Trip to Europe 2013 May-August

[etphonehome]

Hey dudes,

I fly to Berlin on May 2nd and fly back to NYC on August 15th. I'll be traveling all over and I want to shred! No place is off limits, and I'll be filming parts of my trip. I would absolutely love to meet up and it would be even cooler if you would show me around your city! Also, any advice would be much appreciated, I studied in Spain for 4 months in 2010 and it was awesome/I learned a lot, but I'm sure you guys have a ton of helpful info for me. I'm mostly wondering if it's worth $1323 for the 3 month global Eurail pass(Non-European pass) or if I should try to get by on the 15 days of travel for 2 months pass. I'm also wondering about reservations for the trains. Do the trains normally require reservations, or do they fill up quickly in the summer months? Basically, I would hate to spend $1323 on a eurail pass and not be able to get a train due to high volume travel. Also, does $1323 seem high? That is just the price online, so maybe it would be cheaper to wait and purchase the ticket in person.

Anyway, I hope to hear from you guys and I'm excited to meet you! Mathias Blau said it's possible that he'll be in Berlin, so that would be a good spot to meet up as well. One more thing, I was planning to do the couch surfing thing, but if anyone has some crash space anywhere up for grabs, I would be eternally grateful and return the favor if you were to ever be in NYC.

Cheers!

[Asmus]

So I don't think I have to recommend Berlin and Copenhagen since you already talked to Mr. Blau.
But if you planning on going to Copenhagen we would love to shred and I've had alot of footbaggers crashing over the years.

Other cities I would recommend are Prague, Barcelona and Paris.

I don't know anything about the trainpass unfortunately.

[MathieuGM]

Hey Mikie!

I did a trip similar to yours last summer.

If you really want to save on money, i would recommand not getting the pass... On my side i decided to make it slower, but much cheaper... Using regional train, night buses (euro lines) and stuff like that instead of high speed train.

I manage to get to most of the city i wanted to for less then 50$... Like Frankurft-Amsterdam for about 30$. Frankfurt-Prague for about 40$, Prague-Venisia for less then 50$.

The upside : really cheap.

downside : it's harder to plan, cause you gotta wait for deals and stuff like that. You also gotta be kinda flexible on destination.

Stil, regional train are good. Like, they work everyday, you can always squeeze in, it's cheap most of the time. Just slower .

For the city : Prague, Paris, Copenhague (haven'T been there but everybody said good things about it ), Barcelona are obivous choice. Something not many ppl talk about but it REALLY enjoyed : Como Lake. If you ever pass close to italia or switzerland, i would stop there !

Hope this help!

Mat

[Bigfoot_bag]

Hello bro!

I´m sergio and i live in the north of spain (near Pirineos) my house is your house, come to spain motherfucker!!!!!!!!!!!!! maybe not a beautifull city but i can show you al amazing places in the mountain . maybe i will be working but we can talk if u are interested.
Pd: my english is horrible
Pd2: my shred is bad too XDDD

[Air]

Hey Mikie!

I live in Berlin until July or so next year, so I'll be here when you arrive. Berlin is the footbag capital of Europe! Caroline Birch just stayed here for 4 weeks. Last weekend we had Jorden Moir, and the weekend before that Juho Marjo and some other Finns. Next weekend Christopher Schillem will be here. And Mathias Blau is about to move to Berlin. On top of that we have the regular FC Footstar posse, and train hard 4 times a week. So you picked a good city to start with
Crash space shouldn't be a problem since there are so many players here. I can't promise my place as of yet, because I need to move to a new place in March and I'm not sure what I'll be able to get.

I did a Eurail trip in the summer of 2008. I had a pass that allowed me to travel as much as I wanted for a month. I only paid $500 for it (with student discount I think), so $1323 seems like a lot to me. I would also recommend buying the pass with less travel days, since you won't be travelling everyday. Travelling by train can be quite exhausting in the long run, since the distances can sometimes be long. So I would recommend using less time for travelling and staying longer in the places you choose to visit. I wouldn't worry about the reservations in the train. The train network in Europe is quite good and you should be able to get the trains you want. On the trip I took I think we reserved seats only once or twice, always as late as on the day before.

[Muffinman]

I don't know about other countries in Europe, but I know Germany has a great carpool service. I think it's this: http://www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de/ Maybe others can help you translate, but I used this to get around when I was in Europe. It will help you for at least countries close and adjacent to Germany. I spent, like, 10-20 Euros to get from Munich to Prague? As opposed to the $100 it cost me to get from Berlin to Munich by train.

[jaust]

I don't know about my plans for your time planned yet, but if you are interested to visit hamburg (germany), which i would really recommend you, you are welcome to stay at my place (if i'll be still there).

hamburg is not far from berlin (like 300 km) and one of the nicest cities in my country and the 2nd biggest btw.


my recommendation for your travel would be to save your money not buying a ticket and travel as it was mentioned before. you could still get an interrail pass here for a shorter time (like 5 travel days within 10 days) for something around 150 euros so you could do a sightseeing trip. the carpool system (link was posted above) and tramping work really good for me and is probably the cheapest way to travel and still pretty fast.


regards

[etphonehome]

Thanks for the responses guys! Seriously, you guys are awesome for the quick/helpful posts.

