That is nonsense. Sofia. Berlin. Seoul. Brussels. Harare. Tokyo. Budapest. Kigali. Hanoi. Madrid. Kampala. Should I keep going?


SuperUberBob dropping truth bombs itt.


smh




New report says that NYC is far and away the nation’s dirtiest city

NYC #2 city in lolUSA for rats

Your thoughts on the cleanliness of Amsterdam?

chop, I'd still like to hear where you've been in London that makes you think you "covered most of the city".

@JoeC - Yeah man, people are crazy for not digging dirty, gross, smelly environments. Insanity!

Put me in the camp that hates that ****. Not a fan of big cities, give me the smaller locales all day.

london isn't that filthy compared to other large cities in europe. I'd say it's pretty clean in general. maybe you last visited 20 years ago, because the food scene is up there with the best in the world now. the melancholic despair I get, the rude people I get. so some of that stuff is right.

I'm not here to shill for London just find it odd that it's the most visited city in the world (or 2 or 3 or something) and hadn't once been mentioned as a possible destination in the thread until I did. Maybe some folks look at the city and just assume because it's so big and cliche they'd rather visit somewhere more niche, but in reality London has something for everyone for several lifetimes.

They’ve been doing a pretty good job with that over the last couple of years.

Re: big cities cleaning up things other than trash: Growing up I was used to streets (by the city) and sidewalks (by the homeowner) being cleared off snow and ice at 5AM if it had been snowing or freezing overnight. That does not happen in Berlin. Especially on the first couple days of winter, you see people slipping on ice everywhere.

I didn't get Berlin at all, but maybe it was when I went (late February, when the city was strangely deserted). Mitte was ok, but areas like Potsdamer Platz aren't great, the food isn't much to write home about and it has possibly the worst main park of a major city in Europe.

I heard a lot about the party scene being great if you knew people. But I was there with an ex and we didn't.

The best thing about Berlin for me was Kunsthaus Tacheles, which doesn't exist any more.

I did however have the best dessert of my life, in a vietnamese restaurant.

I don't view anything I say about this topic as a "truth bomb". It's only my perception.

To me, traveling is a subjective experience and people are often evaluating the time they spent more than they are objective measures of the place they are visiting. To say that people are objectively wrong for liking a place that one person doesn't or vice versa can come off as condescending.

Other elements that could be related to enjoyment are the expectations we set for places that we visit. People always view places like Paris and Rome as these incredibly beautiful areas that are beyond description. While some areas of those cities are like that, there is a reality that is ignored which is that a good lot of the city is well...a city and that comes with the disadvantages that a city has. That may result in bashing a place not because it's bad but because it did not meet expectations. Some of my best times were spent in places I didn't plan on going to in advance. Since there was no real intent on going, there were no expectations.

Wonder if OP is already enjoying himself.

Don’t visit Berlin in the winter, it’s freaking cold, wet and depressing.

Not sure which park you are talking about, Tiergarten? That one is huge but pretty forgettable other than that. Every district has at least one big park but the best thing about them is usually that you can chill in the sun and drink beer in the summer.

Thanks to the large Vietnamese population, Berlin might have the best cheap Vietnamese food outside of Asia, but other than that I agree about “local food” not being a real thing. To party, you don’t really have to know people though. There’s an absurd amount of bars and clubs all over town, including a couple of the most famous techno clubs in the world like Berghain and Watergate which are in walking distance from each other, close to Warschauer Brücke. Also, alcohol, drugs and prostitution are probably the cheapest among all major Western European cities if that’s your thing.

Spent an entire afternoon at Madame Tussauds.

I'm embarking on my trip this coming Thursday (9/27)

I was in London recently and was impressed by how clean it is.

For what it's worth, it's a marvellous city. Too many folks apparently never venture out of the city of London (which has got its merits too). Lot's to do, lot's to see, and it's a big city with all those people from everywhere.

