RESPECT THE PACO

swedish women :D!

Belgium sucks no need to go there. :)

Go to Sweden, finland and NL instead :>

I don't think we are gonna go up to Scandinavia, as far as I know its mighty expensive there.

tbh i dont think you'll like scandi anyway :) not much to see/do here imo!

hot girls are enough :)

And they eat Rotten Haring, wtf?!

Dude, I'm from Sweden and even I think that's fucked up. It smells AWFUL, every time I accidently walk past some people who have opened a can of that shit the gag reflex get its groove on. Seriously wtf, how do you even come up with a retarded idea like that?
"You know what dude? Every country has their own speciality when it comes to food, why don't we have one of those?"
"Yeah, you know what I think we should eat, rotten fish. You heard me."
"Wow, that's awsome! Sometimes you just blow me away man!"

Ps. I hate that shit.

Pps. Liam's fat.

Can't be worse than rotten shark though.

Can't see how they would differ at all, so no, it shouldn't be worse than rotten shark.

I'd rather just have one rotten hering in my fridge than a rotten shark...

is it really rotten, as in worms maggots etc or just marinated in some weird way?

See my reply to svalur down below.

it's funny how they say "it's not so bad if you pinch your nose".. heh
btw, do you have something worth eating up there that is not (rotten) fish? I imagine some elk ham wouldn't be bad. :)

Köttbullar \o/

Elk ham? =P The whole concept of ham is that is comes from a pig as far as I know. And we don't have elks here in Sweden, we have moose here. Anyway, moose meat is fucking awsome. So is roe deer meat (kinda like bambi you know, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roe_deer ). I would say the latter is the most tastefull of the two. A fine roe deer sadel steak with cooked potatoes, creamy sauce and cassis gelly... *drool*
I'm kinda lucky when it comes to these things though as my dad hunts quite a bit (me too from time to time), both with a so called hunting team which shares some hunting grounds where they hunt moose and we own a fair bit of land our selves in which we are able to hunt moose, roe deer, rabbit and so on. So we always have this large friggin' fridge full of meat all year round.
Moose meat have this raw feeling to it that I havn't really found anywhere else yet. It's not like those pussy stakes of bull or whatever you find in your avarage meat disk. No, this actually have the taste of the wild. It's awsome.

Of course we have lots of other great food here in Sweden, but I like meat. =P I would recommend getting the pike-perch (called Gös here in Sweden) if you wanna eat fish, one of my favourites as well.

You should enjoy South Africa cuisine then, we have loads of wild meat variety, from springbok and warthog to crocodile and koedoe :P

That sounds awsome! I've always wanted to eat snake though. Can you hook me up? =P

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A1karl

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surstr%C3%B6mming

I think this quote says it all:

"In April 2006, several major airlines (such as Air France and British Airways) banned the fish citing that the pressurized cans of fish are potentially explosive."

It's not rotting though m8!

And apparently they can't explode :(

I know, but it made a cool quote. ;)

Sweden, finland and NL

In that order too? :-(

france = notre dame is a must
recommendations = dont give our women aids <3

Don't worry, I won't be touching the british girls :P

You could start by running to the Room of the Three Gargoyles. Push in the right tongue and a door might lead you down a staircase into the wall climb. Here, you must choose your next path. You could race up to the Observatory, spin the sundial and pass into the Room of the Golden Idols. Once there, push down on their bases to release the doors that may take you below or lead you into the Shrine of the Silver Monkey. Assemble the statue there and you may be headed for the torch room. If the elevator is up, you could jump into the elevator and descend into the mineshaft. You might climb up the ladder or plow through the stone wall. Find the key and it may unlock the Tombs of the Ancient Kings, allowing you to climb into the Spider's Lair. If you escape, you may have a chance to sit upon the Throne of the Pretender. If the correct door is unlocked, you'll be able to crawl into Pit of Despair and finally make your way through the Cave of Size, back to the Temple Gate. The choices are yours; and yours alone. Good luck!

:D

If you get the chance I highly recommend Sans Sebastian in Spain, which is very close to the French/Spanish border. Its about a 8-9 drive from Paris, shorter if you drive fast.

