I'm taking my midlife crisis on a tour of Europe

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Events conspired against me to cut my Barcelona stay short (when this trip is over I’ll have material for a dozen Pit threads) and I’m leaving for Nice in a few hours, arriving early tomorrow morning. I may veg out on the beach for a day there or go on immediately. I’m taking a liking to not making any decisions until I have to.

Maastricht: Thanks for the offer. If I end up in the Netherlands, it’s to take you up on it.

Hello Again: Looks like I’ll be going through Nimes anyway, so now I might just get off there (in the middle of the night…) instead of going on to Nice.

Rayne Man: I’ve played the game but knew little of the city. It seems really cool (look at those walls!) but a bit difficult to get to in the circumstances.

22

You learn someting new every day on the SDMB. I never new there was a game called Carcassonne.

23

Of course I meant “knew”. I tried to edit but the damned board fell over at the crucial time and I was timed out.

24

It’s really good, actually. Give it a whirl. In the meantime, I’ve learned something of my own: In France they don’t use QWERTY, they use AZERTY. Makes typing a bit tricky right now.

I’m in Nice now, but I’m only staying over the day. Going to Venice tonight, which is an old dream of mine. There I’m going to take a break from trainhopping and stay in a hostel for two nights or so. I have a feeling Venice has enough to see. And then I’m hankering for that trip through the Alps.

On the train to Nice I ran into a genuine Crazy Lady[sup]TM[/sup]. Among her beliefs: The Book of Revelation predicts the World Trade Center attacks, England’s current spell of bad weather is a divine punishment, and Dermot Morgan was struck down by God because Father Ted made fun of Catholicism. Also, there is a conspiracy in the media to never mention Catholicism, which I suppose is why I’ve never heard of it, we’re all combustible and God owns the speed of sound. This is all somehow connected. It was impossible to question her statements, as when challenged she launched into a stream-of-consciousness tirade that lasted for several minutes, changing the subject at least six times.

25

Try to stay awake on the train trip east from Nice, if not too late. I spent 2 years on a US Navy ship homeported at Villefranche-sur-Mer, just east of Nice and saw all of that coast which I think is one of the prettiest anywhere. The perched village of Eze is east of that and then Monaco and then Menton at the Italian border. I hitchhiked from there toward Florence when I finished my active duty but ran into the rainstorm that inundated Florence so hopped a train to Switzerland. If you can get to the southeast of Venice into Croatia, Dubrovnik down the coast is impressive. If your choice is to go south or north from Venice, I’d pick the Alps thru Switzerland and then Austria. Bon voyage…

26

G’day, mate!

27

Take the S-Bahn to the Tiergarten stop. There is a restaraunt at that trainstop built into the railroad called the “Tiergarten Quelle”. I just came back from a week in Berlin and I ate there every day of my viisit. Order the cheese-stuffed sausage wraped in bacon served over fried potatoes–you won’t regret it. We are talking genuine german food, here.

[edit:] you only spent two days there? You didn’t see one tenth of Berlin. I spent some time in Barcelona, too. Don’t bother paying to get into Sagrada Familia; it’s under construction now and the inside just looks like a construction site. Take a trip up to one of the mountaintops and get a killer view of the city.

Wear sun protection. I got severe sun poisoning after just two days at the beach.

28

I am a big Spain partisan, so that’s what I encourage. If you like, you can check out the travelogue from my last trip there for ideas.

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You’re welcome. In case you need a place to crash, we live 5 minutes from the Central Trainstation, we have a guest room, and I desperately need reasons to have my SO clear out his game stuff out of that room every so often. A guest is just what I need. :slight_smile:

30

No, I didn’t. Nor did I see one tenth of Paris, Madrid, Barcelona or Nice, or even Irun.

Spain is behind me. Any suggestions for Venice? Not that I think I’ll need much in the way of a plan. Venice seems like the kind of place I can walk around randomly in for days.

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If you are going to go in Switzerland, and in fits in your itinerary, then to see the Alps the best way is the Glacier Express!

http://www.glacierexpress.ch/theglacierexpress.php

A full day trip with beautiful views, from St. Moritz to Zermatt (at the foot of the Matterhorn), or vice-versa.

