We've Moved! Visit our NEW FORUM to join the latest discussions. This is an archive of our previous conversations...

You can find the login page for the old forum here.
CHATPRIVACYDONATELOGINREGISTER
DMT-Nexus
FAQWIKIHEALTH & SAFETYARTATTITUDEACTIVE TOPICS
Backpacking Europe Options
 
Sky Motion
#1 Posted : 6/19/2015 7:41:32 PM

<3


Posts: 1175
Joined: 06-Oct-2011
Last visit: 17-Nov-2023
Location: emeraldisle
July 9th I will start in the UK and throughout the course of a month or two make my way through France, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and possibly Sweden and Norway.

Any connections, advice, tips, etiquette or anything you feel compelled to share with me I would greatly appreciate.. I am young and going alone and while I am so very excited, there is still a bit of nervousness there.

Much love nexians.
 

STS is a community for people interested in growing, preserving and researching botanical species, particularly those with remarkable therapeutic and/or psychoactive properties.
 
endlessness
#2 Posted : 6/19/2015 9:00:25 PM

DMT-Nexus member

Moderator

Posts: 14191
Joined: 19-Feb-2008
Last visit: 27-Mar-2024
Location: Jungle
You mean western/central/northern europe? Smile

In Switzerland I went once to an amazing place called Lauterbrunnen valley, specially the towns of Mürren and Gimmelwald, check out google images. I highly highly recommend it if you can go there, I've had an epic acid trip walking those valleys with tons of rivers and waterfalls and incredible views.

Expect to spend tons of money in scandinavia, specially Norway.

Do you have any specific cities you want to go, specific things you want to see?
 
Chan
#3 Posted : 6/20/2015 1:37:45 AM

Another Leaf on the Vine


Posts: 554
Joined: 29-Jul-2013
Last visit: 26-Aug-2023
Hmmm, I'm sure there are plenty of Nexians in Scandinavia, but for the visiting Nexian they're not too nexy [laws/customs still quite harsh], unless you happen across a friendly face...

The scenery alone can be magnificent, though. And the people are generally great, but alcohol is popular so...Wink

“I sometimes marvel at how far I’ve come - blissful, even, in the knowledge that I am slowly becoming a well-evolved human being - only to have the illusion shattered by an episode of bad behaviour that contradicts the new and reinforces the old. At these junctures of self-reflection, I ask the question: “are all my years of hard work unraveling before my eyes, or am I just having an episode?” For the sake of personal growth and the pursuit of equanimity, I choose the latter and accept that, on this journey of evolution, I may not encounter just one bad day, but a group of many.”
― B.G. Bowers

 
roninsina
#4 Posted : 6/21/2015 7:00:15 AM

DMT-Nexus member


Posts: 401
Joined: 31-May-2014
Last visit: 30-Dec-2023
Location: The confluence
The few years I lived in Germany I spent as many of my summer weekends in the English Garden in Munich as I could. It's a large clothing optional public park. The main train station is within walking distance where you can shower and lock up your backpack. If you're in Bavaria in the summer it'd be a shame to miss it.
"We dance round in a ring and suppose,
while the secret sits in the middle and knows." Robert Frost

 
obliguhl
#5 Posted : 6/21/2015 6:48:53 PM

DMT-Nexus member

Senior Member

Posts: 4733
Joined: 30-May-2008
Last visit: 13-Jan-2019
Location: inside moon caverns
English Garden is nice. And os is the "Deutsche Museum" if you are into Museums and are in Munich. Always depends on what you are looking for. Most people only visit munich or bavaria and are getting a very distorted view. If you are crossing over from the netherlands try cologne if you want a "pleasant" stop with lots of nice food and a superb selection of bars. For more unrefined germany try leipzig which is very urban, yet friendly and with a hippie vibe to it.
 
Sky Motion
#6 Posted : 6/22/2015 1:57:36 AM

<3


Posts: 1175
Joined: 06-Oct-2011
Last visit: 17-Nov-2023
Location: emeraldisle
endlessness wrote:
You mean western/central/northern europe? Smile

In Switzerland I went once to an amazing place called Lauterbrunnen valley, specially the towns of Mürren and Gimmelwald, check out google images. I highly highly recommend it if you can go there, I've had an epic acid trip walking those valleys with tons of rivers and waterfalls and incredible views.

Expect to spend tons of money in scandinavia, specially Norway.

Do you have any specific cities you want to go, specific things you want to see?


Haha yes brain farts are real. Those places in Switzerland..mouth watering. I am particularly interested in the natural landscape and plan on doing as many amazing day hikes as I can fit in! Thank you endlessness!

