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Where do you recommend we see?

16:49 / 15.03.03

The title pretty much speaks for itself. Those places that for whatever reason, remain unvisited, but really should be seen.
If truth be told, my ulterior motive for this is that soon I shall be off backpacking (in 12 days to be precise), so I'd like to figure out what can lure me away from the hostel bar. For instance, "Stalin-land" in Lithuania, and the downright creepy ruins of Sarmizegetusa in Romania, or indeed any drinking establishments of note. But y'know, anything really.

18:57 / 15.03.03

Where exactly are you going to be?

For Europe I reccomend Graz in Southeast Austria. Beautiful little city in the alps. Few tourists, lots of Irish people, a castle in the middle of town on top of a mountain, great cheap food. AND the downtown is a UNESCO world heritage site! (man I love that place)

12:28 / 16.03.03

Kind of central, eastern Europe way. Greece, Hungary, Romania...and indeed Austria. Graz would not even be a detour.
I've been trying to think of other places.
Orpheus' head supposedly washed up on the island of Lesvos, which incidentally is where I'm starting. Other interesting Greek islands (off the top of my head) could include Spetsai (John Fowle's The Magus, and indeed, Cities of the Red Night); Delos for the sacred nature of the island in times gone by, and I'm sure there are others.
Plenty of places on the Greek mainland, the Necromanteion, Mystra, Messolonghi for Byron's heart, and many others. Please, please educate me about anywhere I havent mentioned!
Where else, Where else...Potocki's castle in Poland, and there's some kind of monument to someones dead daughter, also in Poland of which I quite obviously know nothing. There was an article in Fortean Times about it, which is knocking around somewhere. I'll post when I find it.
What of Bulgaria? Is there anything in Bulgaria? I implore you to help me with this!

14:01 / 16.03.03

Possibly the coolest place I've ever been to (on family holiday of long ago) is Masada in Israel - you know, impenetrable fortress on top of maaasssiiivvve lump of mountain in the middle of the pityless desert where (dig the depth of my historical knowledge) a load of Isrealites held out for absolutely ages against the Romans and eventually killed themselves when the Romans broke the siege by building a similarly maaaasssiiivvve ramp (which is still there and is, like, the size of several dams) using Jewish slave labour..

..and the only way you can get to it these days is by means of a rickety (and no doubt massively unsafe) cable car ride across a ravine of near Grand Canyon proportions..

Absolutely awe-inspiring - it's like something out of a grand fantasy novel or a prog rock album cover come to life..

Although obviously you probably wouldn't want to go there at the moment for political as well as geographic reasons, but I thought I'd go on about it all the same.

16:07 / 16.03.03

When in Greece, go to Rhodes! It's amazing. The entire medieval town is still standing, walls and houses. It's like the maze from Labyrinth, except with dogs following you around. There's just narrow streets, with walls you can't see over, and you end up wandering for hours trying to find the hostel! And there's a castle in the centre!

(It's a 20 hour ferry from Athens though, BUT only 2 hours from Turkey!)

In the Czech Republic, there's supposed to be a church made out of the bones of plague victims. That always sounded like a neat place to visit...

23:38 / 16.03.03

Graz is the AWESOME!!!

08:06 / 17.03.03

I have been to Lithuania several times but don't know what you mean by Stalin-land. Vilnius is worth a visit though - the old town was lovely several years ago but was changing quickly. There is a KGB museum there, where the guides are former inmates. Also Vilius boasts the only statue of Frank Zappa in the world, which is odd as Zappa has absolutely no connection with Lithuania. Lots of great bars and restaurants, but the one that sticks in my mind was this basement bar in a '60s block of flats - it was pretty grim but the booze was dirt cheap. You go there to drink hard, not to enjoy yourself.

15:56 / 17.03.03

Graz is the European City of Culture 2003, it's the new Barcelona.