Nobody considers Naples first world.

I am leaving for Iceland in about 40 hours. From there I am going to Stockholm. I have nothing planned for after that. I figure I can take a boat to Helsinki, or a boat to Tallinn, or a boat to Riga, or a flight to who knows where. I guess I should determine that.

Go chill in Malmo for a few days.

Whatever happens, enjoy!

Can't wait for a TR.

Unfortunately the weather is getting bit chilly here in Finland, so you might not want to spend too much time here. You are couple of weeks late :/

Stockholm - ferry - Helsinki - ferry - Tallinn is not a bad plan, but the Stockholm-Helsinki trip is often cheaper to fly so unless you enjoy spending 12 hours in boat, I'd check flight prices first. Helsinki-Tallinn ferry on the other hand is pretty cheap (20-30€), since there are few competing lines operating the route. I'd recommend Eckerö Line, it is both cheap and decent.

I'm planning a trip to Europe in the spring. Not to backpack, I want to spend a few weeks in several cities and truly immerse myself in the culture.

Any suggestions?

P.S I'd strongly prefer one of the cities to be in Spain as I'm learning Spanish

Seville

You could spend forever travelling through Spain and not get bored.

You can use Barcelona, Madrid, and Seville as bases for day trips in Spain (of course all three cities have plenty to see themselves). They're spread out enough that you can cover most of Spain with them if you're willing to take a day trip here and there outside of those cities.

The best place for learning Spanish out of the three is Madrid though to me it was the least appealing travel destination. Barcelona has a local language called Catalan which is used by most locals though they will understand and use Spanish if you do. It's just that the names of a lot of places are in Catalan and the language does appear similar enough to Spanish at an initial glance that it can cause confusion. The Andalucian dialect is quite different in terms of pronunciation and use of the 2nd person. Imagine learning English as a second language from somebody with a deep southern drawl and you get an idea of the challenge.

My sister and her bf just got back from a Spain trip and absolutely loved Granada fwiw.

I went there on a day trip from Malaga. Despite not getting an advance ticket to Alhambra, I really did enjoy it (especially because Malaga, though larger, is dull by comparison). I probably should have stayed overnight somewhere because it's a long way from Malaga and even longer from Seville. Didn't get to see everything I wanted.

If you’re going to spend time in Seville, you’re two hours away from Tarifa from where you can take a ferry to Tangier, Marrocco. That can be a day trip, or you add one or two extra days and drive along the coast to Rabat and Casablanca.

Another cool day trip from Seville is Gibraltar. The Rock and the old part of town are definitely worth a trip, not too much else. I’ve spent time at Gibraltar for (poker) business and it gets kinda boring after a couple of days.

Alright you got five weeks which is about the right amount of time to visit all of Europe. Here are the best tips:

1. Do not bring backpack. Only wear the clothes you have on and buy clothes to change every so often.

2. Take boat from Helsinki to Tallinn and then train from there south
3. Concentrate any planning for where you want to be on weekends ie Budapest and Bratislava are amazing on weekends not so much weekdays. Prague and Vienna are great every day of week

4. Hostels are best way to go and Google search will point you to the right ones

5. You can look at map and see best direction for train after you get off boat in Tallinn. Latvia etc. Basically do a circle. Must see cities are: all the ones mentioned, plus Serbia and Croatia, Greece, Rome, Berlin, Barcelona, Malaga and Warsaw. As you only get 5 weekends, plan accordingly, you can easily be in Prague on Wednesday and Thursday, Bratislava Friday and Budapest Saturday and then Vienna Sunday. Again do not pack anything.

Casablanca is an absolute ****hole not worth visiting, not even for a day. It's an overcrowded industrial town without any attractions apart from the grand mosque which you are not allowed to enter as a non-muslim. The city's glory days are decades past.

The Morocco travel guide I bought too late introduced the Casablanca section with the words "if you absolutely have to stay here...".