Kyle Hepp

October 15, 2009

Now that we are home and I’m slowly but surely absorbing all that we’ve done and seen, I am able to process things a little better.

Everyone I’ve seen keeps asking me, “What did you like best?” or “Where did you eat the best food?” So I’ve decided to do my own Best of Europe ratings. They’re on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the best.

If you’ve been to any of these places I’d love to hear your thoughts as I know every person’s experience is SO different!

People’s Style

Geneva, 5: Saw some super stylish women who honestly could have walked straight off the pages of Vogue. But, as Seba pointed out, it was a totally different style than other fashionable cities — it was style with serious $$$.
Munich, 2: Boring style, yes. But, no one looked bad.
Dublin, 2: Women dressed like prostitutes at night and wore pajamas during the day. But god help me, I love that country.
Paris, 4: Too formal for my liking and there wasn’t much originality. Every woman looked the same in skinnies, ballet flats and a scarf.
Oslo, 3: Good at layering. The end.
Florence, 3: Wasn’t crazy about Italian style. Lots of unflattering, flesh baring outfits and so much bling! I’m just not that flashy I guess.
Brussels, 4: Women were pretty stylish here.
Amsterdam, 5: After visiting Amsterdam I feel like I should go back and lower every other city’s score. The women here dress so funky and creatively but they make it look so damn good!

Food

Geneva, N/A: I couldn’t tell you if the food was good or bad. We bought sandwiches or ate at home with my cousin every day. Everything else was too expensive.
Munich, 2: I didn’t care for typical German food that we tried, however, Munich had a lot to offer in terms of international cuisine.
Dublin, 2: The “full Irish breakfast,” is heavenly, but the rest of the food is a lot of meat and potatoes. Not super exciting.
Paris, 3: Pretty expensive so we didn’t eat out a ton but when we did it was good.
Oslo, 4: We only ate in deli’s and had our hotel’s breakfast, other than that we didn’t eat out because of the cost. However, all the deli food and our hotel breakfast was so good — pure Norwegian perfection in everything they do. Florence/Turin 5: Best. Food. In. The. World. Especially Turin.
Brussels, 5: Chocolate lover’s paradise. Not to mention the world’s best french fries and waffles. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
Amsterdam, N/A: We ate at a bagel shop and a stir fry place in the 24 hours we were there so we didn’t try true Dutch food.

Public Transportation

Geneva, 5: The whole city is extremely organized and easy to get around.
Munich, 5: Ditto.
Dublin, 4: We didn’t use it too much because the city is tiny, but it seemed to work well.
Paris, 2: If you have a weak stomach, forget it. The stench of people who haven’t showered, no wearing deodorant, is overwhelming on the metro. Funcionability was fine, albeit sometimes confusing as ripping off the map’s at the bus stops and metro stops seems to be a national French hobby.
Oslo, 5: You could set your watch by the punctuality of the buses and trains.
All of Italy, 0: Makes Transantiago feel like a heavenly dream. Buses are late or have no schedule. Outside major cities and even within some major cities on certain lines, buses run only until 6 or 7pm. Stench is just as bad as France, except they don’t have the redeeming quality of the system actually working.
Brussels, 4: A little confusing, but works well.
Amsterdam, 5: Everything is organized and easy to use.

Overall Friendliness of People

Geneva, 3: People were nice enough but a little standoffish and at times rather condescending.
Munich, 3: People seemed willing to help but more out of a sense of duty and politeness than kindness.
Dublin/Galway, 5: Some of the friendliest, happiest, funniest people I’ve ever met.
Paris, 2: Ditto to Geneva.
Oslo, 5: So nice, so cheerful. If a grumpy Norwegian exists, we certainly didn’t meet him or her.
Italy, 4: While they’re rude as hell when it comes to cutting in line or pushing and shoving in public spaces, on an individual level everybody except literally one guy, was exceptionally friendly!
Brussels, 4: People were super nice but honestly we didn’t have much interaction with them because we were with a Belgian who was our spokesperson everywhere we went.
Amsterdam, 4: People seemed nice but we didn’t have much interaction with them either since we were there for such a short time.

