Thursday, August 27, 2015

Tips: From Packing Less to Good Investments

How is it finals week already?!

Everyone warned me about how quickly this trip would fly by but I seriously had no idea how right they would be. While I am sad to go, I am anxious to get home and get back to my normal routine, healthy eating, and most of all, my bed… and dogs. This past week in London has unfortunately been rainy almost forcing me to stay in and write my 3,000 word paper. With that now out of the way I have some free time this weekend before packing up my life and heading to Italy for a couple of days to meet my dad.

There have been many lessons and travel tips I have accumulated throughout my adventure but I figured I would dedicate a post to writing about the most important or most helpful tips for traveling again...hopefully soon. 

One: Pack LESS... always pack less. In fact, if possible pack nothing. Because if you are anything like me you will accumulate so many items that you have to ship, buy another bag, and throw out items in order to make it back home. 

Two: Do at least one spontaneous thing in each city, even if it means splurging. My spontaneous activity in Dublin was in fact one of the best nights I had in the last 9 weeks and that was going to the Avicii concert. I bought the tickets while the opening acts were performing and made it there for the last half. Concerts in the US are one thing, but in Europe they are really something else. 


Three: There's a fine line between beaten path and places you should not go. While not always easy to differentiate between the two, it is important to have some boundaries. I have found some of the most amazing places by not doing the usual touristy attractions. However, if you travel too far off the beaten path and your gut tells you to turn around, call an uber, and turn around. 

Four: At least TRY and speak their native language. Not one of the easiest tips to follow but definitely worth the challenge for self explanatory reasons. 

Five: ALWAYS pack and invest in a good umbrella. I guess it may depend on what city and the time of year you go, but the chances are... it will rain. Even if the forecast says sunny, it's lying. Dublin, London, Paris, rain, rain, rain. And do not just buy a cheap umbrella because you will end up like my friend Kyrsten fighting the wind and getting wet. 


And Six: Be open minded. Every city is different and chances are, they will be nothing like you expect. Luckily for me, they were better than expected and I could not be more thrilled and excited to get home and share all my adventures with my friends and family. 

3 comments:

  1. I could relate to each and every one of your tips! As I was reading along, every new tip of yours sparked a memory in my head that related to what you had written. Although the one that I completely failed at was trying to speak the native language. Being in Paris for 4 weeks was a bit of a struggle. For me French was so hard to catch onto. After my time in Paris was over I think my French vocabulary added up to 3 words... pretty embarrassing!

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  2. All your tips are defiantly everything I experienced... Except for the first one. I somehow feel as though I didn't bring enough clothing so one of the things I am enjoying about being home is wearing everything I left behind. The tip about umbrellas is the best one yet! I think we all would have drowned this summer without them!

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