Eastern Europe

"Keith W" wrote:

"Timothy Kroesen" wrote in message
hlink.net...
Also to note; 'taking the ****' in England is imbibing, not
excreting...g

Its neither , it means 'making fun of'

'getting ****ed' is imbibing

I thought that Timothy was taking the ****.

--
PB
The return address has been MUNGED

"Keith W" wrote:

"Timothy Kroesen" wrote in message
hlink.net...
Also to note; 'taking the ****' in England is imbibing, not
excreting...g

Its neither , it means 'making fun of'

'getting ****ed' is imbibing

I thought that Timothy was taking the ****.

--
PB
The return address has been MUNGED

Ciao Padraigh

when you go to Croazia.. just pay attention at the ancient monuments. and
that will maybe recall to yr memory that all the coast was once Republic of
Venice..
Even Marco Polo was born in Corzula ( today Korcula.. )

all the old towns have italian names..
you have Rijeka .. it was Fiume

split it was Spalato

dubrovnik it was Ragusa

pula it was Pola

and so on.
the Republic of venice was defeated by Napoleon. that simply sold it to
Austria.
( peace treaty of Campoformido)

Austria kept these lands till the year 1918, when having lost the war was
obliged to surrender a part of Italy
all Dalmatia and Istria..

during the austrian occupations, the austrian fleet had been based in
Croatian ports.. being the sailors mostly of Venetian descent. and the
official language of the austrian navy was Venetian. all the names in the
maps were the venetian names..
most of today's name did not exist and simply have been invented after the
Paris treaty of peace.

about 350.000 venetian speaking people that did not want to give up their
citizenship were just kicked out of the borders..
I mean those you could avoid the etnical cleansing..
according to the records. about 20.000 to 30.000 civilians were killed for
no reason at all. just because they were the elite of the venetian community
( parishers, doctors, policemen, teachers.. and so on.. )

italian is still widely spoken in these parts.. even if Croatia does not
allow the old inhabitants to buy back their properties..

not to speak about the violation of the Paris Peace Treaty of Yugoslavia..
that simply one day decided that the B zone was yugoslavia.. ( the A zone
was under British administration.. the B zone was under Yugoslav
administration )
"Padraig Breathnach" ha scritto nel messaggio
...
"tile" wrote:

ciao Padraigh

we meet again..

Ciao, Sandro.

if the Baltic Countries are on your
TO DO list

I might help you with info on Riga
which I visit at least 3 times a year.

But I can help you with Tallinn and Vilnius as well.

pls calculate that an apartment will cost you about 50 eur day..
while radissons hotels normally have special internet offers at about 100
eur night.-

for food.. self services go for about 5 eur person.
while good restaurants go between 10 and 15 eur per person.

Sounds like our money could go a long way there.

While the Baltic states are on our list, we probably won't get there
this year. So far, we have been to Venice and Stockholm, and I have
just booked a ferry crossing to Brittany for next month. Croatia in
September is also booked. I can't imagine finding time and opportunity
for much more travel outside Ireland in 2005 -- perhaps one city
break, and we have lots of candidate cities.

I just came back from istanbul. in case you need.
even if Turkey is not Istanbul..
Turkey is nice and full of treasures.

Istanbul has been done, and is not a current priority.

I will be visiting the region north of Rome in a few days. ( viterbo being
the centre of my visit )
pls note that Ryan Air connects Riga with London.
while Air baltic connects Dublin with Riga.
from Riga you can reach both Tallinn and Vilnius in a few hours by bus.
From tallinn you can reach very easily Helsinky by boat or hydrofoil..
while ryan air again flies flies from a Finnish airport

I'm not a Ryanair fan, because I like to perceive myself as a person,
not a commodity. We all delude ourselves in some ways.

