200proof

Hi everyone. After searching and searching through boards I have arrived at this one and found it to be the best...most informative and friendly.

Well I have never been to Europe before and figured that studying abroad would give me that opportunity. As of now the two places I can go are Nottingham, England, or Tillburg, Netherlands. Each one will give me a month off to travel Europe, but since I never been there I am not sure which one will best suit a 20 year old male.

Has anyone been to either or both of these places and knows which one you think is the most fun.
Thanx for the advice

skidrage

Hello

I studied last year in The Netherlands and had the time of my life. It was not Tillburg, but I do know a couple people who studied there and they thought it was great. The Netherlands has some beautiful towns plus all the crazy things that the country is known for (legal weed and hash, legal prositution). The weather was not too good and changed constantly, but England is not exactly known for it's perfect climate either.

For travelling, an advantage that England has is that Ryanair and Easy Jet have lots of flights out of there and you can fly to a lot fo places for as low as $20 round trip. Holland also has a couple Ryanair airports and Easy Jet and Basiq Air fly out of Amsterdam, but not as many flights as the England counterparts.

I really think that you will have more fun in The Netherlands. If you like to smoke and drink good beer , you will be in heaven. Also, it is a lot cheaper than England, but certain parts such as Amsterdam are expensive.

Let me know if you have any other questions about The Netherlands as I should be able to help you out with what you need to know.

beergal

hello! im from bristol but attend university in Liverpool (not far from nottingham!) I would thouroughly reccommend coming to our fair isle while there is the obvious thrills of amsterdam Notts would be much better, Yes there are cheap flights to be had from ryanair and easyjet but you can also travel to major cities whithin The UK and eire. Northern Cities are much cheaper than living south of Birmingham (london, Cardiff,Bristol etc)
When Will yr exchange start? Im off on mine to Budapest in a few weeks until Jan but would be happy to provide you with as much info as poss before i leave

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200proof

Thanks for all the info

Both of the places still seem really appetizing. Still can't decide on where to go. Got many questoins though about them.

I gotta question though about Ryanair and Easy Jet . So with them its flying between cities in the same country for $20???That seems extremely cheap.

Also like for weekend trips is it easy and cheap(college style) to go visit other countries near the Netherlands?
And when you were in The NEtherlands did you pick up Dutch at all or any other language???


Thanks again

skidrage

200proof

The flying on the cheap airlines is both, in-between cities (mostly Ryanair in England) and other countries. If you can book a month or two ahead, you can fly roundtrip from Amsterdam to Rome for $50. If you wait until the day before you leave to purchase the ticket, then you will be paying $200 one way. As long as you book a few weeks ahead you will get the price at a very good rate. Check their websites for example. The airlines over their are not regulated, so they are able to charge very cheap rates. These are no frill flights. You will have to pay for food and drinks on them.

For a weekend trip, Germany and Belgium will be close to you. You should be able to get to Brussels in 90 minutes and probably Koln/Bann/Dusseldorf Germany in two hours. I did not do these trips, but many did do weekend getaways to Brussels.

I did take a Dutch language class offered by my school and picked up a little, but everyone speaks english there, so you will not have any communication problems.

Keep the questions coming if you have more.

bakwoi

I got a couple more questions--

BTW bakwoi=200proof...had to ditch 200proof and use my normal handel

anyways i asked about the language thing since being from the US i only hear english and all of a suddon got an interest in other languages and just wanted to find out if just living in the Neterlands for 6months helped at all pick up the language

im sure ima have a shitload more questions in the next couple weeks, months even on deciding where to go, but tanx for all the help

beergal

sounds to me you already picked which country you want to visit ha ha

__________________
I have two skins, one to lie on and one to cover myself with; the earth and the sky. (Masai proverb)


FANCY A READ...TPUNK BOOK CLUB CAN BE FOUND HERE



what goes around comes around

bakwoi

i know it does, i just need to get some more opinions from people who have been to each place.

skidrage

If you are interested in picking up the language, then you will not have any problem. What I meant by everyone speaking English is that if you need to talk in English they will understand you, but everyone still speaks in Dutch otherwise. I am sure people will appreciate it if you do speak Dutch to them as well. The few times I tried it, the people I spoke to were willing to help me out.

Dutch is a very though language to learn. and while you will pick up some phrases by just hearing others, it will help to take a class over there if you want to learn more than basic words.

And keep firing away with those questions as you think of more.