Mar 13 2008
Best Places to Visit in Europe
One of the greatest things one can do is travel, not only to see new places, but to learn about new cultures. It is one of the most interesting things to experience and one of my favorite things to do. If you’re looking to travel somewhere interesting travel to Europe. You can visit so many places in such a short amount of time because of the common currency and the train system. I went last year for a full month and have never taken a better trip. My trip started in London and went east, south, west, and back up north to London again.
My Top Five Cities:
5. Berlin: Berlin was by far the most modern city I visited. This was obviously due to the Wall and separation of East and West Berlin (West Berlin was much nicer) and the fact that 70% of the city was destroyed during WWII. People were extremely friendly and most spoke or would try to speak English. By the way, to save money in Europe eat a lot of McDonald’s. It’s a much better quality there! Also, do not visit the Jewish Museum! I have nothing against Jewish people, but it was very boring-one exhibit was a spoon. I would suggest going from Berlin to Prague and plan a stop in a small town called Schöna. It definitely had the most beautiful scenery in Europe.
4. Vienna: Vienna was one of the more modern cities in Europe, but one of the most beautiful. The first thing I noticed was how it was planned. The city planner was a genius compared to other European cities, with all kinds of awkward alleys and small, crooked streets. Vienna has large, open streets and beautiful parks and landscaping every where. If you visit there I would suggest using one of the many, what I call, “bicycle vending machines” and ride around the city at night. The night life there is great, but is more refined and has a more affluent atmosphere. I believe it was a Monday night when I was there and there were a few upscale parties going on. The city was also extremely clean. There weren’t as many tourists there and people were so hospitable and the women were starting to look good 
.
3. Prague: Prague was the most historic city I visited. Literally every where you look there is an interesting old building with a long story. The first day I was there I walked around the city the entire day. The next day I took a tour and I think I saw everything except the castle there, which is actually the largest castle complex in the world. Prague is also the place to go to save money. They have not switched to the Euro yet, but are in the process-go soon! The one knock I have on the city is the people. They are not the most friendly and many don’t wear deodorant. But most people we dealt with were tourists any way! If you want to try some good food there go to a pizzeria and order some capaccio with lemon on top, mmmmm.
3. Paris: It’s a tie! Prague is all about history while Paris is all about fashion and shopping. The best places to visit were Champs Elyees and the Eiffel Tower. Champs Elysees is the most expensive street in the world and has every expensive brand you can think of. I went into almost every store there and they were all unique and much better than in the U.S. They are expensive however! The Eiffel Tower is beautiful at night. You should go a little early though, because I got there a little late and couldn’t go to the top. The Louvre, the big museum, is also very nice. I even got a picture of the Mona Lisa and almost got kicked out for it!
1. Barcelona: Barcelona was easily my favorite city. It is super modern and some of the greatest architects in the world have designed buildings there (Gaudi, one of my favorites). It also has the most amazing building I have ever seen: La Sagrada Familia. Trust me, you want to visit that building. There are beautiful women there and a beautiful beach (lots of topless women ). There are good clubs and it has a great night life. It’s also a good place to buy something because it’s pretty cheap.
Some Recommendations:
Don’t go on any river boat tours. They are so boring and it’s usually cold and windy!
Try to not sound or act like an American. You’ll realize how ignorant we can sound.
Always carry change with you because you will have to go to a bathroom and you will have to pay to use it.
Keep a diary during the trip. It’s a great way to pass the time on the trains and it’s great to look back on, especially if you want to visit again.
Don’t plan your trip too well. I made a general time line for the trip, but there were several times where I completely changed my plans and couldn’t have been happier. It’s much more fun to be spontaneous!
Do not visit Budapest. It was by far the worst city we visited and took forever to get there from Prague.
Don’t get first class for the trains. There were hardly any trains with nice first class sections and there really wasn’t much difference.
Make time for Greece! I didn’t get to visit 
Bring lots of deoderant. There will be many nights sleeping on the trains and no time to shower. By the way, please make sure you book a bed as soon as you arrive at a new city if you know you will have to take a night train that night or the next. It is no fun to have to sleep in a chair with a room full of strangers.
The most beautiful girls are in Italy, and the guys there will stalk you if you’re pretty. Related to Italy, eat a lot of gelati. It is the best ice cream I’ve ever tried, and I would suggest visiting islands like Capri rather than big cities there. Rome and Venice are really overrated.
Make sure to keep a look out for an Internet cafe when you’re walking during the day. I used them a lot when there was nothing to do late at night and I wanted to call back home.
Walk every where! I guarantee you will have more fun exploring yourself than taking a tour. One nice thing was renting headphones with mp3s describing the different places.
Buy giant backpacks. They’re much easier to carry when you’re walking every where.
