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Location: Vermont USA | Has anyone here backpack across Europe? My 23 year old daughter wants to do this come spring. Some tips and ideas would be very helpful.
Pauly |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | Take a guitar, a Mercedes and a credit card. |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | Tell her to leave the computer and ipod at home. Seek out live music. |
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| Stay at youth hostels. Buy the most Eurail pass you can afford. Wait until the dollar gains some ground on the Euro. |
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Location: Vermont USA | CWK2 posted
"Take a guitar, a Mercedes and a credit card"
She does own an Applause, Dodge Neon but driving to Europe is out of the question gas is expensive.
Pauly |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | My 20 year old just got back from a short trip, Amsterdam, Netherlands, Berlin and Vienna and probably a few other places. She spent last Spring in Spain and is pretty good at getting around. She uses the public transportation systems, most of which are quite good. What's your daughter mean by backpacking? Walking might be pretty tough these days. In the 60s people did it and stayed in barns and outbuildings. I think they called them hippie shacks or something like that. |
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| Originally posted by Mark in Boise:
Walking might be pretty tough these days. In the 60s people did it and stayed in barns and outbuildings. I think they called them hippie shacks or something like that. You can still do that in the Swiss Alps, but you have to know in advance which families open their barns to trekkers. You can get that info pretty readily. |
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Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | Did that, with my Ovation, in '74. Not sure any advice would still be pertinent. Other than 'do it.'
The net is a great research device.
http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&safe=off&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&c... |
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Location: Vermont USA | "What's your daughter mean by backpacking?"
Traveling by train, staying at hostels. Maybe even camping.
Pauly |
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Location: Vermont USA | Thanks Everyone |
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Location: Tychy, Poland | she could come to poland aswell. it's not so expensive here as on the western part of europe, and there are some interesting things to see. i've traveled through europe 3 years back at age of 20, if You / or her want some tips, write to me by pm or by e-mail. i don't have much time last days to read forum, but i answer mails every day.
b.r |
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Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | A buddy of mine and I walked the length of the Thames Path in G.B. about 10 years ago. Took us most of a week, but that was primarily because some of the path near farms was closed due to an outbreak of mad cow disease. Took a small day pack and stayed mostly in small rooms upstairs in pubs. We'd agree on a destination, then I'd forge ahead in the afternoon and seek out a place for the night. Many pubs have rooms available, though they don't advertise it. Breakfast was always included in the room charge. Safety was never a concern. Not sure about Europe, but walking about remains a primary means of transport over there. We should do more of it here. |
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Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | First you'd have to wash North America and shrink it a bit. We've got Islands
and you've got counties bigger than most of their countries.....
I remember sitting at a country intersection on my Peugot 101 Mobylette looking at the
direction signs. 1/4 mile to Penrith, 1/8 mile to Wobegon,
1 1/3 miles to Wothebloodyhell, and 3/4 mile to Dunnomate. |
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Location: Copenhagen Denmark | fillhix : I remember sitting at a country intersection on my Peugot 101 Mobylette
-----------------------------------------------
Hang on a bit...what`s a Muscular Country Gent such as Y`erself , doin` on a girly moped..??.. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | It was a pretty girly moped, bright blue and mauve..... |
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Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | It was blue. How'd you know?....
.....That was YOU in that gas station in the French countryside north of
Aix En Provence with NY plates on a Caddy!?!? and a teenage daughter
who thought she could speak french?
I had hair,...long hair and an Ovation HSC strapped on the back with panniers
off the side.
Going uphill into the French Alps I could get off and run alongside.
"Muscular Country Gent"?
I traded my six-pack for a keg two decades ago. |
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| Paul is she planning to do this alone or with a friend? |
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Location: Vermont USA | She is planing to do this alone unless someone decides they want to go with her. I could get a little nervous but she does have some street smarts.
Paul |
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| Street smart or not - I would seriously suggest a friend. If you get taken ill, lose a passport, get on the wrong train, whatever - it's all a lot easier with two believe me.
How many countries does she want to get to? Doe3s she speak any language other than English? |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | My daughter had her purse stolen in France. Fortunately had her passport in her luggage. If she wouldn't have had a friend with her with a phone, keys, money etc., she might not have made it back for a few weeks. |
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| I agree with Mr Lawbooks. |
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Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | I met a guy one the plane on the way over, we chummed together for a couple days while we got our bearings. Dumped him when the cute blonde from San Diego picked me up so her girl friend and HER boyfriend would go their own way. (third wheel syndrome) She and I traveled together for a month, then headed in different directions....and on and on.
....street smarts will get you a long way. (But slightly negative adventures will still happen, you can't stop everything from happening...else nothing would happen.)
And it wasn't necessarily safer back-in-the-day either. First night in London, met a guy at the hostel heading home and showing off the bullet scar in his belly courtesy of the Cypriots during the Greece portion of his tour. |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | Try finishing up a trip after you've had to cancel all your credit cards. Thievery, especially upon apparently single young women, is rather rampant over there. She had another friend who had her laptop stolen right off the table in front of her by a guy who zipped through the sidewalk cafe on a scooter. It was probably a regular gig for him at internet cafes. My daughter's worst loss was her new camera, but she had downloaded pictures just before she left for Paris. |
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OT Europe