It was my favorite stop on my recent trip to Europe. It's absolutley beautiful and the beaches are top notch, and I should know, I'm aussie :P

The old town is fucking mad fun to just walk about and there are lots of cool things to see. The night life isn't what you might find in some of the larger European cities but the place itself is just too fantastic to miss. If you're staying in Hostels I recommend 'Urban House'. Theres 2 of them in the area. If you stay in the one located near the church in old town say hello to the swiss girl that works there, her names Sebine, awesome chick! :D

Also, one thing that you can do there is go up into the basque country and visit this awesome cider house. 27E for all you can drink cider and some of the best food I had in Europe. You can find info regarding it at a kiosk near the exhibition center, near the main beach :D some European Star thing, google it!

While I haven't been in San Sebastian myself I can also recommend it. My brother has been there numerous amount of times and he said there's plenty of nightlife there as well as quiet spots to visit.

Also I STRONGLY recommend that you decide on few countries and give each a little more time to offer you things, no point hopping from place to place taking pictures and just driving/travelling through, that's like 0 holiday experience.

Its about a 8-9 drive from Paris, shorter if you drive fast.

No shit

made me laugh aswell!

Yeah, what is he talking about, the distance doesn't change....


/troll off

I know it's kinda common for non-Europeans to do the "see all of it at once" - trip, but I personally really don't think it near enough.
I mean cities like Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, London Prague and Rome are easily worth at least three days each...

So if you want my advice you should consider "only" visiting 4 countries, and if you liked it come back in a few years. A tight schedule and stress would always ruin the experience for me.

Anyhow, several people will disagree with me on this but, I'll try to do some sort of ranking:

For beer: 1. Belgium 2. Germany 3. maybe nl, but only because I <3 Grolsch :P
For wine: 1. France/ Italy 3. Spain 4. Hungary / Germany
For nightlife (just going with cities, often depends on regions more than countries, also this will be really biased!) 1. Amsterdam 2. Berlin 3. Prague 4.Barcelona

Cost/performance ratio (if that's important): 1. Prague 2. Anything East - European really 3. Berlin (not Germany!) rest is pretty much even except Swiss get's last (imo) :P

Food it very difficult to say, because in most European countries you have a very wide range of Restaurants, e.g. I have eaten traditional Nepalese food, etc...
And even if you only want the "eat regional food cooked by a grandma in a small cheap restaurant, you will still find some great dishes everywhere (except for NL and somewhat less for UK and BE, imo)
So it really depends on what you like, fish, meat vegetarian, spicy, oily, baked good, etc.


Events simply depends on your schedule, I mean if you plan it right you can even split with you parents for a few days and visit a festival, etc.
Simply put there are way too many to list them all.

Anyway since you did mention money, you should really really go to Prague, there is great nightlife for you at acceptable prices, be sure to ask some Czech here for some locations. And for your parents it is also a beatiful city with lots of stuff to do culturally. (My parents were there three times already, once more than me :( )

as you can see this could go on for a lot longer, so I'd request you kinda narrow down what you are looking for or ask some direct question and I'll write what I know think.

for example you should decide whether you prefer natural or cultural sights or a mixture of both and so on.

P.S.: Again, everything written was "imho" so be sure to get five more opinions ;)

Oh thanks, excellent info so far, we are planning to stay at each 'location' for at least 3 days then travel by train to the next. Ill provide more detailed info soon, but gotta study now, test tomorrow evening :(

Problem with UK is most places cook "foreign" food. French, Italian, Greek and Indian etc.

I can't even think of any real "classy" places to have proper British food. Closest you can get is pub food but that's not even always that British.

well, pretty much the same here too. Which is why i said traditional food is kinda hard to recommend.
But I do remember eating some great Sheperd's Pie in a pub near the Hyde Park once. So not all is lost ;)


/edit

fyi I posted before I read the edit.
Anyway you know, often you have to visit stuff like pubs or comparable places in other countries to get the "normal" regional stuff for good prices. Restaurants are often different because they have cooks who learned cooking at schools etc.

I bet it wasn't even a good Sheperd's Pie :P

British/German food suffers from the same problem, it's not all "cultured" like French/Italian and it's not totally out-there wacko food you get in some places (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/228/445320243_7dfef19010.jpg?v=0).

don't compare English and German food.

