ATTN Eurospags

[Rumckle]

That place seems pretty cool, I'll have to make sure I check it out.

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

I wanna go to Eurospaglandia.
So bad 

[Triple Zero]

Well, gf+me are coming to Amerispaglandia this summer (probably June), I'll try to radiate some europiness all over the fucking place so it's like Eurospaglandia came to you somewhat ok? I'll start a thread about this soon cause I'd really like everybody's help and advice on where to go and what to do (and maybe places to stay and/or hang out).

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

Yes! Please to be coating Americur in your thick sticky Eurofilm!





wait...             

[Triple Zero]

Cool, I'll remember to check that out when I head to Berlin.

Definitely, definitely be sure to spend some time in Berlin (if possible at least a week). It's probably been the coolest trip I've been on in the past couple of years. In fact if I had to pick any place in Europe to live, I might even pick Berlin over Groningen :-P Prices for most stuff range from real cheap (restaurants) to quite reasonable (when your 17oz beer is €3.50), which is very nice.

Be sure to bring a netbook or smartphone or something because nearly every restaurant, cafe, hotel, whatever has a free public open WiFi network, and even if it hasn't you can pick up the network from the cafe next door :-P (the user/password for the Circus hostel was circus/circus, so even if some of them are passworded, you can try the obvious guesses).

In fact, when you're there (or almost), shoot me a mail or bump this thread and I'll type up some of the cool/fun/ecommended places I've been to in Berlin.



So what's the deal with the rail pass you got? Free rail travel through Netherlands/Germany/Belgium??? Where the fuck did you buy that and what does it cost and how long is it valid for, etc? Cause it sounds like something that would at least cost a couple of hundred, given what you'd normally pay for tickets.

So I'm going to guess you got a reduction pass, which is still cool (and if it's valid in all three countries, I'd still like to know more about it).

However, if you're traveling to/in/from/through Germany and you want to save some $$$, you must check out this website:

http://www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de

It's a really big and popular carpooling hookup website, very well-known in Germany, a lot of young people, students and anyone really use it to share and cut costs when travelling distances through Germany.

The site is only available in German, but with Google Translate you can probably figure it out. You can register an account for free, but you only need it if you want to place offers or requests, not if you just want to search if somebody is heading the same way as you.

You can use the search form on the main page, where you can select your preferred starting and destination cities, radius ("Umkreis") in kilometers, and the preferred date of travel (plus or minus a "tolerance" number of days).

I'd select at least 10-20km for the Umkreis, just to get more hits. If they don't exactly start or end up where you want to be, you ask really nice and sometimes they'll bring you anyway [you just spent 2+ hours in a car, chatting, enough time to build some friendly rapport].

From the search results, you can click and get detail information about who's travelling and when (often the exact time of day is somewhat negotiable), it will show their email address and/or phone number so you can contact them and make arrangements. Sometimes the detail information has extra information (limited luggage space, dog in the car, or whatever) and often also mentions the compensation the driver would like for the trip. If not, be sure to ask about it before making arrangements. A fair price is usually the total cost of gas divided by the number of people in the car (including driver), rounded up to the nearest 5 euro or something. So, say the car uses 10 litres per 100km and current gas price in Germany is €1.49/L ($7.61/gal) you'd pay about €7.50 for 100km if you split with just the driver and €5 if there's another passenger. Price of gas goes up and down a lot, €1.49 is real high for Germany in my experience, so maybe if you're lucky it'll be €1.35 or so when you get there.

If you're worried about "WTF carpooling with random strangers, is that safe???", don't be. I was at first, it's strange from a Dutch perspective as well (first time when my gf travelled from Cologne to visit me I was quite worried when she told me she'd have two people she'd never met before along for the ride ), but this service is very well known in Germany, and everybody uses it. Mostly young people and students, but quite a bunch of people also have regular arrangements to travel to work. We use it every time, both as passenger and my gf also as driver, and we've never had any trouble, nor heard about any real trouble from our passengers (the worst stories I heard were about the other people in the car being obnoxious in some way or another!).

It's quite the opposite in fact, you usually get to meet some really cool people, who also like to travel, and generally are quite interested or interesting. Additionally because you're travelling with people that have some reason to travel the same route from start to destination as yourself, you're going to find more synchronicities and commonalities than you'll be able to law-of-five your head around

BTW if you're travelling from somewhere else to Germany or back, you need to select the "Ausland" ("Foreign") tab in the search form, otherwise you won't be able to select non-German cities. If you're going to do that, best to pick big cities to heighten your chances of finding a ride (Utrecht is fine, plus people travelling from Amsterdam to Germany usually list Utrecht as a between-stop as well).



So. Long story short: use mitfahrgelegenheit.de.

And you got a PM with my phone so you can let me know when you're in NL for meeting up in Utrecht.

[Triple Zero]

One more thing! Depending on how long you're in Germany, it might be useful to get a prepaid SIM for your phone (if American phones accept European SIMs? I dunno?), you can buy one for about €12 or so at the German ALDI supermarkets. I think €12 is the smallest amount you can buy.

If your American phone doesn't east European SIMs (seem to recall something about different frequency bands), it should be possible to get a real basic phone for max €20-25 or so, if you look for special offers in semi-unlikely places: supermarkets, car-accessories stores, generic houseware stores, or even drug stores, esp the ones that look really "cheap"--usually NOT the small Moroccan/Turkish Mobile phone shops, they certainly have good deals, and will unlock a phone for €5-10 (haggle), but you won't find the super-cheapest low end basic phone models there.

Also, when in Germany, buy Doner Kebab. It's cheap (€2.50-3.00), delicious and you can add as much hot sauce and garlic on it as you like and goddamn I'm hungry now.

[El Sjaako]

I'm up for a beer or two in or near Utrecht

[3D3N]

Are you a cheesy quaver?

Do you like a nice bit of beep and thud?

Do you want it hard and fast in your face all night long?

If you answered YES to any of the above questions, head to Manchester UK for this:

www.illuminaughty.co.uk

[Rumckle]

Cool, I'll remember to check that out when I head to Berlin.

Definitely, definitely be sure to spend some time in Berlin (if possible at least a week). It's probably been the coolest trip I've been on in the past couple of years. In fact if I had to pick any place in Europe to live, I might even pick Berlin over Groningen :-P Prices for most stuff range from real cheap (restaurants) to quite reasonable (when your 17oz beer is €3.50), which is very nice.

Be sure to bring a netbook or smartphone or something because nearly every restaurant, cafe, hotel, whatever has a free public open WiFi network, and even if it hasn't you can pick up the network from the cafe next door :-P (the user/password for the Circus hostel was circus/circus, so even if some of them are passworded, you can try the obvious guesses).

In fact, when you're there (or almost), shoot me a mail or bump this thread and I'll type up some of the cool/fun/ecommended places I've been to in Berlin.

Well, I don't think I have the time to spend a week there, but I'm hoping to spend a few days there. Some advice of what to go and see will be awesome, thanks!

So what's the deal with the rail pass you got? Free rail travel through Netherlands/Germany/Belgium??? Where the fuck did you buy that and what does it cost and how long is it valid for, etc? Cause it sounds like something that would at least cost a couple of hundred, given what you'd normally pay for tickets.

So I'm going to guess you got a reduction pass, which is still cool (and if it's valid in all three countries, I'd still like to know more about it).

It's some kind of pass only available to tourists, It was about €190 for 6 days of unlimited travel anywhere in Netherlands, Germany and Belgium, where I can pick any days I want. Not great for getting around a city, but really useful for traveling to and from cities. From http://www.eurail.com if you know anyone visiting Europe that may want it.

So. Long story short: use mitfahrgelegenheit.de.

And you got a PM with my phone so you can let me know when you're in NL for meeting up in Utrecht.

Ok, that site sounds cool, I'll check it out! Thanks.

Um, at the moment I'm thinking of coming over to Utrecht around the 15th, but I am not certain yet. I'll let you know when I know


Oh, and I've already tried a Doner Kebab, a bit different from back in Australia , but very awesome.

[Triple Zero]

Kebab is not that special, but you just need to eat them cause they are delicious and cheap

[Schwarzwälderkirschtorte]

Germany: I would rather stay a week in Berlin, than go to Munich for example. Munich is boring in compare to Berlin. In Berlin is sooo much going on! Espacially in the areas Prenzlauer Berg and Mitte. It´s the new Mont Matre, there's a thrilling young cultural artry vibe hanging around.
In Munich you have beer and.. beer. Shops, and a lot tourist traps with more beer. And beer in Germany is only tasty on a warm sunny day outside in the Biergarten, not in february. Skip Munich and check out the Berlin night life on http://www.alternativeberlin.com/index.html

If you want to go to south Germany, be sure to travel by train along the river Rhein (and not the fast train (ICE) via Frankfurt). Beautiful and romantic scenery. Visit the city Linz am Rhein, very beautiful. In general, visit smaller towns, which are more cosy and more Bavarian than Munich, like 'Rothenburg ob der Tauber' or Regensburg.

Ireland: I have very good memories of Galway, loved it. A lot of students. Best part on my 5-week trip to Ireland. Donogal is also very beautiful. I did some hichhiking in Ireland, I was a 21 year old girl then and it´s very safe there (except in some parts of Belfast). Don't ever ever go to Kilkenny! It´s a massive tourist trap, you will only meet Americans looking for their ancesters, horrible. Even Munich is better  

[Triple Zero]

In Munich you have beer and.. beer. Shops, and a lot tourist traps with more beer. And beer in Germany

WHAT. THERE'S BEER IN MUNICH? WHY DIDN'T WE GO THERE?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Rumkle, Europe isn't really so hard.  There's Italy, Germany, France, Russia, and everything else is part of Belgium.

Russia's a bummer, Italy is too fucking muggy, Germany's full of Germans.  I suggest Belgium, particularly Prague.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

Rumkle, Europe isn't really so hard.  There's Italy, Germany, France, Russia, and everything else is part of Belgium.

Russia's a bummer, Italy is too fucking muggy, Germany's full of Germans.  I suggest Belgium, particularly Prague.

He's right except the for the fact that Belgium doesn't exist.

[Triple Zero]

... and this is why it's perfectly fine that I used to believe Arizona is the capital of Texas, and Boston is a city in Providence.