• Colour_me_triggered@lemm.ee
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    6 days ago

    The capital cities. If you want authentic Europe, find the weird local festivals where people chase cheese down a hill or celebrate local culture or something. That’s real Europe. Fuck the big cities and their galleries and museums.

    https://www.egremontcrabfair.com/

    https://airguitarworldchampionships.com/en/home/

    https://www.latomatinatours.com/

    https://riddu.no/en

    https://www.theshed.co.uk/independent

    https://cipc.pipeclubs.com/events/british-pipe-smoking-championship-2/

    https://www.visitvoss.no/en/smalahovetunet

    https://www.sbf.se/sportgrenar/folkrace

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinkensport

    https://eukonkanto.fi/en/front-page/

    https://www.uphellyaa.org/

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3200955/Festival-girls-dress-shire-horses-boys-push-tiny-ploughs.html

    https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/cheltenham-news/man-shatters-toes-winning-world-8977482

    These are a few things off the top of my head mostly northern and western Europe because it’s what I’m familiar with. Also if you want to see something bizarre, go to Finland on free bucket day. But seriously Europe is full of unusual things to do. Or you could go to yet another gallery and pretend to be interested in paintings.

  • Fifrok@discuss.tchncs.de
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    7 days ago

    Here’s what I would avoid when traveling to Poland:

    • Zakopane, it’s overpriced and very crowded. If you want to visit the area the town is in your better off staying in smaller villages, unless you have to use public transit.
    • Szczecin --not an ‘avoid at all cost’ but more of a ‘there are better cities to visit’-- this-or-that part of the city is always being remodeled/reconstructed and there’s no ‘old city’ with day and night life focused between two shoping centers and some roundabouts in the city center. If you want to go sight-seeing Kraków, Wrocław or Gdańsk are much better choices.
    • Mazury lake district, beautiful lakes and decent nightlife, shit infrastructure - roads are narrow (two bigger cars can’t pass eachother without going offroad) and often lacking sings and other markings
    • Podlaskie Voivodship, even worse infrastructure than Mazury, it’s rural, mainly towns and villages with nothing a tourist might want to see. You might think it’s a good place to go star-gazing but Bieszczady are a lot better for that (Tho you should probably go to a Dark Sky Site for that, there’s one close to Bieszczady, in Slovakia)
    • THE SEASIDE, it’s crowded, expensive, the sea is cold and it’s fumcking wimdy, go to like Italy, Croatia, Portugal or Spain instead

    Also in general avoid capital cities, they are often the worst of major cites in a given country.

  • EllE@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Common tourist places during tourist season are usually the worst. I took a 10 day trip to Paris one summer and it was a mix of the most popular tourist places (Louvre, Eiffel tower, etc) and some underground shit my sister found.

    Every tourist place was jam packed with annoying tourists, costly and had tons of scammers surrounding it. Every less known place was really awesome, aside from one sketchy neighborhood we had to walk through where we were followed for a while.

    I’d also say that Northern Europe has generally been much more pleasant to travel through, for me.

  • Squizzy@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Dublin is a kip, you have far better options throughout Ireland, if you want a city go to Cork or Belfast. Galway is a bit boring to me but could be your scene. After that there are loads of little spots with loads going for them. The entire west coast is great.

    Dont rent a big car, I mean big by irish sandards.

  • Cadenza@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    France is becoming a far right country on two weeks. Do yourself a favor and stay as far as you can.

    • resin85@lemmy.ca
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      6 days ago

      Just got back from a 3 day trip to Brussels, we loved it. Plus, Smurfs (Les Schtroumpfs) everywhere. We did take a day trip to Bruges though, that was even better than Brussels IMHO. Especially since I could walk around saying to my wife “If I grew up on a farm, and was retarded, Bruges might impress me but I didn’t, so it doesn’t.”.

  • eightpix@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Had a couch surfer stay with us a while in Kuwait. He’d been everywhere. He said that, of all places, Moldova had no redeeming qualities. Granted, things might have changed in 10 years. Does anyone care to weigh in?

  • Tryptaminev@lemm.ee
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    6 days ago

    Depends. Are you white? Would you be recognizable as a “foreigner”? In the latter case avoid all of Germanys provinces, especially in the former East. Do not travel alone and be wary of the cops. They are usually the same groups as the local Neonazis.