Europe's Famous Hostels
The Top 10 Useful Phrases ‐ Across Europe
Europe is a veritable hot pot of languages and these mother tongues are as diverse, and wonderful as they come. However beyond the basic English commonalities and pointy sign language conveying: “I want that one,” it can be tough to get a real glimpse of the local city life around you. With that in mind here are ten multi lingual phrases to get you off the starting blocks ‐ when striking up conversations across Europe!
Prague ‐ Czech: Czech isn’t the most commonplace language which makes it difficult to get in any practice. Factoring that in, here’s a little something to get you started. Repeat after us.
- In Czeh: “Ahoj ‐ jak se mate? Mluvite anglicky?”
- In English: “Hello ‐ how are you? Do you speak English?”
Your Guide to the Best Festivals Around
Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam: The Cannabis Cup has been a point of annual celebration in the city of sin ever since 1987. More than twenty years later it’s still smoking hot and travellers in town for this one of a kind event are exposed to countless varieties of the pleasure‐paranoia, inducing drug! They also get to help the judges figure out who brought the top marijuana to town and who made the biggest splash! In 2008 the festival called on a judging panel ‐ made up of 2300 ready and willing individuals. Despite the ban on tobacco in Amsterdam’s cafes and coffee shops, it’s still very much legal to indulge in a joint or two ‐ provided you do it in the allocated areas and don’t mix it with tobacco. A popular new fad in many bars is the glass bowl ‐a crystal ball feature that keeps the smoke and the smoker, sealed in! The festival usually happens in the back end of November, so check out hightimes.com for the exact details. Travel Tip: If the police suspect that there’s tobacco in your joint they can get a warrant to open and search it, so make sure you keep it pure.
Things to do in Interlaken, Switzerland
The Two Great Namesake Lakes: Shockingly Interlaken is situated at the intersection of two lakes. Who’d a thunk? Looking down from the god like perspective of Google Maps you have Thuner See (Lake Thun) to the left of town and Brienzer See (Lake Brienz) to the right. It’s worth checking out both just to see the startling difference between the luminescent, cloudy green, glacier fed waters of Brienz and the deep sea, bottomless blue of Thun, linked by the manmade, fast flowing canal in the middle of town. Each lake serves up a myriad of fun things to see and do, from cruises to lidos and castles to windsurfing, so to help you guys narrow it down ‐ here’s a concise guide to the best bits, along with the what, when, who and how.
The Top 10 Things To Do in Bad Gastein
Skiing in the Winter: It’s pretty obvious what to do during winter when you’re in the Austrian Alps ‐ especially when downhill skiing was invented here! With so much snow, snow and more snow, you guys can enjoy a massive range of activities with a magnificent, mountainous backdrop! The Euro Youth Hotel is in fact a mere 100 meters away from one of the main ski lifts in town, thereby opening up a whole new world for skiers, snowboarders and anyone who just wants to head on up the mountain and enjoy the finest Alpine nature around! Better yet there’s an apple strudel‐tastic café at the top. Does anyone else feel a Sound of Music number coming on?
The Top 10 Things To Do in Munich
Surfer on the river in the English Summer Gardens: No ‐ not more music al fresco but a spot of surfing instead. Munich may well be land locked but this hasn’t stopped the ever ingenious engineers of Germany from playing around with the river to create enough ebb and flow for some serious board action. The Eisbach River can be enjoyed in all its choppy glory in the north east corner of the gardens where the wetsuit clad masses show a blatant disregard for the No Surfing sign! You can easily spend hours here, mesmerised by the huge range of ages and abilities. When said hypnosis wears off, head further into the park, have a good gander at the Oh So Proud nudists and de‐traumatise with a beer, and a giant pretzel in the beer garden. The token deposit scheme to safeguard the glasses is a tad convoluted but the giant beers make it all OK again.
‐ Rob Savage
