Marbella

Marbella-Sun-Beach-nice people.
The summer feeling in Marbella is great.
In downtown you will find shops with clothes, shoes,... in all price categories.
The best way to get too Puerto Banus is the ship from the sport ship harbor. For a round trip ticket you pay 15 €.
A good restaurant in Marbella is the Freiduria La Venus, there you will find locals and not only tourists. It is a simple but nice restaurant. The adress is PTO. Deportivo, Club Maritimo Local 3.
For a lounger on the beach you must pay 5 € per day. The positive thing is that the beach is a public one therefore you can lie where you want.
I can reommend Marbella to everybody who wants fun and sun.

From Canterbury to London

Last weekend I visited my sister who is studying in Canterbury. She lives together with 4 other students in the heart of Canterbury. The city is fantastic. There are Pubs all over the place, where you can drink delicious beer and Cider. For people who like sightseeing the Canterbury Cathedral is defiantly worth a visit. On Saturday morning we took the car of one of my sister’s housemates and went on a trip to London. The weather was lovely which was perfect for our planed tour through central London. We went shopping at Oxford Street and also passed by China town. In the afternoon we went to see the show ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’. The leading actress was Anna Friel from the TV series ‘Pushing Daisies’. At Sunday we revisited china town and had lunch in one of the many Chinese Restaurants. It was really yummy. Canterbury and London are truly recommendable.

Weekend Trip to Groningen

2600 km, 24 hours of driving through half europe... one customs control on the Autobahn, one broken bike, one broken camera, shitty weather but a great weekend out in Groningen!

By now people must have noticed that I'm really into road tripping.
Two weeks ago, I went to Groningen with a friend to meet up with some friends which had been
on Exchange with us in Macau, China!

When people think about The Netherlands most likely cities like Amsterdam or Maastricht will
come to their mind.

Groningen situated in the north-western corner of country, just 20km off the North Sea, is really worth a visit though.
So what does make Groningen special? 185000 people live in Groningen of which well over 50000 are students making Groningen THE student city of The Netherlands. Thus you can imagine Groningen offers a vibrant nightlife. Personally I can recommend the VERA club which is situated in the heart of the city. Apart from that the historic city center is always worth a visit, offering beautiful sites like the Martini tower which is the landmark of Groningen as well.

So that's been the Groningen 2009 road-trip review.
But stay tuned, soon to come:

How (not) to spend too much money on a weekend-trip to Paris &
and another exclusive reviw on a 3 day Berlin trip.

Cheers Patrik

L'Atelier des Crêpes - Reims

What would France be without the ultimate pancake (fr. crêpe) experience?

If you happen to be in Reims, go to L’Atelier des Crêpes, it’s located in the city center, but not a touristy place, the atmosphere is great there because it’s small and cosy. I have been there with my two wonderful roommates Hanna and Melanie for our goodbye dinner – although we have had sushi before – so you can imagine how good they are if we were even craving them on a full stomach!

It is located 65, rue Chanzy, they also have a homepage: http://www.atelier-des-crepes.com/

Jerez de la Frontera, Spain

My first impression of Jerez was the traffic and the one-way roads.

It's crazy :-). I was happy to have the time to drive through ths beautiful city with the small alleys in the downtown. Near the downtown I found the Sandeman Bodega and I decided to visit it because if you are in Jerez you must visit a Bodega, to try different Sherry's. At Sandeman you have the possibility to get a guided tour through the Bodega and after the tour Sandeman provides a degustation of their Sherry's. You get the guided tour in English, Spanish, German and French.

Near the Bodega you will find the Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art and the Museo de Enganches.

