u/dodgetheplim

Hi - I've recently come back from a trip around Europe as outlined in this post.

I did change a few things based on me having to meet friends in different places.

I did not get to Krakow. However, Warsaw was amazing. Everyone is telling me that Krakow is better, and I'm not doubting that, but it must be so good, because I really enjoyed my time in Warsaw.

Milk bars, old town fun, museums, also Wilanow was interesting too - the grounds and the poster museum with cool communist propaganda posters etc.

I ended up using the next three days with a night in Lüneburg, and two nights in Copenhagen. Yes, as was noted, there was a lot of time on trains. However this was a plus for me. I love trains, and enjoyed it. Lüneburg is a really fun place, and would go again. Very well connected to Hamburg too.

Copenhagen was a nice change. We spent time up in the Copenhagen Contemporary area, as well as checking out the city itself.

Three nights in Dusseldorf. My friend lives there and it was cool seeing where he lived. Also, how fun is the SkyTrain!

Then 9 days in Andalucia. Family get-together. I mean, this was fantastic. Seville, Malaga, Grenada, Ronda. So cool! Two places of note were Nerja, east of Malaga, and Arcos de la Frontera - which can be en route from Ronda to Seville if you do the scenic route through the mountains. Lots of nice little towns up in the mountains too.

Finally, two nights in Naples. For Pompeii. Yes, as people noted in my original post, this could have been jarring. It was not enough time etc. That was true. However the point of this was to see Pompeii. We spent the day there, which was great.

Two nights in Naples is not enough. However, as Antipodeans, we are unlikely to be in Europe again for many years. Pompeii was a bucket lister, so no regrets!

Yes it was a fast trip, but it was very much my style of travelling and I really enjoyed it!

I can see that I'm not the first person to note this, but I wanted to share how bad I think it is.

It's taxiing layout. We landed 20 minutes late, then spent 32 minutes (I timed it) moving to our gate. If our taxiway off the runway was at 10 o'clock on the map of the airport, and our eventual gate was at 9 o'clock, we had to almost circle the whole airport to get there. This made the lady next to me miss her flight, although since the whole ticket was through Turkish, I assume they put her on the next. How come, Istanbul airport?

Speaking of airport transfers. Istanbul airport, and Turkish airlines are seemingly trying to promote the fact that they have the most destinations to go to. You would think that their airport transit service was second to none. No. It's shit. No-one cares. They'll stick you in the huge line. You'll wait. These are connecting flights bought through Turkish btw. I remember transiting through Dubai a few years ago. There were staff members everywhere getting us where we needed to go if our transit time was tight.

Also if you land and have to be bused to the terminal you don't need to go through transit security? I didn't understand that one. That one's not a complaint, just a confusing part. That happened on my second time.

The airport layout is sometimes tricky to navigate. It's huge, but I think other airports do huge better.

Also the food is expensive. Everything is expensive!

Also, why use Euros in all transactions?

And like others have said, customer service is bad. That goes for the airport and often for Turkish Airlines too.

I'll visit Istanbul in the future, but I won't be transiting through there again!