Travelling Europe, Need Inspiration

[Ash Ludd]

Think I'm gonna head out to mainland Europe again fairly soon, need some inspiration for where to go though... anyone know any cool places they recommend? Radical farms, beautiful landscapes, good squatting communities, street festivals, good folk/metal/punk scene etc.?
Pretty burned out on cities but kinda attached to them as I survive by busking and skipping (dumpster diving) so not opposed to suggestions of them but really wanna know some cool rural communities, landscapes and stuff to check out.

 

[amines]

When are you planing on comming to europe?
The nordic countries are very expensive but good for sumpster dicing
Spain offers alot of abandoned cities in the mountains
If you're looking for some fun places with lovely peole loud music and all...
The balkans (serbia, croatia,montenegro,albania,bulgaria,romania, bosna i hercegovina) The coastline of croatia, albania and montenegro!! definetly
Give me more details about your plans and I can give you more advice (hitchhiking, blackridind etc.)

 

[CrustyFuckinP]

can i come with you (again)? ^_^

also, are you talking about Eastern Europe too?
I got spooked by the language barriers and unfriendliness of rural Germany around Hambacher. I kinda felt like eastern eu would be like that too... but I know it's not.

 

[OutsideYourWorld]

I love Europe, and I spent about two years hitching, wild camping, and a bit of volunteer work there. I spent most of my time in eastern europe, though, and i'd love (and will) go again. The people can take some getting used to, and just because they don't smile much doesn't mean they aren't nice and helpful, because they are! The food is awesome, the landscapes beautiful and not as industrialized as much of the West, it's cheap for just about everything, hitching is easier, and there are so many abandoned buildings.

I'm not city guy, but Budapest was lovely. I also ended up working on a farm a wee bit south of budapest, which was on the outskirts of an abandoned Russian base and also had basically a little abandoned village all around me. I could squirrel through gaps in doors or windows and be in places stuck in time from the Soviet days. Even found an old officers cap with the red star on it, still.

Romania and Bulgaria I spent a couple weeks in each, but would really like to spend more time there. I can't quite place it, but those countries have that old feel to them that I always imagined about Europe in general would be like (in my fantasies, that is).

I MIGHT end up going there again soon, within a month or so. I'm still not sure myself. It's either South America, or Eastern Europe

Also, Budapest has an awesome folk/metal/punk scene. Check out Durer Kert, a university campus turned into a huge music venue. I recall a death metal festival, where they had different rooms for different bands going at the same time.

 

[etpyh]

Berlin is a nice and "alternative" city. You should find everything you asked for there, even though I can't help you with more specific information.
Balkans are cheap and more adventurous then the more western countries.
I suggest to go that route while there is still relatively few tourism, who knows how long it takes until the mainstream tourist industrie takes over albania?
Plus it is really cheap there.
If you have got enough time I would start in Berlin and then go something like Praha, Budapest, Belgrad/Sarajevo/Romania, somehow down to Athens (they have this infamous anarchist district) and then back north through Tirana and along the coastline of Croatia to whereever your flight home is cheap.

The scandinavian countries are easier to travel since everyone speaks fluent english but are really expensive, though probably good for dumpster diving.
France, Spain, Germany, Italy and so on are cheaper then Scandinavia but still fare more expensive then the balkans. Probably good for dumpster diving as well. English not as good as in Scandinavia.

If it fits your plan I would suggest Amsterdam haha. Overly touristic but also a really nice city, even more so if you are into drugs haha. Just take some shrooms (they are legal there) and chill in one of the parks or stroll around the city.

 

[roguetrader]

how long before you leave for Europe, and will you be on foot or in a vehicle? if you want some decent weather this time of year you'll have to go right down to the south coast of Spain / Algarve in Portugal / bottom of Italy etc... Portugals got some lovely spots on the Algarve - Sagres which is the southern most tip has a good group of alternative types / hippies etc ( my friend Max Fire lives there he'd point you in the right direction)... in the Sierra Nevada in Andalucia (Spain) you have Orgiva and the surrounding area which is full of heads of all types - theres a big travellers site at El Moreon and also people parked up at Sigrones... if you more of a hippy theres a community at Beneficio - further north towards Granada theres a famous hot spring at Santa Fe... still in Spain if you've never been to Barcelona then that is a must at least once in your life - an amazing city on many levels... 100km above Barca is the Dali museum at Figueres - look for the huge pink building with golden eggs on the roof !
one of my favourite areas of Europe is the French Pyrenees - traditionally the place where a lot of French left wingers / alternative types / hippies settle - i've stayed in the Languedoc region for long periods and that area has loads of amazing festivals and events although these are mainly in the summer - the Street Theatre Festival at Ax-Les-Theremes (end of July) is one of the best i've been to and attracts many travellers and street people and is mainly a free event... theres another couple of lovely hot springs at Rennes Le Bain that are worth going to, near the famous Rennes Le Chateau a mecca for Da Vinci Code fans due to its history... also in that area heading towards the Med are the spectacular Cathar castles which i've only driven past but always fancied climbing.... Jeez i could go on forever - how about you tell us roughly where you planning on going and i'll try and come up with more suggestions....

