I'm going backpacking in Europe for a month
In about ten days, I’m going to be departing for a trip I’ve been planning on having for a while (or at least mentally considering since senior year of high school). So far, I’ll be traveling around the east coast of the U.S. for the first week of the trip, then making my way over to London to see some friends from college.
After a few days in London, I’ll be flying to Barcelona to hang there. I’ve never been overseas and the only international travel I’ve done has been to Mexico. I’m really excited and I am willing to put money on the fact that my mind is going to explode once I get to London.
What advice do you have for me? I’ll be gone only for about four weeks and I leave for Baltimore on July 17.
London was probably one of my favorite places to visit – you’re gonna love it! I could ride around on the Tube all day if I wanted to….make sure you buy day passes!
Paris – my mistake was not knowing enough French. Kinda tough to get around, but fun nevertheless.
Barcelona is more chic – great for shopping for cool Euro clothing. Madrid is OK – be sure to catch a bullfight. They are amazing.
Have fun, dude!
#42
London: check out the east of the city too, around bethnal green (maybe take a coffee at mother/london) and so on. underrated part of the city imho.
Barcelona: if you don’t want to stay in a hostel, i can warmly advocate GAT hotels – http://www.gatrooms.es/en/ – they seem to have opened a hotel in paris as well. nice, clean, minimalist and not too expensive hotels near rambla (the tourist/main stree thingie) but not _totally_ in the middle of it, in a nice sidestreet. you should check your CC statement closely though, they somehow booked 10€ too much on ours when we stayed in 05. maybe some charge that i didn’t read about.. otherwhise, it was perfect. i think there’s a new high-speed rail link between barca and madrid, which mostly is even cheaper/faster than flying.. you should check that out as well. if you can take trains between madrid and paris, places in the south of france (nimes, montpellier, antibes, nice, etc.) are REAAAALLY nice.
Paris: check out the area around http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jardin_du_Luxembourg – like the little restaurants / shops on rue petit prince right next to it and similar. the jardin (garden) itself also is wonderful to chill for a while. the sorbonne (big uni) is also right there and so are many small restaurants, years ago for example i had dinner in a tibetan restaurant around the corner there for like 5$ including a glass of wine and three courses (cheap for paris for sure). even if you don’t want to shop there, go to colette to flip through some design-books and gadgets – http://www.colette.fr . it’s near louvre anyway and i take you’re passing by that area no matter what. say “bonjour/salut” (hi) and “merci” (thanks) and “ca-va?” (how are you, responded to by another “ca-va” in a slightly different intonation), and they’ll like you a bit more than the general american ;) that may have changed since obama though, who knows.
in general, coffeeshop culture is what i miss in non-european countries the most, so if you are into that, enjoy your time. grab a book or doodle around while sipping your coffee and observing the people. people are way more interesting than century-old monuments anyway.
So awesome! I’m so proud of you. My backpacking month in Europe was the best time I’ve had in life yet! The very best advice I can give is the one pitfall every traveler succumbs to eventually: don’t try to see everything! Don’t spend every moment trying to see every landmarks that you miss that opportunity to just veg-out in a park for an hour and soak up the culture. I totally did this, and while I’m glad I saw nearly every important piece of architecture my favorite day out of the month was when I just did nothing and enjoying being in Europe! Also, bring a watch. I spent an entire month in Europe NEVER knowing what time it was. It if were not for my travel partner’s freakish ability to wake herself up in the morning we would have NEVER made a single train! Hah. Good luck and bon voyage!
You can’t go to London without visiting The British Museum, there are lots of priceless artefacts from Europe, China, Egypt, India etc.
Also, if they’re interested in computers then they can visit Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes, birthplace of the modern computer. It’s not too far from London.
My favorite way of traveling is alone. It was great to be able to check out all the sites you wanted to see during the day and then going back to the hostel to see what people are up to and then doing the socialization/drinking thing at night. That way you get to kind of see the town for it’s true self during the day since you aren’t distracted with group planning, etc. I found tour books to be really helpful for that kind of thing, even if it looks cheesy. It’s a nice reference. I have one on Italy if you want to borrow it.
