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Arzakon posted:Tiny euro diesels get 50-70MPG Yeh, this isn't going to happen, if you can't do this: Arzakon posted:drive stick.
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Jun 21, 2010 19:25
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NihilismNow posted:Amsterdam has a budget airport? I thought it was just Schiphol and nothing else. What is the name of the budget airport in question? I assume he means Eindhoven which is where Ryanair fly to and is about 1.5 hours from Amsterdam by train. All the other major airlines fly to Schipol though. The "take a ferry" option is.. err.. ridiculous. You need to take two trains from Amsterdam to the Hook of Holland - this will take 90 minutes. You then sit on a ferry for 7 hours (you have to turn up an hour before as well) before landing in Harwich, about 70 miles north east of London, and getting a train into the city. The boat gets in at 8am so you'll hit rush hour and won't get a seat. You'll pay about £9 for a meal on the ferry which will consist of a few spoonfuls of re-heated "curry" and some rice. A beer will cost about £3. The ferries are really nice though!
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Jul 7, 2010 16:48
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Chippay posted:Is it pretty much impossible to backpack Western Europe as a 17 year old? I'll be going with an 18 year old friend, but I keep hearing about how it's an awful idea to go before you turn 18 because hotels and hostels will turn you away. Hostels will either refuse to take under-18 year olds, only take them if they are with a parent or guardian (i.e. a proper "adult", not someone who turned 18 the day before) or only take them if they are with any 18 year old. For the ones that will take an under-18 year old, some (if not most) of them will require the under-18 year old to stay in a private room, not a dorm. The reasoning behind all this is to do with their insurance policy, not because they hate under-18s. You may also have trouble getting travel and health insurance, or at least probably pay more for it. If something goes badly wrong and you need a thousand bucks RIGHT NOW you don't stand any chance in hell of getting it from your bank. You will have trouble in some countries buying alcohol and cigarettes (in every country except France, basically), trouble in most countries getting into nightclubs, and trouble in Holland buying weed. Once you turn 18 all these problems vanish! Plus, if you wait till you're 18 you've got another few months to save up more cash so it'll be even better! If you really want to do it I suppose it's possible but seems a bit daft to me. Comedy answer: Find a hostel with a creche.
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Jul 21, 2010 17:43
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Doctor Malavar posted:On the Balkans/Eastern Europe you don't have such problems - as a minor you can buy whatever you want and get wherever you want unless you look 12. He said Western Europe though... Saladman posted:16 is the drinking age in most of continental Europe for wine/beer. I've never been carded in a bar in Europe, so I have no idea about that. It might be 18 but if you try 3 bars you'll probably get into 2 of them, in any country in Europe. That's all guesswork, but the worst that can happen is they tell you 'no.' This is true but if you're going out with a group of guys (and more importantly, girls) from a hostel then the entire group is unlikely to agree to wander around trying random bars just so the 17 year old can get in. It's very quickly going to turn into a case of, "gently caress you, I got mine". Even your 18 year old friend might take on this mentality, especially after a few beers, a taste of independence and more girls than he's ever seen in his life. God I miss backpacking*. Saladman posted:Re hostel: Can you just have your friend check you both in? Just have her/him get a room for two, and have you be elsewhere (e.g. outside) and come back later. This works in hotels, anyway; I've never tried it in a hostel. Maybe someone else knows. This might work but they may not give the second key to the first guy. If you're planning on staying in private rooms for your entire stay then you're going to run out of money FAST. If you're staying in dorms there is no absolute guarantee that you'll both be in the same room, so if you've only got a key for one room you're kind of hosed. * girls
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Jul 22, 2010 00:01
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Chippay posted:Hey, thanks everyone for the replies about the hostel thing. The cheaper hotels will cost about that but they'll be outside the city centre (generally near airports and industrial areas) and you'll only get the cheap rates on weekdays AND if you book in advance. However, these sites are good for last minute deals in more central hotels, in the UK at least: https://www.lastminute.com https://www.laterooms.com It's a dangerous game to play though, because you might find yourself unable to find a cheap room and you'll be wandering around with all your bags looking for somewhere. I worked front desk (reception and night audit) in a hotel in central London and I'd always get foreign backpackers wandering in asking if they could have a room for £30. The answer was always no. Chippay posted:As a sidenote, is 18 old enough to book a hotel in Europe? Yes. But in most places you will need a credit card, or at the very least a debit card. They may also pre-authorise the debit card for the room cost + a bit more (i.e. if you trash the room and run off), which means all that money is frozen in your account. It's up to the bank to unfreeze it and that could take weeks, which isn't so good when you're a poor backpacker.
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Jul 22, 2010 14:30
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Ziir posted:Your bank is probably going to charge a $5 foreign access fee, plus 1% on top of that. It's not worth it to be paying via credit card. Not quite true. There are credit cards which market themselves as "specialist overseas cards". They offer 0% foreign exchange fees and you will always always always get a better exchange rate than changing physical cash or even using a debit card. This is only applicable when paying for things with your card though; pulling money out of an ATM (a "cash advance") is still going to gently caress you over. You do have to watch out for the interest rates - set up a direct debit with your bank so the card is paid off at the end of the month, AND get one which can be paid off online; you don't want to be spending $5 a minute on the phone trying to pay it off so you don't get a $20 late payment fee. These cards will also usually offer other little perks for travellers like air miles and travel insurance. The fraud protection on credit cards in Europe is also better than on debit cards. Even if you don't want one of these cards, check the small print on your existing credit card contract to see if they offer anything useful. Even if they don't, give them a call and ask if they can do anything.. you'll be surprised how pathetically desperate these people are for your custom! That advice is only for financially savvy people with excellent credit ratings! DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH! Some sort-of-related advice for you - tell your bank you're going overseas!! They will cut off your card (it's an automatic thing, so it will happen) and it will happen at the most annoying time possible. Like after dinner. Or at a train station. Or when you're leaving a brothel.
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Aug 13, 2010 00:26
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plustwobonus posted:You speak with the voice of reason, sir. I still think that flying together will be easier, but at least I know that it's an option to meet up. My main worry was potential flight delays/cancellations/diversions due to weather in conjunction with hotel/hostel check-ins. If we fly together, then we can deal with any potential problems together. If we fly separately, and one of us is significantly delayed, then the other person is stuck in the airport with no place to sleep. Probably not a problem... but something I'd rather not have to think about. I don't mean to be rude, but if the two of you are this incapable of flying into a major international western European airport without the other one to assist then you should probably talk her out of going to Barcelona in the first place. If she does you are both going to die. Seriously, there are no "potential problems" here. Book the flights, book a hotel. Whoever gets there first goes to the hotel. Information about the other persons flight is available on the internet, the television and the telephone. Alternatively, they can wait in the airport. The chances of a significant flight delay, cancellation or diversion (a diversion?! It's 2010!) is so miniscule to be irrelevent.
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Aug 22, 2010 13:41
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Sai posted:Not exactly Europe, but could someone tell me how expensive Moscow is (compared to major European cities)? Their underground system is amazing and dirt cheap. It's all in Russian though so you need to get one of the maps that show the station names (in Russian) and how they sound in English, because the trains don't have signs saying which station you're coming to. The driver shouts them out over a PA system instead and it can get confusing. Actually, no, it is incredibly confusing. Cigarettes are cheap, if you smoke the Russian brands. Having said that, don't smoke the Russian brands. Don't buy the Russian vodka from the shops either - it seems like a good idea (a litre for 20p?! Yes please!), but your stomach, brains and eyes can't handle it. You will go blind, and then you will die. If you're not using the underground your transport options are: 1) Bus/trolleybus (a trolleybus is like a tram on wheels instead of tracks) - cheap as chips but you'll probably get pickpocketed when you open your mouth. 2) Minibus - still pretty cheap but they basically drive around randomly so who knows where you'll end up 3) Taxi - hugely expensive 4) Hitching - all the expats do this. Stick your thumb out and a car will stop for you within seconds. Point on your map where you want to go and show the driver the money you're offering. He will either go "Da" or "Nyet". If it is "Da", get in and go. This is, incredibly, perfectly safe! And much cheaper than a taxi! Drinking in bars is expensive (think London prices x 2). When you eat out in restaurants you will instinctively work out the exchange rate for your meal so you know how much you've spent in your own currency. Try to stop doing this as quickly as possible, unless you want to cry yourself to sleep every night. Seriously. The prices at the McDonalds near Red Square absolutely blew my mind, and it was always packed. ALWAYS. Hope this helps!
