Ten Tips on Traveling Europe Efficiently: 9 & 10

No introduction is needed at this point. Here are Ron's final two pieces of advice for a complete experience in Europe.

9) What to do
• This is the great question. A lot of people had guidebooks that pinpointed the best spots—although the most touristy ones—in the city. I’m not against these, but I never used one. My strategy was to ask other travelers, the receptionist at the hostel, and sometimes consult the Internet on where to go. If you can manage to get your hands on a local, ask him.

• Rent a bike! There is no better way to explore a city than on a bike. The bigger cities rent bikes for a dollar per 24 hours, and there are numerous “bike stations” around the city, so returning it to the same place you rented it is not a problem. Getting out and getting lost—safely, in the day—is great way to run into stuff you would not normally see and get a good workout at the same time. When I was in Paris, a few people and I road to the infamous Moulin Rouge show on bikes while most other people had Mercedes. It was an interesting experience.

Moulin Rouge from a bike

• Take half-day, days trips! This will allow you to go further into the heart of the country to towns not normally visited by tourists. In addition, many historical sites are found right outside the city and going there would be a pleasurable experience. For example, in Krakow I went about an hour away to these Salt Mines, and walked down a staircase 800feet into the ground. The possibilities are endless so being flexible in what you’ll do in a city—or outside the city—is priceless.

• Make sure to get emails, facebooks, numbers, etc. from the people you meet. You will find that a lot will invite you to their country and be more than willing to let you stay with them. Of course, offer them the same option. The guy who showed me around Krakow invited me to his hometown, Nante, in western France. On my way back to Spain, I stopped there and had free housing, cheap food, and an unforgettable experience of how he lives.

10) More countries and less cities vs. Less countries and more cities
• There are advantages and disadvantages to both. Spending less time in the cities of a country will allow you to travel to a wider array of different countries. However, this will be at the sacrifice of not completely delving into and immersing yourself in the lives of the locals. Going to more cities in a country allows you to see what the country is all about in all forms at the sacrifice of not seeing as many countries as possible. The choice is yours, and of course how much time you have to travel will be a factor in what you do. I personally chose to spend a lot more time getting to know a country and less time on having the “lets go to as many countries as I can” mentality. I’m not saying that hitting a lot of cities in one country is a requirement, because it depends on the country. In Spain, I hit a good five cities but in Austria I only went to Vienna—I did take a day trip to Bratislava however. But going to more cities than countries allows you to break the culture barrier a lot easier in that country and really see how people live and interact on a scale different than that of the “as many countries as I can” mentality. It seemed to me that just scratching the surface of a country and moving on will restrict you from getting to know the intimate parts of a country.

Standing next to a guard in Prague, Czech Republic

Your next step, if you haven't already, is to sign-up for a general advising session in the Office of Education Abroad (CHHS 256). Save the date for the April 7 Study Abroad Fair where you can browse through options for your study abroad experience. And check out Radio Free Charlotte at 3:00 PM each Wednesday for more conversations about creating a dynamic study abroad experience as part of your college education.
 
If you've already studied abroad and would like to share your experience here, contact rebecca.vincent@uncc.edu. We'd certainly love to have a similar "Top Ten" list for other regions of the world.

Happy Spring Break!

Ten Tips on Traveling Europe Efficiently: 7 & 8

Coming towards the end of the list - Ron offers some more challenging advice for making the most of an experience abroad.

7) Dump your boyfriend/girlfriend
• I wasn’t in a relationship when I was travelling so I can’t really comment on this. However, many people who were tied up told me they wish they had broken up with their partner before they started travelling. Maybe because they felt restricted? I’m not sure, but thought I would pass this advice on to you anyway.