Always be up for something different, try not to have too precise of plans, but it’s nice to know that you have a place to stay when you’re headed towards a new city. (I sometimes still get nightmares about that). Try out a hostel in the middle of nowhere via train for a change of pace so you can relax a bit and get out of the city and see the countryside and meet those people. I really really enjoyed http://www.hostels.com/hostels/florence/fattoria-del-bassetto/744
Try and learn a bit of the language, or nobody takes you seriously – they’ll think you’re stupid. You’ll be surprised that you know a lot more Italian than you realized thanks to restaurants. Old people actually know English pretty well because they were required to learn it when they were younger and they stopped later. (I think?) Or at least that was my experience.
Take a journal. You’ll have a lot of free time while on the train/plane and you’ll want to write down your travel stories while they’re fresh.
Oh, and make sure you don’t pack toooo much or you have no room for souvenirs!
Have a great time!
Wow dudes, this is all great info. I’m super stoked and can’t wait to come back with some ridiculous stories.
Awesome, man. Have fun. Typical almost-coincidence: I’ll be over there after you get back here (in September). Looking forward to your pics and stories!
Just went to Italy earlier this year. Take a side trip from Rome to Florence or Cinque Terre if you have a few extra days. Beautiful.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Italy.Cinque.Terre.Manarola.2.jpg
There are some badass pizza places in the Trastevere area of Rome that are cheaper than eating at some of the more expensive restaurants. Eating a meal right in front of the Pantheon is an awesome experience, but was very expensive.
Down some espresso at Sant’Eustachio. Drink a lot of wine. Eat lots of Gelato. You can’t go wrong.
Watch out for crazy ass dudes on Vespas.
I foolishly exchanged some money at the airport at a poor rate when I should’ve just used my regular old UFCU ATM card for the best results. Maybe everyone knows this, but for some reason this wasn’t obvious to me.
I am going to make a list for you. I am pretty sure I was a Travel Agent in my previous life. Be ready to be blown away/embarrassed by my travel advice!
Oh seconding the Cinque Terre! A magical, magical hike.
are you still a veggie? my advice: consider eating meat while overseas, especially spain and france.
oh! bomarzo, about 1.5 hours north of rome, there is an amazing sculpture park there… parco dei mostri. take the train to viterbo… get the lady at the bar in the train station to call a “taxi” for you. or hike it (about 4.5km) but it’s very uphill.
@YiMay: I was thinking that was going to happen. Suckface. Stupid Spain.
Cesar, you have to eat meat and fish while being in Spain. How are you not going to have Jamon Serrano or a Paella or Calamares fritos.
See you in Barcelona in a few!
my god that is a hot looking map.
yay! glad you’re doing this man. gonna be awesomege.
first: barcelona -> catalunya -> spain.
hi i’m from barcelona so i can give you some advices.
let’s see about food. you can find good restaurants in barcelona but, try to avoid the most touristic ones, they are usually the worst, they think: tourist it’s not going to return so we can do shit and they don’t say nothing. they do easy food and it doesn’t represent catalan/spanish food at all. if you only want sandwiches, be sure to check out Viena establishments they do really good sandwiches of very good quality (http://www.viena.es/en/index.php) , try the iberian flauta you’ll enjoy it.
visit all the gaudi monuments, museums…
by night you can go to clubs depending of your music tastes, if you like indie/electro check out Razzmatazz (http://www.salarazzmatazz.com/).
keep and eye to your baggage and all of that.. there’s plenty of stealers in public places and the subway. you know, everywhere happens the same.
if you want more info about bcn just ask. :D
PD: barcelona hates bullfighting, we are against it. so we hate the “toro” or the bull in the spanish flag, if you have to wear or make a photo with a flag do it with the catalan one (you can see flags with a donkey, because it’s a typical animal in catalunya), that way people will stop thinking catalans love bulls and that shit… also, the mexican hat is MEXICAN, not spanish…
catalunya: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalonia
also check out the spanish version of the catalunya article.
mmm i want to clarify something about restaurants. what i wanted to say is that you can enjoy the touristics ones (i don’t) but you can search for something more mmm.. original from here and try better things that only “tapas” or fish/chicken with potatoes that is typical from tourist places. Also try paella, search for a good place.
bye
Aww damn if I’d known you were heading this way, I would’ve made tons of suggestions for places you would’ve loved! I take it you’re home by now too.
Hope you had a blast in London & in Spain!