Best of...

Alright, so here's my "best of" list. Thanks to the two of you who put in suggestions.

Favorite hostel: I'm gonna have to award two best hostels, one to the castle hostel in Bacharach for great views, the best breakfast ever, and the coolness factor of being a castle. The other goes to the Jetpak hostel in Berlin which, although small, had great social interaction between visitors and the staff were awesome. Also best bathrooms I've seen and great internet connection.

Least favorite hostel: Most hostels in Greece. They're all small and dirty and disgusting, especially the Argo. One night there and I was covered in bed bug bites. Outside of Greece: the one in Madrid for being a smoke-filled sewer in the red light district.

Favorite meal: A Parisian ordered a sweet cinnamon couscous with beef filet skewers and mint tea for me at a Moroccan restaurant in Paris. I'll be salivating over that one for a long time.

Favorite street meal: My guidebook suggested a takeout gyros place in Athens, saying it was the best in the city. They weren't kidding, it's so good and so cheap. I'm pretty sure that after leaving I'll go into gyro withdrawal.

Favorite church: St. Peters in the Vatican because it's just so awe-inspiringly big.

Favorite art museum: Not the Louvre but the Uffizi in Florence for having lots of all the greats.

Favorite castle/fortress: Chateau Chillon in Montreaux for live demos

Favorite palace: Versailles all the way

City I most wanted to spend more time in: Montreaux, that it is a place meant for relaxing in.

Most hated European phenomenon: Smoking, it's everywhere and everything smells like smoke. Honorable mention: Eurotrash sunglasses.

Things I packed but did not need: Swimming trunks and short pants in general. People just don't wear them in Europe.

Thing I most wish I had: European GPS!!

Thing I packed that was most useful: My guidebook. I definitely recommend Let's Go guidebooks as it is specifically for students or people on a tight budget. They're suggestions are spot on 90% of the time.

Best way to travel: I was forced to travel by sleeper car once, which I usually avoid since it's quite expensive. It's a train car that has individual rooms with three bunks to a room. They run it like a hotel with an attendant who takes care of customs for you and brings you breakfast. But it's by far the most comfortable way to travel, considering everytime else I was sitting up in a chair on a train or bus. Budget airlines are the fastest and, at times, cheapest way to travel, but a lot of the time airports are much harder to get to than the train station. So I would say usually the best way to travel is by hotel train, but if the airports in the departure and arrival cities are accesible by metro, then budget airline is the way to go.

Best bang for the buck: Athens gives you the most for your money since all public monuments and museums are free for European students. So you just flash your student card, say you're from some European country like England or Spain, and you just go right in. You don't even have to get a ticket or anything. This worked in Delphi too, so for my entire time in Greece I didn't pay anything for attractions.

Best credit card to use: None. Apparently Europeans don't like using credit cards and it isn't widely accepted. I haven't seen a non-traveler use a credit card.

Best English speaking city: Most people in Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Greece were good at speaking English.

Best internet access: Germany, by far, is ahead of the curve in terms of hostels providing good internet and ubiquitousness of good internet cafes. The Sony Center in Berlin also gives free wireless to anyone in the area.

Worst place to visit: They're all good, but I would say my least favorite place is Brussels because there's nothing to do there.

Most interesting traveler: So I was walking through a public square in Athens and saw a clown performing on a unicycle. After the act ends he sees me, walks up to me, shakes my hand and greets me by name. I probably had an extremely stunned expression on for a good five seconds before I recognized him through his clown makeup as a Venezian that I roomed with a few nights previous. When we talked at the hostel he neglected to mention that he was actually, I kid you not, clowning his way across Greece to get to some kind of festival in Istanbul. So I went to dinner with him and a guy from Scotland who has been juggling here professionally for five years, yet still can't do more than three at a time. Anyways, the dinner discussion of the economics of street performing is not something I'll soon forget.