Remember that in Switzerland your interrail pass may get you discounts or free tickets on the good bus system. Going around the north shore of the Vierwaldstattersee (aka the Lake of Lucerne) is one of the prettiest parts of Switzerland in my opinion. The road is on the very edge of the lake.

32

Switzerland is very pretty. But if you’re traveling these huge distances every two days, then sitting in a train all day for the view might not be very fun. I know it wasn’t very appealing to me. Sign up for some tandem paragliding if you go into Switzerland. That’s a killer view of the alps and a memory you’ll never forget.

I’ve never been to Italy. My only suggestion is guard your stuff, as that place is a pickpocket goldmine.

33

I haven’t been able to check in here since Nice, which is two countries ago. Right now I’m at a hotel in Montreux, Switzerland, waiting for the Golden Pass Line train to take me to Zürich. If I’d seen Arnold’s message before I might have tried for the Glacier Express (although I understand that the Golden Pass Line is wonderful), but then again not as I once more ended up here by accident.

From the Before Sunrise department:

I didn’t make it to Venice on my first try, as I met this Canadian girl on the train and ended up debarking with her in Verona instead of going on to Venice. We dropped off our bags at a hostel and got to walk around this beautiful city for several hours before the other tourists woke up. It was great. We ran into some other Canadians at the hostel and went to the Castelvecchio, a medieval castle that is now a museum. They were going to see Nabucco performed in the Roman arena in Verona and we ended up going too, buying our tickets minutes before the start of the show.

Opera isn’t exactly my favourite artform but no-one can deny that it can be powerful, and performed in those surroundings at night and you’re watching it sitting on the same piece of rock that someone was sitting on two thousand years ago while watching a gladiator fight a lion… it was something, that’s for sure.

We parted ways the next morning, she going to meet a friend in Paris and I moving on to Venice. The other Canadians had just come from Venice and had warned me about the place being touristed all to hell and jampacked with people, so my plan was to just walk around there for a few hours to have seen the coolest city in the universe and then go on to wherever, hopefully Switzerland and the Alps.

And whaddaya know, Canadians do end sentences with “eh”. The “aboot” thing I didn’t notice, though.

Once in Venice the only train I could find that suited me would give me three hours in Venice and put me in Montreux by 11.30 pm. Not ideal by a long shot, but I took it. God almighty, those guys were right about Venice. I managed to wander around in the tourist-free areas, and that Venice is indeed the coolest city in any plane or dimension. I wanted to sell my flat and move there. Then I ran into the tourist streaks, and that Venice was a nightmare. I’ve been to parts of Greece that were pretty bad, and Nice was pretty bad, but they had nothing on this shit. I still want to go back and stay longer than these few hours, though.

From the “Random Acts of Kindness” department:

So, I arrive in Montreux at 11.30 at night (after a lovely train ride involving dinner, wine, and pleasant conversation with an Argentinean gentleman who was able to identify Swedish writing, which is pretty unusual), walk around a bit trying to find a place to stay and finding only fully booked hotels. I go back to the train station and drop on a bench, sleep for a couple of hours, and then wake up with a pressing need to visit the restroom. I have a medical condition that changes this situation from “highly annoying” to “actual emergency”. The bathrooms in the train station are all closed, so I start to look around town for a public bathroom, stumble upon a hotel that I hadn’t seen before, ask for a room but get the same answer, but I do get to use the bathroom in the adjoining bar.

While I’m on my way out, they’re closing the bar for the night and one of the bartenders asks me what I’m going to do now. I reply that I guess I’m going back to the train station, I only needed a place to shower and change my clothes. He immediately offers me his own room. Floored, I accept. He shows me the room and the bathroom, hands me the key and asks me to stay until five, when he comes back from a visit to a friend. I happily promise to do so.

The thought that he might have gone to get Zed and tell him the spider just caught a fly does occur to me, but by then he’s left and I haven’t got much choice so I finish my shower, change my clothes and pass out on the floor of his room for a couple of hours. I make sure I can leave as quickly as possible and psyche myself up in case I need to fight.

