Prosperity Posted July 15, 2005 Share Posted July 15, 2005 What a wild ride, but it was just the right length. I don't think I could really stand another day of eating Doner Kebabs and riding ****ty night trains. Not much went according to plan, but it was all worth it. As I write this I am recovering from some sort of cold that I got a couple days ago, probably from fatigue. The last day of Amsterdam and the day after that with the long flights and the flight delays might have been the single worst period of time I had in my life. Anyway when I get a chance I will post pics and tell some stories about the cities, and some tips for first time back packers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twa Posted July 15, 2005 Share Posted July 15, 2005 Welcome back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdsknbill Posted July 15, 2005 Share Posted July 15, 2005 Glad you survived it Liberty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riggo-toni Posted July 15, 2005 Share Posted July 15, 2005 Congrats dude! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpillian Posted July 15, 2005 Share Posted July 15, 2005 Awesome, man! But I can't understand the Doner Kebab comment -- those things are fantastic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
codeorama Posted July 15, 2005 Share Posted July 15, 2005 I'm definately envious. I'd love to get the chance to visit europe sometime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raub Posted July 15, 2005 Share Posted July 15, 2005 There is nothing in the world like a doner kebab at 2am after a night of hard drinking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prosperity Posted July 15, 2005 Author Share Posted July 15, 2005 Originally posted by jpillian Awesome, man! But I can't understand the Doner Kebab comment -- those things are fantastic! I agree it is cheap and delicious, it could be my flu talking, but after having them everyday... We need more Turks in the US there are doner kabob shops every 20 yards, and they are even cheaper than McDonalds. But like I said, after living almost exlusively on them, well I couldn't eat another Doner with fries+mayonaise for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonard Washington Posted July 15, 2005 Share Posted July 15, 2005 Originally posted by Liberty I agree it is cheap and delicious, it could be my flu talking, but after having them everyday... We need more Turks in the US there are doner kabob shops every 20 yards, and they are even cheaper than McDonalds. But like I said, after living almost exlusively on them, well I couldn't eat another Doner with fries+mayonaise for a while. there's a place in rockville that sell them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prosperity Posted July 15, 2005 Author Share Posted July 15, 2005 Originally posted by Raub There is nothing in the world like a doner kebab at 2am after a night of hard drinking That describes Germany (Munich) perfectly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iheartskins Posted July 15, 2005 Share Posted July 15, 2005 Originally posted by Raub There is nothing in the world like a doner kebab at 2am after a night of hard drinking Very heartily agreed Raub. Liberty, glad you're back safely. Looking forward to seeing pics from your trip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prosperity Posted July 15, 2005 Author Share Posted July 15, 2005 I got a few pics from my camera that I can post, my friends have the rest of the pics. How do I attach them to a post? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkinsForLife260 Posted July 15, 2005 Share Posted July 15, 2005 Cant you just use the attach file option? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prosperity Posted July 15, 2005 Author Share Posted July 15, 2005 Originally posted by SkinsForLife260 hit the browse button when you make a post. thanks, now I just have to make the file smaller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpillian Posted July 15, 2005 Share Posted July 15, 2005 Originally posted by Liberty I agree it is cheap and delicious, it could be my flu talking, but after having them everyday... We need more Turks in the US there are doner kabob shops every 20 yards, and they are even cheaper than McDonalds. But like I said, after living almost exlusively on them, well I couldn't eat another Doner with fries+mayonaise for a while. I can definitely understand that. Too much of anything -- even fillet mingon -- can get to be a bit much. Yeah, I've been wondering why there's not more Turkish places in the US -- they're that good. Amazingly enough, I searched all of northern Iraq for Turkish doner kebab -- never found it. Not even at the border! Now, on with the pics, Liberty! And a timeline -- what did you all do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soliloquy Posted July 15, 2005 Share Posted July 15, 2005 There is an 'attach file' button towards the bottom of the posting page. Click on 'browse' and select the pic. There is a size limit, though. Use 'Irfanview' to resize the pic if necessary. http://www.irfanview.com/ It's free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoony Posted July 15, 2005 Share Posted July 15, 2005 Originally posted by Liberty I don't think I could really stand another day of eating Doner Kebabs and riding ****ty night trains. Not much went according to plan, but it was all worth it. As I write this I am recovering from some sort of cold that I got a couple days ago, probably from fatigue. The last day of Amsterdam and the day after that with the long flights and the flight delays might have been the single worst period of time I had in my life. :violin: Dude... you just got back from Europe. Most people would be pretty excited... