Circle Europe

See our:  Notes from After the Trip

Want to try an adventure like ours? Think it’s something you might not be able to afford? Everyone keeps telling me, “This is going to be expensive.” After hearing it about a thousand times I told a friend, “It can’t be expensive. We don’t have money.” They laughed, but I’m not sure they understood what I meant. If you know you can’t afford something like this, you make adjustments. You look around for a great air fare price. You decide that hostels are a viable option and you never really liked packing a big suitcase. You decide that maybe you don’t have to have everything planned. Maybe you’re willing to ask strangers to share a ride for gas money. Maybe, you just want to go. If none of that scares you, this can be done. You can do it.

You’ll need a passport. They aren’t as expensive as I thought, and they don’t take as long as people say. I got mine in about a month. I filed for it at a local Post Office. Be sure you have a birth certificate and not just a birth registration. They are two different animals. I suggest you get a photo taken somewhere other than the passport office. I didn’t. Here is my photo. I call it ‘Crying Hostage’. This should scare you enough to get a nice photo taken:

Worst Passport Picture EVer

Frightening, yes?

Next you’ll need air fare. I went to probably about twenty sites, likely more. I loved FareCast, because you can see how the fare prices are different for different days of the week and where the prices are headed. I bought our tickets through Vayama. They had the best prices, and they also have etiquette pages for a bunch of other countries.

Now, you’re on your way. What will you take? I made a list from all the lists I looked at, here it is:

Before I Go:

- leave checks for bills
- call bank and tell them I’m using my debit card in Europe
- set a vacation notice on email

You might not need everything on my list. I like loofah – maybe you like washcloths? Use your discretion.
That looks like a lot, but it should all fit in my backpack. Oh, yeah… you need a backpack. I had one sitting around I had gotten but never used. A lot of backpacking sites say to get these super-special packs, but I’m using what I have. Guess we’ll see how that goes…

I checked many hostel sites to find a good price. I finally booked our first night through HostelBookers, because they seemed to have consistently lower prices than the other sites.

All my links are from my experience. Check around, but keep these links in mind. They may help you. They helped me.

Be sure to check our blog. Once we’re over there, I’ll try to post often – let you know what I wish I had brought but forgot, and what I should have left behind. I hope this helps you plan your adventure!

“No great adventure is complete without a little uncertainty.” – Jes