A friend and I are going to be travelling around Europe starting on the 14th of June and ending on the 7th of July. Seeing as members of Metal Archives are from all over I figured that I could glean some cool information on the cities I'm visiting.

The cities I'm visiting are (in order): Barcelona-Paris-Zurich-Rome-Munich-Prague-Berlin-Amsterdam.

Basically I'd be eternally grateful if people from around these areas could tell me what I need to know in regards to things like places to see, where to eat, where to drink, how to get by on the cheap, etiquette and anything else that could be useful.

Thanks!

Also if anyone wants to recount their own tales of travelling or just stories about the cities I'm visiting, that'd be great.

Food:Try whatever the locals say are hot.

Never been to Barcelona, but Paris and Rome have a shitload of places you gotta see. Especially the Vatican, and all the huge-ass paintings.

Listen to advice about pickpocket hotspots, and take all the precautions.

If Barcelona is anything like Madrid (and I've heard it's worse in this regard), pickpockets are EVERYWHERE.

Seriously, within ten minutes of leaving Madrid airport, I had my camera taken out of my bag on the metro, never to be recovered:(

A guy on the same trip had hundreds of euro stolen, pickpocket took the wallet out of my friend's pocket, removed the money, and then put the wallet BACK into the poor guy's jeans! That's how quick they are, you need to be really careful.

Avoid taking out maps in any of the cities unless you really have to, it signalls you out as 'lost and vulnerable tourist!'' immediately.

Doing the Interrail thing huh?

When you are in Prague, you can catch a train to a nearby town called Kutna Hora. Not only do they have the famed "Black Ossuary" there but they also have a silver mine which you can have a guided tour through. It's great fun and not at all boring as a lot of guided tours are. I highly recommend it!

Yeah, doing the InterRail thing, it's gonna be awesome.

I've heard pickpockets can be an absolute nightmare in Barcelona, particularly in places like the Ramblas. I'm not going to be carrying that much on me in person, and my wallet is going to be chained to me and out of sight at all times. I'll try to stay extra vigilant as well.

Thanks for all the info guys! Keep it coming, it will come in useful when I'll be making a travel itinerary.

Also, anyone had any experience with Hostels? All the rooms I booked are going to be shared, as it's way cheaper that way. I take it they have lockers in which you can put your stuff, right?

Some of my friends have been pickpocketed too while in Spain and I saw a thief stealing a bag from a woman in Barcelona.

Ive stayed in hostels in about 25 different countries. Everything from 4 bed rooms up to 40. Berlin has the best hostels IMO. They are like hotels and SUPER clean. The worst thing that happened to me in all my stays was I lost a pair of socks.

Hostels are not hotels. If you are some princess who cant deal with parties and a dingy (usually, but not always) environment, you may want to look elsewhere. Most have a safe in the reception area. 90% of them have in-room lockers. I rarely use the lockers myself as I usually only have a camera and memory cards with me which I almost always have on my person - everything else is clothes/toiletries in a backpack. I just leave it on my bed.

The clown and bard in prague is a great party hostel, with a huge 40 bed top floor dorm. Cheap, great people, hot showers, unlimited breakfast but a bit away from the main square (~10 minutes by foot, but trams run 24 hours).

Best advice for staying in hostels - bring earplugs and a few pairs of 'em as well. I usually bring a dozen pairs. Just those cheap foam-type ones. Believe me, they are worth their weight in GOLD when you want a good nights sleep.

Check out hostelz.com for bookings/reviews.

Use a money belt. No matter how lame it seems its the only safe way, unles you like cramming shit in your front pocket. In Rome another guy on my tour had had the back pocket of his denim shorts slashed open without him even noticing, luckily he didnt have anything in there. If you carry a small backpack always have it locked especially when wearing it.

Hostels are fine, but never leave anything valuable in the room, and keep your bags locked. Even if your roomies seem perfectly fine, never trust anyone by leaving shit lying around. The only shit hostel I've stayed in was in downtown Cairo, which was terrible. Otherwise it's all been good.

The only thing lame about a money belt is not using one. I like the around the waist/under your pants style.

