by beksbks 52 Replies latest social entertainment
Here I am in Rome in 2008.
http://www.rockbobster.com/Europe/album/Rome/slides/20080919_033_Roma.html
I took a Eurolines bus all over. Madrid - Barcelona - Florence - Rome - Venice - Budapest - Prague - Amsterdam - London - Paris.
Then I went for a few days to Portugal. Loved it.
My experience from 5 years ago. Italy is insanely expensive and over rated. Venice is nice. Greece is awsome. Athens is clean, from my understanding they cleaned it up for the olympics. Athen's beaches are not so clean as people throw cigarette butts anywhere but you can go to private beaches if you don't mind paying. Metro is fast and clean and cheap! You can get around anywhere with English. Depending it you're on a budget or not will determine your place of stay. If you're on a budget you can go to the ferry arrival area and find people with signs that rent their places to the visitors. Life in Greece starts after 6pm and it's great. Hotel rates are cheaper after Aug 15 from my understanding. We loved Naxos and Santorini islands. You can book ferry tickets online or when you arrive there. Places of stay are easy to find as many people wait for ferry arrivals with their signs at each port and many locals make their living this way. We found clean apartments for 35-45euros a night.
Driving isn't bad unless you're a bad driver to begin with. Italy has toll highways and they are expensive but nice to drive on, remember that left lane is a passing lane not for going the speed limit or slower - that's what the right lane is for which so many north american drivers don't seem to get. Austria is awsome too if you're in the area, we liked Austria much more than Italy.
When I stayed in Firenze, I stayed at Casa Guidi, which was a great deal if you are traveling with a family or large group (4 or 5 people). Nothing better than staying at a 15th-century house in the heart of the city, and reading Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry in the very rooms in which it was written (which literally look much the same in terms of decorations and furniture as they did 150 years ago). From there we went to England and stayed a week in a 16th-century building in a manor that once hosted (= imprisoned) Mary Queen of Scots.