I plan on doing nothing specifically Smile I am booked for London and Paris and from there it is all up in the air and I will have a eurail pass to visit any country I like with 15 days out of 2 months of travel.

Quote:
English Garden is nice. And os is the "Deutsche Museum" if you are into Museums and are in Munich. Always depends on what you are looking for. Most people only visit munich or bavaria and are getting a very distorted view. If you are crossing over from the netherlands try cologne if you want a "pleasant" stop with lots of nice food and a superb selection of bars. For more unrefined germany try leipzig which is very urban, yet friendly and with a hippie vibe to it.


Thank you obliguhl, I will keep all of that in mind, leipzig sounds wonderful!
 
fatherseb
#7 Posted : 6/22/2015 9:08:15 AM

DMT-Nexus member


Posts: 54
Joined: 03-Jan-2015
Last visit: 22-Feb-2024
It you are in the munich area, just drop me a message.
you maybe also consider one of the music festivals.

Enjoy your trip!
 
Sky Motion
#8 Posted : 8/13/2015 10:11:41 PM

<3


Posts: 1175
Joined: 06-Oct-2011
Last visit: 17-Nov-2023
Location: emeraldisle
roninsina wrote:
The few years I lived in Germany I spent as many of my summer weekends in the English Garden in Munich as I could. It's a large clothing optional public park. The main train station is within walking distance where you can shower and lock up your backpack. If you're in Bavaria in the summer it'd be a shame to miss it.


I did make it to the English Garden, amazingly spacious park and the surfers were super cool!
 
livinglife
#9 Posted : 8/22/2015 11:11:32 PM

DMT-Nexus member


Posts: 172
Joined: 08-Oct-2013
Last visit: 18-Mar-2020
Location: here
When you come to norway, buy a "Melkesjokolade" Wink
 
Lichen
#10 Posted : 8/25/2015 12:02:48 AM

DMT-Nexus member


Posts: 333
Joined: 07-Nov-2009
Last visit: 06-Oct-2022
I Went backpacking all through Europe, and a few other adjacent countries, about 5 years ago and I am currently in my second trip now; just been through Nederlands, Belgium, Spain, Portugal - and am currently in Greece Macedonia. If you can go to Spain, I recommend it very highly - it's one of my favourite places in the world.

Despite my own experiences, I don't really have very much to offer. I see you're going by yourself - if you're the introverted type, travel can be lonely experience if you don't make efforts to meet people. If you're staying at hostels, don't be afraid to have a drink and chat with other travelers - even if you're not a big drinker.

Also, don't be afraid to talk to the locals - if you find the opportunity to make friends with the people who live in these countries (as opposed to just other travellers) you will turn your travels into a very special experience indeed. There is only so much you can experience as a visitor to a foreign country - the 'natives' are where it's at.

It's a good idea to learn the basic phrases in every country you go to, even though most people you come across in the countries you have mentioned will speak excellent English - imo, it's just excellent common courtesy. Courteous phrases are things like: hello, goodbye, please, thank you very much, I'm sorry, I don't understand, I don't speak X, do you speak X? - it will make your trip a much more rewarding experience, and locals will always appreciate the gesture.

Not sure if you are trying to do your trip on a budget, but you can do free walking tours in pretty much every major city in Europe - the tour guides rely on tips; you tip whatever you think the tour was worth. If you thought the tour was no good, then there is no pressure obligation to pay at all; they understand that everyone has their bugets.

I highly recommend these tours - the guides will take you around to all the major landmarks, give adequate -and often entertaining- details about each site and will often show you a few spots you won't read about in any lonelyplanet, wikitravel or tripadvisor guide. http://www.neweuropetours.eu/ are the best - check the website, but you will find them with red umbrellas in the main square of many cities at certain times of the day. Don't miss the free walking tours in Germany, especially Munich and Berlin - second world war history is both horrific and fascinating.

The organisation I linked, also do bar hopping tours at night, which I imagine would be a good place to meet others; but bars aren't really my thing, so I've never done it myself.

If you find the opportunity whilst in Switzerland to visit Geneva, you should go to CERN - the home of the hadron collider. You can do a free tour of the facility, but you need to register on their website in advance.

If you're on a budget, try to cook your own food as much as possible and buy food in supermarkets; this also means it makes it a bit more special if you decide to dine out or have lunch somewhere. Also, you can usually get falafel wraps, kebabs and shawarmas for about 3.50 to 4 euro in most countries.

