I ate at restaurants which ranged from fancy
to the basic, to eating food from the street vendors. As with prices for
other items, the prices of food and restaurants generally became more
expensive as you move from south to north. The exception to this was
food in Eastern Europe, which was a bit cheaper than the rest of Europe.
Most restaurants charged you for every little item. The only thing I
don't think I was charged for was for a glass of tap water. This is the
cheapest way to get fluid at restaurants. All the restaurants charged
you for the bread, and some charged you for the number of slices that
you ate. Did they think that they were going to serve the uneaten slices
of bread to other customers? Apparently they did!
By far, I enjoyed the Greek cuisine. The Greek salads when prepared
properly are out of this world. In a typical Greek Salad you will find
on top of a bed of cucumbers and tomatoes, red onions, slices of bell
pepper, Greek olives, and dried Greek oregano. There is nothing quite
like the incredible taste of the dried Greek oregano. It grows wild on
many of the Greek islands. Then all of this is mixed in a dressing of
plain olive oil and vinegar. Many restaurants in other European
countries try to imitate the Greek salad, but they often do a terrible
job.
Food in Greece, Italy, and Eastern Europe was fairly inexpensive, so I found
myself eating at nice restaurants and cafes. The Greek cuisine was
simple but very tasty. The Italian cuisine was good as well. I found
myself eating at a lot of Italian street side cafes. These cafes serve a
good inexpensive meal. Most carry a wide range of sandwiches, many may
different types of pizza, and other food as well. If you like tuna fish,
or pizza the Rome cafes are the place for you. Some cafes would
substitute cabbage instead of lettuce into their sandwiches.
I found many varieties of food, and different cuisine's in the large
cities. If you wanted Chinese for breakfast, Indian for lunch, or
Spanish for dinner, you could do so.
Breakfast
Breakfast for me consisted of either a continental breakfast at the
hotel or hostel. Usually this consisted of toast, coffee or tea, cereal
(either corn flakes or granola), and juice. This breakfast is the
cheapest way to go, and is also the most convenient. If I did not have a
continental breakfast included through my hotel I would go to a
supermarket. While there I would pick up some bread items such as
croissants, yogurt, and some fruit. All of this made for a nice cheap breakfast.
Lunch
Lunch usually consisted of eating out of the street side cafes, eating
from one of the side walk vendors, or creating my own sandwich out of
supermarket bread and meat. If I was in an expensive country, I would
purchase my lunch at the super market in the morning, at the same time
as I was buying breakfast. I would compliment this with a piece of
fruit. I found that the fruit and vegetables in Europe for the most part
were extremely fresh, even those in the big cities. In the less
expensive countries I would eat at the street side cafes, or I would get
some food from these cafes and eat on the run. Sandwiches were the
easiest food to eat in this manner.
Dinner
I would usually get by fairly cheaply on breakfast and lunch. My dinners
tended to be a bit more expensive as I would always eat out at a
restaurant. Dinner prices ranged from $8 to $20 per person. For the most
part this included a salad or soup and the main entree. I did not tip at
any of the restaurants. The travelers that I talked said that they also
did not tip. It wasn't a common practice in Europe.
McDonald's restaurants were located throughout Europe, in the big cities
as well as in the smaller towns. I admit to have eaten here several
times during the trip. If you want a familiar flavor and familiar food
then McDonalds is pretty much the same world wide. Some subtle
differences that I noticed was that the grain size of the salt differed
between restaurants. I like a small salt size grain because then more
surface area is exposed on the salt and there is a more complete flavor.
Most of the drink sizes were smaller then they are in the states. If you
want ketchup or salt you will have to pay for each packet. The cheapest
McDonalds I ate at was in Prague and I paid about $5 US for a number 1
meal. In Lucerne Switzerland I had my most expensive McDonalds meal. It
was $12.76 US dollars for the number 1 meal. Most of the McDonalds
restaurants consisted of two stories. I used their bathroom on several occasions
in a pinch. The bathrooms were always located upstairs.
There were several other fast food restaurants that I saw several times,
but not nearly as much as the McDonalds restaurants. These others were
KFC, and Dairy Queen.
A good place to start for recommendations about restaurants is at your
hotel. Ask fellow travelers in the lobby for recommendations. Ask your
receptionist also, as they are usually local to the area. If people do
not give you a specific restaurant location ask them for an area of town
that is known for restaurants and good food.
|
