On 4/19/06, Dmitry Baikov <dsbaikov@xxxxxxxxx> 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
