Half-Way Through Europe

We’re currently back in Italy and since we had a little downtime, thought we would write a post devoted to a handful of random topics that we haven’t had the chance to cover yet. We call it our “half-way through Europe post”…that’s right we’ve really been here for 2 ½ months and have less than two months to go.

European Stereotypes:
After two months in Europe we’re nowhere near experts on the continent, but we think we’ve been able to confirm a few stereotypes of Europe…
· French cheese is really quite stinky (and tasty)
· Switzerland is as beautiful as everyone says (and ridiculously expensive)
· Germans really do drink a lot of beer and eat a lot of sausages (both of which are extremely delicious)
· Italians are awful drivers…and so are the Bulgarians

Nicest People:
The Irish have been by far the most friendly, helpful people we’ve come across on our travels through Europe. Most of the people we met would go out of their way to ensure we were enjoying their country. They were more than happy to point us in the right direction, recommend a nice pub, or just chat.

Most Overrated Destination:
Dubrovnik, Croatia – We wrote about this before, but this is the definition of a place completely ruined by tourists. Some places (Paris, Rome, etc) can handle piles of tourists, while others cannot. Dubrovnik’s once spectacular, walled old-city has now become filled with cheap souvenir shops and bad tourist restaurants. The streets are swarming with travelers fresh off the cruise ships. All the charm we imagined the city had about 10 years ago was long gone. We have found plenty of other charming, authentic seaside villages we’d recommend in a heartbeat over Dubrovnik.

Most Underrated Destination:
Slovenia – During our extensive research we did for this trip (reading countless travel guides, magazine articles, etc), we never came across anything mentioning Slovenia. So far, it’s been our favorite country in Europe. It has a little of everything: an adventurous mountain town, a capital full of history and interesting architecture, and one of those charming, authentic seaside villages we mentioned above.

Surprisingly Enjoyable Pastime:
European Grocery Shopping – Since embarking on our trip we have always enjoyed checking out the grocery stores and markets in foreign countries. It’s a great way to get a feel for a region’s cuisine, to discover what foods are important to the locals, and see how they compare to the US. The fresh fruit and vegetable markets in Asia were great and the supermarkets of France and Germany have been superb, but our favorite place to buy groceries has been Italy. Their grocery stores take shopping to a whole new level. Their cheese selection would put any specialty cheese shop in the US to shame. There are literally 100’s of different kinds of dried and/or cured meats for sale. You can buy entire, whole cured legs of pork. Looking for fish, squid, octopus, clams, or mussels? No problem, they have them all and more. We literally spend hours just wandering through their aisles, mesmerized by all of the choices. (Which one of the 20 kinds of fresh mozzarella should we try today? Who knew there were 30 different kinds of salami?)

Expensive Europe:
We never cease to be amazed at just how expensive things are throughout Europe. It doesn’t matter if we’re in France or Serbia, we’re shocked at just how much more things cost than back in the US. It doesn’t help that the dollar is weak, and getting weaker, against the Euro. (The dollar has lost about 5% of its value versus the Euro in the two months we’ve been here.) Even without the bad exchange rate, things would still be expensive.

WWOOFing:
For the next week we’ll be volunteering on a farm here in Italy through an organization called World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF). We’re definitely looking forward to staying in one place for awhile, experiencing rural Italian culture, and getting our hands dirty.