>>>>> Omitted from last blog post was the winner of the WTF #9....congratulations to Mark Berger for the closest guess.
October First.....and the Last
One lipstick and one lip gloss last four months.
One pair of sneakers, one pair of flip flops, one flat sandals, one ballet flats and no heels. Go for comfort, not style. And if you have room, water shoes would be great.
No pajamas.
Seven pair of underwear and three pair of socks.
One...mascara, eyeliner, foundation, blush...nothing else required for the first three months, after that, you can just throw out all your makeup.
Five scarves to help you change your look and keep warm when needed.
Everything in your suitcase should match, except the scarves. They are your break from the monotony of black, white and beige.
Forget nail polish or nail polish remover, have natural nails and stop for a pedicure one in a while.
Don't stock up on meds, you can buy almost every medicine you need over the counter at any pharmacy and get great advice to boot. Need some Tylenol with codiene? No problem, No script needed, just ask and for 1 Euro you get ten tablets.
Definitely the best is dresses if you like them or have the legs to wear them; they pack easy and it is one piece for the whole outfit.
Take a risk and bring that bikini that you wouldn't dare wear at home. You'll still look better than 60% of the women your age. I wish I had done this.
Bring less than you need and buy as you need it. I could have left so many things at home and bought them as I went (and I still did buy them and had to pay to ship my old stuff home).
Lose at least ten pounds before you go, and as you plan your itinerary, line up the countries so only every other country you visit is a foodie heaven. Then you can gain and lose the ten pounds and come home much as you were. We definitely should have known this before we left!
Have only two meals a day but make one of them great.
One iPad per person, a digital subscription to the NYT and a Skype account to stay in touch because there is virtually nowhere, not even the smallest village, that doesn't have free WiFi everywhere.
You can bring a Kindle but don't load it up because you won't have time to read much (especially if you blog) and when you do, like at the beach or pool, you can't see it that great.
Be really friendly, at your hotel breakfast or in a restaurant and talk to strangers and other travelers. If you like them, ask them to have dinner or lunch or drinks and make new friends. Or just to have someone else to talk to for an hour.
Don't bring a hair dryer, every single place we have stayed, even the one SKEEVY one for 41 Euro, had a dryer.
Check if there is a Greeter program in any city you go to. You will end up spending a couple of hours or more with a wonderful local who wants to show you their city, the part you might not otherwise see.
>>>> Greeter in Lyon, FR
If you stay at a BnB, in France especially this is true, you get a bed and you get breakfast, but they don't make your bed or clean your room or change your towels, not a big deal, just a surprise.
Take public transportation or walk everywhere you can. We took only four cabs in 120 days, in Paris, when we had all our luggage and the metro did not have an escalator and in Istanbul to avoid Taksim Square.
Always ask the price before you buy, except in Turkish restaurants on the Bozburun peninsula.
Eat every local specialty. You might not like it or you might be surprised how much you like it, but you may never get a chance to taste it again. And try pizza everywhere you go - there isn't a country we have visited that didn't have their own delicious version of this universal food.
>>>Turkish Pizza ( Pide)
Bring pre-printed labels and a roll of tape from home for mailing packages back to yourself and learn how to scavenge good boxes from the cardboard recycling bins. And if you listen to the don't bring too many clothes and buy along the way, then you won't have to send your own clothes back home.
One 24" suitcase really, really is big enough. Especially packed with either linen that can be worn wrinkled or clothes that never wrinkle ( sorry, but think poly) as many hotel rooms in Europe don't provide irons and/or don't allow ironing in the room.
Talk to locals and be a snooper, you will find the best things that way.
Bring a small bottle of Woolite so you will at least always have clean underwear, even when everything else you have is either dirty or stained - and a travel clothesline helps a lot too.
Always ask if the tap water is drinkable.....before you start drinking it or brushing your teeth.
Bring small guidebooks and phrase books (though everyone speaks some English) and order ahead any good maps you need to take with you. It takes too long to find these along the way.
Go with someone you can talk to for 24/7 for four months.
And lastly, try once in your life to take two or three or four months off with a one way ticket to somewhere you have always dreamed of going or living. Leave some serendipity in your itinerary, rent an apartment for a month and live like a local. Make everyday count with what you do and who you are with.
AND BLOG! BLOG! BLOG! You will have a great travel journal to look back at when memory fails. You will learn much about yourself and others. We cannot believe how incredibly generous friends have been in sharing their time and their homes with us as we traveled. A very special thanks to Laurent for good food, great hair and the best company in Paris, to Eva and Pavel for an incredible stay in their hip flat in Prague, to all of our sailing friends for camaraderie and future invites, and to Shev and Don for a beautiful villa in a special part of Turkey that we will never forget. We hope to return the hospitality, soon!
Signing off, at least until our next Five Year Plan is ready and we head to parts unknown for another great adventure. Thanks for reading, thanks for listening.....and give us a call, in the morning, cause we'll have a couple hours to fill each day while we drink our coffee now that our Euro 2013 blog is done.
Fondly,
Marci and Steve
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