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prosperity Posted July 15, 2005 Author Share Posted July 15, 2005 Originally posted by jpillian I can definitely understand that. Too much of anything -- even fillet mingon -- can get to be a bit much. Yeah, I've been wondering why there's not more Turkish places in the US -- they're that good. Amazingly enough, I searched all of northern Iraq for Turkish doner kebab -- never found it. Not even at the border! Now, on with the pics, Liberty! And a timeline -- what did you all do? June 28 Dulles to JFK (which is the worst airport I have evr been to) then from JFK to Schipol air port in Amsterdam (great airport, and the employees speak better english than their JFK counterparts) June 29 Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a very weird place. The Dutch are very nice people and even the beggers near the train station will help you find places if you give them a few Euro cents, unlike all the other beggers I saw in other countries. There are parts that are incredibly dirty (near the canals) and there are parts that are amazingly clean. We did the customary things like the coffee shops and a stroll through the Red Light district. The coffee shops are cool, but I don't like to smoke too much. The Red Light district was interesting, but it is a real turn off when you see a 40 year old pregnant Vietnamese prostitute talking about the price with a shirtless, fat, middle aged man. At night atleast 10 people tried to sell me cocaine, but once you say no they will leave you alone. And despite all this I felt very safe. At about 1 AM it starting raining and all the bars closed inexplicably.. A very weird city indeed, but it is also very expensive. Oh and eeryone rides a bike so it is incredibly pedestrian friendly. June 30 we take a day train from Amsterdam to Frankfurt. It was a German ICE (inter city express) train, they travel very fast when they get to the magnetic levitation rails. Frankfurt was a pretty boring city, I had plenty of beer, and I ate my first Doner Kebab, but there wasn't much else. July 1 we take a night train from Frankfurt to Paris. All the stereotypes about Parisians are false. Whenever we got lost there were people who were ready to help us. They were not snoddy at al. Paris is a great city both at the day and night. During the day you can see the monuments like Notre Dame and the Arc de Triomphe, and the Eiffel tower, and at night the city is just as lively. Many bars and clubs and at a reasonable price. The Seine is also a great place to go at night. The city is very large so it is imperitive to use the metro which is fine, but a bit slow and confusing. July 2 another day in Paris. More of the same, but it was more of a great city. Paris note: extremely attractive women July 3 nightrain arrives in Zurich (boring, but clean city) a day train to Interlaken Switzerlan. Everything is expensive at interlaken but the best thing the city has to offer is free, that is the amazingly picturesque landscape. July 3 day train to Milan, we get to my Italian relatives. July 4 we get a tour of Milan, and I would not reccomend the city itself to anyone but rich young women. But we stayed here mostly because I wanted to see my family. Milan has the most attractive women in any city I have ever seen. But you get the "they are all out of your league what are you thinking" feeling. July 5 more of Milan then a day train to Venice. Let's get one thing straight, Venice is a crappy city. I wouldn't reccommend it to anyone. It has a bunch of delapidated buildings and dirty water. And the public bathrooms closed at 7 PM so I was forced to pee in various alleys. Oh and it is VERY EXPENSIVE July 6 night train arrives in Budapest. Budapest is a very underrated city. The city itself looks amazing and everything is very cheap. There is lots to do in Budapest, but one of my friends got sick and was bed ridden for a couple of days so it could ahve been much better. Went to the Communist statue park, which was cool, for a while. July 7 still in Budapest, had to take the sick guy to the hospital, there was a long wait and that took up most of the day. But at night I got to go to this sweet hooka bar. It had a great atmosphere, but it was full of fake Persians. At this point we are trying to get to Istanbul so we take a night train to Bucharest. July 8, our train from Hungary to Romania. BUCHAREST IS A **** HOLE. Romania has 3 international trains, and they made the brilliant decision to screw everyone on the train from Budapest trying to make the connection to Istanbul by not making the train wait 20 minutes. We spent the day trying to avoid robbers beggers and gypsies (who are usually both), and there are A LOT of them. Fed up with the crap hole we take the first train we can to Belgrade since Istanbul was now impossible. The train was not any better. The bathrooms were very dirty, but worst of all, our entire car was full of smugglers, they were openly hiding boxes in under the seats. I was very worried about getting robbed or worse, so I didn't get much sleep that night. Thankfully we made it out ok. July 9 I would have never thought I would be happy to get to Belgrade, this is a city that was BOMBED by the US not too long ago. Not many speak English but one of my friends is Bosnian so he could translate. A fairly ugly city, and a fairly ugly people, but it was cheap and it is freaking 72 Virgins in Paradise compared to Bucharest. July 10 night train arrives in Munich. Back to civillization, thank god for the Germans. Munich is not as pedestrian friendly as the other cities, and it is much newer. Also, literally most of the cars are late model BMW's Audis Mercedes, and Porche. This city revolves around doners and beer. NOTE: I am happy to say that I drank 3 liters of beer without throwing up or getting a hang over. My Bosnian friend threw up and swore off alcohol, but that only lasted one night. Everything is a lot more fun when drunk, and getting drunk is very easy in Munich, but also expensive. 