He comes back and we talk a little. He offers me something to eat and I politely decline, but he rummages through his drawers and gives me what he has - a tube of Pringles - “just in case”. At this point I just have to ask why he’s being so nice.

“I’ve done a lot of bad things in the past, and I’m trying to make up for it.”

I met Earl Hickey. In Switzerland. By now I’m feeling bad I ever doubted the guy. There is good in the world, people.

Jumping Jesus on a frog’s back, this turned into a long post. I just had to share this stuff with someone, and you guys are such easy targets. Well then, Zürich next. All suggestions welcome, as always.

[sub]From the Points of Random Interest Department: In Switzerland they use QWERTZ.[/sub]

34

PriceGuy, I just want to say I really enjoy your trip reports. Hell, I’m actually feeling motivated to try something like what you’re doing some day…hopefully soon, if I can save enough money. Keep up the posts! :slight_smile:

35

That was so entertaining to read!

When penitent, give Pringles.

36

Sounds like an adventure. Hope it’s as fun to experience as it is to read.

37

I agree that the tourist streets of Venice are a terrible dread. Although they do serve a good purpose: they keep tourists away from the real beauty of Venice, the back streets. In Venice you can be surrounded by hundreds of people all walking down the same narrow street. You take one turn, walk away from the horde, and you’re completely alone in the most beautiful city in the world.

My story is about running from my hotel room (about 2 minutes from the Rialto Bridge) to the train station. I had my huge backpack, my girlfriend a smaller backpack and also a large pizza. While it would have been faster to take the backstreets to the train station, if we had taken one wrong turn and got lost we’d certainly have missed our train. However, if we took the tourist street it’d lead us right there, though we’d just have to fight our way through it. So there is Spezza and his girl playing Amazing Race, pushing our way through the crowds, one body checking his way through with a 40 lbs backpack, the other deftly deking her way through holding a pizza box above the crowd. We made it from the Rialto to the steps of the train station in 19.26 minutes. It might be a record.

38

Cool story with the hotel guy in Montreux offering you a room. That’s never happened to me. Good for you and for him!

Actually, the makers of keyboards in Europe must go nuts. The French have one standard keyboard layout, the Germans another, and the French-speaking Swiss keyboard layout is different than the French one, and the German-speaking Swiss keyboard layout is different than the German one.

39

Some of the computers I encountered in Bosnia used QWERTZ, some used QWERTY. For a couple days after I attempted to type “yay!” in an entry in my LiveJournal while travelling, everyone on my friends list was using my new word, “zaz!”

Where to next, Pricegoy?

40

Well, I’m back. I took the ride through the Alps from Montreux to Zürich, went on to Vienna, stayed overnight, went on to Berlin, spent the day there and took the night train home. Up until the moment I boarded the last train I considered changing my mind and taking another train somewhere, but I’ve burned a lot of money and would like to have some vacation time at home before I go back to work, so I finished my trip.

Vienna was really cool. The Schönbrunn palace and surrounding grounds is one of the things that cannot be described and cannot be done justice in a photograph, it has to be seen. Vienna is one of two cities I visited on this trip, the other being Berlin, that I’d most like to return to some day. I’m already itching to do something similar again, but in Eastern Europe next time (so if you’re still there, Kyla, and the offer still stands, I’ll be there). The freedom of being alone was a real rush. I could go anywhere and no-one had an opinion about it.

All in all, I’ve had a blast. I’ve seen a lot of things, including visiting four countries I’d never been to before (Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Austria), I’ve made two new friends (the Canadian girl mentioned upthread and an English girl I met on the train from Vienna) and now have places to stay in Victoria and London, and I’ve learned a lot about myself and managed to change a thing or two about myself, which is what this was really about.

Thanks for all the help and interest, guys. While I have your undivided attention: I’ve been talking to a friend of mine about next summer flying to somewhere on the American east coast, renting a car, and driving it to somewhere on the west coast, seeing as much as we feel like on the way. Is something like this feasible? I imagine a straight drive across the US without sightseeing would take four or five days, is that about right?