Mid Priced Lodging

Geneva, N/A: We stayed with my cousin.
Munich, N/A: We couchsurfed.
Ireland, 4: We couchsurfed in Dublin and then got a hotel in Galway. For a midpriced place it was well located, clean and had free internet.
Paris, N/A: We stayed with Fned!
Oslo, 5: We booked the absolute cheapest hotel we could find, which was about 10 Euros more than our hotel in Galway, but this place was amazing. Super comfy, had a fantastic and healthy breakfast, and fast, complimentary Internet.
Italy, 2: Paying about the same price as Galway, we were only able to get shithole hotels in the middle of nowhere, scuzzy, didn’t feel safe, Internet so slow it barely worked and twice they tried to scam us with extra charges. Not cool. If you want loding that’s decent — forget nice, just decent, be prepared to pay a lot in Italy.
Brussels, N/A: We stayed with a friend.

Amsterdam, 5: We were able to get a cool high-tech, comfortable, well located hotel for the same price we paid for one of our super crappy Italy hotels.

Shopping

Geneva, 3: Tons of designer and vintage designer boutiques. I went into one vintage store and played with a vintage Chanel blazer, vintage Pucci dress and shoes and a vintage Galliano blouse. It would have been a fashionist’s wet dream if everything didn’t cost at least triple what it would have in the U.S. and double the rest of Europe.
Munich, 2: Much like the fashion, the shopping was also very standard.
Ireland, 3: If you hunted through the stores you could really find some great deals. Maybe because the recession is hitting the Irish economy hard but it seemed like everything was on sale!
Paris, 4: I was lucky enough to have a local guiding me through the touristy overpriced crap to some quality boutiques. If I were on my own though, I probably couldn’t have found them! And for high fashion, obviously Paris is paradise. I saw, amongst other legendary fashion hotspots, where Coco Chanel lived and started her store, and the first Christian Louboutin boutique — where Emily’s shoes were born!
Oslo, 2: Extremely expensive.
Italy, 3: Kind of like Chile in which there isn’t much of a middle ground. There’s either really nice apparel for a lot of money, or cheap crap. However, the Zara I went into did have more of a selection and unique stuff than I hadn’t seen  in any other Zara in Europe (and I’m pretty sure I went to all of them). Also, when it came to Italian designers like Salvatore Ferregamo, the stores were huge. We’re talking like a full floor in a department store huge.
Brussels, 5: I only wish I had more time to shop there! Lots of fun quirky stores with decent prices. Not surprising in a country that gave Dries Van Noten and Ann Demeulemeester to the world.
Amsterdam, 5: Loved so many of the boutiques I went into. Price range was all over the place and so was the variety of styles. Lots of artsy fartsy stuff, but you could also find cool non-stuffy business attire too.

Livability

Geneva, 2: Too expensive, too keep up with the Jones’-ish.
Munich, 3: Everything was great but the language was tough and the culture did seem rather cold so I’m not sure what it would be like to live there.
Ireland, 4: If it weren’t for the rain and the economy, I would love to live there!
Paris, 3: For as much I we did not fall in love with the city, I did think it would be a good place to live. It’s affordable, there’s a lot going on, things seem to work efficiently. I did get the feeling that it’s a pretty closed culture though so that would make integrating tough.
Oslo, 5: Don’t know if I could handle the winters with three hours of light a day, but WOW, it was fantastic in the fall. Also, the language would be the biggest deterrent. Everyone speaks English but to find a job we would have to learn Norwegian, obviously. Yikes!
Italy, 0: Italy gets a zero, not because it’s a horrible country but simply because there is a 0% chance that we will ever move to a country less efficient than Chile. Not waiting in line is important to me.
Brussels, 4.5: Out of everywhere, I think this would be our top choice. City is cool, random, and feels very young. French is completely doable. And the cost of living isn’t out of control. My only beef is with the weather. Why can’t we find a country that’s both awesome AND warm?
Amsterdam, 4: Really loved the young, fun, liberal and modern vibe of this city. However, there are so many tourists that come just to do drugs and find hookers that I was kind of creeped out by all the weirdo men running around.