1 liter at Hofbrauhauss (beer hall) costs 6.40 Euros. I thought beer tasted like piss before Munich but after drinking so much the taste has improved on me. July 11 more of the same. Walk around at day time, and get drunk at night. Liver cancer is imminent, but worth it. July 12 Same stuff, but it was all so fun. I also bought my very own hooka in Munich from a Turkish store. July 13 arrived in Amsterdam, this is were the **** hits the fan. We get to Amsterdam at 10 AM and because we are so stupid and cheap we didn't book a hostel. We walk around for 15 hours then go back to the train station to pick up our bags (they were in lockers so we didn't have to carry them) and go to the airport. But the train station closed the doors to the lockers and they guard said we had to wait till 7 AM. F*ck. We have to walk around some more, and sit outside for 6 hours. We didn't think it was a good idea to get drunk or high, so we spent all that time, SOBER and awake, and very cold. Thank god it didn't rain. In the morning we took a train to the airport and waited 4 more hours till our plan left. Finally some sleep. We arrive in JFK, and it was just as ****ty as the first time. Our plane from JFK is delayed an hour for boarding, but it is delayed another hour and a half on the runway. At this point I am very sick. Miraculously the plane eventually took off and we got to Dulles after 5. I thought I was only a couple of hours till sanctuary. WRONG. The traffic was horrible even by DC standards and it took me 5 hours to get home. 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Prosperity Posted July 15, 2005 Author Share Posted July 15, 2005 Originally posted by zoony :violin: Dude... you just got back from Europe. Most people would be pretty excited... If you had to spend 25 hours outside in the cold with nothing but a t shirt and shorts, without any sleep and only three hours of sleep the night before you would feel ****ty too. If you say you wouldn't you are a liar. And I never said I didn't have a blast, it is just that the journey back to the US was hell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prosperity Posted July 15, 2005 Author Share Posted July 15, 2005 C:\Documents and Settings\Ali\My Documents\Picture 002.bmp edit: what is wrong? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpillian Posted July 15, 2005 Share Posted July 15, 2005 Sounds like a great trip, Liberty! Also, sounds like a horrible RETURN!!! Nothing worse than travel days -- ACK! Hope you get to feeling better, bro. So, what flavor of tobacco did you get for the hooka? I'm a big fan of the "two apples" flavor. :high: My wife gives me total hell about it though -- because it looks exactly like, and actually really is, a bong. And I've got it rather prominently displayed in my office at home Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prosperity Posted July 15, 2005 Author Share Posted July 15, 2005 Originally posted by jpillian Sounds like a great trip, Liberty! Also, sounds like a horrible RETURN!!! Nothing worse than travel days -- ACK! Hope you get to feeling better, bro. So, what flavor of tobacco did you get for the hooka? I'm a big fan of the "two apples" flavor. :high: My wife gives me total hell about it though -- because it looks exactly like, and actually really is, a bong. And I've got it rather prominently displayed in my office at home I am glad I got it through customs and throught bagage handling in one piece. I got apple, mint, and some sort of fruit mix. If they had orange I would have gotten that too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkinsHokieFan Posted July 15, 2005 Share Posted July 15, 2005 Glad to hear you had a great time. Schipol is a great airport, one of my favorites in the world. Nice it has a Casino I also had a trip back from Amsterdam from hell. The biggest storm in Europe in 5 years hit and our flight was not allowed to leave till the next morning. Had to sleep on a conveyer belt which is probably the worst thing I have expierenced traveling. It sure is an interesting place isn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prosperity Posted July 15, 2005 Author Share Posted July 15, 2005 Me at Interlaken, if I can figure out how to make it bigger and able to fit I will post that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laurent Posted July 15, 2005 Share Posted July 15, 2005 Originally posted by Liberty That describes Germany (Munich) perfectly. I take it you spent quite some time there then. I may be a bit biased, having grown up there, but to me Munich is still without a doubt one of the most beautiful cities, espescially this time of the year. What I would give to sit in a Biergarten right now drinking a Weizen.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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