8) How to meet people
• This is the key to having lots of fun and enjoying your academically charged, culturally bound, and international oriented trip. Going back to “hostelworld.com”, staying at the right hostel will permit you to meet people either through the numerous activities put on by the hostel or simply by cooking dinner in the kitchen. Hostels also have common lounges for the main purpose of relaxing with other people. Maybe before you head to the Eifel Tower, the Louvre, the Coliseum, etc., spend some time in the common lounge and see if anybody wants to join.

• Lots of hostels have bars where many of the people congregate at night. Even if you don’t drink, it’s a good place to start a conversation—if someone doesn’t start one with you first.

• Don’t be afraid to explore the city alone. Many people are interested in Americans and their way of life. Going to a café in the morning or afternoon is a great place to meet other travelers or locals who would be more than happy to practice there English and show you around. I personally met someone in Spain like this, and that night his family was cooking me dinner.

Not exactly the kind of company Ron's talking about, but a memorable moment nonetheless in Venice, Italy.

In Rome, Italy for Christmas

Would love your comments on these tips - today's or any of the earlier ones mentioned - do you agree/disagree? Have something to add? Tomorrow brings the final two tips.

Ten Tips on Traveling Europe Efficiently: 5 & 6

Tips 1-4 are on earlier posts. Ron continues his advice today with Tips 5 & 6.

5) What to bring
• Besides the necessities such as toiletries and clothes (discussed above under “How to pack”), there are other important items I would bring.

i. Laptop- not all hostels have Internet, and some only have wifi.

ii. Copies of your passport/visa- always good to have copies in case you need to reference something on your Passport. It’s much better to loose a copy.

iii. Space- Yes. You will be buying souvenirs and gifts.

iv. Backpack and small suitcase- Backpack for the laptop and other non-clothes items, suitcase for everything else. Your suitcase should be as small as possible!

v. Cell phone- always good in case of emergencies and jotting down new friends’ numbers.

vi. Two pairs of shoes and sandals (optional)- I always carried sneakers for walking in the day, shoes for dressing up and sandals for hot weather. It seems like a lot but its not: the sandals—since they’re thin—can go in the backpack, one pair of shoes in the bag and the other you’ll be wearing.

6) Saving money

• As talked about under “hostelworld.com”, picking a hostel with a higher customer rating—although sometimes a bit more expensive—can actually save you money. The next expensive part of travelling is food. This was especially cost heavy for me because I eat a lot more than the average Joe. However, even I saved lots of money. It’s nice to eat out every once in awhile, but costs do add up. So, why not go to the grocery store? Food is usually cheap and you get a lot of it for your buck. Going back to the customer ratings of hostels, the best ones usually have kitchens that allow you to cook what you want. DO IT! Not only is this another great way to meet people, but cooking your own food from the grocery store will cost next to nothing! Let me sight a personal experience: As I turned on the stove, a French girl approached me asking what I was cooking, I replied, “cheeseburgers.” After her snarky remark about how American my food was—it was actually pretty funny—she asked if she could eat my food with me. In return, she provided and cooked some good French cuisine the next day.

A huge paella dish for everyone at the hostel

• Beware of tourist traps. I’ve been to countless gift shops in Europe where one has a gift for 5 dollars and the shop next door has the same one for 15. My advice would be to get gifts on the last day you have in the city. This will give you a chance to pop in and out of different gift shops and narrow down the stores that have the cheapest prices.

• Take advantage of what your hostel has to offer. Many have free or almost free tours of the city, bar crawls, free or discounted museum passes, etc. Don’t be afraid to ask people where they went and what their opinion was on it.

Think you're doing ok so far? Check back tomorrow for tips 7 & 8 - see if you can handle #7.

