While I am by no means a seasoned traveller, my recent five-week trip spent travelling around Europe taught me some potentially valuable life/travel lessons. So if you too are a newbie to globe-trotting, then please read ahead and save yourself some time, money and tears.
1. Prepare yourself for stairs and lots of them
After lugging your 20-kilo luggage along narrow cobblestoned streets, the last thing you want to see is four horrendously steep flights of stairs between you and your accommodation. Welcome to Europe! While most places now have lifts, when travelling around historic cities like Rome, you will also find equally historic apartment buildings that are unlikely to be equipped with a lift. So, if you plan on packing a hefty amount of clothes and toiletries into your suitcase, maybe think again. Or just go heavy on the cardio and weight lifting before your trip.
2. Always read your check-in instructions on Airbnb
I’ll admit, I am not always the most organised person. Even with all the colour-coding, calendars and notepads, I still manage to have brain-farts, including when I happened to skip over the part in my Airbnb instructions that specifically outlined that my boyfriend and I must be escorted up into our shared apartment. Instead of being escorted, I happened to notice that the apartment building door was left open and so, of course, I suggested we go up ourselves. Let’s just say our Airbnb host was far from pleased and we were scolded like we were naughty children. So if you too would like to avoid being yelled at by an overly-passionate Italian man, always read the instructions outlined in your Airbnb app 🙂
3. Skip the restaurants and bars in the touristy areas and follow the locals
As tempting as it may seem to ditch the local spots in favour of restaurants and bars with English menus and English-speaking staff, you will ultimately miss out on some great food and service. With that said, listen to the locals; they know all the best and authentic hangouts, bars and restaurants that often happen to be cheap too. For example, in seeking out a restaurant recommended by our Airbnb host in Rome, we found a great restaurant in Monti. Not only did we receive a free serving of bruschetta and arancini balls for our starters we were also given a tiramisu to share for free after our meal. We also had a similar experience in a small town outside of Athens where the owner of the restaurant gave us free ice creams and Greek herbs to take home. Now that level of hospitality is hard to come by, so take my word and follow the locals when looking for a bite to eat.
4. Give yourself a big budget
As much as people say that food and drink is incredibly cheap in countries like Spain and Italy, there will still be many unfortunate occasions where you find yourself in an incredibly touristy area and you’re desperate for a drink or a snack and have to fork out the extra euros. And with all the cool boutiques and shops you will come across, more often than not, you quickly end up spending much more than you had planned. With that said, before your trip, give yourself ample room in your budget and do some research when it comes to travel costs too, which brings me to my next point.
5. Don’t underestimate how far your legs can take you
As an Australian, I was raised to think that it is normal to drive long distances to get literally anywhere. What I have come to realise since returning from my trip is that this belief is simply the product of Perth’s poor urban planning, and in most major cities in Europe, everything really is within walking distance. However, if you find that your destination can’t be reached on foot, I highly recommend using public transport, since taxis can be expensive and sometimes deceptive when it comes to pricing. In London, Paris, and Barcelona, the metro was not only well-connected but also fairly easy to navigate with ticket machines accessible in multiple languages. You can also buy passes that cover the costs of travelling for multiple days, and in London, you can purchase an Oyster card which works as a tag-on/tag-off card that you can top up with money as you go.
6. Travelling is stressful at times
I am fully aware of how much of a first-world problem this is, but it’s true; stress and frustration are unavoidable components of any trip to a foreign country because the world happens to be an imperfect place. Flights get delayed, you encounter rude locals who clearly don’t want tourists in their neighbourhood, things explode in your suitcase- I really could go on and on with this list. For this reason, it is essential to go into your trip with an open and accepting mind and have a prosecco or champagne or too when things go to shit. I mean, you are on holiday.
7. Bellinis may just be the best alcoholic beverage to ever exist
Maybe I’m just sheltered to all the great drinks out there in the world, but I had never had a bellini until I went to Florence and wow, did it change my life. For those who don’t know what a bellini is, it happens to be a DELICIOUS drink made with prosecco and peach puree that is just far too easy to drink. My favourite were the Canella bellinis which I bought in single-serve bottles from the supermarkets in Italy at a pretty decent price.
8. Be present and enjoy it for what it is
I’ll be the first to admit that I am guilty for not being present and in the moment because my mind is too preoccupied about what GIF I’m going to put on my Instagram story. While it is mandatory to let all your friends know that you are on holiday and they aren’t, it’s also important to experience as much as you can through your own eyes rather than your iPhone camera. Another tip is to accept that things might not be what you expected and that your trip may teach you some not-so-fun life lessons along the way- or at least that’s what my first Euro trip had in store for me. But at the end of the day, travelling is about experiencing and learning new things, so if you don’t come home with funny/embarrassing stories you haven’t done it right.
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