well, before July 20th, cause come then I will be on a plane en route to Helsinki and it's surrounding cities and countries. But I am having a beer-b-q here as a sending off party a couple days before. Summer vacation time!
I'll be in Europe about 2 months at least. Like I said, LONG vacation this time. Too many 60-80 hour work weeks finally did me in. And yes, I promise to do a 'European Country Bar Review" which will really just be pics of me smashed and acting like i'm six in every city/country i come to but hey.
Eastern Europe is a perfect resort. It's different enough from the Nordic countries and cheap (with some exceptions that can be evaded). After getting used to the slight drop in financial standard of living it's easy to
enjoy even the concrete suburbs. You can literally stay more or less drunk the whole time you're up (=constant drinking) and the sights and atmosphere, in my opinion, undisputably beat the western Europe. They make even better spirits and beers in the east.
Heineken isn't too enjoyable because of its weak taste and especially the aftertaste is empty. http://www.brewingawards.org/site/UNI/2004winners/2004_announcements_W.htm <- I don't see Heineken there (that's one of the most respected contests). But Finnish Karhu and Koff have both been awarded gold. Now there's some real beer! (All the foreigners I've offered Finnish beer have been very positively surprised and satisfied. Yet stay away from Lapin Kulta and Karjala, both pretty sold beers but really just trivial).
Are you close to Amsterdam? Cause on my way to Helsinki I have a SEVEN hour layover. Which means the train ride to the city is about 15 mins, and I can run there, we can booze it up and I can be nice and loaded getting back on the plane as I stagger into Helsinki only to go barhopping. Besides, i need a pic by the Heineken factory. I don't want to stay TOO long(wanna be back at the airport a couple hours beforehand) but I can booze it some.