Learn to wash your clothes with soap and water in a sink.
Talk to people. Meeting people from different worlds was one of the most memorable parts of the trip.
Eat in small restaurants in alleys; those were definitely the best.
Other notable places:
Nice, France
Monte Carlo, France
Schöna, Germany
Cordoba, Spain
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you must be an 80 year old soaked lady. There’s hard to find a problem with Budapest unless you are stupid and get lost or something. The best food and wine you can find in the world is there, and it’s easily in the race with Prague
im guessing you are from budapest?
He’s right about Budapest. There’s a chapter on that on my book http://www.PragueSymphony.com
I’ll see if I can copy it here
Sometime around Thanksgiving, Pavla and I spent a weekend in Budapest. Of course there is no such holiday as “Thanksgiving” in Europe … I just use it as shorthand for that brief indecisive season between fall and winter.
One of my smartest students had somehow found herself an American boyfriend living in Budapest; and this guy had, through her, invited me to use his apartment while he was out of town. I had never met him, and still have not. Though I’d love to fix that one of these days.
Armed with little more than an antique set of skeleton keys and an address written hastily on an envelope, Pavla and I boarded a train headed for another East Bloc nation.
Hungarians have at least a few things in common with Czechs. Of course both of them prepared during the Cold War to fight the “imperialist” forces based in neighboring Austria. But they both also bristled under Communist domination. And the Hungarians, like the Czechs, also had a serious go at throwing off the Red yoke. They actually beat the Czechs to that distinction by more than a decade, rising up in 1956 with whatever weapons they could get their hands on. And, like the Czechs would twelve years later, they discovered the constancy of Russian resolution and the frustrating futility of banging pieces of wood against tanks.
Though it ended in defeat of course, that famous ’56 uprising is one of the finest chapters in modern Hungarian history. One of very few fine chapters really. Because unfortunately the Hungarians have even more in common with the Slovaks. Like the Slovaks, the Hungarians also allied themselves with Germany during World War Two, and almost out-Hitlered Hitler. They took full advantage of this brief window of opportunity to rid Hungary once and for all of the root of all its problems … the half-million Jews who once called this land home.
Truth be told, I don’t like Hungary much … nor Hungarians. I would very much like to encourage people to go there though – to take some of the pressure off of places I like better.
A few years ago I read a quasi-autobiographical novel written by a Harvard-educated kid from Minnesota, of about my age, who taught English in Budapest and fornicated with his students while I was doing the same in Brno. The book is primarily about Budapest and the obnoxious ex-pat community there of which the author was evidently a part. A community which I avoided studiously wherever I went.
The book is, of course, entitled Prague. Huh? Well, two points: First, nobody would buy a book called Budapest, would they? Second, one of the weaker themes in the novel is a wistful melancholy which consumes the American ex-pats in Budapest when they realize that they should have settled in Prague instead. Of course they just would have hung out with drunk and obnoxiously self-important brats there, too, so what difference would it have made? That point aside, these brats were of course right. Prague is Prague and Budapest is … well, Budapest. But personally I’m glad at least some of these shallow ex-pats staggered around the no-mans-land of Buda-Pest. By the summer of ‘91 the best parts of Prague were already infested with them.
It was not until I’d been wandering around Budapest for several hours that I first learned that Budapest is in fact two cites: Buda, and Pest. If you didn’t know that already, don’t feel bad. And if you did know that, don’t pat yourself on the back too hard. It’s not really all that important; and we are not playing Jeopardy right now.
When Pavla and I finally figured out how to read Hungarian street signs and found our way to the apartment, we were both exhausted. We struggled up a narrow ill-painted hallway past a suspicious stare or two, found on a well-worn door something which vaguely resembled the numeral on my envelope, and I gave the old key a try.
We were in! I collapsed on the bed beside Pavla and thought about nothing at all for a blessed ten minutes or so. I then got up to get my new bearings, and studied the jam-packed white bookshelves. A bit of history, a bit of philosophy, a ton of literature, and a framed color picture of some little red-headed kid (whom I assumed to be a nephew or something) decked out proudly in his Cub Scout uniform.
I liked my student’s faceless American boyfriend — a lot. And I feel quite confident that apartment I slept in was not inhabited the author of Prague.
But Arthur, if it that was your place, I’m really sorry about your cooktop. I didn’t know that I was supposed to remove the cover before turning it on. Actually, I didn’t realize that was the cover. And I’m sorry I just dissed your book. I’ll give it another try before I die — I promise. If you’ll forgive me for disfiguring your stove I’ll forgive you for duping me with that title. It’s OK, I probably would have done the same thing if I’d been in your shoes. Bummer you can’t rewind and play it differently, huh? I know the feeling.