 

[warlo]

I wouldst know where to start!

If you are coming from the states by plane, take a flight from NYC to Oslo, Norway. We get lots of banjo people here every summer since its the cheapest flight connection (around 150 dollars and can get cheaper). Oslo has a somewhat nice Alternative scene that you can check out but not worth enough staying long, then from here you can go down to Copenhagen and check the famous Christiania and from there down to Germany where you can decide which direction to take. I think hamburg and maybe Leipzig are a better option in Germany than Berlin, since there people are very tired of tourism (even alternative minded tourism) and have grown quite hostile towards anybody wearing a backpack and asking too many questions (now they water-gun people as a common practice) so if you decide to go there, mind that information and maybe you will be allright. So far the typical route which im not so fond of (but because i've been here for a while.. i wouldnt blame you from wanting to check them out).
If you decide to go West, I can help you out with some good places around, La ZAD is definitively a place to go, its probably the most radical thing going on in EU, there are some new similar places that people will ask you to go to and try to convince you as much as possible, but the real think is in la ZAD, all others are just starting and they can only get help from people deciding to stay, if your idea is to see stuff working well, la ZAD has been there for a while and its an amazing example of radical restistance. Later on you can go to spain where its full of things, being the most typical ones Beneficio (squatted mountains near granada) and the Caves in Granada itself (mind those places being a bit tired of people, like berlin but not so extreme). In any of these places already mention you can draw your own map by talking to people who will tell you whats going on during that time, and then you might bee able to drop by some not so known places that most people wont publish in a forum.
If you decide to go East, im not going to be of much help, but dont hesitate to drop me a message with any questions or even when you are around.

 

[etpyh]

I think hamburg and maybe Leipzig are a better option in Germany than Berlin, since there people are very tired of tourism

Now you are saying it, I have to admit I heard that a couple of times now, so Leipzig might be a better option (I don't like Hamburg for some reason). I found the people in Berlin pretty relaxed and friendly though, but it probably helps that I speak german and don't carry a large backpack.

I furthermore wanted to add that it is always worth too check out sites like http://www.workaway.info/ there are alot of organic and alternative farms and whatnot.

Also, if you are intending to hitchhike write something like "can't pay traveling without money"(preferably in the country language of course). In some of the balkan countries the driver will expect you to pay for the ride, those rides are more like local buses or taxis or something.
No need for that in the EU countries.

 

[Mankini]

go to Satu Mare. i was on the trail of vlad tepes and elizabeth bathory for some time. youwont regret it. vlad and liz are like the sonny and cher of the 15th/16th centuries ahahahaha

 

[Ash Ludd]

Ok, so I've been based in Bristol, England for quite a bit of the last year. I've been squatting but it's pretty much died out there since the law change in 2011/12/whenever it was. There were some good times but the last 2 squats we had fell apart because of peoples bullshit drama macho shit. I really can't be fucked with that shit and wanna get away from it for a while. My partner just got a trailer and moved onto a site (which someone turned into a drama) and we're gonna stay there for the rest of the month probably whilst we finish off some stuff we gotta do and then we're gonna hit Europe. Think we're gonna maybe head for Marseilles first as we know some people squatting there and go from there I guess... I've done a bunch of travelling round the Netherlands, will probably go see some friends there at some point but would like to see other countries that I haven't been to before. A couple winters ago me and a bud hopped trains down the east coast of Spain, which was fun, would like to go back there maybe but was always getting kicked off the trains and troubled by the police when busking. I wanna travel because I don't wanna be in one place right now, maybe if I found somewhere I liked I'd stay for a while but yeah, feeling restless right now but at the same time don't feel particularly excited about anything or any countries in particular... I want to be but don't know how

Oh yeah so I'll be traveling on foot and however possible. Cheap buses, hitching-hiking, whatever.

 

[etpyh]

Well if you are going that soon I would say go as far south as you possible can, maybe even turkey?
Fuck the cold.