Saumagen, Eisbein, Spanferkel, Ochsenschwanzsuppe, Wachtel, Weisswurst, Labskaus, Schnitzel, Schweinemedaillons, Hocheitssuppe, Frikadellen, Falscher Hase, Königsberger klopse, Maultaschen, Käsespätzle,

And that's the stuff that I came up with in three minutes and that I like a lot.

I didn't say they were the same :(

ps. You forgot Sauerkraut

comes with Eisbein.

Rotkohl with the Frikadellen or Schnitzel.
Kroketten with the Schweinemedaillons.


No you weren't saying they are the same, but insunating they are on the same level compared to French or Italian. And I don't buy that, seeing that we actually have German Restarants (or places serving German food)

I mean the attitude culturally that the world has is that French/Italian food > * and everything else sucks (Except for Indian/Chinese for takeaways!). I doubt many people outside of Germany would say the best food in the world is German :P

We have restaurants/shops/etc that do British food too. Not up market places because all the British chefs are "French" chefs.

Hey, I wouldn't say myself that German food is the best in the world ;)

go watch Marco's great British feast!

I know it's kinda common for non-Europeans to do the "see all of it at once" - trip, but I personally really don't think it near enough.
I mean cities like Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, London Prague and Rome are easily worth at least three days each...

hah! I've been in Rome for 3 weeks and I barely saw 1/3rd of it. Maybe you could see more if you run trough it with 5 cameras down your neck taking snapshots like a moron. 3 days? nigga plz.

"easily worth at least", those words mean anything to you?

Hell, I lived in Berlin for 1,5 years and there's still lots of places I haven't been.

Point was to say that even with the "tight schedule, only see important things" you can easily spend 3 days. Agree on that?

define important.

my point is you can not get any kind of feel for the place if all you do the whole day is run around with a camera taking pictures of museums and crap. sit down, relax enjoy the atmosphere, it's what I'm saying.

with imprtant I meant, what the touist guides point to as "must see" , like colliseum , Forum Romanum, Trevi Fountain, Sistine Chapel in rome.
Anyway, I really do agree with youwell, me too. But remember we are trying to convince people to no do all of Europe in three days. Also, didn't I just see you write "3 countries in 3 weeks" yourself. As if all of Italy = Rome. Hypocrite ;)

ok ok, so there's Venice, Florence, Genova etc.. frankly you can see what you need to see in Venice in a few days. but Rome? no sir.. you need to take your time there :)

Yes I agree with you fully, but we would rather visit a few more places than idling at one location, because my parents will probably never again go to europe. If I have the opportunity to go again I would know what places to visit etc and then stay longer. But we are deffo going to stay longer in a place if we realise it is worth it.

Off course I would prefer the Tom route and go backpakking with friends etc, but that simply is no option at this stage.

Rome smells of shit though.

niggaplz

tsk ignoramus

ignoramus... more like smelly anus.

If you like nature, Slovakia (Vysoke Tatry) is a must. Mountains the size of Alps with decent infrastructure yet almost unspoiled by the snowhill lobby. Czech Republic kicks ass, we have the best beer in the whole world, just make sure you get out of Prague, food and drink is 2 to 4 times cheaper and people are much less likely to rip off tourists and more friendly in general outside the capital. Try Brno (on the main motorway to Austria), second largest city, lots of clubs and pubs and the hottest girls around. Other parts of southern Moravia are also nice for wine tourism, lots of old fashioned wineyards and wine cellars down there.

What are the other cities in CZ like in comparison to Prague (Bar cheaper :P)?

Is Prague somewhat unique or are they all quite similar?

Imo just compare London to other towns in England, et voilá

Not saying you shouldn't visit the other places but it's just "less" in a way.

I'm sure in other countries it's better than what my answer would be for other British cities :P

granted, I overdid it with that comparison...

Amsterdam and other Dutch cities, maybe...?

My travels have been pretty limited :P

Utrecht kicks ass!

Never been :(

But I kinda doubt it's better than Amsterdam, though as with everything it probably depends on what you're there for.