For more information about Sandeman check out their homepage: www.sandeman.eu

Reims, France

If you ever go to Paris and would like to experience one of the surrounding areas, go to Reims!
It’s in the heart of the Champagne region and a nice contrast to Paris as it’s a rather small city with 200,000 inhabitants. Also there’s a nonstop train connection by TGV, which takes 45 minutes.
It’s a good opportunity to have a glass of champagne while enjoying a nice view of the famous cathedral – Cathédrale Notre Dame de Reims, which is to be said even more beautiful than the Notre Dame in Paris. By the way, you need to go to the tourist office right next to it to get tickets for going up to the top.
I’d also recommend to check out the area around the Place d’Erlon, where you can find lots of nice cafés, bars and restaurants.
So everyone who knows some places to go to in Reims is invited to share them with us!
Also check this out for some general information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheims

Outlook - One weekend in Paris

Paris! French capital, city of love, namesake of Paris Hilton, cradle of the baguette, Revolution and condoms, right?
Well partly! ;)
To find out what is happening and what has happened in Paris for real and to break down stereotypes and prejudices, 2 friends and myself will endeavour in a massive 1200km road trip to provide our readers with previously undisclosed insider information!
As we are meeting up and spending our weekend with ca. 10 french friends we'll probably spent some time partying as well.
But don't be dishearted we'll return with juicy advice on where to find the party in Paris!

How to get there:
Regarding our choice to get to Paris all the way by car, I have to say that we jointly wanted to go for the cheapest available option, well aware that this road trip will take us around 13 hours.
Since I only started looking out for cheap flights around a month before this trip should take place and the fact that we've been restricted to a certain date, we couldn't find a cheaper return ticket than 170 Euros. but if you start looking a bit earlier and are free to choose a date I estimate you"ll find a return ticket for around 100 Euro (+-).
One option to search for cheap flights: www.skyscanner.net


View Larger Map

Accomodation:

One piece of information in advance, finding budget accomodation in Paris is not easy!
You'll find plenty of places regarding themselves as being budget options, but many of them are still very pricy.
After a long search we eventually decided to settle for the BVJ Louvre.
It offers dormitory accomodation for 29 Euros pp and if you're a group of at least 10 ppl you'll get a discount and end up paying 25 Euros pp.
Additionally the Hostel is located in the heart of Paris, the Louvre and the Champs Elysee are literally just around the corner, as depicted in the following map:


View Larger Map

So that's all there is to say for now.
An exclusive review will go online in the course of next week.
In this spirit, salut et a bientot!

Patrik

Amsterdam - smoker friendly bar

In Amsterdam smoking at public areas is prohibited, you are actually also not allowed to smoke tobacco in Coffeeshops (they have smoking areas there). So there is almost no possibility to smoke and maybe also drink a nice beer - even not in the smoking areas of the Coffeeshops, as many of them are not allowed to sell alcohol. A very nice alternative is the smoker-friendly bar “Barneys Uptown”. It’s compared to the Coffeshop “Grasshoper” (which also features a smoker-friendly bar) not a touristy place which tries to mainly attract tourists but a place where also locals go. There you are allowed to smoke, drink alcohol, enjoy the time in a great atmosphere and you can also get some snacks and burgers. The Bar is located near Centraal Station (about 5-10 min walk) and across the street is the Barney’s Coffeeshop. I used to go there a lot with friends and if this arouse your interest, check out their homepage: http://www.barneys.biz/

Dear Students,

Today I would like to tell you about a great town in Turkey called Alacati. You can find this city on the Cesme peninsula in the south-western part of turkey, just opposite the Greek island of Chios and on the same latitude as Athens. Although Alacati is normally a sleepy little village, where only some people from Istanbul and Antalya live during the summer months, it also happens to be the perfect windsurfing spot on Turkey's Aegean shores. The combination of consistent winds and a very safe, 500m by 400m shallow section of completely flat water makes Alaçati an extremely appealing destination for windsurfing. This attracts beginners, intermediates, speedsters and freestylers alike.

However windsurfing is not the only thing Alacati has to offer. Alacati has some very beautiful beaches with white sand stretching as far as the eye can see. Similarly its historic city is a sight not to miss, boasting an excellent antiquities market at the heart of the town and several charming bars at every corner.

Insider hint:

You can get the best cocktails in town at a bar called “Iyi” but if you crave something sweet and you are on a budget then just ask for the waffle restaurant. You will find this restaurant in a backstreet next to the antiquities market.