Edit: I would also love to hear more about your trainhopping experiences.

 

[Ash Ludd]

Well if you are going that soon I would say go as far south as you possible can, maybe even turkey?
Fuck the cold.

Edit: I would also love to hear more about your trainhopping experiences.

Oh shit when we say train hopping over here we don't mean the same thing as in the states, we mean getting on passenger trains without a ticket, also called bunking the train. Probably should of specified that.

Anyone got any experience of Malta? Would quite like to go check that place out. Apparently there's some pre-christian temples with animal bas reliefs on the walls!

 

[Skein]

I love Europe, and I spent about two years hitching, wild camping, and a bit of volunteer work there. I spent most of my time in eastern europe, though, and i'd love (and will) go again. The people can take some getting used to, and just because they don't smile much doesn't mean they aren't nice and helpful, because they are! The food is awesome, the landscapes beautiful and not as industrialized as much of the West, it's cheap for just about everything, hitching is easier, and there are so many abandoned buildings.

I'm not city guy, but Budapest was lovely. I also ended up working on a farm a wee bit south of budapest, which was on the outskirts of an abandoned Russian base and also had basically a little abandoned village all around me. I could squirrel through gaps in doors or windows and be in places stuck in time from the Soviet days. Even found an old officers cap with the red star on it, still.

Romania and Bulgaria I spent a couple weeks in each, but would really like to spend more time there. I can't quite place it, but those countries have that old feel to them that I always imagined about Europe in general would be like (in my fantasies, that is).

I MIGHT end up going there again soon, within a month or so. I'm still not sure myself. It's either South America, or Eastern Europe

Also, Budapest has an awesome folk/metal/punk scene. Check out Durer Kert, a university campus turned into a huge music venue. I recall a death metal festival, where they had different rooms for different bands going at the same time.

Hey there,

I'm heading to Romania next week for a traditional music festival, the Hearts Festival, in Timisoara (Western Romania, on the Hungarian border). Just wondering if you came across any squats/sympathetic anarchist community around there that could help me out with a place to sleep and maybe a bit of nice conversation? Or if you could put me onto anyone you know that might have more knowledge of that part of the world?

Cheers

 

[OutsideYourWorld]

Unfortunately I didn't have much luck meeting those types, skein. Most of the time I was there was in little villages with most of my contact being with gypsies

Best best would be couch surfing forums on Romania.

 

[OutsideYourWorld]

Anyone got any experience of Malta? Would quite like to go check that place out. Apparently there's some pre-christian temples with animal bas reliefs on the walls!

I spent two ish weeks in Malta when I worked on a yacht. The capital is awesome. Such unique architecture, and this overall sandy color to most everything. A lot of the old fortifications and older buildings are either abandoned or used as homes for poorer people, I think.
If you ever watched midnight express, a lot of it was filmed there. I even stumbled into the prisons courtyard from the movie (the one with multiple levels of prison cells) , which is actually just this forgotten corner do the city.

 

[OutsideYourWorld]

Actually, skein, check out a page on facebook called "nomads - a life of cheap/free travel" I just saw a guy post about timisoara. Could be quite useful. Lots of activity.

 

[reeed]

Come to prague!!

 

[Skein]

Actually, skein, check out a page on facebook called "nomads - a life of cheap/free travel" I just saw a guy post about timisoara. Could be quite useful. Lots of activity.

Well that's what I get for not checking StP often enough. I'm just seeing this now.

I actually ended up not going to Timisoara at all. I was on my flight from Dublin to Budapest, from where I was supposed to train to Timisoara. The flight had a stop over in Dusseldorf and for some reason going to Timisoara just didn't feel right so I just disembarked in Dusseldorf, grabbed my bag and have been travelling around the Rhineland now instead. Just got to Aachen after a few nights wandering Eifel National Park. Going to head onto Hambacher Forst, site of the "Hellmouth", Europe's largest lignite mine, and a forest occupation against it's expansion.

I might have gone onto Timisoara if I'd seen your post in time, but as it was it just didn't feel right. Probably a combination of my pretty bad fear of flying and the fact that I wanted to wander and felt like I would have been stuck to a place if i went to the festival.

Whatever the result, thanks alot for the follow through. Really appreciate it.

 

[Skein]

Actually (sorry for all the posts) if anybody has any tips for Cologne, Hambacher Forst or Berlin (I'm heading there to meet folks after the forest) throw them this way. Cheers.

 

[Mankini]

Did you see Nideggen and the tank tread in the Eifel? creepy shit. i heard and felt ghosts there. also, there are still glasmeinen everywhere.