Climate

Climate

Europe’s climate is vastly varied depending on your exact location. Regions like Spain and Italy experience almost tropical weather throughout the year with warm temperatures and rainy seasons. However, Eastern Europe experiences more variation in seasonal temperatures due to the influence of the Pacific Ocean on the weather systems.
Central France has rather cold winters with a greater chance of frost and snow than the north-west. Summers also tend to be a little warmer. The North German Plain has quite low rainfall, with the wettest month being July, and much of the summer rainfall takes the form of thundery showers. Winters are often quite severe, and it is common for lakes and canals to freeze over. The Jura Mountains are wetter than the Swiss Plateau, and in winter the mountains carry snow for long periods. The Danube and Vienna basins are the driest parts of Austria, the wettest month being July. Here, average daily maximum temperatures range from 1 °C in January to 25 °C in July.

Sports & Recreation

Sports and Recreation

The most common sport in Europe is Association football (also known as soccer). The most popular and successful football leagues are the Spanish- La Liga, the English- Premier League, the Italian- Serie A, the French- Ligue 1, and the German- Bundesliga.
Rugby union is popular in southern France, parts of Great Britain, Ireland and northern Italy, with rugby league enjoying popularity in Great Britain, France and Russia and although the game is played in Germany, Italy, Greece and Malta it is not at a professional level.

Culture

Culture

The culture of Europe might better be described as a series of overlapping cultures. Due to its great wealth of technology and people it is considered a modern and increasingly globalized community of hard working and welcoming people. Cultural traditions vary greatly throughout Europe with Hispanic, Germanic, and a host of other countries making up the cultural map of Europe. Kindness and hospitality to visitors is a common thread seen in most European countries. Europe has become home to many different peoples from countries spanning the entire globe.

Transportation

Public Transportation

Road, rail, air and water transportation are all prevalent across Europe. Europe was the location of the world’s first railways and motorways and is now the location of some of the world’s busiest ports and airports. Buses, street cars and metros are what the European continent is known for. The Schengen Area enables border control-free travel between 25 European countries. The Eurail Pass is a rail pass for 18 European countries. Inter Rail passes allow multi-journey travel around Europe for people living in Europe and surrounding countries.
Paris: Le Metro. One trip passes are 1.50€, but the Times recommends that it’s probably cheaper to buy a pack of ten than invest in a multi-day pass.
Barcelona: Metro. Single tickets cost 1.30€, but it makes more sense to buy a ten trip pass which starts at 7.20€.
Berlin: U-Bahn. Single ticket fares start at 2.10€ and a one day pass starts at 6.10€.
Rome: Metropolitana. It’s super cheap: single-ride tickets start at 1€ and one-day passes at 4€!

Night Life

Night Life

Eastern Europe offers a very diverse selection of music and dance clubs for patrons of all tastes. House & Techno music is an international language with Belgrade in Serbia seemingly the hub.

Live bands are a regular feature of most clubs. Tirana Albania and Prague the Czech Republic may cater for Jazz enthusiasts and Bratislava Slovakia, Ljubljana Slovenia, Riga Latvia, Tallinn Estonia, and Vilnius Lithuania may be the places for clubbers into house and techno. These clubs offer good music and dance, and are amongst the friendliest in Europe

Probably one of the best clubs to be found in Berlin is the Kurvenstar at Kleine Prasidentenstr. Cover charges here are usually less than €10. This venue is really a bar cleverly decorated in a very retro 60′s style with a dance floor at the rear. The ambience aside their cocktails are very contemporary. The sounds include dance hip hop house and reggae. The club opens nightly (except Monday) from 8 pm till about 4am and has a club wear dress code. It is a comparatively small place and popular with locals in their early twenties and is often full by 10pm especially at weekends.

Probably the most famous club in Berlin is the SageClub at Kopenicker Str. The club has several dance floors, bars and lounge areas. The sound quality here is excellent and complimented by a brilliant light show. House, indie rock and techno are standard listening fare. The club is popular with locals but its reputation attracts clubbers from other German cities. Apart from its music and style its other attractions are the relaxed attitude of the management who do not have a dress code and also levy cover charges often well below €15. This club opens on Thursady Friday & Saturday nights around 11pm and stays open until 5am. Apart from some of the best DJs in the country it also puts on live bands.

The Mix Club at 24 rue de l’Arrivée, Paris is legendary on the Paris clubbing scene. Artists from all over the world regularly appear here. Club opens Wednesday – Saturday from 11pm until 6am. Also open Sundays from 5pm until gone midnight. Admission charges up to €20 with drinks up to €10.

It’s well worth checking out what’s occurring at La Flèche d’Or at 102 Bis Rue De Bagnolet as this club (in what appears to be a former train station) has a following with Parisian clubbers of several genres. It regular puts on live gigs and club nights live covering electro indie punk and rock and that’s for just starters. Admission is generally free however; the drinks are a little pricey.

Work

Part Time Work

Part-time work has become increasingly commonplace in the European Union. In 2002, around 18% of the total EU working population worked part-time. The regulation of minimum wages varies across Europe.

National minimum wage (adult rate), 2004, in national currency

Belgium Monthly EUR 1,210
Bulgaria Hourly BGN 0.71 (EUR 0.36)
Czech Republic Hourly CZK 39.60 (EUR 1.24)
Estonia Hourly EEK 14.60 (EUR 0.93)
France Hourly EUR 7.61
Greece Daily EUR 25.01
Hungary Hourly HUF 305.00 (EUR 1.21)
Ireland Hourly EUR 7.00
Latvia Hourly LVL 0.474 (EUR 0.71)
Lithuania Hourly LTL 2.95 (EUR 0.85)
Malta Weekly MTL 53.88 (EUR 125.89)
Netherlands Monthly EUR 1,264.80
Poland Monthly PLN 860 (EUR 189.98)
Romania Hourly ROL 16,342.44 (EUR 0.40)
Slovakia Hourly SKK 37.40 (EUR 0.93)
Slovenia Monthly SIT 117,500 (EUR 491.45)
Spain Daily EUR 16.36.

Health Care

Health Care

The health care system in Europe varies from country to country but is usually publicly funded, through taxes on goods and services. Europe is renowned for its elevated level of sophisticated and personalized health care.In 2000, the World Health Organization ranked France 1st, Italy 2nd, and San Marino 3rd on the list of world health care systems, all European countries. Most of Europe has either publicly sponsored and regulated universal health care or publicly provided universal healthcare. The public plans in some countries provide basic or “sick” coverage only; their citizens can purchase supplemental insurance for additional coverage.

Countries with universal health care include Austria, Andorra, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.