Drink tap water wherever you can, you will save tonnes of money from buying bottled water.

Don't even think about trying to cross any borders with contraband of any kind - I know I don't need to say this (nexians are smart cookies), but it's easy to fall into complacency whilst traveling around. Same goes for buying any contraband - just be careful, and go with your instincts.

If you're looking at hostels to stay - check for good reviews; don't just look at the star ratings/percentage. There are lots of fake reviews - read the reviews and cross reference the common complaints and remember that most people don't write reviews at all. Most importantly, don't stay anywhere that doesn't have secure lockers for you to store your valuables. Don't stay anywhere that wants to keep hold of your passport - they can scan it by all means, they can hold onto your drivers licence instead, a monetary deposit even - but at the end of the day, your passport is not even your property and if anything happens to it, you are screwed.

If you are staying for a long time in any one country and you think you will need to use your phone buy a sim card in each country you are in - roaming fees from your home country are likely to be extortionate, because the phone calls and texts etc need to be relayed back to your home country and you will likely be charged loco amounts for making and receiving calls/texts/etc.

Always carry some spare change, you will often have to pay to use public toilets - often about 50 cents.

Eurolines is a cheap bus company to go from country to country - 20 hour bus trips aren't pleasant, but they are often cheap. If you take a night bus, you are saving a night spent on accommodation. Just make sure you know which bus station you are arriving in at your destination, and have accommodation already lined up. There's probably nothing worse than arriving in a foreign city whilst sleep deprived, hungry, not knowing where you are, and having to find somewhere to stay.

Go to a festival - psytrance or any sort of hippy festival is always a good time with great people. I just spent 6 days at the Freedom Festival in Portugal and I honestly did not see one single dickhead (ok, there was one guy... but there's always one guy...).

One more thing - take the boat from Sweden to Estonia. It's very cheap and it's an enormous luxury cruise ship, complete with a supermarket, cabaret show and bars. The scenery off the boat just outside of Sweden is unbelievable and has to be seen to be believed. Estonia is very cheap, and Tallinn -although a bit of a tourist town- is very picturesque, very medieval and a lot of fun.

Speaking of medieval towns - try and go to Rothenburg ob der Tauber whilst in Germany - you can get there from Nuremburg (another really cool city) if you have a chance to go there whilst in Bavaria.

I could probably keep going with all this random information. but if you can think of anything specific you'd like to know, just ask or PM me - I'll help in anyway I can!
I am a piece of knowledge-retaining computer code imitating an imaginary organic being.
 
jamie
#11 Posted : 8/25/2015 2:10:39 AM

DMT-Nexus member

Salvia divinorum expert | Skills: Plant growing, Ayahuasca brewing, Mushroom growingSenior Member | Skills: Plant growing, Ayahuasca brewing, Mushroom growing

Posts: 12340
Joined: 12-Nov-2008
Last visit: 02-Apr-2023
Location: pacific
Yall in Europe are lucky to have this..here in america backpacking around is just not the same. Europe looks like such a diverse place to be and easy to travel country to country.
Long live the unwoke.
 
roninsina
#12 Posted : 8/27/2015 6:28:27 AM

DMT-Nexus member


Posts: 401
Joined: 31-May-2014
Last visit: 30-Dec-2023
Location: The confluence
Quote:

I did make it to the English Garden, amazingly spacious park and the surfers were super cool!


I'm glad you enjoyed the Garden, Sky Motion. I would have liked to have directed you to some of the more rural areas northeast of Frankfurt, but really didn't know how to describe the specifics as it's been over 25 years since I've been there. The little town where I stayed was called Budingen and was magical for me.

I would like to second Lichen's suggestion of Spain and I particularly enjoyed spending a few weeks of exploring the Mediterranean coast from the tourist towns near Barcelona to Algeciras/Gibraltar... And wouldn't be bad to punctuate that with a frugal ferry to Tangiers.
"We dance round in a ring and suppose,
while the secret sits in the middle and knows." Robert Frost

 
smokerx
#13 Posted : 8/27/2015 10:06:38 AM

ThGiL fO TiRipS


Posts: 2021
Joined: 26-Feb-2011
Last visit: 07-Feb-2023
Location: Earth
What about Eastern Europe ? Czech and Slovak (Tatras mountains) plus Romania one of the most beautiful places I have been (Transylvanian mountains). Beautiful places with beautiful people. Check this
We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another.

*********

We are all living in our own feces.
 
 
Users browsing this forum
Guest

DMT-Nexus theme created by The Traveler
This page was generated in 0.029 seconds.