Yo, fredericka b. My phone’s not working here in England so you’ll have to e-mail me a time and place to meet next month in Amsterdam. I’ll be keeping a lookout on my e-mail account and forumosa when I have a few minutes to spare.
Before the end of the year, we’ll be off to Sardinia.
By god, it looks lovely.
All of this talk about travel to Europe during the upcoming summer months is making me jealous, I must admit.
For many reasons, I will be stuck here in Taipei for the summer, with no chances for such a trip.
I am hoping to make a trip to Europe during the 2004 Chinese New Year break. Any thoughts on how best to prepare? Buy plane tickets early? Or will everything be expensive during that time?
Also, as someone suggested in a previous post, I may limit this trip to one country. I am not a big fan of the cold weather (I got enough of that back in North America) so I was thinking Italy or even Greece. I would like to spend time in Belgium for the beer.
Anyway, to all those traveling to Europe this summer or fall, have a great trip and please post when you get back.
If you want during Chinese New Year, you have to book early, we tried that once but couldn’t get any seats because we were too late. Best book several months beforehand.
In practice, I’ve found that buying tickets more than a month in advance here is very difficult because the agents can’t or won’t give you a confirmed price.
Or in my case, the airline will drop the flight that your travel agent booked a few months in advance. Not that it wasn’t too bad…I was originally going on Royal Brunei Airlines because they were the cheapest, but got rebooked on Eva Air after RBA cancelled all of their Taipei-London flights until August 1.
Yo Imaniou!
Will be there 31 July til 4 August.
Staying here:
Euphemia Hotel
I’m not going to do the cell phone bidnessss either (too spensive) so come find me. I’m registered under my name (fredericka bimmel NOT).
[quote=“spacegal”]My fave German cities are: Berlin, Kolon, Munchen, Stuttgart and Heidelberg.
Berlin is a very cool, interesting, vibrant and artistic city… [/quote]
I will be in Munich, Germany in the end Sep. for 3 days exhibition and maybe stay there for one week long. Spacegal, any suggestions where to go there?
Iris, can you recommon some places to visit around Munich as I might have little time to explore other places?
I spoke on the phone to a German but I found out that their English is quite poor. so I am afraid I might get trouble when I come. The exhibition is for people around the world , so it must be okay though. But how about the average Gernman, can they understand my poor English? Any comment about this matter?
Here’s a link that might be useful for those of you coming to Europe*: www.hrs.de. It is IMHO the best online hotel reservation system. They give you an immediate confirmation of your reservation and the rates are never worse than those you would get when asking directly at the hotel (usually, they are significantly better). I use it frequently and never had a bad experience (Ok, once that guy at a hotel in Spain insisted that he didn’t have my reservation - we eventually figured out that his fax machine was out of paper 
).
BTW, the website is available in 25 languages, simply click on the “25 Sprachen”-menu (really clever, I know).
Enjoy your vacations!
*Actually, it is not restricted to Europe (you could even use it to make a reservation in Taiwan)
Rome is packed to bursting with tourists.
I’m still waiting to check into my room here which I booked a month ago. At least they give us free internet while we wait. Have already been to the coliseum, forum, and ridden the metro. It’s as hot as Taipei in the sun, but the shade is nice. Everyone friendly. I had a spinaci mozzarella focaccia and two birras just now. Standing up. When in Rome…
I keep thinking of idioms. Rome wasn’t built in a day. That’s plain to see. Everyone keeps saying ‘prego’.
All the men, old and young are very dark with chiseled features. Most have v-shaped physiques with tight little asses and developed biceps and pecs. They’re fuckin gorgeous. I’m drooling. That birra is a bit strong.