Bus to eastern Europe
 

I wonder if anyone has taken a bus to eastern Europe (particularly from
Germany or comparable) and their experiences. Would you recommend it,
and how is such an over 24 hour journey by bus? I know that for many
destinations a discount airline will be much cheaper and much quicker,
but the buses go to a lot of places these airlines don't fly to, and
the prices are fairly low.

Thanks in advance for your response.

George

Bus to eastern Europe
 

DDT Filled Mormons wrote:
On 8 Jan 2006 06:34:07 -0800, "george" wrote:

I wonder if anyone has taken a bus to eastern Europe (particularly from
Germany or comparable) and their experiences. Would you recommend it,
and how is such an over 24 hour journey by bus? I know that for many
destinations a discount airline will be much cheaper and much quicker,
but the buses go to a lot of places these airlines don't fly to, and
the prices are fairly low.

Thanks in advance for your response.

Use the train instead. Buses can really suck after the first 12 hours.

And stink, too.


J.

Bus to eastern Europe
 

On 8 Jan 2006 06:34:07 -0800, "george" wrote:

I wonder if anyone has taken a bus to eastern Europe (particularly from
Germany or comparable) and their experiences. Would you recommend it,
and how is such an over 24 hour journey by bus? I know that for many
destinations a discount airline will be much cheaper and much quicker,
but the buses go to a lot of places these airlines don't fly to, and
the prices are fairly low.

Thanks in advance for your response.

Use the train instead. Buses can really suck after the first 12 hours.
--
---
DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
---
--

Bus to eastern Europe
 

"george" wrote in message
ups.com...
I wonder if anyone has taken a bus to eastern Europe (particularly from
Germany or comparable) and their experiences. Would you recommend it,
and how is such an over 24 hour journey by bus? I know that for many
destinations a discount airline will be much cheaper and much quicker,
but the buses go to a lot of places these airlines don't fly to, and
the prices are fairly low.

Thanks in advance for your response.

George

I've ridden a number of busses in Croatia, Bosnia, and Turkey. Not for 24
hours at a time, thank god; never more than nine. Depends on what you mean
by recommend -- in some cases, there isn't really a choice. The train lines
in Eastern Europe were never developed to the extent they were in Western
Europe.

If you have to go by bus, try to be prepared. Bring your own snacks and
drinks because you may not have many opportunities to get off, and there may
not be much when you do stop. Unless you speak the language or befriend
someone who does, it's hard to find out exactly how long the bus will stay
at the station (and if you have enough time to use the toilet). Ah, the
toilet. That's a whole 'nother subject. If you are in anyway squeamish,
forget about it. Luckily, you're a guy. Bring toilet paper, or tissues, and
some of those alcohol wipe things.

Figure out ahead of time when you'll get to your destination. If it's a
smaller place, you may have to ask the driver to make the stop for you. (I
always befriend someone, or I'd never get anywhere). You usually have to pay
a small fee for your luggage. They like exact change. Bewa bus drivers
are the absolute worst ambassadors for their countries. They don't care if
you're a tourist and won't try to understand you. (I'm sure there are some
nice ones, but I sure ain't found 'em).

Be prepared for anything. Things like heat and AC don't always work. Windows
don't always open, and if they do, the guy in front of you may put it back
down if it bothers him. Don't assume the toilet works, just because the bus
has one. And a nonsmoking bus doesn't necessarily mean it's a nonsmoking
bus. Bring a book, because you'll be seeing the worst part of most towns and
cities.

'Nuff said. I've had some great experiences on the bus, but it's never
something I look forward to :-)

Sarah

Bus to eastern Europe
 

On Mon, 9 Jan 2006 14:38:00 -0500, "Sarah Banick"
wrote:


"george" wrote in message
oups.com...
I wonder if anyone has taken a bus to eastern Europe (particularly from
Germany or comparable) and their experiences. Would you recommend it,
and how is such an over 24 hour journey by bus? I know that for many
destinations a discount airline will be much cheaper and much quicker,
but the buses go to a lot of places these airlines don't fly to, and
the prices are fairly low.

Thanks in advance for your response.

George

I've ridden a number of busses in Croatia, Bosnia, and Turkey. Not for 24
hours at a time, thank god; never more than nine. Depends on what you mean
by recommend -- in some cases, there isn't really a choice. The train lines
in Eastern Europe were never developed to the extent they were in Western
Europe.

Except they do seem to actually work well, unlike British and Italian
ones. I found the Romanian trains to be oddly reliable, to the nearest
minute almost!
--
---
DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
---
--

Bus to eastern Europe
 

"I wonder if anyone has taken a bus to eastern Europe (particularly
from Germany or comparable) and their experiences. Would you recommend
it, and how is such an over 24 hour journey by bus? I know that for
many destinations a discount airline will be much cheaper and much
quicker, but the buses go to a lot of places these airlines don't fly
to, and the prices are fairly low."

Use a discount airline to fly as close as you can, then take a train.

Trains are really cheap in Eastern Europe, so you hardly save anything
by taking a bus.

Bus to eastern Europe
 

I wonder if anyone has taken a bus to eastern Europe (particularly from
Germany or comparable) and their experiences. Would you recommend it,
and how is such an over 24 hour journey by bus?

I've done that sort of trip several times, one is written up at:
http://www.travel-library.com/europe...ip.campin.html

I wouldn't like to travel that way every time, but long bus trips
do show you things you wouldn't see any other way.

I would draw the line at sharing a bus I saw at a roadside stop in
northern Greece. It was Polish and filled with pilgrims on their
way to some destination in southern Europe or the Middle East. A
menacing-looking priest was ordering the passengers (who were mostly
rather old) out on the tarmac and onto their knees for compulsory
prayers. Bring on the chainsmoking Hungarian neds any day.

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ==============
Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760
http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/ for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975
stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557

Bus to eastern Europe
 

I wrote: I wonder if anyone has taken a bus to eastern Europe
(particularly from
Germany or comparable) and their experiences. Would you recommend it,
and how is such an over 24 hour journey by bus? I know that for many
destinations a discount airline will be much cheaper and much quicker,
but the buses go to a lot of places these airlines don't fly to, and
the prices are fairly low.

The buses that I am particularly interested in are the long-haul ones
used by eastern European workers in western European countries (Germany
in this case) to travel to and from their home country. You get on in
a city in one country and get off in only one other city in the
countr(y,ies) that it is going to, transitting through some other
countres with no official stops. We are employing a Polish woman and
she wll arrive by such a bus in Stuttgart. (I know that there is also
such a service from London to Poland.) While examinng where we needed
to pick her up upon arrival, I went and got brochures from a bus
company providing such services. It's amazing the places you can
travel with such a bus including Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland,
Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Russia, Byalorussia, Ukraine, Bulgaria,
Greece, Moldavia, Roumania, and Hungary and usually many cities in each
country (Poland 35). Moscow is only 168 euros round trip, and most
other places can be considerably less expensive.

I'm thinking that such trips could be very interesting if they are not
pure hell, and I could visit my grandfather's birthplace in Poland with
no need to make any connections, and since I'm now retired, perhaps
visit some other places if the bus rides were OK.

George

Bus to eastern Europe
 

On Tue, 10 Jan 2006 00:43:51 +0000, Jack Campin - bogus address
wrote:

Bring on the chainsmoking Hungarian neds any day.

I had to look that one up.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ned
--
---
DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
---
--

Bus to eastern Europe
 

DDT Filled Mormons wrote:

I had to look that one up.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ned

Nice resource, that. I have bookmarked it.

--
PB
The return address has been MUNGED