ctmelvital
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Okay, I'm not entirely sure how much advice I can give you here even though I've pretty much lived on this continent my entire life (give or take).
The whole Istanbul angle makes it a bit difficult (unless you're just gonna head there to catch the plane) but I'll try and offer some suggestions.
I'll defer to Anc & Co. since all my real travelling has been done with parents and therefore been organised by my mum who is a fucking pro. My own travels usually went something along the lines of "get there, get pissed, sleep until 1, see 1 thing, get pissed again, sleep until 1, see another thing, get pissed, sleep until 11 & move on" which probably isn't what you want to do.
Let me just try and outline the differences here in looking at North America/Continental Europe. This mostly applies to the Switzerland/Germany region (i.e. including parts of Italy, France etc) though. After checking your profile, I see that you're 19 so you're not too different from me.
Here's a list of things that might come in handy:
- People aren't really gonna like you. They're not necessarily gonna dislike you either, they're just gonna be mostly indifferent. A lot less outgoing than Americans (obviously this doesn't apply to people you meet in hostels etc).
- You're allowed to drink pretty much everywhere. This is a huge difference and I don't know whether you even want to drink, how much experience you have etc.
- You're allowed to drink until whenever (at least in clubs - I know, I know, you probably don't care but this is very important to me :ramen: )
Anc said something about stuff being slower and while I can't completely disagree he's obviously exaggerating. There are American fast food chains everywhere and normal restaurants won't take you that long.
Here's the general problem for you: it's your first trip, so you're probably gonna want to see the "important" stuff. Plus you're American so you have this whole weird thing about "road trip" or whatever in your head. I don't get that so can't really help you there.
Let me use the example Anc gave, Heidelberg. Fairly famous but, to be honest, it sucks and you can skip it. However, since you're American, you're gonna go there and be all "aaah! wooooh!" at the old buildings etc (one more important difference: shops are closed at night and on Sundays, at least in Germany). So it's hard for me to tell you "yeah, just skip it" because your preferences might be different from mine.
Or look at Paris - you'd probably want to see the Eiffel Tower and the Grande Arche and whatever. All of that is pretty nice but the last time I went to Paris I just didn't bother. Went to the Louvre three times and to the Army Museum. None of the "big" stuff but it also means you get to skip all the lines and still see plenty of interesting stuff. Easy for me to do because, y'know, I've done it all before. It was probably a lot more enjoyable.
Alright, lots of rambling. Lets move on to some proper "recommendations":
I'd recommend putting less focus on Germany because I just don't think it's that interesting. Maybe it's too close to home, I don't know. Things you should definitely skip though: Scandinavia. That's a trip all by itself.
I'll try and give you a rough idea of what I'd do if I were you (this is going to be heavily focussed on Western Europe):
Start in Amsterdam (6/21), you're gonna get there tired so you'll just settle in, have a nice dinner and go to bed at around 8/9ish. Make sure you run around 30ish hours without sleep (I'll let you run the numbers, just make sure it's above 24h) so you'll lose your jetlag within the first day. Get up the next morning (6/22) at aroud 11 and you should be fairly refreshed (use sleeping pills if you must). This gives you enough time to head to some tourist information thingie, get a bit of information and then grab a quick lunch somewhere. In the afternoon, you'll get two things done, tops. Again, get dinner and hopefully meet some/have met someone at your hostel to go out with. Somewhat unfortunately this is a Monday so I don't know how wild it's going to be. I'm sure you want to do the whole "let's smoke weed legally, woah" thing, so do it. Again, get up around 10ish the next morning, maybe do one thing in the morning, another in the afternoon, then just piss around with your new-found friends (6/23). Same thing on 6/24, except now you might have a shot at a bit of nightlife (since it's a Wednesday).
On 6/25, take the train to Paris (in the afternoon, maybe around one or so) and get there in the evening. Settle in, go for a beer somewhere (watch out if you're going to a touristy place - it's gonna be VERY expensive (think double digit $)). 6/26, get your information again and do the Eiffel Tower if you must. You can probably skip the Louvre because you're not going to get anything out of it anyway. So do Montmartre, Notre Dame, whatever on 6/27. Since this is the weekend you're gonna have plenty of opportunities to do stuff at night and you'll almost certainly meet people so be flexible. Stay in Paris all the way through about 6/30. Then leave on 7/1 and head to Hesse. Pick one city. Leave for Baden on 7/5. Leave for Bavaria (just go for Munich) 7/9.
Now, I'd love to throw in Switzerland here but Geneva is just way off course and Italy isn't doable if we're being reasonable so I'd recommend heading for Vienna on 7/14. Leave on 7/19 and head to the Black Sea (I'd recommend Bulgaria). This'll give you plenty of time to experience European binge drinking holidays and raging British hooligans so by the time you leave on 7/25 you'll be more than happy to get to Istanbul.
This leaves you with 6 days in Istanbul or much more likely 2 or 3 days somewhere in between to expand your plans. I've tried to make sure you're in a decent city on most weekends so you'll get to party a bit, too.
As you can see, however, even though I've made it pretty tight and put lots of stuff in there, you're gonna miss Italy. You're also gonna miss Switzerland ( :ramen: ) and you won't even have time to visit Budapest. I'll let the 'mericans comment on it but I think this schedule should be doable. Of course, you didn't really say you wanted to go to Paris but if given the choice between Milano and Paris, I'd say go for Paris. Neither the Italians nor the French speak English so it won't make a difference anyway. :bergman:
The whole Istanbul angle makes it a bit difficult (unless you're just gonna head there to catch the plane) but I'll try and offer some suggestions.
I'll defer to Anc & Co. since all my real travelling has been done with parents and therefore been organised by my mum who is a fucking pro. My own travels usually went something along the lines of "get there, get pissed, sleep until 1, see 1 thing, get pissed again, sleep until 1, see another thing, get pissed, sleep until 11 & move on" which probably isn't what you want to do.
Let me just try and outline the differences here in looking at North America/Continental Europe. This mostly applies to the Switzerland/Germany region (i.e. including parts of Italy, France etc) though. After checking your profile, I see that you're 19 so you're not too different from me.
Here's a list of things that might come in handy:
- People aren't really gonna like you. They're not necessarily gonna dislike you either, they're just gonna be mostly indifferent. A lot less outgoing than Americans (obviously this doesn't apply to people you meet in hostels etc).
- You're allowed to drink pretty much everywhere. This is a huge difference and I don't know whether you even want to drink, how much experience you have etc.
- You're allowed to drink until whenever (at least in clubs - I know, I know, you probably don't care but this is very important to me :ramen: )
Anc said something about stuff being slower and while I can't completely disagree he's obviously exaggerating. There are American fast food chains everywhere and normal restaurants won't take you that long.
Here's the general problem for you: it's your first trip, so you're probably gonna want to see the "important" stuff. Plus you're American so you have this whole weird thing about "road trip" or whatever in your head. I don't get that so can't really help you there.
Let me use the example Anc gave, Heidelberg. Fairly famous but, to be honest, it sucks and you can skip it. However, since you're American, you're gonna go there and be all "aaah! wooooh!" at the old buildings etc (one more important difference: shops are closed at night and on Sundays, at least in Germany). So it's hard for me to tell you "yeah, just skip it" because your preferences might be different from mine.
Or look at Paris - you'd probably want to see the Eiffel Tower and the Grande Arche and whatever. All of that is pretty nice but the last time I went to Paris I just didn't bother. Went to the Louvre three times and to the Army Museum. None of the "big" stuff but it also means you get to skip all the lines and still see plenty of interesting stuff. Easy for me to do because, y'know, I've done it all before. It was probably a lot more enjoyable.
Alright, lots of rambling. Lets move on to some proper "recommendations":
I'd recommend putting less focus on Germany because I just don't think it's that interesting. Maybe it's too close to home, I don't know. Things you should definitely skip though: Scandinavia. That's a trip all by itself.
I'll try and give you a rough idea of what I'd do if I were you (this is going to be heavily focussed on Western Europe):
Start in Amsterdam (6/21), you're gonna get there tired so you'll just settle in, have a nice dinner and go to bed at around 8/9ish. Make sure you run around 30ish hours without sleep (I'll let you run the numbers, just make sure it's above 24h) so you'll lose your jetlag within the first day. Get up the next morning (6/22) at aroud 11 and you should be fairly refreshed (use sleeping pills if you must). This gives you enough time to head to some tourist information thingie, get a bit of information and then grab a quick lunch somewhere. In the afternoon, you'll get two things done, tops. Again, get dinner and hopefully meet some/have met someone at your hostel to go out with. Somewhat unfortunately this is a Monday so I don't know how wild it's going to be. I'm sure you want to do the whole "let's smoke weed legally, woah" thing, so do it. Again, get up around 10ish the next morning, maybe do one thing in the morning, another in the afternoon, then just piss around with your new-found friends (6/23). Same thing on 6/24, except now you might have a shot at a bit of nightlife (since it's a Wednesday).
On 6/25, take the train to Paris (in the afternoon, maybe around one or so) and get there in the evening. Settle in, go for a beer somewhere (watch out if you're going to a touristy place - it's gonna be VERY expensive (think double digit $)). 6/26, get your information again and do the Eiffel Tower if you must. You can probably skip the Louvre because you're not going to get anything out of it anyway. So do Montmartre, Notre Dame, whatever on 6/27. Since this is the weekend you're gonna have plenty of opportunities to do stuff at night and you'll almost certainly meet people so be flexible. Stay in Paris all the way through about 6/30. Then leave on 7/1 and head to Hesse. Pick one city. Leave for Baden on 7/5. Leave for Bavaria (just go for Munich) 7/9.
Now, I'd love to throw in Switzerland here but Geneva is just way off course and Italy isn't doable if we're being reasonable so I'd recommend heading for Vienna on 7/14. Leave on 7/19 and head to the Black Sea (I'd recommend Bulgaria). This'll give you plenty of time to experience European binge drinking holidays and raging British hooligans so by the time you leave on 7/25 you'll be more than happy to get to Istanbul.
This leaves you with 6 days in Istanbul or much more likely 2 or 3 days somewhere in between to expand your plans. I've tried to make sure you're in a decent city on most weekends so you'll get to party a bit, too.
As you can see, however, even though I've made it pretty tight and put lots of stuff in there, you're gonna miss Italy. You're also gonna miss Switzerland ( :ramen: ) and you won't even have time to visit Budapest. I'll let the 'mericans comment on it but I think this schedule should be doable. Of course, you didn't really say you wanted to go to Paris but if given the choice between Milano and Paris, I'd say go for Paris. Neither the Italians nor the French speak English so it won't make a difference anyway. :bergman:
