First European Trip - Any Help Appreciated

Hello, I am planning on traveling to Europe around late August/Early
September of 2004 and staying for approximately six months to a year.
I have several questions and ideas and any input of any kind is
greatly appreciated as this is will be my first time leaving the U.S.
I will be twenty-one by the time I leave. I will have approximately
10,000 USD for the trip and travel expenditures. My tentative plans
are as follows:

Fly from Seattle, Washington to London England (Is this the cheapest
airport to fly into if I am planning on starting my trip in Ireland?)
via Scandinavian Airways or British Airways (most likely BA because
they offer a total of 12 months until I must make my return trip)

When I arrive in London I will begin heading toward Ireland. I am
planning on doing a lot of walking and biking to cut down on travel
costs as I am not going to be under any sort of time constraint except
the 12 months for my latest return which I will most likely run out of
money before then.

I will travel around Ireland in search of distant relatives in hope of
places to stay as well as a few other possibilities such as internet
connections, globalfreeloaders.com, and if all else fails hostels. I
am planning on spending as much time as I care to just exploring
Ireland then after I find relatives or a place that I made friends in
or just generally liked I will then spend approximately a month or so
there just getting to know the community and getting out of tourist
mode.

I will do roughly the same in every country that I go to. I am
presently planning on going to at very least Ireland, Germany,
Austria, Russia, the Scandinavian countries, and hopefully Iceland.

Thank you for your time, and hopefully your help.
Adam -

jesus wrote:
I am planning on doing a lot of walking and biking

[ . . . ]

I am presently planning on going to at very least Ireland, Germany,
Austria, Russia, the Scandinavian countries, and hopefully Iceland.

That's going to be one cold trip. By October it will dip below freezing in
most of those countries.

miguel
--
See the world from your web browser: http://travel.u.nu/

Vorher schrieb
"jesus"
Hello, I am planning on traveling to Europe around late August/Early
September of 2004 and staying for approximately six months to a year.
First trip or long trip ...as long as you really do the trip to another world.

"jesus" wrote
| Hello, I am planning on traveling to Europe around late August/Early
| September of 2004 and staying for approximately six months to a year.
| I will do roughly the same in every country that I go to. I am
| presently planning on going to at very least Ireland, Germany,
| Austria, Russia, the Scandinavian countries, and hopefully Iceland.

You might want to put the UK and Ireland, or Russia, in the middle of your
trip, as otherwise you may fall foul of the 90 day Schengen rule - you can
only stay for 90 days in Schengen countries in any 180 day period, unless
you have a visa for a longer period.

The Schengen countries are Austria Belgium Denmark Finland France Germany
Greece Iceland Italy Luxembourg Netherlands Norway Portugal Spain Sweden.
The UK and Ireland are NOT Schengen countries.

http://www.eurovisa.info/ has links to all the Schengen countries.

Owain

No doubt you've already thought of this but don't forget you will need some
sort of visa if you are visiting from the USA and plan on staying for as
long as you are. As long as you can prove you will not be working during
this time you shouldn't have problems in applying.

I see that others have already made mention of the time limitations of
Shengen countries and possible need of visas and also that winter weather
could prove to be a factor so won't rehash that information. As for Russia,
visas are required and aren't trivial. They require an "invitation" letter
and are very specific on dates. The invitation can be issued by a hotel or
through a number of tourist agencies for a fee. The basic visa is "single
entry" so depending on your travel plans it may prove worthwhile to spend
the extra money and get a multiple entry visa. The invitation can be issued
by a hotel or through a number of tourist agencies (for a fee). In spite of
the hassle, St. Petersburg is most certainly worth the effort. While in the
general area, a visit to Tallinn Estonia is also a real treat and only a
short ferry ride from Helsinki.


--
Voyager
(Remove the mystery meat to reply!)



"jesus" wrote in message
...
Hello, I am planning on traveling to Europe around late August/Early
September of 2004 and staying for approximately six months to a year.
I have several questions and ideas and any input of any kind is
greatly appreciated as this is will be my first time leaving the U.S.
I will be twenty-one by the time I leave. I will have approximately
10,000 USD for the trip and travel expenditures. My tentative plans
are as follows:

Fly from Seattle, Washington to London England (Is this the cheapest
airport to fly into if I am planning on starting my trip in Ireland?)
via Scandinavian Airways or British Airways (most likely BA because
they offer a total of 12 months until I must make my return trip)

When I arrive in London I will begin heading toward Ireland. I am
planning on doing a lot of walking and biking to cut down on travel
costs as I am not going to be under any sort of time constraint except
the 12 months for my latest return which I will most likely run out of
money before then.

I will travel around Ireland in search of distant relatives in hope of
places to stay as well as a few other possibilities such as internet
connections, globalfreeloaders.com, and if all else fails hostels. I
am planning on spending as much time as I care to just exploring
Ireland then after I find relatives or a place that I made friends in
or just generally liked I will then spend approximately a month or so
there just getting to know the community and getting out of tourist
mode.