Ten Tips on Traveling Europe Efficiently: 3 & 4

For tips 1 & 2, check out yesterday's post. Here are two more from senior Ron Iacone to consider:

3) How to pack

Pack lightly. I hate to be blunt, but packing lightly will save you a lot of stress in the long run. Bring a few pairs of jeans, a bit more shirts (t-shirts, dress and regular), underwear and lots—LOTS—of socks. The reason for the latter is that it’s not as comfortable in wearing socks for two or three days in a row. Ah, speaking about the last point, wearing jeans or shirts for multiple days in a row—if they stay cleanish of course—is the best strategy. Some hostels have washers and dryers and some don’t. Going to the dry cleaners—as I had to a bunch of times—is not the cheapest thing. Also, bring clothes for warm and cold weather. You don’t know where you’ll be in a few days, and sometimes in Europe a 2-hour train ride will put you on the coast from the mountains, or vice versa.

4) How to plan
I’ve heard all the stories about the best way to plan. Some like to have every hostel, train and plane booked before they even step foot on Europe. Some like to plan a good two or three weeks in advance and have everything booked. Both methods are big mistakes. The best way to plan is around two to five days ahead while you’re at the hostel. Let me sight a few personal experiences to support my assertion. I was finishing my trip in Lisbon and planned on going to southern Spain before I made my way north to France. An Australian came up to me asked if I had ever been to Lagos, a small beach town in southern Portugal. I told him no, of course, because I didn’t even know it existed! He started telling me how him and his friends were going there, about the cliff walks, sandy beaches and the warm weather (it was winter when I was in Lisbon). Right then and there, completely out of the blue, I decided to hop on a train and join them. To this day I still talk to those same Australians (thanks facebook!) and will never forget the people—there were around twelve countries represented at the hostel—that helped me maximize my experience.

From Lisbon: a cannon and view of the city

Another similar story played out the same way in Poland. Again, my trip was coming to an end before I planned on heading to the Czech Republic. I spent three days in Krakow and felt I saw everything I needed to see. On my last day, I met Graftieaux, a Frenchman who had previously lived in Krakow. He had a lot of pride and insisted I stay another day or two so he can give me a tour—one that that locals would go on—of Krakow. Long story short, he showed me off-the-map places, bars, restaurants and a cool walk through the Jewish District that I would have never known about beforehand. He even took me to an empty terrace where the view of the castle was impeccable. Now to the point: Would meeting people from almost a dozen countries hanging out on the back porch of the Lagos hostel drinking a beer and going on cliff walks been possible if I had my travel itinerary already booked? Would not having the flexibility to stay an extra two days in Krakow been worth not seeing Krakow from the point of view as a local? The answer to both questions is, NO. I can’t stress enough the importance of not planning too far ahead.

Check back tomorrow for tips 5 & 6.

Ten Tips on Traveling Europe Efficiently: 1 & 2

Student Profile:
Ron Iacone is a senior at UNC Charlotte double-majoring in Political Science and Spanish. He spent a fall semester in Santander, Spain and the following spring semester in Madrid. During the two months in between semesters he traveled extensively. At the end of his time in Madrid, he lived in Granada for one month. In the next week he'll share his stories and advice on how to make the most of time spent abroad in Europe.
*****

Before I give out advice on how to travel in the most cost effective and efficient way possible while maximizing you’re experience as a broke college student, let me give you a brief background on me. I spent an academic year abroad in Spain living one semester in Santander and the other in Madrid. I was motivated to split up my schooling between these cities for two primary reasons. The first is simple, I wanted to experience life in a small, yet intimate city such as Santander and then move to the “New York City” of Spain—Madrid—where life is a lot different. The second reason, which was just as equally appealing, was the two-month break I had between semesters. Yes, I had two months before I started school in Madrid to do anything I wanted. And to be honest, these were two months of nothing but partying; not in the sense of keg stands and liquor luges, but more as an eye opening, culturally bound, academically fueled, internationally charged and intellectually motivated kind of a party. Get it? On that note, maximizing you’re experience to the fullest and being able to use as many adjectives as I did to describe mine requires knowing certain techniques, tips and strategies to travelling Europe effectively. Moreover, mentally preparing yourself is an enormous factor in making the best of your adventure. While both are important, the rest of this article will focus more on the former than the latter. What follows are a list of tips I learned, experienced and implemented on my journey through Europe:

A view of Santander from the cliffs

1) Eurail Pass
This is a true goldmine. Imagine slowly rocking to sleep as you hear the soft sound of train tracks. Imagine being able to stretch out your feet or even have a bed to sleep on. With great thanks to the Schengen agreement, backpackers can go almost anywhere in Europe by train without the hassle of customs and long lines . A Eurail pass enables the holder to do just that for free (after you pay for the pass of course). There are a variety of Eurail passes offered such as the Global Pass, which enables you to go to more than a dozen countries, or some where your are limited to three countries. Depending on which option you pick will correlate with how much time you want to spend travelling. Trains are almost never full, so getting a seat at your desired time is pretty easy. I have found great use for the pass in traveling long distances in or across countries.

2) Hostelworld.com
This website will be your best friend. It is by far the best one out there for booking hostels. All you do is type in your destination and the hostels available will come up. Even better, the website allows you to organize the hostels that do come up into categories, i.e., location, availability, name, price or rating. What I say next is the most important tip in booking the best hostel: Organize your search results by rating. It follows that the hostels with the best customer ratings are the ones that are the most fun, have the best locations, best prices for what you get, and a lot more. For example, I booked a hostel in Seville that was more expensive than the rest but had a 98% customer rating. I later found out that the hostel offered free dinner and breakfast, free tours, maps, and a lot of themed festivities during the week. This will save you money and at the same time be an extraordinary experience.

Check back tomorrow for Tips 3 & 4.

[In Japan] This Could Happen to You

This post will kick off a week of student perspective on study abroad. Jonathan Beltz shares his experience in Japan (complete with several pictures below!) with this post and next week Ron Iacone will share his top ten travel tips for traveling in Europe.

Student Profile:
A senior majoring in International Studies East Asia and minoring in Japanese. Beltz spent a year at Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan for the 2008-2009 year.

Standing at a crossroads – wearing a Doraemon costume, a popular Japanese animation character, on Halloween night standing in the busiest pedestrian intersection on Earth – Shibuya

Jonathan's Experience in Japan:
At the study abroad office they told us we should jot down our experiences from the previous year abroad while they are still fresh in our minds. The advisors told us this because we can’t simply make the statement “It was awesome!” to a potential future employer while they interview us. I have already overused that “one-liner” to plenty of friends and family as I am constantly asked about how study abroad went. So I’ve finally devised a response that I feel I can give anyone: potential employers, future study abroad students, family and friends, and anybody else.

[In Japan] this could happen to you. You could find yourself on the last night train home closer to someone you don’t know than you have ever been to someone you do. You could lose yourself on the winding roads through the city and suburbs only to finally find sights and experiences you never imagined. Like scenic views of the setting sun silhouetting the great Mt. Fuji or seemingly simple scenes, smells, and sounds of festivities and music carrying far on into the night. You may make a true friend out of more people in one evening than you ever did in one month “back home.” You will talk to or be talked to in just about any language by just about anyone. Through this you will leap over communication boundaries of great heights even without words, often times simply with the use of expressions and gestures.

For me, the most defining moment of my many defining moments throughout the past year in Japan was actually centered around a whole evening spent not in Tokyo but during which I was visiting a countryside village secluded by mountains and with a history far more significant than its size and location. This was the village of Iga, the origin village of the way of the ninja in Japan. Late at night with the sun down and darkness filling the sky, my friends and I were (after a long day of sightseeing) in a hurry back to the station in hopes we wouldn’t miss the last train – much earlier than the last trains in Tokyo. In need of a bathroom we stopped by a kind of large mom-and-pop shop for souvenirs and knick-knacks. It being out of tourist season it was actually a surprise to find a place even open at all, especially considering the time. There an older man invited us in and his wife showed us the way to the bathroom, both of them all smiles showing the whole time – most likely quite happy to see foreign tourists. By the time the last of us had finished with the bathroom the wife was seating us with tea and some snacks while the husband began talking to us, asking questions, and telling the history and stories about some many old items in a display case. Eventually he came to the point of asking us if we would like to see some other, more fascinating items. When we agreed he began by telling us a story.

Sometime during WW2 his father’s or his grandfather’s company warehouse was burning down and the few people there, including his relative, were forced to grab whatever they could in one armful and run out. A part of this relative’s armful were three swords, pulled from a box of nearly fifty just like them but only similar in age, not make. The swords passed down ending up in the possession of the man we were now talking to. But he warned us that just holding one of these swords would make us tremble in knowledge of its awesome history of power. In other words, that one sword in particular was nearly four-hundred years old and used in a battle which defined the history of Japan to this very day. It was certain by the spotting of rust and nicks and still, in some places, razor sharp blade, that this sword had been used to do a number of killings including the removal of heads. The man allowed us each to hold the sword. At least for me, it sent shivers down my spine and throughout my body. After looking through a few other older weapons and things, including some 17th century blunderbuss-style rifles, we took our leave in the interest of time. But just looking back at this picture brings tears to my eyes because it reminds me not just of that defining moment in Japan, but of all of my other defining moments there.

So to my fellow future study abroad students I say: This could happen to you! You could find yourself holding a piece of history a hundred years older than your own home country of the United States. And to think that in that burning warehouse there were nearly fifty of these!

In my near future, just after graduation, my greatest hope and desire is to return to Japan to work in translations or interpretations for a company in Tokyo. Of course this may be tough to do. English teaching jobs may very well be my best bet and easiest to find. Regardless, much of what I have learned, not just the Japanese language, will aid me in the process of future employment either in Japan, or some other country in the world. I have shown myself my true ability to adapt to most situations and will be able to demonstrate this to employers as well. Furthermore, I have just begun working as an intern in the Office of Education Abroad so that I may have a significant, more direct effect on others who wish to study abroad in the future. This too will be a new and interesting experience for me, something which nowadays I am always on the lookout for.

Standing on Mout Fuji after a long night of climbing; overlooking the vast surrounding scenery of forests and lakes – a truly moving experience.

Pouches made from the bodies of frogs hang in front of a colorful array of souvenirs and sake in this Okinawa tourist shop.

Standing at full draw participating in kyudo: traditional Japanese archery.

Geared up in traditional attire, here I take part in the strenuous act of carrying the portable shrine in the local festival or “matsuri”.

Last but certainly not least, just a few of the millions of vending machines throughout Japan willing to stake their claim on any nook or cranny on any alleyway or street imaginable.

Websites of Interest

www.newseum.org - one of the best museums in DC! Get a glimpse of what the newspapers around the world are saying and see the startingly sparse distribution of free press around the world. It also has one of the best, unobstructed views of the Capitol (if you visit the actual location).

www.theunexpected.co.za/ - from The Economist, this site is a unique look at Johannesburg, South Africa. From the eyes of ten contributors comes a peek into life in this vibrant city from the perspective of an artist, ecologist, environmentalist, satirist, futurist, idealist, optimist, philanthropist, scientist and urbanist.

www.vbs.tv - check out some alternative approaches to covering stories, places and events - including a rare look into North Korea.

It wouldn't be right if there weren't also a few links of interest about global UNC Charlotte. Here's how to jump into a real international experience while in college:

http://oip.uncc.edu - this is our office's main page and if you look through the links you'll see a host of programs available to the campus community to engage with a global perspective. Coming up next is our 5th annual International Women's Day Celebration! The International Festival is the longest-running tradition at UNC Charlotte and will be held on September 25 so mark your calendars, now.

http://www.edabroad.uncc.edu - visit this site for information on how you can spend part of your UNC Charlotte experience in another country.

And check back here regularly - we'll be posting stories, advice and experiences from students at UNC Charlotte about their global experience.

Where else do you go for international news, commentary, tips or advice?