vegan in europe.

[linnylooloo]

has anyone ever stayed in europe for awhile? i'll be backpacking for about two months. the details are still in the works, but we're planning on hitting: barcelona, madrid, paris, cannes, brussels, rome, venice, florence, the plitvice lakes, munich, berlin, amsterdam, lucerne, and dublin

Comments

[sophym]

I'm British, though you seem to have missed that off your list ;)

Friends tell me that in France they know what veganism is, but aren't interested in helping out with it. At all. It's tinned ratatouille all the way. In Italy they are super friendly and less clued up about veganism, but totally willing to help find something for you to eat. Not sure about Spain, they are a very meaty people, but a lot of tapas dishes are vegetable based. I think Germany is probably quite vegan-friendly as there's a big alternative and anarchist movement there.

Most of Europe at least knows what a vegan is. You'd have to go to the Middle East at least before you confuse anyone entirely with that ;)

[anathon]

Spain gave rights to great apes, and they have an active anarchy community as well. I have found a few strictly veg places to eat, even in Mallorca, which is small and an island.

I also wouldn't go so far as saying Germany was quite vegan friendly. They eat a lot of pig. A lot of pig. And because many of the animals eaten, where I live, are locally sourced, there is not much of a problem with it. There are vegetarians and vegans, but they don't really have restaurants and the language barrier can make it difficult to be involved. Although in larger cities it is better. Especially Köln (Colgne).

[magnolia24]

I went to Madrid last year. I hadn't yet gone vegan, i was still just vegetarian. It was difficult as a vegetarian, so being vegan there will be challenging... but not impossible. They were very honest with ingredients of things, if I explained in spanish what I couldn't eat in detail. Instead of saying I don't eat meat, tell them you don't eat chicken, fish, or red meat. You should get the Vegan Passport, I'm sure the languages of all the places you're going are covered in it...
This is a helpful site, they list vegan tapas(although be careful, I think they list a couple with honey (miel in spanish) and links to vegetarian/vegan restaurants in Madrid:
http://www.spainexpat.com/spain/information/the_vegetarians_survival_guide_to_spain/
Good luck!

[koolestgrrlukno]

I would really recommend this book for you to bring with!:

http://www.vegetarianguides.co.uk/products/veganpassport.shtml

Someone mentioned it on here a couple of months ago and I think it would defintely be an awesome thing to carry with you while in Europe. You can learn a few key words to make sure you know exactly what ingredients you need to ask for! The language barrier was my biggest problem while I was traveling in Europe. Even well-meaning people put butter/dairy in my food because I didn't know the exact words for the different ingredients. Just my two centS!

[deimos_dagny]

I have the Lonely Planet guide to London, and they go out of their way to name restaurants for vegetarian travelers. And usually if a restaurant is vegetarian, they have vegan options.

I'd head to a book store with a pen and a notebook and look up Lonely Planet recs for each of the cities you'll be hitting.

It's a start at least!

[anathon]

I have been living in Germany since 2005 and been able to travel around a bit. For the most part, you wont have problems in the larger cities. Even if no strictly veg*n eatery is around, there are plenty of ethnic places to get amazing meals. Middle eastern food has been really good, including lebanese and syrian. I have had good luck with indian and pakistani also. Amsterdam has maoz, which is really good falafel.

There is a nice veg restaurant near the notre dame in paris. I can never remember the name of it but it is only a few blocks, you could probably find it on happycow. Expensive, but it was like gourmet.

I don't have a lot of experience in italy, but I did have to send dishes back twice, because cheese was there, after I asked for none.