Ofc Amsterdam caters for more diverse tastes, i liked Utrecht for the college atmosphere, felt like one big campus.

Also has one of the best drum&bass nights in the world every month or so, hosted by Black Sun Empire.

yeah best thing in utrecht! bse ftw!

Prague is the best looking 4 sure, it was the capital of Holy Roman Empire for a fair bit so the roman/gothic/early renaissance stuff is unbeatable. However, it is crowded during the tourist season and full of unoriginal junk souvenir shops and idiot bartenders and taxi drivers. Everything else can be found in other larger towns for much less money. People also like English speakers a lot more in smaller towns cause they are glad to have a chance to practice their English (unlike some french/german ppl ;) Basically any regional capital (Liberec, Pilsen, Pardubice, Olomouc, Brno, Ceske Budejovice, not Karlovy Vary cause they are as expensive as Prague and full of Russians and not Ostrava cause it is far too close to Poland to be good). Nature-wise, Krkonose are overrated, and Sumava is more German than Czech, Jeseniky and Beskydy are the places to go for mountain hiking.

Oh just to add we are planning on going end of March, `09.

Not really sure what you are looking for in your holiday, but if it's during that time I would recommond places like Portugal, Spain (Barcelona), Greece(not athens :O ) and the Croatian cost around Makarska is just stunning simply for the reason that they will be warmer :D

The Croatian coast is stunning if you wanna get blown up

Then I'd go to london.

:D think you're safe in March.

Why, is it a "Green" month? :>

7/7
Not
3/3

TBH if you can just find out when the armed forces/emergency services all plan to run their practice drills for what will happen in a terror attack you could apparently avoid all the real attacks, which just so happen to coincide with those.

?

on topic:
i suggest skipping croatia if its not over the summer.

oh, unless you plan on skiing that's pretty much the worst time (together with November and Feburary) to visit anything north of the alps. You get lots of cloudy days, rain and temps from -5 to 15.

December is only better because of the decorated cities during christmas season (which some people think is awesome) and Glühwein in Germnay \o/


Honestly, if you have any chance to do it reschedule to May or later up to September, or else you either risk several days of having to stay inside because of shitty weather or else getting a cold.

Good, tip, the warmer the better, I am from Africa after all :D

December is only better because of the decorated cities during christmas season (which some people think is awesome)

Aaaaw.

<3

What's with all the ZA'ers invading Europe:<

We now have airplanes :D

You've got a cool accent so you're welcome (Fuck off Americans)

Bruges is quite a nice city for a day/two, but Brussels isn't :P

Bruges?

Yeah

don't mess with the midget's girl though!

Are you ready for the race war?

I was referring to a movie

Err so was I. Did you not watch the film!?!?!

Fuck, completely forgot that drug discussion :(((

cause I did remember that line but thought it didn't fit the movie so must have been from somewhere else. in a drug related scene, however...

Oh, well I better go to bed now

Run and hide then. I'm fighting with the Vietnamese!!!

France (Paris), Italy, Spain.

Yeah, Paris, 2nd most expensive city in the world :/

you still need to see it if you're visiting Europe though

I'd take a trip through the South of France over Paris any day.

Put your hands together... :D

(Paris first!)

Kiez in Hamburg (Germany) is very nice, esp. on a Thursday night. Beer seems fucking expensive in the north though, so for tasting several kinds of beers you better just go somewhere down in the south (Bavaria or Baden-Württemberg) where it's like 2/3 the price. There's several sorts of white/wheat beer mostly in the south of Germany, usually quite good (so is beer in general in Germany). You might want to have a look at the countryside/mountains in Switzerland when you're already down there, quite impressive I think.

Don't know shit about sightseeing though as I'm as uneducated as it gets regarding common knowledge/culture etc. :(

A countries beer, tells much about its culture :P
So study beer!

not really. the countryside in the US is awesome for example.
the beer on the other hand...

the beer on the other hand...

is as tasteless as the people.

and what do you base that observation on, oh mighty anon?

Cause so far i can't really say that I find Brits more tasteful the Americans...

and what do you base that observation on, oh mighty anon?

Experience and observation.

Cause so far i can't really say that I find Brits more tasteful the Americans...