Asmus: Copenhagen is definitely on the list! My roommate is actually from Malmo so I'm gonna have to visit there as well. I would appreciate the crash space and good company for sure so I'll add you on Facebook if you have it. Prague, Barca, and Paris are also on the list, so I'm pretty excited for that.

Mat: Good to hear from you man, thanks for the insight. I'm thinking now that I'm leaning towards doing 15 days over 2 months, and in between I'll use the carshare/bus thing. I'll probably end up waiting until I get there though, as it seems like it's possible it will be cheaper once I'm there. I'll check out Como Lake too! I also want to check out Cinque Terre in Italy, it looks amazing.

Bigfoot_Bag: Hola mi amigo! No pasa nada tio, mi español es fatal aunque estudiE alli jeje. Bueno, suena increible y por supuesto, si estoy bienvenido, quiero ir por los pirineos. Añademe por Facebook si lo tienes ya hablaremos! Y bueno, si tienes trabajo, pues, estas jodido jaja

Aleksi: Hey man! Good to hear from you as well. Berlin sounds like it's gonna be a blast! I'll have my camera/go pro setup, so hopefully we can film some shit! I have a couple other friends I'll be crashing with, but I wouldn't mind chillin' out with you guys for a few nights if you have space. I'll remind you closer to May 2nd that I'm coming, and we can definitely meet up.

Erik: Thanks for the link dude! I know of some other services as well, but I was thinking of spontaneity only when I wanted the train pass. I think it's a smarter choice to do these options instead.

Michael: I would love to go to Hamburg, I hear it's pretty sweet so I will gladly accept crash space if you're still there. Feel free to add me on Facebook if you still have it.

Talk to you guys later!

[boyle]

I think it's a good idea to have a pass, but not necessarily a full pass. When I went to Worlds in Berlin I got one that was something like 12 days of travel in a month or two, that cost around $500. It was the "select pass", so I had it for Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Czech Republic.

How old are you? If you are under 26, it is cheaper.

I would definitely recommend stopping by Vienna, they have some cool players there - Alex Trenner is the best guy to get in touch with. You could also go over to Slovenia and Croatia, which apparently are classed as one country by the Eurail pass.

In Spain and Portugal you have to make reservations when you have the Eurail pass, in most other countries it doesn't matter too much.

I would also take a look at some of the cheap airlines (Ryanair, Easyjet), particularly if you are booking so far ahead you can get fares for practically nothing. Of course the airports are all a long way out of town, in the middle of nowhere, but this can be a good way to cover the longer trips.

It's also great to do a mixture of couchsurfing, staying with some footbag players, then occasionally go into a hostel or a hotel and have some time to just recharge and have your own space.

It is also more expensive (maybe double the price) if you (as a non-European) buy the ticket in Europe.

So I recommend getting a select pass for some of your travels, then use the deals or carsharing to get you other places.

It sounds like you will have a great trip though, wherever you go, and there is probably no better place to begin than Berlin.

[etphonehome]

Cool! I'm so pumped to go! Thanks for the insight. I'm 24, so I'll be good with the youth pass. I'm thinking i'll go with the 15 days of travel for 2 months and just use the carshare/regional trains/busses for the first month of the trip and save the pass for the last 2 months.

Anyway, anything in particular I should check out in Berlin? I haven't really begun to figure out what the hell I'm gonna be doing, but epic fun and footbag will ensue, I'm sure.

[etphonehome]

Prepare yourselves haha! I'll be in Berlin and beyond soon enough. Only around 22 days before I take flight and I'm pretty sure you all will be around so I can't wait to meet up. If anyone still has recommendations for my travels I want to hear them because I have no set plan as of right now. I know that I will be going to Vienna, Budapest, Prague sometime in late May, but after that I'm open for anything.

I will also be in Spain in late June and then I'll head down to Morroco for a week. My trip spans 104 days instead of 90, so I technically have to spend those extra 14 days outside of Europe or I could get in trouble haha. Do we have any footbag players in Istanbul?

Also, I am going to be documenting my trip via video/gopro cams and am open to filming anything footbag or timelapses or anything else.

Cheers!

[Asmus]

Places I would recommend in Berlin:
http://www.kunsthaus-tacheles.de/
http://www.yaam.de/

I haven't done this, but it looks good:
http://alternativeberlin.com/berlin-gra ... t-art-tour
In general this alternative berlin site got some good stuff.


Hit me up on facebook if you need more recommendations, I also got some for most other european capitols.

[mr.alex]

hello, you can pm me if you know when you're in vienna and if you're up for a shred.