So, what to do in Europe?

[Wolfeye]

All right. Got my ticket, my money, and I have all the stuff I'm taking with me (have to make final decisions & pack them). What do I do once I get there? I'm disembarking in Southampton, England & from there I think I'll get a train or a bus to London, another one to the coast to pick up a ferry to Amsterdam, then a train across Berlin & Dresden to Prague. I COULD take a bus from England to Prague, but it's 25 hours & I want to hit two of those places anyway (Amsterdam & Dresden). After that, I think I'll head to Slovakia (want to get at least a month in both before my Schengen runs out), then Romania. I'll have to start wondering about my money about then (I could potentially do half a year, if I can save some money).

So, what are the dos & don't dos of my route? Any areas to worry about? I definitely don't want to go to Calais, France- due to migration issues. Seems there's some parts of Holland best untraveled (I think it was Rotterdam, but also some parts of Amsterdam). I know Germany has a lot of those problems, more than most others- I just want to go to a couple of bars in Dresden to see if a Vladimir Putin story is actually told there.

My main interest is Eastern Europe & I suppose I COULD go to Portugal & Spain, maybe even Italy to see if I have relatives there (I heard it's not too hard to get citizenship by residence there, but you'd need someone to vouch for you if the government people come to see if you're living there).

As for my plans:
I definitely want to get some weed & maybe try a hash brownie in Amsterdam & would like to have some in the other countries. Don't know which ones will break your balls about something like that or how to go about getting it without connections. Cab drivers? People working in the hotels & hostels?

Not quite sure about the hookers. At least getting laid would be good, but I have concerns:
One is if she's getting backed into doing this (I know a lot of hookers are there at their own discretion, even though a man likely wouldn't be doing the same things- at least not with dudes).
Another is if I'm going to get ripped off (I hear you have to specify A LOT of details in advance- different positions, grabbing her tits, even her being naked). A how-to on that would be interesting.
The third is that I don't want to get jumped while I'm wandering around the Red Light District (it seems the Moroccans are the big issue there). I'm honestly most clear about that, since that's pretty much the same anywhere.

Other than that, I intend to go around & see the sites. Maybe there's some kind of festival going on or a river tour that I'd find interesting. I definitely plan to spend some time in the woods- which has an additional benefit of saving me money on a place to stay.

[Kradmelder]

If I were you I would avoid expensive northern and western Europe and rather go through Spain Greece Croatia etc. Don't make rigid plans. Stay in backpackers and you may meet up with interesting people and change plans.

If you are going now in winter all the more reason to avoid the north.

[Wolfeye]

Well, I'm getting off the boat in Southampton- so I've got to do some northern Europe to get where I'm going. Is there a way to get to Spain or Portugal directly from there? Speaking of meeting people, is "gotobot" any good? It's supposed to be an app to meet people with similar interests for your phone (finally got an iPhone SE- hate the thing already).

[droid]

Good for you wolfeye, you have taken action.
You'll meet people in the trains and coffee places, don't hesitate to make conversation. Obviously trying the person's language a little bit works wonders.

I really expect a report from Slovakia since it's been a few years, i wonder if there have been big changes.
Tip: buy yourself an orthopedic collar, you'll need it after a while of rubbernecking lol

[Wolfeye]

I definitely want to hit Slovakia & I think I'll do it in the first Schengen block, that way I definitely have the money to stay there for a month or two.

The only things I'm still jammed-up on is getting some money off-the-books (it's been suggested that I go to Denmark or the UK for manual labor or that I could tutor English in other countries) & getting some visas. I understand I can get a student visa if I enroll at a language school, but can you get that visa at your embassy in a foreign country? It IS technically considered foreign soil. I have the same question for work visas, but might not be able to get that until I have the languages learned & possibly certified as such.

[El_Caudillo]

If you want to find out about visas you need to look at specific embassy websites.

You are not going to get jumped by Moroccans in Amsterdam, I understand that people are America are paranoid abut the great unwashed who (when they can be bothered) kneel down and face Mecca five times a day - but you'll enjoy Europe more if you drop this attitude.

Let's say you want to learn Czech to a level that you have working proficiency in that language. That means you need to attain an intermediate level. Very talented language learners could do this with six months of hard study if they begin at zero. By very talented language learners I really mean Europeans who have learned another language before, not Americans/Brits/Aussies/Kiwis who can say 'hola guapa, dos cervezas por favor'. That is the reality of it. So it would likely take time and commitment to learn Czech and then I'm not sure what job you'll get there after that!? What are your skills? Ditto Romania.

Since your plan is to never return to the USA and you only have 3 month worth of money to live on saved up, do you really want to shell out for a language school. Anyway, you have enthusiasm and possibly youth on your side, which are often the most important factors.

[El_Caudillo]

By the way there is another poster on here Gman112 who is Czech-Canadian maybe you can pm him Wolfeye?

[Kradmelder]

Don't get hung up on little issues. You can live far cheaper than you think. Opportunities always crop up. Even my mother was offered work in Greece like 20 years ago because she could speak german and English and French so could deal with tourists. Even as an older lady, with blonde hair, very pale skin and green eyes tourists would feel welcome as she didnt look greek. If you speak Italian and English and have some technical skills maybe something will come up. You are too young to worry. Enjoy yourself. Just don't stick your dick in anything not white

[Wolfeye]

El_Caudillo: I'm 29 right now, so maybe youth would work. I remember a site (and a book by the same name) called "Fluent in 3 Months." It seems that someone can, with work & good opportunity, become fluent in 3 months time- so I'm assuming that speaking passably well (functional proficiency) would be a bit less. That's where I got the timeframe, anyway.

Kradmelder: Ha Ha. Yeah, black chicks don't really do it for me! I figured it would be something to do with tourism. You don't have to be certified or anything to do that. Maybe the further east you go, the less bullshit you get with needing certification? I remember a thing about this family from Germany trying to get asylum in Russia because of all the "refugees" & they were saying how in Germany you need all kinds of paperwork to do a job, but in Russia, you more or less just had to be able to do the job.