I take it 1 step further and carry a decoy money belt (the around the neck kind) when I am in a questionable area or out in a new town in the wee hours. Fill it with expired credit cards, some currency (a 10 euro note on top, and some lesser valued notes or fake notes underneath, folded in half so you have a wad) and some folded sheets of paper to replicate a passport. The more real it feels/looks, the better your chance of passing it off as the real thing.

Worse case scenerio; someone is holding a weapon to you demanding your money, pull it from underneath your shirt and over your head and throw it towards them while turning the opposite way and take off running. Helps if they can see the money somehow (clear pouch on the front or something). 99 times out of a hundred, all they want is cash. By the time they realise theyve been had, you are long gone.

I dont care if someone thinks Im a puss for not fighting - Ive personally seen what has happened to people who resist. Its not worth losing my life or even a few days of vacation time to act tough.

Ive never needed it, but Ive met too many people on the road that have been robbed. It sucks to lose your cash. Even worse when you lose your passport and plastic.

When you are in Berlin, aside form all the typical tourist things like the Pergamon (AWESOME! by the way), Berlin wall and the like, you MUST check out the artist commune at night. Sorry, I dont know what it is called. I think it is in the Mitte district though. It is a graffiti-covered (as in EVERY square meter), dilapidated structure (4 or 5 stories tall) that was taken over by anarchists, bohemians and artists. Many of the rooms contain small art galleries, some have the artist actually creating their works on the spot. Some rooms are small bars. On the ground level, old cars have been turned into bonfire pits. The smell of marijuana lingers heavy in this area. Feel free to bring your own booze and wander around. Few tourists are there and despite how it sounds, it is completely safe. One of the most memorable experiences in Berlin.

Not trying to make fun of you, but that is just hilarious.

Great thread though, definitely will come in handy when I hit up wacken/europe one of these years.

Hahahha, Wacken/Europe...two great continents

While in Berlin, you'll want to check out the Berlin Philharmonic, which is a really neat building.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Philharmonic

Also, there's a smallish musical instrument museum attached to it, which is well worth seeing. Lots of interesting and intricately-carved and painted baroque harpsichords and the like, as well as plenty of bizarro instruments you've probably never seen or heard of.

You'll also want to go inside the Berliner Dom:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berliner_Dom
Preferably go while there's a choir performing mass or something, as when you're up inside the titular dome the acoustics are fascinating.

Plus, be sure to eat lots of Doeners!


Shit man, I lived there for a year and never saw that! I hope you're not talking about this one:
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wir ... id=6870796

I did the Interrail thing a couple of years back, and what I found immensely helpful was www.wikitravel.org which has user-generated info about hostels, things to do and avoid, local dangers and scams, etc. As with any wiki you need to take everything with a grain of salt, but it's generally a good guide, for the major cities at least.

HAHA! Yeah, I know it sounds...well....goofy, but not as goofy as sleeping on your backpack in some alley because you dont have any money/plastic to get a room or book a train.

Hmmm...I think that is it! Cant say for sure since it was dark and I was drunk, but the description in the article makes it sound like it is the right place.

That sucks if it gets demo'ed...that place was so far beyond, "off-the-wall". I was there on October of '07.

I tend to manage to find some of the most oddball sites when I visit countries, usually with help from the locals. The caves under Tallinn, the tunnels under the Budapest castle district, a fortress near Prague....the more off the beaten path, the better for me.

Edit - Yeah Tacheles is the spot I was thinking of. Saw some pics here that confirmed it:
http://super.tacheles.de/cms/

So, any folks from near Nantes on this board? I'm going to be spending a day or two there before Hellfest and I want to see cool stuff! Any recommendations? Are there any shows or generally interesting events going on near there in the 3 days or so before Hellfest?

OP: if you can avoid staying the night in Paris proper, avoid it! Over-priced (well, by my standards) and underwhelming for the price.
And I'm also going to be in Munchen this summer! If you hear of any really cool things to do out there, share them here!

Oktoberfest?

Tempting! Unfortunately, we'll be there in June and I assume Oktoberfest takes place about 4 months later. And as it happens, I'm traveling with a staunch non-drinker so I don't think this event would be particularly fun for him anyway.