--
PB
The return address has been MUNGED

Ciao Padraigh

when you go to Croazia.. just pay attention at the ancient monuments. and
that will maybe recall to yr memory that all the coast was once Republic of
Venice..
Even Marco Polo was born in Corzula ( today Korcula.. )

all the old towns have italian names..
you have Rijeka .. it was Fiume

split it was Spalato

dubrovnik it was Ragusa

pula it was Pola

and so on.
the Republic of venice was defeated by Napoleon. that simply sold it to
Austria.
( peace treaty of Campoformido)

Austria kept these lands till the year 1918, when having lost the war was
obliged to surrender a part of Italy
all Dalmatia and Istria..

during the austrian occupations, the austrian fleet had been based in
Croatian ports.. being the sailors mostly of Venetian descent. and the
official language of the austrian navy was Venetian. all the names in the
maps were the venetian names..
most of today's name did not exist and simply have been invented after the
Paris treaty of peace.

about 350.000 venetian speaking people that did not want to give up their
citizenship were just kicked out of the borders..
I mean those you could avoid the etnical cleansing..
according to the records. about 20.000 to 30.000 civilians were killed for
no reason at all. just because they were the elite of the venetian community
( parishers, doctors, policemen, teachers.. and so on.. )

italian is still widely spoken in these parts.. even if Croatia does not
allow the old inhabitants to buy back their properties..

not to speak about the violation of the Paris Peace Treaty of Yugoslavia..
that simply one day decided that the B zone was yugoslavia.. ( the A zone
was under British administration.. the B zone was under Yugoslav
administration )
"Padraig Breathnach" ha scritto nel messaggio
...
"tile" wrote:

ciao Padraigh

we meet again..

Ciao, Sandro.

if the Baltic Countries are on your
TO DO list

I might help you with info on Riga
which I visit at least 3 times a year.

But I can help you with Tallinn and Vilnius as well.

pls calculate that an apartment will cost you about 50 eur day..
while radissons hotels normally have special internet offers at about 100
eur night.-

for food.. self services go for about 5 eur person.
while good restaurants go between 10 and 15 eur per person.

Sounds like our money could go a long way there.

While the Baltic states are on our list, we probably won't get there
this year. So far, we have been to Venice and Stockholm, and I have
just booked a ferry crossing to Brittany for next month. Croatia in
September is also booked. I can't imagine finding time and opportunity
for much more travel outside Ireland in 2005 -- perhaps one city
break, and we have lots of candidate cities.

I just came back from istanbul. in case you need.
even if Turkey is not Istanbul..
Turkey is nice and full of treasures.

Istanbul has been done, and is not a current priority.

I will be visiting the region north of Rome in a few days. ( viterbo being
the centre of my visit )
pls note that Ryan Air connects Riga with London.
while Air baltic connects Dublin with Riga.
from Riga you can reach both Tallinn and Vilnius in a few hours by bus.
From tallinn you can reach very easily Helsinky by boat or hydrofoil..
while ryan air again flies flies from a Finnish airport

I'm not a Ryanair fan, because I like to perceive myself as a person,
not a commodity. We all delude ourselves in some ways.

--
PB
The return address has been MUNGED

Deep Foiled Malls wrote in message . ..
On Wed, 20 Apr 2005 11:33:33 -0400, "irishtraveller"
wrote:

Greetings, in the month of June me and 3 friends are planning on going on a
trip to eastern europe. Roughly, the route we're planning on doing is,
flying from Dublin to Stanstead, then from Stanstead to Brno (with
Ryanair). From there, a train to Krakow, then to Warsaw. From there, to
Belarus (Brest - Minsk), then to Moscow via Smolensk, after that to St.
Petersburg. The final leg of the trip will be from there to Tallinn in
Estonia and finally on to Riga in Latvia, where can fly back to London
Stanstead. Ideally we'd like to spend not much more than 4 weeks away.

Others have mentioned that the Russian visa is difficult (and it is)
but I would expect the Belarus one to be even harder. The visa process
is expensive, and time consuming. I would suggest skipping Belarus for
this reason, as that is what I did.

Belarus has basicly the same visa regulations as Russia, practiced in
a less by-the-book way. Both in Russia and Belarus, you need a
invetation from a hotel in order to get a visa and you have to wait
for days before you pick up your visa in order to not pay an
additional express-fee. Unlike Russia when registering your visa (it
is done for you by your hotel) is to be regarded as your exit permit
from the country, normally noone cares if you register you visa in
Belarus. The tricky thing about Belarus though, is that not many
countrie have an Embassy, making it harder to get a visa (Minsk
International airport probably issue visas on the spot though).

If you hafe come to a point where you feel you want to see Belarus,
you should really do so and Brest and Minsk is an excellent
combination of places to see. In many respects Belarus and Brest
represents the heart of European history of the 20th centrury, a
history that is manifested in a lot of places there for you to see.