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Sep 7, 2010 12:01
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thepokey posted:I'm an Aussie that's pretty set on doing some kind of work program in the UK next year. I've been to the UK before and hold an Irish passport so the whole visa thing is not an issue. But I have a friend who has just moved over there with his girlfriend to live and work for awhile and is struggling already with trying to get a decent job and hasn't got any real accomodation yet so it's costing him a fortune into his savings already. The golden rule of employment scams is to never, ever, ever, under any circumstances ever, give money up front in return for the promise of a job. Ever. And I really do mean never ever. This company aren't going to take your money and run, but they will only accept you if they know they can get you a job (i.e. if you're a nurse or teacher or something). If they do get you a job the employer will be paying them a commission, so they'll be making money off you straight away AND you're giving them $595 for the privilege! Their accommodation "deals" are a joke, there are no savings there. There "assistance" with setting up a bank account and getting an NI number is bullshit; all this must be done by yourself anyway and isn't exactly difficult. And their "free money transfer service" will no doubt be done at whatever lovely exchange rate they decide to give you. It also says at the bottom you will spend £2500 in your first ten weeks, on "rent and living costs", but they can provide you with all this for only $595!!! It is perhaps unfortunate that the £2500 includes food and the $595 doesn't. Perhaps they expect you to forage? To contribute, though... The best thing you can do if you're going to a foreign country is go with a plan. Ask yourself loads of questions and know all the answers. Just some examples: What kind of work can I do? Am I qualified or experienced? Do I have contacts? Can I GET contacts before I go? What kind of work is available, even if I don't want to do it? How do I get this work? How long will it take to get paid? How much will it cost to feed myself? Where can I get cheap food? How do I meet girls? Doing this, and talking to as many people as you can about it (people who have done it, mainly) will be far more useful than paying someone close to six hundred bucks to tell you where the bank is.
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Dec 2, 2010 13:30
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thepokey posted:Good advice, I'm trying to look in at the moment to find people who have done similar things, but unfortunatly most of the people I know that have gone overseas have just gone on holiday, the guy that's already over there is finding it hard so I'm trying to avoid what he's done or just learn from his mistakes. Just looking now for a forum or something where people have done these things. It was hard for me when I went to Australia and it was hard when I went to London. Part of the fun is the challenge! All you can do is plan it, plan it, plan it and plan it.. then go, and watch your plans fall apart. The really difficult bit is putting them back together again. thepokey posted:I guess what works against me is not really having qualifications as such except for just your average work/customer service history. A solid work history is a qualification in itself. thepokey posted:I figured maybe seeing as one of those sites is funded by a major travel agent and the other has been around for a long time they should at least be reputable, they talk about no experience required for the jobs they find for you like bar work or what have you. So that would mean that they're probably pretty poo poo eating jobs I'd be guessing. They may well be reputable but paying someone to give you a job is absolute madness. I went to London and got a live-in job in a pub earning £180 a week (after all deductions - tax, rent, 2 meals a day) within a week. There are 7000 of them; it's really just a case of picking up the phone. thepokey posted:The pay is a concern though, it just seems like such a ridiculously small wage to take home, I worked out that is seems to average at about $500AU a fortnight with most of these places which is about what you get on standard unemployment benefits here. Every single Australian who has ever worked in the UK has spent the first week coughing and spluttering about the cost of living and the low wages etc etc etc. They generally get over this when they start taking drugs. And they all take drugs. Seriously, all of them. So get ready for that! thepokey posted:Is the 95 quid a week for a single room in a share house the norm over there? Less/More expensive? https://www.gumtree.com Search for rooms in London. £100 is about average, but it depends where you are. Also remember that Sydney has a population of 4 million spread over an area of 4,600 square miles; London has a population of 9 million spread over an area of 600 square miles. There's twice as many people but eight times less space.. so don't expect a huge room. thepokey posted:I think that I was thinking more that this would be a stepping stone while I look for other jobs and accomodation. It's hard to look at stuff from over here because if you find it you're not in a position to apply yet and browsing UK job websites I've come across makes the unemployment over there seem terrible, it feels kind of daunting to go over without something in the pipeline. I would be guessing that arriving and looking for somewhere to rent and a job will require references so I figured that would be easier to supply with a few months history having lived/worked for someone over there already. You won't need references to rent unless you're renting an entire flat, which you won't be because you can't afford it. Some jobs will require references although obtaining them has become easier recently. Only a few years ago if an employer wanted a reference on an Australian he would have to send a message with the next steamer to Darwin, which, weather permitting, could take years. Nowadays we use morse code and telegrams, which cuts the time down to only a few weeks! Apparently there's this new-fangled system called "email" which will cut it down to only a few days, but we haven't got that yet. Totally serious advice: call centres. They're easy to get into, it's easy money, you sit in a warm office all day and there will almost certainly be girls. If you can't land in London and have a job in a call centre within a week you are too stupid to be breathing. Have fun!
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Dec 2, 2010 16:39
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Girls are everywhere, it's unreal. The job boards won't have any ads on them because there are thousands of people looking for work in London. Agencies get dozens of CVs every day, thousands of phone calls and hundreds of people walking in the door. When a job comes up for them to fill they don't need to advertise it, they just give it to the "most qualified person" - and that is usually the person who is just about qualified and phones them all the bloody time and they just want to get rid of him. The actual "most qualified person" won't be offered the job if they haven't heard from him in 24 hours (which is virtually a lifetime in recruitment agency terms). This is why you need to be there, on the ground, to get a job through an agency. I don't agree with job programs because they're a rip-off (I am admittedly cautious about using the word 'scam'). Put it like this: Let's say you pay your AU$595 (£372 according to google) to this company and they promise to find you a job. Let's assume they find you a job, and you agree to be paid £200 a week after tax, minus £100 in rent. Your take-home is £100. You decide you're going to do this job for 3/4 months, then go traveling. See Stonehenge or something, you Australians love that poo poo (god only knows why, it's a pile of rocks?). To do this, you know you need to save some money. Unfortunately you also want to have a good time. You want to drink and be merry, etc etc. This costs £50 a week. The food at the place you're staying is poo poo so sometimes you eat out. This costs £20 a week. You save the other £30. After thirteen weeks (approx three months) you have saved £390. Minus the expenditure in actually getting the job, and in three months you have actually saved a grand total of... £18. This is why I don't agree with it. This sort of program is, in my eyes, for the people who want to take drugs and have sex but not look for a job. If that's you, go for it, but if you go to London with the precise intention of getting a job you can easily do it by yourself. If it was free I'd do it, but it wouldn't actually be free - someone would be taking a cut out of my wages, and I wouldn't work like that. If you just want to land in the UK and have a job I'd look outside London. The rest of the country is a different beast, and you'll be amazed how completely different it is. There's a hotel near me (Loch Lomond, Scotland) staffed almost entirely by Australians and New Zealanders, and they certainly aren't employed through some shady agency; they just landed and rang up asking for a job. And there are hundreds of weird little places like that all over the country.
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Dec 2, 2010 18:34
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I lived and worked in Jersey (the old Jersey, in the Channel Islands) for 6 months and that was live-in. I emailed approx thirty five hotels, had seven phone interviews and was offered three jobs. I accepted the best and off I went! The holiday season in the Channel Islands starts in March/April and lasts till September/October so you're unlikely to get a job in the winter. They aren't in the European Union but anyone from the EU can live and work there with no restrictions. The tax rate is lower (mine was 3%, compared to 20% in the UK) and France is an hour and a half away by ferry - and you can get duty free cigs and booze on it! I don't see anything particularly dodgy about https://www.livein-jobs.co.uk. It looks like they'll find you a job and the employer will pay them a commission (or give them a flat fee), without you forking out any cash - exactly the way it should be. Remember they're an agency though. If you register and talk to them once, don't expect them to call you three weeks later with some great job they've found you; they'll give the jobs they've got to people who are in regular contact with them. Going with something like that isn't a bad idea, but doing some work yourself as well would do the trick.
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Dec 4, 2010 01:13
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thepokey posted:I must admit the content of the https://www.livein-jobs.co.uk website doesn't seem dodgey, guess it's just the low frills presentation. And yeah I'm totally with you on the fact I'd have to be prepared to be a pain in their rear end about getting a job rather than sitting and waiting for the phone call. The site to it's credit does encourage a call to them a day because they are always updating their job lists. Yes a month in hostels sounds reasonable. It is difficult though, since you'll probably only be able to afford to stay in a dorm, so there will be people coming and going all the time.. nightmare if you're working shifts. But when you move into your own room the saving you'll make in rent costs is almost like a payrise  Don't be too put off by work references. This is a slightly more modern way of saying "No DSS". The DSS, or the Department of Social Security, was the agency which administered benefits for the unemployed etc, so if you were in receipt of said benefits you were said to be "on DSS" (or a variant of that). The main problem landlords had with people on DSS was that the DSS paid a portion of the persons rent to the landlord, and since it was a government agency the payments were usually weeks/months behind. Some landlords hate this; although some landlords love it because it means the rent payments are absolutely guaranteed, even if they're always late. You might also see "No JSA" (Job Seekers Allowance) which means the same thing. Oh, and some of them say they want work references because they don't want Indian students, of which there are gazillions in London. Indian students are sterotypically thought to smell of curry and will completely rape the bandwidth allowance. I've lived with a couple of Indian students and they actually smelled quite nice, although they did completely rape the bandwidth allowance. As an immigrant you're a slight step above this, mainly because you can pay cash and you can put up a deposit. And you don't smell of curry. Just don't tell them you're Irish.
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Dec 4, 2010 17:33
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hankor posted:^^^ I don´t argue with that but there are some that are actually doing their jobs. Are you saying that customs suspected him of buying products in Europe and attempting to smuggle them... out? What the gently caress are you jabbering on about?
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Jan 18, 2011 02:08
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Ziir posted:Yeah this is the only thing I see. Was hoping for some kind of cheaper Ryanair flight or something. Coach. Eurostar on June 29th (just a random date) is £56. National Express is £25. It takes about seven hours. It's also worth bearing in mind that the £56 Eurostar leaves at 6.20am, before the tube opens - so you'll need to get a bus/taxi to St Pancras. The coaches leave at the much more civilised times of 8am, 10am and 2pm. edit: https://www.eurolines.co.uk duckmaster fucked around with this message at 13:04 on Jun 17, 2011 |
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Jun 17, 2011 12:54
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Saladman posted:Hate to break this to you but drugs are illegal in Amsterdam!!!
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Jan 21, 2012 19:50
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Any advice on Istanbul/Turkey please? Going for 2 weeks in early December. What will the weather likely be? I'm from the UK so not worried about cold but hoping it'll be at least a bit warmer. We're staying at an Air BnB place near Istiklal Avenue for the first five days. Probably just do the whole city exploring, mosques, museums etc then go down to Troy for a few days then back up. I'm also slightly tempted by Gallipoli if it's worth it but the female half isn't keen on battlefields (philistine). How is the train network in Turkey or will we be on buses? We are pretty seasoned travellers and to be honest we're just going for Istanbul so the itinerary is pretty non-existent. Any advice appreciated. Teşekkür ederim!
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Oct 28, 2014 14:52
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WaryWarren posted:I am in Istanbul all of next week. I am staying in Sultanahmet, about 500 meters from Hagia Sophia. I have never been before, so I will hit up the usual spots (Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Cistern, Taksim, Galata, İstiklal Avenue). I asked about Istanbul a few pages ago and nobody answered. Maybe nobody here has been to Istanbul  Regarding shorts, I am from the UK and last time I went to Spain it was shorts during the day and trousers at night. This was one of your typical built-by-Franco fake tourist towns though, when I went into Barcelona I put trousers on.
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Nov 17, 2014 15:00
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I am posting from Istanbul and staying in an AirBnB apartment right now. Definitely research the area first - we're near Taksim Square which I assumed would be good for eating, drinking etc but the Old City is better for that plus it has the major tourist attractions. Still it's good for shopping and the food places stay open late so it's all good. We met the guy who owns the apartment once when we arrived and haven't seen him since, although he said to give us a call if we had any problems or needed help. I think most of the places on airbnb are actually private landlords not just people going away for a week or whatever, so it's really just like a cheap hotel with no amenities (plenty of shops around though). This may not be the same for house-share bookings obviously. Still I recommend it - we wouldn't get our own apartment and kitchen for anywhere near the same price if we were in a hotel. I'm looking into using it when we go to Ankara on Monday, although when we go onto Izmir we'll probably get a hotel so at least the desk guy can tell us how the buses work etc. For a major city though you can do that all online so it's all good. The owner doesn't get your money until you leave either (AirBnB hold it until you tell them you checked in alright and it was all fine) so the chances of extra charges for hot water, WiFi etc are slim to none.
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Dec 6, 2014 19:16
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Saladman posted:Eh.. it might be like that sometimes, but I've probably booked 20 places AirBNB, and usually I find out it's the person's old apartment/house and they want to keep it for sentimental reasons/to give to their children/whatever. Maybe this is what you meant though. I've never stayed in a 'full apartment' that the person was actually living in at any point in the last many months. Yep that's what I meant - there's no personal items, clutter, ornaments etc, just functional stuff like you'd expect in a hotel room plus maybe some potted plants and cheap artwork for colour. This might be what some people want and some don't - I think couchsurfing sites are different in this way to AirBnB. Again, unless it's a houseshare with the host.
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Dec 12, 2014 16:59
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