Where in Europe do you want to go?

Greece, Spain, France, Italy. Egypt.

Im currently in Tubingen, Germany. Staying for a year, until july 28, and I have a free month now, until classes start in mid october. In March we have a break, so I really really want to go to Finland (Helsinki of course), and also England and Wales. I also really want to go to at least one rock festival and concerts or something of the sort (music obsession over here). But yea, Finland and Wales are on the top of my want list.

PS: If anyone has anything they think would be useful for me to know during my stay here, regarding the stay in Germany as well as going to the above mentioned places, and perhaps to Russia for Christmas, please contact me.

Kotenok, we live just south of Tübingen in Balingen. Where are you from, what are you doing in Tübingen? As to rock festivals - the Bang Your Head Festival in Balingen in June 2005!

And onto Egypt??? That's what I should have said.

I still want to do the Orient Express.

Oh yeah.

I still want to go to Italy again.

Of course.

I've been reading about this restaurant twenty miles north of Parma...

Och! My Western Civ class is really driving a desire to see the former Constantinople, Magna Graeca (lower Italy, Sicily), the Peloponnesian penninsula-- Rhodes, Israel (but I don't think I'd go there now)

Always had a thing for the Mediterranean. Crete.

Transylvania--

Kiev--Ireland, the Mesopotamia area. (Post-occupation.)

Although I don't live that close to Tübingen, I'd certainly like to be helpful re your stay here.

[As a former university docent, I'd like to tell you that "Semesterferien" is no official term at all. It's called "Vorlesungsfreie Zeit"

(You are not by change in the history department? :wink: )]

Next summer I'm cycling through west Europe with some friends. We fly to the south of France, cycle up to Germany or Holland, via the Alps, then ferry back to Yorkshire. About 1,000 miles. The exact destination depends on distances, but I'm definately looking forward to it. Does anyone have experiences of camping or cycling in Europe?

This mega site Cycling in Europe might be some help for the start.

Cycling is quite popular in Europe, camping places usually like cyclists (nowadays) very much (again).

Especially in Germany (well, at least this is the country, where I know such best :wink: ), there are some good cycle routes, passing camping places, with good tour guides:
Discovering Germany by bike

In my home state, you even can get a tour planner, which is GPS connected http://www.radroutenplaner.nrw.de/RRP_home_01.html

Thanks for that Walter. I've not been able to check them all out (office web filters are blocking 'sport') but I can get on at home later this week. Having looked around the Discovering Germany site, I'm thinking that Germany, Denmark, Holland and Belgium might be a good idea. I might leave the Alps for another year (when I've done some training!). Do you do any cycling?

Unfortunately, like most Britons, my foreign lanuguage skills are utterly crap. I hate being so ignorant that I have to point at stuff and use sign language, but I have no choice. I know it really annoys the French, but how do Germans take it?

English is okay here - you should have no difficulties.

When do they start teaching English in German schools? I learned French from 11-16 (compulsory) and German for one year when I was 13. WE ARE SO RUBBISH AT FOREIGN LANGUAGES!!!

I my state, English starts compulsary from 3rd onwards now in primary school(since this years, before it was 5th, in grammar school), French (or any other second language) from 7th class - on grammar schools/high schools.
Other school types may differ.

Estonian language is similar to Finish, Latvian - to Scandinavian languages (Dutch, Swedish, etc...), Lithuanian I guess basically is an independent langauge, but under the strong influence of slavic languages (Russian and Polish).
But language similarity doesn't mean always that peoples have similar culture. For example, Estonian language is similar to Finnish, but culture is not similar to Finnish and similar to Scandinavian culture. That is because in 16-18 ceintures this country was under control of Denmark and Sweden.
Latvia after invasion of German knights was under there control... Lithuania culture is similar to slavic, this is because 90% of population of there state up to 16 century was Russian and the top Lithuanian leaders belong to Orthodoxy.

I want to take a road trip ALL across Europe in a few years and see what her 43 nations have to offer! Well, maybe except the Balkans because I don't know if their is still the war going on there so I'm not sure about this area. I've been to France, Italy and Switzerland before but would like to visit other European countries. Especially on my list: Spain, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Austria, Russia. Anyone who's been to any of these countries could you please give me advice on what to see/do, what the culture is like, the warmth of the people, etc.?
Thank you!

First of all, welcome to a2k, shortncute. People will, I think, respond to your comment once they see it.

My name is jess and I am 19 I have been almost all over the world my father is a U.S navy I was born in italy and raiced there but I have been here in america for the past 9 years to be honest the best countries in europe are the U.K and switzerland life is to short so you must see the world.