They're not.

yeah, well "observation and experience" let me to might several intelligent and tasteful people in both countries.
Guess they didn't want to meet you :/

I knew there was a reason why I stopped posting.

:((((((((((((((((((((((

<3?

Brits suck

if that's the first interpreation you can think of then

yes, definately and all of you!!

Nice idea of "nice".

???

prob best parties I've ever been to

Travelling is about partying?

it's about experiences, and the nightlife with lots of friendly and outgoing people (students) in hamburg on thursday night has been a very good one for me.

The Kiez - home of the friendly and outgoing.

Skip Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Switzerland, France and Belgium. Go to Cornwall or something. Some place nice.

I've been to Cornwall. You can skip it.

(Ps. remember us south africans have pretty much seen it all when it comes to nature... that said Cornwall is nice, but comparing it to Prague or Rome is silly.)

Oh absolutely, Rome is nice.

I used to live with the grandson of the first president of Sierra Leone

Same age as you? Must have had some interesting stories to tell?

If you plan to visit more than 3 countries in 3 weeks you're a moron.

Seriously, pick one place and go there. You can't go wrong with either of: Paris, Rome, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Prague. Some other smaller places like the Spanish/French coast in the summer, Croatia, Swiss/Austrian alps etc..

@pinball-: IM 22 YEARZ OLD AND IM PLANNING A TRIP AROUND THE GLOBE with my parentz kthx

groot gapie

just relaying data so dont afrikaans me

whatever you do.. don't stray too far eastward or you'll end up in a shithole like Romania and ruin your holiday/life

He's from Africa...

actually hiking in Transsilvania was quite enjoyable.
and the danube delta was awesome, too. probably one of the most natural places left in Europe (due to the Romanians being too corrupt and lazy to build streets and bridges :P)

switzerland isn't in the EU :-E

bah, true, i was thinking of Europe as a whole, then just wrote eu :(

Don't go to Amsterdam. Tourists are fucking annoying. Especially italian and spanish.

also, don't go to Spain, tourists are fucking annoying, especially German and English.

and don't go to Italy. tourists are fucking annoying, especially Japanese and Americans.


They are tourists youself, you know ;)

it's true tho, I really hated all the googly eyed teens trying weed for the first time laughing and giggling like idiots. everywhere.

ahaha

hah, cry more.

it's not bad to try weed for the first time son. just do it somwhere else k?

somewhere where the police will file a charge against you and take away your weed?
good idea.

in nl? laff

i don't get your point.

"do it somewhere else"

where?

as in: not in the cafe where there are other people trying to chill and have a conversation.

but isn't it illegal to smoke outside of a coffeeshop? i, at least, wouldn't do it, if i'm not from the NL, so that leaves me with no choice.

no

I would never smoke weed around someone like you anyway. Wouldn't want people to think I just hopped off the special bus or anything.. know what I mean?

appreciate it

Haha, tired of the Spanish potheads getting high on Amsterdam?

Agreed. Add to that the Americans for being immature ("WEED! HOOKERS!") and pretentious. Obama just had to visit Berlin while I was there as well, flooding the city with zealous Americans.

Since you're starting in NL, I'd say, Amsterdam, Antwerp/Gent, Paris, Barcelona and Berlin.

Amsterdam is cliché tourism stuff, but if you're there, why not?
Antwerp and Gent have a nice atmosphere, with their old style buildings still intact. Belgium is the best place for beer.
Paris is cliché, expensive as well, but if you go there, spend at least a day at the Louvre. Really amazing museum.
Barcelona is a bit more modern than the previously mentioned cities. It has a nice vibrant atmosphere.
Berlin is modern, nice and easygoing. Plenty of things to see, special mention for the castles (Charlottenburg/Potsdam). Food is really good for the price. Germany has lots of good beer as well.

Go to Netherlands and smoke weed, do mdma and shrooms. Whatever you do, don't come to Finland.

ye, full of raged cunts lately

I see what you did there

<insert comment about taxi drivers in Prague>

<insert comment about drivers in Prague>

are they even a patch on our taxi drivers?

You forgot den Haag. www.radiostaddenhaag.nl $$$$$$