Traveling around Europe

Hi everyone,

I'm seventeen years old and from New Zealand. At the end of the year for my summer holiday I have negotiated with my Dad to go on a holiday as I am finishing high school. I have never been to Europe before and I want to make the most of the trip and go to as many places I can.
Although, due to the current economy, I do have a budget. I'm not sure what it is right now but I plan to travel to the countries that are cheapest to travel around.

I have a great desire to go to eastern Europe- namely Russia (Moscow), Estonia (Tallinn) and Czech Republic (Prague). I am also interested in going to Scandinavia, Turkey, Spain, Italy, France, Greece and England.

I will not be able to go to all of these countries so I would like some help in selecting from my list. I am very interested in history, architecture and I would love to do some shopping while I am overseas. The cold weather doesn't bother me too much. I am also a figure skater and so would love to skate while I am away.

Thanks!
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Hello! I am from Russia and I think it'll be the best choice for you. I would recommend Saint Petersburg rather than Moscow - S-Pete is much cheaper and has more to see (it was Russia's capital in the past). First of all, the famous White Nights if you visit the city in summer. It's the time in early June when at night it's light like in the day-time. So, you may walk around the city at night and watch how the bridges are drawn - it's a kind of tradition, many young couples are sitting on the embankment during White Nights and admiring the Neva river and the process of drawing the bridges. The most famous and big ones are the following:

Troitsky Bridge (the longest in SPb)
Palace Bridge (see here: http://www.worldwalk.info/en/catalog/580/);
Bridge of Lieutenant Schmidt, now called Blagoveschensky (see here:http://www.worldwalk.info/en/catalog/940/)

Then, if you are interested in history there are lots of museums, the most intersting are:
the Hermitage (see here: http://www.worldwalk.info/en/catalog/80/);
State Russian Museum - http://www.worldwalk.info/en/catalog/576/;
Petropavlovskaya Fotress, State Museum of History of St. Petersburg - http://www.worldwalk.info/en/catalog/74/;
Kunstkamera, Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography - http://www.worldwalk.info/en/catalog/257/;
Aurora Cruiser Museum Ship (the ship which paarticipated in the Russian Revolution) - http://www.worldwalk.info/en/catalog/258/;
Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineer and Signal Corps - http://www.worldwalk.info/en/catalog/266/;
Icebreaker Krasin Museum - http://www.worldwalk.info/en/catalog/264/.

As for architecture, here in SPb there is a good collection of chuches, cathedrals and palaces. Here are just some samples:

St.Isaac's Cathedral (http://www.worldwalk.info/en/catalog/71/);
The Spit of Vasilyevsky Island with Rostral Columns (see here: http://www.worldwalk.info/en/catalog/354/);
Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral http://www.worldwalk.info/en/catalog/325/;
Kazan Cathedral http://www.worldwalk.info/en/catalog/262/;
Vladimirskaya Church http://www.worldwalk.info/en/catalog/253/;
St. Andrew's Cathedral http://www.worldwalk.info/en/catalog/251/;
Church on Spilt Blood http://www.worldwalk.info/en/catalog/254/;
Marble Palace http://www.worldwalk.info/en/catalog/935/;
Menshikov Palace http://www.worldwalk.info/en/catalog/268/;
Yusupov Palace http://www.worldwalk.info/en/catalog/335/.

In terms of figure skating, Saint Pete is also a good choice. We have lots of skating-rinks, including open ones in winter (as you know it's rather cold here) - almost in every park, e.g. in Divo Ostrov Amusement Park (see here: http://www.worldwalk.info/en/catalog/311/).

Best wishes and have nice time travelling! Reply to this

Hi

If you want the cheapest countries to travel around, the UK is a bad place to start as it's very expensive. Ditto for Scandinavian countries and Russia. The Eastern European countries, Baltics and Turkey (who don't use the Euro yet so are cheaper) are the cheapest places to look at.

Plenty of people travel alone. But since you are quite on the young side for a backpacker, you might want to take a tour. If you look at all the gap year type sites, they advertise tours that are cheaper.

Have fun.

K Reply to this

Well my recomandation are hat : Begin from Sankt Petersburg-Russia after that with train you continue travell to Bucharest and Brasov - Romania. From therre, have directly train to Budapest- Hungary, Prague - Czech Republic or Vienna - Austria ( only 2 hour distance from Budapest ).
For train travell, used Eurail pass and for information about train conection used link of DB ( http://www.bahn.de/international/view/en/index.shtml ) Reply to this

Hey u r very lucky gal at age of 17 u got chance to explore europe. R u going alone or with your friends.

Its a best place to c i world i think u should go to ireland, Italy, france, england Reply to this

I am also a figure skater and so would love to skate while I am away.

I dont know where all the skating places are, but in the centre of Munich(I live in Munich), Germany they make an outdoor ice rink every winter so people can skate. That may be worth considering. But I dont know much about skating, so maybe there are lots more places like this in Europe too.
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