As of now it looks like Im gonna be headin out on March 24th and back on April 4th. The itenerary looks somewhat like this: March 24th-25th: Arrive @ London, drop stuff off at cousins apartment, sleep March 26th-28th: Amsterdam, Netherlands, Luxemborg March 29-31st: France, Germany April 1st-4th: London I don't think I'll be able to spend too much time in any countries, so I'm saying around 1-3 days per, depending on how much I like it. I would absolutely LOVE to go to Spain and Italy but as of now it doesn't look like I'll have time too. Also, I heard that I can stay at YMCAs. True? False? If false, what are good places to stay for American immigrants like myself? Also, WOULD I BE ABSOLUTELY SCREWED, IF I KNEW NOTHING OF OTHER LANGUAGES? I dont' think I will, but just in case I wander off far from a major city, and end up in hickville, europe, what the heck do I do? Keep that advice a'comin.
You have GOT TO GO TO SWITZERLAND! There is NO place like Switzerland! It's one of my most favorite places ever!
we weren't at all. we had a guy who knew french with us in paris but we could've gotten by. virtually anything of note will have people who speak english working at it and for anything else signs and pictures should be prevalent and easy enough to understand to get you by (like if you're using the subway). hell, we were in italy for something like 11 days and i don't know any italian. i took 3 years of high school spanish and then the one time i needed it in the one country i could use it (spain) i couldn't remember the word i wanted. of course, as i was trying to explain to the guy at mcdonald's that i wanted butter with my pancakes, my friend was there to remind me the word is mantequilla. we got lost trying to get to our hostel in venice and were trying to figure out which bus to take and even talking to people who knew no english we could communicate ok. so you'll survive. being in london and hearing everyone actually speaking with a british accent was kind of a trip for a while. you hear it in movies and tv all the time but actually seeing every single person around you doing it is just strange. even stranger b/c my friend is indian and we were staying with his relatives and i'm so used to the heavy indian accents of his american relatives that the british accents were just hilarious.
Yeah. One of the things I enjoy doing on lazy Sunday afternoons is catching Rick on PBS. ....."Keep on travelin' ".
There is no way you will be able to go to all those places in that time frame. I would stick to London, Amsterdam, and one other city if you can fit it in. Go to a Barns & Noble and look through the travel books. The best for backpacking are "Let's Go" and "Lonely Planet". They have lots of information on hostels, what to see, how much time you need in each city and, the best ways to get from city to city. Rick Steves is better if you are staying in Hotels. After looking at some books you will have a much better idea of what you can do in less than two weeks. Hope this helps.
i think you should go to London, amsterdam, paris, and forget about the other country's. And just stay in those 3 city's if you go by train from Amsterdam to paris you will see enough f the netherlands and belgium through your window. In london and amsterdam everybody speaks english. not a problem. In Paris you might have to talk to peple who do not speak english as wel as you would like. But that would not happen alot. Most people in touristic atractions and in bars speak english well enough. if you want i can give you some advice about wich places to visit in amsterdam. In london you should do a city trip. that is in a bus and they drive you through london. You also have these in Paris. Those trips are beautiful and you get to see the city. ok some advice about were to go" London: City tour. Tower of london (crown jewels, and great looking old castle) a musical (you cannot go to london without watching a musical) natural history museum ( if you like that stuff) Harrods (one of the biggest shops in the world) boat trip over the themes Amsterdam: Trip over the waters of amsterdam Anne frank house maddam touseau (alot of statues that look like humans) Paris: City tour. Eiffeltower Arc de triomf sacre coeur (not sure about the spelling) Montmatre (the plae were there ae alot of artists very close to the sacre coeur) ok if you want more just ask.
you are welcome. I have been to those city a number of times, london 3 times Paris 3 times and Amsterdam way to much
Thanks for the AWESOME advice and tips guys. That's why clutchfans are the best. Yea my timeframe was off, what I actually meant was jsut London, France, and Amsterdam. I'm trying to figure out now the cheapest way to get between countries. I have checked a couple of hostels in Amsterdam on the net, they're not bad at all. RIght in downtown near the red light district. But still looking for best way to get from France to Amsterdam. And Back. For Cheap. The buses are expensive as HELL. I'm trying to find if I can get from France to Amsterdam for like 70 bucks max. Same thing on the way back. I need money to spend in Amsterdam, can't spend it all just getting there, y'know? Also, let's see if anyone can explain this one: I'm online at 2 Am last night and i got to expedia.com to check tix prices, and I find Chicago to London for 390 some dollars. I check back this morning, mid-day ish, around 1 PM, and prices are are 530ish. Is there some sort of price gauging during the day, or deep discounting in the night? Or was I simply dreaming? Also I hate the fact that the only time I can check clutchfans is when I get back from one of my ridiculously long days and by that time my thread is all the way on the 2nd page.
