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 become more
expensive as you move from the south to the 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 a culinary treat. A typical Greek salad contains red onions, slices of bell
pepper, Greek olives, and dried Greek oregano on top of a bed of fresh
cucumbers and tomatoes. There is nothing quite
like the incredible taste of the dried Greek oregano. |
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Oregeno 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 and around the world 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 is
simple but very tasty. The Italian cuisine is 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. You could easily have Chinese for breakfast, Indian for lunch, or
Spanish tapas for dinner.
Breakfast
Breakfast for me consisted of either a continental breakfast at the
hotel or hostel. Usually this was toast, coffee or tea, cereal
(either corn flakes or granola), and juice. This type of breakfast is the
cheapest and also the most convenient. If I did not have a
continental breakfast included from my hotel I would go to a
supermarket. While there I would pick up some bread items such as
croissants, yogurt, and some fruit.
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 in the summer 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 more expensive as I would always eat at a
restaurant. Dinner prices ranged from 8€
to 15€ per person. For the most
part this included a soup or salad 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 for budget travelers.
McDonald's restaurants are well distributed 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 for maximum 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 4€ for a
Number One
meal. In Lucerne Switzerland I had my most expensive McDonalds meal. It
was 9€ for the number 1 meal. Most of the McDonalds
restaurants consisted of two an upstairs and downstairs. I used their bathroom on several occasions
in a pinch. The bathrooms were always located upstairs.
Additional fast food restaurants are KFC and Dairy Queen -
although they are much less common than the omnipresent McDonalds.
A good place to ask for recommendations about restaurants is at your
hotel. Talk to fellow travelers in the lobby for recommendations. 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.
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