Starting with the most recent history, Belarus represents the last
Siviet State in Europe, offering the closest you can come to what a
Soviet Union anno 2005 might would have been like. Collective farms, a
night at the opera for 3 Euros (and then we talk about a standard few
other European cities can offer), Minsk has is probably the most full
blooded Stalin Baroque style city you can find anywhere, for a couple
of Euros you can cross a country bigger than Great Britain virtually
driving in a time machine, as you probably know Brest is the site
where both the Riebenhof-Molotov treaty where signed, where Lenin sent
Lev Trotsky with a blanco apoval to sign anything that would keep the
be'olsheviks in power in 1917 as well as a place where people in USSR
traveled in order to come as far west as they could in Soviet times.
Go to find out why.


St Peter is almost European, and you will just love it.

What does that mean, assuming that it means anything at all?

Jan

Deep Foiled Malls wrote in message . ..
On Wed, 20 Apr 2005 11:33:33 -0400, "irishtraveller"
wrote:

Greetings, in the month of June me and 3 friends are planning on going on a
trip to eastern europe. Roughly, the route we're planning on doing is,
flying from Dublin to Stanstead, then from Stanstead to Brno (with
Ryanair). From there, a train to Krakow, then to Warsaw. From there, to
Belarus (Brest - Minsk), then to Moscow via Smolensk, after that to St.
Petersburg. The final leg of the trip will be from there to Tallinn in
Estonia and finally on to Riga in Latvia, where can fly back to London
Stanstead. Ideally we'd like to spend not much more than 4 weeks away.

Others have mentioned that the Russian visa is difficult (and it is)
but I would expect the Belarus one to be even harder. The visa process
is expensive, and time consuming. I would suggest skipping Belarus for
this reason, as that is what I did.

Belarus has basicly the same visa regulations as Russia, practiced in
a less by-the-book way. Both in Russia and Belarus, you need a
invetation from a hotel in order to get a visa and you have to wait
for days before you pick up your visa in order to not pay an
additional express-fee. Unlike Russia when registering your visa (it
is done for you by your hotel) is to be regarded as your exit permit
from the country, normally noone cares if you register you visa in
Belarus. The tricky thing about Belarus though, is that not many
countrie have an Embassy, making it harder to get a visa (Minsk
International airport probably issue visas on the spot though).

If you hafe come to a point where you feel you want to see Belarus,
you should really do so and Brest and Minsk is an excellent
combination of places to see. In many respects Belarus and Brest
represents the heart of European history of the 20th centrury, a
history that is manifested in a lot of places there for you to see.

Starting with the most recent history, Belarus represents the last
Siviet State in Europe, offering the closest you can come to what a
Soviet Union anno 2005 might would have been like. Collective farms, a
night at the opera for 3 Euros (and then we talk about a standard few
other European cities can offer), Minsk has is probably the most full
blooded Stalin Baroque style city you can find anywhere, for a couple
of Euros you can cross a country bigger than Great Britain virtually
driving in a time machine, as you probably know Brest is the site
where both the Riebenhof-Molotov treaty where signed, where Lenin sent
Lev Trotsky with a blanco apoval to sign anything that would keep the
be'olsheviks in power in 1917 as well as a place where people in USSR
traveled in order to come as far west as they could in Soviet times.
Go to find out why.


St Peter is almost European, and you will just love it.

What does that mean, assuming that it means anything at all?

Jan

"irishtraveller" wrote in message alkabouttravelling.com...

B) I don't know much about Eastern Europe visas, that's WHY i'm asking for
advice here, i think you misunderstand the concept of this website.

Schengen citizens only need visa for Russia and Belarus. I suggest you
buy a traveling guide and read real carefully how the regualtions
work. Dont let the paperwork fright you, just make sure that you have
enough time to do the arrangements. Always ask for a 30 days
invitation (it is the longest period possible for a tourist visa)
before you book accomondation. That gives you as much slack as
possible when you travel in Belarus and Russia.

C) I don't know much about Eastern Europe train travel as i've never been
there.

Russia is arguably the greatest place on earth train journeys. Just be
aware of that you need to bring your passport to buy a ticket and that
a ticket is only valid for one spesific train. Read a travel guide for
more details!

Jan

"irishtraveller" wrote in message alkabouttravelling.com...

B) I don't know much about Eastern Europe visas, that's WHY i'm asking for
advice here, i think you misunderstand the concept of this website.