I will do roughly the same in every country that I go to. I am
presently planning on going to at very least Ireland, Germany,
Austria, Russia, the Scandinavian countries, and hopefully Iceland.

Thank you for your time, and hopefully your help.
Adam -

In article ,
(jesus) wrote:

Hello, I am planning on traveling to Europe around late August/Early
September of 2004 and staying for approximately six months to a year.
I have several questions and ideas and any input of any kind is
greatly appreciated as this is will be my first time leaving the U.S.
I will be twenty-one by the time I leave. I will have approximately
10,000 USD for the trip and travel expenditures.

Overall, I think you need to trim your plans.

You acknowledge that you will probably run out of money before 12 months
is up, and I'm sure you're right. Even on the tightest of budgets, it will
be very tough to survive for a year on USD10K: you are planning to spend
your time in some of the more expensive areas of Europe.

You can save money, as you suggest, by walking and cycling (though bear in
mind what Miguel said about the climate - none of these countries is famed
for its balmy winter). In the better weather you could also consider
camping.

You might also investigate the possibilities of working, legally or
illegally.

Fly from Seattle, Washington to London England (Is this the cheapest
airport to fly into if I am planning on starting my trip in Ireland?)

Probably.

I will do roughly the same in every country that I go to. I am
presently planning on going to at very least Ireland, Germany,
Austria, Russia, the Scandinavian countries, and hopefully Iceland.

Have you thought about the distances involved? Dublin to Moscow as the
crow flies is something like 2,500 miles, or the distance from Seattle to
Boston. You also need to get back to London to catch your return flight.

5,000/365 gives us 14 miles a day, every day. Each day you stay put you
have to add 14 miles onto your next travelling day. If you spend a full
month staying put in one community in each of eight countries that means
you have to cover 40+ miles on each of your travelling days. That's a lot
on foot, albeit easily achievable on a bike in reasonable conditions.

And those are all gross underestimates, of course, because you're not
taking a direct route from Ireland to Russia - which would involve walking
on water anyway.

You can cover some of the distance by public transport, of course, but
that will eat into your budget still further. At the very least you will
have to take planes or boats from London to Ireland, over to continental
Europe, back to London at the end of the trip, and at some stage to and
from Iceland. Have you budgeted for bike repairs on a journey of this
length? And so on, and so on...

All this sounds very negative, I know, and I don't want to put you off an
exciting idea. You should definitely do it, in a modified form: but it's
maybe better to be pessimistic than disappointed. If I were you, I would
at least think about dropping Scandinavia and Russia from your itinerary,
or concentrating solely on them.

You also need to do some really precise budgeting. People in this
newsgroup can probably help you with typical costs in each country and you
will also find useful information at the Rough Guides (roughguides.com)
and Lonely Planet (lonelyplanet.com) sites, especially on the "Thorn Tree"
bulletin board of the latter.

"voyager" wrote in message
...
the hassle, St. Petersburg is most certainly worth the effort. While in
the
general area, a visit to Tallinn Estonia is also a real treat and only a
short ferry ride from Helsinki.

One might give a try for a chopper ride between Helsinki and Tallinn.

You can save money, as you suggest, by walking and cycling (though bear in
mind what Miguel said about the climate - none of these countries is famed
for its balmy winter). In the better weather you could also consider
camping.

I am primarily planning on walking and biking only in areas that allow
you to rent a bike, such as for covering a large city and if it is
cheaper overall than using the public transportation.

You might also investigate the possibilities of working, legally or
illegally.

I have thought of the possibilities but so far only for Ireland and
ideally only legally.

In Ireland I was hoping on finding family and possibly working for
them if I lucked out and they owned some sort of business so that I
could acquire a work visa which if I understand correctly requires
having a job waiting and your prospective employer as well as yourself
filling out a lot of paper work.

All this sounds very negative, I know, and I don't want to put you off an
exciting idea. You should definitely do it, in a modified form: but it's
maybe better to be pessimistic than disappointed. If I were you, I would
at least think about dropping Scandinavia and Russia from your itinerary,
or concentrating solely on them.

You also need to do some really precise budgeting. People in this
newsgroup can probably help you with typical costs in each country and you
will also find useful information at the Rough Guides (roughguides.com)
and Lonely Planet (lonelyplanet.com) sites, especially on the "Thorn Tree"
bulletin board of the latter.

Whether it is negative or not, it is exactly the kind of realistic
information I need now and not when I get over there. I will eliminate
Scandinavia and Russia from my definite itinerary and after working on
a precise budget will possibly tack them or at least Scandinavia on as
a possibility at the very end if it looks like I could possibly have
enough money or time for them.

Thank you for your help, it is greatly appreciated.
Adam

On Mon, 3 Nov 2003 18:48:41 +0200, "Markku Grönroos"
wrote:


"voyager" wrote in message
...
the hassle, St. Petersburg is most certainly worth the effort. While in
the
general area, a visit to Tallinn Estonia is also a real treat and only a
short ferry ride from Helsinki.

One might give a try for a chopper ride between Helsinki and Tallinn.

A winter ride on the ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn could be a
tad uncomfortable.

************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *