13 European airports" that can keep flying to the US from Europe that Pence me Pence mentioned but did not list, and your flight might just get changed to Newark instead of JFK, like the Zurich flights did. We cancelled given that everything will be closed in Spain. Pretty much everything was non-refundable, though he hotels were fairly decent with it and only charged us for one-night with the rest able to be used later this year. Airlines appear to be waiting for the last minute to cancel their flights so you are more inclined to get a credit or change them rather than issue a refund. There is a definite air of "we are here to help; except not really" among travel companies. However over the past week or so, my potential loss from this trip reduced from $2500 to around $600. Cheesemaster200 fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Mar 15, 2020 |
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Mar 15, 2020 16:05
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Bollock Monkey posted:My flights aren't (yet) cancelled, but when I tried to call I got a message saying "Due to a high number of calls, we are unable to take your call right now. Please try again later." then an automated hang-up. Not sure at what point to try via my credit card provider, as advice seems to be really inconsistent. I requested a refund through EasyJet, they didn't refund it when they said they would, and then I just created a dispute with my credit card. Apparently they were playing games where the removed the ability to refund tickets online. You could only request a credit for future travel. If you wanted a refund, you had to call (which was of course swamped and an international call).
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Apr 19, 2020 17:44
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Last time I was in Venice we did the "secret" tour of the Doge's palace. There was this woman who was walking around with buttons on her jacket with "I Voted for Hilary" and other similar phrases written on it. When we got to the holding cells in the bottom of the palace, the guide said that this is where the doge kept political prisoners. At this point, the lady couldn't control herself and yelled "LIKE DONALD TRUMP!?!?!" The guide just kind of stared at her and the rest of the group kind of collectively moaned. Act like a normal person and understand that the world does not revolve around the United States.
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Apr 30, 2020 23:34
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