Schengen citizens only need visa for Russia and Belarus. I suggest you
buy a traveling guide and read real carefully how the regualtions
work. Dont let the paperwork fright you, just make sure that you have
enough time to do the arrangements. Always ask for a 30 days
invitation (it is the longest period possible for a tourist visa)
before you book accomondation. That gives you as much slack as
possible when you travel in Belarus and Russia.

C) I don't know much about Eastern Europe train travel as i've never been
there.

Russia is arguably the greatest place on earth train journeys. Just be
aware of that you need to bring your passport to buy a ticket and that
a ticket is only valid for one spesific train. Read a travel guide for
more details!

Jan

"tile" wrote:

when you go to Croazia.. just pay attention at the ancient monuments. and
that will maybe recall to yr memory that all the coast was once Republic of
Venice..
Even Marco Polo was born in Corzula ( today Korcula.. )

all the old towns have italian names..
you have Rijeka .. it was Fiume

split it was Spalato

dubrovnik it was Ragusa

pula it was Pola

and so on.
the Republic of venice was defeated by Napoleon. that simply sold it to
Austria.
( peace treaty of Campoformido)

Austria kept these lands till the year 1918, when having lost the war was
obliged to surrender a part of Italy
all Dalmatia and Istria..

during the austrian occupations, the austrian fleet had been based in
Croatian ports.. being the sailors mostly of Venetian descent. and the
official language of the austrian navy was Venetian. all the names in the
maps were the venetian names..
most of today's name did not exist and simply have been invented after the
Paris treaty of peace.

about 350.000 venetian speaking people that did not want to give up their
citizenship were just kicked out of the borders..
I mean those you could avoid the etnical cleansing..
according to the records. about 20.000 to 30.000 civilians were killed for
no reason at all. just because they were the elite of the venetian community
( parishers, doctors, policemen, teachers.. and so on.. )

italian is still widely spoken in these parts.. even if Croatia does not
allow the old inhabitants to buy back their properties..

not to speak about the violation of the Paris Peace Treaty of Yugoslavia..
that simply one day decided that the B zone was yugoslavia.. ( the A zone
was under British administration.. the B zone was under Yugoslav
administration )

Thanks for that, Sandro.

I really like to have background like that when I visit a place. It
can help me get some understanding of it. I had a general impression
that the Venetian influence was significant along the Dalmatian coast.
it seemed quite interesting to us because we have recently been in
Venice.

Sadly, the fact that many people there speak Italian is of little help
to us!

--
PB
The return address has been MUNGED

"tile" wrote:

when you go to Croazia.. just pay attention at the ancient monuments. and
that will maybe recall to yr memory that all the coast was once Republic of
Venice..
Even Marco Polo was born in Corzula ( today Korcula.. )

all the old towns have italian names..
you have Rijeka .. it was Fiume

split it was Spalato

dubrovnik it was Ragusa

pula it was Pola

and so on.
the Republic of venice was defeated by Napoleon. that simply sold it to
Austria.
( peace treaty of Campoformido)

Austria kept these lands till the year 1918, when having lost the war was
obliged to surrender a part of Italy
all Dalmatia and Istria..

during the austrian occupations, the austrian fleet had been based in
Croatian ports.. being the sailors mostly of Venetian descent. and the
official language of the austrian navy was Venetian. all the names in the
maps were the venetian names..
most of today's name did not exist and simply have been invented after the
Paris treaty of peace.

about 350.000 venetian speaking people that did not want to give up their
citizenship were just kicked out of the borders..
I mean those you could avoid the etnical cleansing..
according to the records. about 20.000 to 30.000 civilians were killed for
no reason at all. just because they were the elite of the venetian community
( parishers, doctors, policemen, teachers.. and so on.. )

italian is still widely spoken in these parts.. even if Croatia does not
allow the old inhabitants to buy back their properties..

not to speak about the violation of the Paris Peace Treaty of Yugoslavia..
that simply one day decided that the B zone was yugoslavia.. ( the A zone
was under British administration.. the B zone was under Yugoslav
administration )

Thanks for that, Sandro.

I really like to have background like that when I visit a place. It
can help me get some understanding of it. I had a general impression
that the Venetian influence was significant along the Dalmatian coast.
it seemed quite interesting to us because we have recently been in
Venice.

Sadly, the fact that many people there speak Italian is of little help
to us!

--
PB
The return address has been MUNGED