Skip Europe go to Thailand. Better weather, better food, better beaches, plenty of nightlife, cheaper prices and all top of that you'll be doing your part to help them recover from the tsunami. Anyway there's plenty of Euros in Thailand if you want to hang out with them.
Take the night train. It will save you one nights hotel/hostel money and you wont lose a day for traveling.
that's what we did and it's the way to go (especially if you need to see a lot of things in a certain city), but damn did one of those nights suck ass. i think it was paris to switzerland. had a Godawful time getting to sleep. then it started getting cold on the train and i only had a small blanket that didn't cover me. the seats were just seats. no reclining or anything. no one else was on my row of 2 seats so i tried to lay back against the wall but that was worse. then i started getting sick and slept in about 5 minute intervals every 15 minutes. finally, i get to sleep comfortably and so of course an hour later the guy comes by asking for passports. at that point it was about 5:30 and we were arriving at 6:30 so i just stayed up. easily one of the ten worst nights of sleep of my life. now if you get the reclining seats (or even better a sleeping car), you should be fine.
I have a good night train story too. We were leaving from Madrid to Barcelona. Wine is very good and cheap in Spain so my friend and I always had a few bottles before we got on a night train. It really helps getting to sleep. We get to are seats and there is a family there so we decide to go hang out in the dinner car. We are drinking some beer talking to people in the dinner car when my friend goes back to the room to try to sleep. He come right back and tells me there are 10 people sleeping in our 8 seat room. I go and start to argue. It does no good because they don't speak English and the family was not breaking up. We decide to sleep in the dinner car. In the dinner car there is a Moroccan who had just gotten out of jail for a soccer riot. He was in there for over 4 months. We had a Mexican who decided to bring two bottles of tequila from his bag into the dinner car. A guy from New Zeland freaking out because some one had just stole his bag with is expensive camera in it. There was some guys from Belgium who were smoking alot of hash in the table behind me. After the first bottle of tequila is gone the Moroccan decides to get naked and try fight any person who wants to fight him. The guy from Mexico decides he will fight the naked Moroccan. I am trying to stop them from fight. More importantly I am trying to do this with out touching the naked guy. Next thing I know I wake up it is 7 am and they are selling breakfast and coffee. I wake up and look a my table and the one next to me. Lots of beer cans, an empty bottle of wine, and two empty bottles of tequila. Most of the people drinking with us had gone back to their seats. An older man sitting at my table drinking his morning coffee looks at me and says "rough night huh?" I just said "yeah, wake me up when we get to Barcelona". I put my head down and went right back to sleep. It was a really crazy night.
yeah..there's something i'd like to know specifically. WHY THE HELL DID YOU COMANDEER MY MONIKER, YOU LIMEY!!! (i'm totally kidding)
arno_ed, if you don't mind my asking, which town outside of A'dam? I spent some time in Haarlem, with my Dutch girlfriend, a very, very long time ago. The town was beautiful, and the people couldn't have been more friendly. The first time I came to her parent's house (one of the 3 story, narrow row houses, with a small back and front yard... very nice), I was standing on a street corner, with a puzzled look on my face and trying to get my bearings, but not looking like anything special. Just another hippie. This lady walks up to me with a smile and asks, in English, "May I help you?" In a moment, she had pointed out exactly where I needed to go. I wondered later how she knew I spoke English, and was told that I looked English. As a native Texan, I found this very amusing. I love the Netherlands. If I ever came into a large sum of money, I would buy a flat in an old canal house in Amsterdam, or one of the smaller towns outside of the city, and live there several months of the year. The Dutch are the friendliest people I've ever met in another country, and the most liberal, in the main. I agree with several others that, with so little time, I would pick two or three cities to visit, and plan a much more extensive trip another time. You will certainly want to go back, Rockets R' Us. Europe is a gas!
