Travel Europe

[sligoman]

Strongly thinking about this for the summer. Not sure where to start off in but the plan is to spend a few days in each city and travel[most likely by train] to another.

Other option is get a job in a big city and work for 2 months first and travel for the final month.

Anyone here do this before?

[The Stars]

good idea Sligoman,might join you,weather permiting

[theleprechaun]

i always wanted to do that. travel around europe spending a few days in each place

[GavinZac]

i'd work in rome for a month then travel the rest of the time.

[finlma]

I did it before - mostly around Eastern Europe. Highly recommended. Highlights: Sarajevo, Budapest, Dubrovnik, Ljublana, Slovenian montains.

[endabob1]

Tried this as a Student, work in Holland for 2 months went to Amsterdam and ended up there for 3 weeks :) squeezed in a couple of days in Brugge, Paris & London on the way home.

[CollegeTillIDie]

Train travel in Eastern Europe is cheap, I would recommend using first class if you are overnighting on Romanian trains, not that expensive and SO MUCH better than 3rd class travelling.

[Bluebeard]

Firstly, note that the Interrail pass is changing, so now instead of picking your zone and your time, you should be able to pick either a country or all zones, including Russia! Haven't looked it up yet, so investigate it.

Visa is your next thing. You will definitiely need one for Belarus and Kosovo, probably need one for Russia, the Republic of Srpska in Bosnia, Serbia, Moldova, the Ukraine, Turkey and Northern Cyprus, so check them out, as some of them used to have Summer tourist visas very easily granted on the border - most have a Dublin embassy, so give a ring if necessary, but I'd say check the web and ask here when you know which countries you want to visit. You used to need one for Romania or face an exciteable border official (not recommendable) - this may have changed with EU accession, but there is an embassy in Dublin. As far as I know the other European states outside of the EU will just require a stamp on entry and exit if you have an Irish or EU passport.

I've seen a lot of Central Europe, and I'd highly recommend seeing Slovenia and Vilnius in Lithuania, too. Rural Slovakia, particularly out towards the Tatry Mountains is great. I've yet to properly visit Poland, but I hear good things.

If you are there in July / August, do a few web searches, you should find out a couple of festivals, e.g. the Pepsi Szegzed in Bucharest, the medaeval festival in Sighisoara in Transylvania, the Exit Music Festival in Novi Sad are all great, and I'm sure there are many more that I haven't seen.

Outside of the former Sov Bloc, I'm a big fan of Austria in general, though it is more expensive. Italy is great too, but just beware the heat in August, and the fact that the football doesn't get going until much later in the month.

Of course, you should be college bound, so you might be able to wait until September before returning!