So basically I'm going to Europe in the uni holidays between June 27 and July 23.
At the moment all I have as a definite is Rock motherf***ing Werchter to kick it off and then from there I've gotta decide where to go.

I'm meeting up with my mate who is doing a semester of uni in Malmo atm and we're pretty keen to stick to eastern Europe. This time around I'm ok with not going to England, France, Germany, Spain, Greece etc but wanna do something different to the normal Eurotrip most Australian's do..

As is we wanna goto some of, or all of if time/money allows, Belgium, Holland, Latvia, Estonia, Czech & Hungary as a general sort of area.

Particularly to those European dwelling QGLer's but any of you who've been to these places, what is the best? Not that I think I'll really have anything but a wicked time, but what are some suggestions to maximise awesomeness and minimise dollars (euros lol)

go go go

if youre in malmo it can be fun to go to gransk warsaw or cracow but the train system sucks so best option is do catch an awesome ferry across from malmo to gdansk and then fly to crakow

plenty of things to do there, if you find someone who knows what theyre doing then you could also go from gdansk to moscow ... really fun city but once again if you dont know what youre doing it can get messy

meh, plenty of other guys here have travelled around europe which i've also done so im sure theyll explain the rest

sorry for the fairly un-informative post apart from listing a couple of cities to visit but google ,ight describe whats good to see at those, anyway those destinations are pretty good for eastern europe to go out to from malmo


oh if you do get to gdansk you can also visit malbork (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malbork) one of the largest gothic castles in europe

When visiting Czech, visit Cesky Krumlov. Prague is really touristy but if you venture out a bit you'll appreciate Czech a bit more (it's not all hookers and casinos). Check out the restaurant U Bulinu (I think it was), in Krymska (suburb in Prague). Cheap meals and they don't try and rip you off (like they will in the city centre). I stayed in the Czech Inn, highly recommended.

Over the easter break I'm going back to Czech, then Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and Germany, should be fun. The money thing is a bit of an issue. It's so expensive playing tourist. I'm in Denmark at the moment but I finish uni end of May. My plan is to stay here for most of June exploring Copenhagen on the cheap before heading to Rock Werchter and then somewhere cheap/warm after that. I'm thinking Croatia, Greece, Spain, etc. Got a mate coming over same time as you but after Belgium we don't have anything set in stone.

Oh yeh, money saving tips. Make your meals from food bought from a supermarket. You'll quickly run out of money eating out 3 meals a day. Save that money for grog. Will be cheaper in eastern Europe but I spent a s*** load on just living in Amsterdam. For cheaper drinks avoid obviously touristy joints, especially around eastern Europe. In Prague at least, always have a ticket for public transport - and validate it. My american mates got a big fine for not getting a ticket which is stupid as it only cost me $20 for unlimited Prague travel for 2 weeks. You'll get away with it on the trams but not on the trains.

The SA Travel Wiki and Hostel World are both great resources as well.

Ok, starting from Malmö....
Take the SJ(train) to Göteborg (where i live) 2 days here is enough i feel.
Get the SJ up to Stockholm, another 2 days
this is where you can diverge
1. Take a overnight party ferry to Finland and go through the eastern block countries (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia then to Russia)
2. Take the XJ2000 (train) back to Copenahagen 3 days there (my favourite place in Europe so far) then a #300 Säfflebussen to Berlin and see Germany. From there follow hitler's path to Poland (lol), Czech and Austria.

If you need ny more info, feel free to drop me a PM.

cheers, ill look into all those ideas..

as for the rest of you... GET SUGGESTING c***S

Go to Italy... ya c***.

go to amsterdam imo

Yeah, go to Amsterdam and smoke mad blunts.

Screw the other places.

A mate and I have booked a flight one way to Europe to leave in late September. We will be going backpacking all over Europe and plan to be back in Australia about a year and a half later.

Planning is the main thing. Make sure you have everything organised before you go! Insurance, working visa (if need be), international student card (will save you lots), the right backpack, travel guides (The eastern europe one by Lonely planet is alright but from what you have listed get the central Europe one). Take as little as possible! Your not going for long you could do this trip on a 40l bag or smaller. Make sure you budget right! Nothing worse then having no money to do the trip you want.

If you are going to be starting in Belgium, you may want to then head to Luxembourg.

Highlights (straight out of lonely planet)
- Dine on 'Europe's most beautiful balcony' at Breedewee, one of Luxembourg City's most charming restaurants.
- Kick back in delightful little town of Echternach, before exploring the region's fascinating forests.
- let your imagination reign from towers of Chateau de Boursheid, your quintessential castle.

From Luxembourg why not go across to Austria and see how great they really are at arts and music. From there you will be able to get to Czech easily or Hungary. From there I guess go up to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Make sure you spend the right amount of time in the places you really want to see. Are you going to be using hostels or hotels? Or camping? Either way always make sure you book a place before you get there.


last edited by dynamite at 09:59:22 22/Mar/07

Just looked at the Line Up of Rock Werchter!!! HOLY s***! SO MANY MASSIVE NAMES!

Amsterdam > *

http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/2500/eurosexhg3.jpg
That's the basic plan atm..

