Europe Travel Tips: Ish Meets Europe

After over a month touring Europe and visiting 12 cities in eight countries,I just wanted to share the most important discoveries, lessons and other tidbits I picked up along the way.

1. The place where you can find the most number of good-looking men per square kilometer is in Italy 🙂 Girls, get your sexy asses over there! This is a well-researched fact!

2. No, you can’t find them near the usual tourist traps because those are full of foreigners like yourself. Get off the beaten track. This means forget Florence and Rome. Yes, this deserves two entries.

3. Russia is NOT a cold, dreary place. In fact, I got my nose fairly burnt up there. And they make great beer, not just Vodka.

4. Russia has giant soupy dumplings. Yum. (Yes, that deserves an entry.). Imagine a giant Xiao Long Bao. They are called Xinkali or Khinkali over there. Oh, and Italy has giant lemons and Norway has giant bananas…..

5. The friendliest people are the Irish. However, pubs close early for some reason. So yeah, go get drunk early. And by the way, I will still call them fries, not chips and chips not crisps 🙂 Tip: Load up takes a completely different meaning here haha. ‘di uso pulutan so kain muna guys!

6. While walking around an Orthodox Christian art display, I walked over to Michael the Archangel, leaned in and whispered: “Dude, who the hell are all these other people?” They have thousands upon thousands of saints. Very interesting.

7. Whoever invented high heels must not have lived in fully-cobbled Europe. Unless it was meant to be a form of medieval torture.

8. Living with only 23 kilos worth of stuff is possible. But don’t forget, hand luggage must measure only up to 20″x 40″x 55″ Those metal measuring boxes from hell will burn 50 eur for you if it doesn’t fancy the shape of your carry-on nevermind that it weighs only 2kg., those b**ches at the gate won’t care. If it won’t fit, you gotta pay for it!

9. In Russia, I’m from Kazakhstan, In Ireland, I’m from HK, Singapore or USA, In Greece I’m Spanish. Almost no one will think I’m Filipino. :/

10. DO NOT TALK TO THE GYPSIES. Madami na ring mandurukot! And no, they are not Pinoys! Tsss recession woes still felt all over Europe.

Unfortunately, one needs to practice caution in Europe as much we have to in the streets of Manila. Don’t fall into the false sense of security of being in more progressive countries. Watch your valuables and enjoy the ride!