19 Apr
2006
19 Apr
'06
11:41 p.m.
On 4/19/06, Dmitry Baikov <dsbaikov(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hello, all!
Me and my girlfriend are planning a trip to Europe for a month between
May and June.
It will be our first trip abroad, so please help if you can with a good
advice.
Since it's not so easy to get out of here (russia), and I can't visit
all that great & numerous openlab's etc., one of the main goals is
"community building":
I'd like to meet (at least some of ) you, LADs/LAUs, in person.
Current plan is (yes, it's huge):
Moscow
St.Petersurg
--
Helsinki
Stockholm
Berlin
Koeln
Brussels
London
Paris
Bourdeaux
Madrid
Barcelona,Figeras
Genova
Milan?
Rome
Venice
Vienna
Prague
--
Moscow
There are two main questions
(lonelyplanet.com helps a bit, but residents can say much more):
1) what is the cheapest way to travel inside europe?
Bus? Airplane? If it's by air, how can we buy cheapest tickets? Which
company? How much days before the flight? etc. Or may be hitchhiking?
2) how hard is to find cheap place to sleep?
AND
Where can we meet YOU?
Sorry, we don't know exact dates as we are researching on european
visa (trip begins from Helsinki, since it seems the easiest way to get
into europe).
Sincerely,
Dmitry.
When is the trip to asia / australia? I can help a bit for that one too. ;)
Ride sharing is a great way to get places. I went across quite a bit
of europe using it. Including one trip from southern germany to
budapest for only 20 euro for 2 people, picked up at my house and
dropped of at a nice backpackers, travelling in a new bmw 5 series.
http://mitfahrzentrale.de/ and http://www.car-pool.co.uk/ but there
are others too. As far as places to stay, lonely planet lists most of
the backpackers in an area but some you can find from info at the
backpacker you were at before that. The lonely planet europe guide
isn't a bad investment and you'll be supporting an aussie company ;-)
There are bargin train deals in most countries as long as you are a
bit flexible which are usually really handy. If you can live on kebabs
you'll do pretty well most places. Cheap flights are a great way to
get to the uk, but bring a packed lunch, the food is totally inedible.
There are a lot of different airlines and most of the small/cheap ones
go from some tiny airport to some other tiny airport which could be an
issue.
I'd avoid youth hostelling international places like the plague. Only
go there if there isn't a private backpackers. There are often more
expensive, less friendly and less comfortable than a private
backpackers. Some countries there isn't an option though.
I'd recommend going to bratislava and budapest while you are nearby,
and some of switzerland. All are very, very beautiful. Try the cheap
pancakes if you are in bratislava, they are great. Though i count
moscow as part of europe and moscow is actually my fav city in europe.
If you want details of backpackers i've been to per city/country give me a yell.
Loki