EURODISNEY!!!!!!!

pack your bottle of bundy rum

I hear Montenegro is most excellent

pack your bottle of bundy rum

huh?

pack your bottle of bundy rum

you can buy bundy around europe, in bars or by the bottle.

my advice : what ever your budget, double it! europe is expensive, and then some. and the euro is getting stronger by the day, dam eu expension!

expect to pay €6-7 a pint. €3 for a bottle of coke for example.

if u want some tips / advise, msn me calf _ boy at hot mail dot com

reload, your route looks good! budapest is great. latvia, oh my f***ing god! best women ever!!! (Beats scandinavia hands down) GO TO RIGA!. stay in franks hotel.... you might never come back, seriously! franks got like 3 f*** off hot girls.

the dudes a legend.

merlyns intin is very good: done similar trip myself.

last edited by mooby at 23:30:44 22/Mar/07

sorry i guess my reference was too obscure

enjoy your trip

I don't drink rum :/

f***ing lol at map

reload, swing south in Germany to Munich. Also, go to Paris if you can even just for a couple days.

Paris is probably THE most over-rated city in Europe, if not on earth. The only reason to go there is to simply say " I have been to Paris"

reload, swing south in Germany to Munich. Also, go to Paris if you can even just for a couple days.

I think the idea, from the places he has chosen, is to go to countries which are not the usual european destinations...

Lol nice call nF, wonder if he actually went on the trip :D

Enjoy Europe Reload, I really enjoyed Austria, Specially Innsbruck.

Traveling by train is awesome too, you can see alot for rather cheap.

Paris is probably THE most over-rated city in Europe, if not on earth. The only reason to go there is to simply say " I have been to Paris"

i dont mind it. good for photograhpy.

i reckomened you look at bus about if your travling solo. trains are cool, but you dont get to meet anyone. bus about is always full of aussie, kiwi, safa and canunk slappers.

paris is s***, dont bother with it

its a dirty dirty city and everyone is rude

Paris is probably THE most over-rated city in Europe, if not on earth. The only reason to go there is to simply say " I have been to Paris"

Nah, there's a lot of good reasons to go to Paris.

I can't imagine any place that's worth going to so you can say "I've been there", unless you're one of those tossers that gets off on telling other people how great you are because you've been to so many places.

you suck

:( someone tell me what nf was talking about
ahh yeh I thought it was something about hunter, but I thought you were giving me s*** :(

also I'm not travelling alone... and I don't wanna goto Paris, Sheesh! Can't anyone read!?
I appreciate the comments none the less, but just wanted some advice on the places I was talking about :)

last edited by reload! at 12:13:21 24/Mar/07

Well, we have given you a few options with no feedback from you. Don't know what else to say...

sorry, that sounded ruder than I meant it to.

So at the moment I'll be flying into London then catching a $90 Brussels Air flights into Brussels, training and bussing it to Werchter for the festival.

Training it to Amsterdam and staying til about July 6 and flying over Germany to Prague. We figured catching a train for this leg of the journey will just take too long.. confirm/deny?

Staying in Prague for about four days, maybe going to some other places in Czech or Slovak republic if we want a change from the cheap Czech hookers, drugs and casinos :p My mate has only been to Prague so we only know about that.. have you guys been to anywhere else in Czech worth visiting?

I'm keen to get out of the cities for at least one day in each region and do a "omg this scenery is f***ing ridiculous" trip to the outlying areas. Would just catching a train to random country towns be the go for this or should I try to organise actual tours? I prefer the idea of avoiding tour buses and things and trying to discover some cool s*** on my own, but obviously this could just f*** things up all together :p

Also what would you have to say about security while travelling in this part of Europe? Apparently I have to pretty much sleep on my bags on the train to stop gypsies sneaking in and stealing my s***... I think I'll set up some form of demon shrine to ward them off.. But aside from that, if it's just the two of us travelling, is everywhere reletively safe? I don't think I'll be getting into any card games down dark alleys...

Moving on, training it from Prague to Budapest and spending another 3-4 days there. Again, don't know anything else about Hungary so any specific locations here I should goto would be appreciated. Definitely gonna check out the Budapest zoo, apparently it kicks total ass. I must say, zoos are one of the coolest things I've been to in places around the world.. they're just so f***ing awesome! ahem..

So with 4 days of insane festival, then Amsterdam and Prague out of the way I imagine I'll feel like slightly less sinning for a couple of days before hitting up Estonia and Latvia. From what I've been told everywhere in Hungary is wickedly beautiful so doing some day trips to sexy mountains/forests or whatever should be good. Then flying to Latvia / Estonia.

As for Latvia and Estonia, we havn't really settled on if we're going to either or both, and then what to do there. Does anyone have specific experience with these places or able to relay info from friends of yours who have been there?
Is one much better than the other and are they actually very different or much the same. We just wanted to goto that part of Europe but don't have any specific ideas in mind. I guess the idea was to check into whatever hostel and finish the holiday in a blur of cheap liquor and stunning girls. Who needs sleep for 3-4 days when you can sleep on the way home :)

So... what do you guys think? Looks like a pretty flippin good holiday to me, but then I'm a nub and know nothing about Europe. Ways to improve? (without having to goto Germany :p)

thanks everyone!

As for Latvia and Estonia, we havn't really settled on if we're going to either or both, and then what to do there. Does anyone have specific experience with these places or able to relay info from friends of yours who have been there?
Is one much better than the other and are they actually very different or much the same. We just wanted to goto that part of Europe but don't have any specific ideas in mind. I guess the idea was to check into whatever hostel and finish the holiday in a blur of cheap liquor and stunning girls. Who needs sleep for 3-4 days when you can sleep on the way home :)

I went to estiona with the swedish missus. it was good... bit romantic, good town square. went out for dinner ect.

Latvia is a crazy party town. could spend a month there.

Latvia it is :)

Don't forget about paris dude