I've been married almost two years. Like most newly married couples, we're broke Besides a 10 day stay in Miami most of the trips we've taken together have been short three or four day trips (DC, Houston, the beach, etc.) We're trying to plan our first out of the country trip together next year and have narrowed it down to either: a) Greece b) Kiev / Moscow / St. Petersburg If we do the trip to Greece, it'll be just the two of us and we'll have to worry about everything, make all our arrangements, etc. If we take the Ukraine / Russia option, we'll be going with some friends that have been there several times, know the place, semi-speak the language, etc. They'd handle 90% of the details and we wouldn't have to worry about much of anything. I'd be interested in hearing people's opinions that have been to one, both, none, whatever
go to greece nico. you will have a wonderful time, you will get to spend time with your beautiful wife all alone without friends "getting in the way" and knowing your skillz and knowledge you can plan a wonderful trip yourself. and if you have questions; god knows there are plenty of us on bigsoccer who have been to greece and can help you out with any questions or suggestions you might have or need. plus you can take the ferry to italy and visit tree
Greece...err. Athens is a dump, yeah you'll see bits of all the old ruins but not much else. The whole place stinks. And the Islands whilst very pretty are over run with beered up Brits (I was one of them when I went there) It's like the Panama City for us, cheap package holidays. Have you finalised it to just those two. I understand the concern about the friends with you everywhere but its not like theres a shortage of places to go to in Europe. Prague? Dubrovnik? Both awesome and affordable. Had a great time just me and the missus (we are late 20's)
Well, we're talking about going to Greece "off season" in hopes of avoiding a lot of that. We plan to hit central/western Europe later. In addition to vacation and having a good time, we chose these two also for religious purposes. We're both Eastern Orthodox and wanted to visit one of the two main "spiritual motherlands" to see a lot of that stuff seeing as our current home (Southeastern US) isn't exactly the epicenter of Orthodoxy
OK, good reasons I guess. Do your homework about the "off season" though. Obviously the resorts won't have all the bars and restaurants open all year round.
Yeah, that's what we're doing right now. We're pondering trying to slide in right after the Olympics in the hopes that all the prices will fall and there won't be tourists all over the place but everything will still be open.
I'd like to go either place, but I don't think I'd want to go on a vacation where someone else is handling 90% of the details. I guess if you are very good friends with the couple, it might be okay, but I prefer to do my own thing when I'm on vacation.
I don't mean that they're planning what we'd be doing, just taking cares of hotels and that kind of stuff. Like I said, they speak the language, but we'll be off doing whatever we want.
I have several good Ukranian friends and they recommend that you go to Greece. Seriously. From the friends I have who've been to the Hellnic Isles, they say pretty much what's hinted at above; Athens sux, but the rest of the country is great. BTW congrats on the 2 years, me and the Mrs celebrate out 1st this weekend and we're off to Scotland & London at the end of November. She's even deigned to got the Celtic v. Bayern match with me!
After discussing it, I think we're leaning more & more towards Greece. Primarily because the Russia trip is in May and the Greece trip we'd do later in the year. We'd have more time to save up money, plus it just appeals to us more I think. Recommendations in Greece?
I've found that New Zealand's not a bad option, either. So is the Cook Islands. But like I've said in other threads, if you ever have a chance to get to this side of the world-- regardless of whether it's Australia, NZ, or any part of Oceania-- go for it.
I went to New Zealand about 10 years ago. It rocked. I'd love to go back to the South Pacific, but being on east coast...its just too expensive for me to go there at this point. that's why we're looking at europe
I would like to go to Russia, but I still think Greece is better option. Why? 1) Athens: yes, it is a dump. But some of the sights are what I called places you must visit once in a lifetime. 2) islands..... this is your first big vocation as a married couple, right!!!
After talking this weekend, Spain has been added to the list. So now, the list stands at Spain or Greece. My wife has already been to Spain, but went when she was about 15 and obviously wants to return as an adult. If we go to Greece, we may make a quick sidetrip to Italy to visit some friends.
If you convince your wife to see a soccer match, I will recommend you to Spain. I am a history(but not anicent history so Greece was not so interesting for me) and art person. Spain is up there with Italy. And I became a Real Madrid fan because I like Madrid the city.
Every vacation we've been on since we got married (besides our honeymoon) has revolved around soccer, so she definately won't have a problem with that. I was a history major (Asian history...so either place is irrelevant to my main interest), she was an art major (modern & Byzantine), so she wins either way! Wherever we go, I just want to make sure that we can get tickets to a game.
I was an Asian history(China & Japan) major too!!! I Spain might be a better choice. I am not an art expert, but Spain did produce a few of the greatest modern artists: Dali, Picasso, Miro, de Goya, etc. I had never been to Barcelona. I heard Quadrat d'Or is very nice for someone into modern art. I think soccer tickets are easy to buy in Spain if the game is not big(Barcelona-Real Madrid, etc). I bought my Real Madrid tickets on the morning of the game, but that was before Figo, Zidane, Beckham or Ronaldo. Furthermore, the Real Madrid museum is a mecca for soccer fan. Back in 1998, I can even touch the CL trophy. But I heard they rebuilt the whole thing.
Nicodemus: How long do you have for your vacation? We were in Spain last October for ten days and actually crammed too much travel into this short amount of time. Madrid, Toledo (short bus trip from Madrid), Sevilla (AVE train from Madrid), Granada, Vallencia, Barcelona, and finally Bilbao (final cities done by car). I think if you have less than a week you have to either choose Barcelona or Madrid then do sidetrips from these two cities ... Mark ps love your avatar ... is it Laika?
It will be 10-14 days, probably longer for me as my job is more flexible. thanks. I have no idea who it is. I just saw it on some random website and grabbed it. Who is Laika? Somebody said they think it is from some European comic/cartoon.
Laika was the nickname of the dog the Russians shot up into space in Sputnik 2(? I think 2). In regards to your Iberian vacation, do you and your wife want to see both Madrid and Barcelona? Could you get by with just one of them?
She went to Barcelona when she was 13 or 14, but went with a school group, and now wants to see Barcelona as an adult. I don't see why we couldn't do both with 10-14 days.
Nicodemus, I have been to Russia 5 times, Greece twice and Spain twice. Shoot with any questions you have. If you are in Spain in July, you could take in the San fermin Festival in Pamplona.