| Jackie's profileSpeedy Jackie's Travel W...PhotosBlogLists |  Tools  Help |
|
|
August 06 More travel tips1. Bring lots of memory for your camera. I took 2500 pictures and used up just over 5 gigs. I am not in love with all of the pictures but I felt free to take pictures with reckless abandon and have got a lot more to choose from than I would have otherwise. Also, take higher quality pictures (which require more memory) because you never know when you are going to want to blow up that perfect pic and frame it in your home. I've got a few of those to frame!
2. Might have said this in the other one but buy postcards everywhere you go. I would only buy one or two but I'm so glad I did. I was anal and only bought ones that looked like what I saw--no unbelievable sunsets if I was there by day. It was a great way to get pictures of things that I couldn't do unless suspended from a helicopter. Plus there are always things under construction and there is only so much appeal to scaffolding in my humble opinion. The postcards were a great way to supplement my pics.
3. Buy postcards to send to friends and family and send them once. I had grand plans of sending one every other week to my family and friends but abandonded that after each one eventually got a check mark next to their name. If you've got down time and you are bored that's great but they'll have more fun hearing your full stories and seeing pics when you get back. Be sure to carry a miscroscopically printed contact sheet of everyone you think you might want to call or mail while you are gone. And bring multiple copies. Keep a copy in your email in box too in case you need to look them up.
4. If you are a crazy person like me and like to go back over your pictures and memories down the road, save all of your ticket stubs and interesting local maps like I did. I am 4 weeks into my scrapbooking ( I will admit is really looking like a scrapbook no matter how functionally done I claim it to be) where I am putting my postcards I bought, ticket stubs, confetti and fliers from clubs, tassel things from drinks, metro passes and a few of my own pics to round out the story. I absolutely love what I did for Italy and Greece is coming along quite nicely. It is so much fun to relive my trip looking at all of the mementos and picking what pictures to insert. It's also a handy way to give friends a quick view of your trip without requiring a 3 hour slide show. Of course my not having a job has really made the time easy to find to construct it!
5. Don't buy crap! I sent home 3 shoe-box sized boxes on my trip. They were 70% filled with the stuff in #4--postcards, maps and stubs, my guidebook pages so I could identify stuff in my pictures later. The rest was little souvenirs for me and my family. How many times are you going to wear a t-shirt, use a bag or hat with a city name on it. I bought a lot of inexpensive jewelry, one nice ring, a hat and shirt that I have worn a lot (racing because it's from the Grand Prix in Monaco) and other than that I felt like there wasn't much I wanted. When you go to enough places you see the same souvenirs over and over with just a different city name on them. Unless you are in LOVE with it, don't buy it. I love my ring the most because I wear it all of the time, I spent an hour with the guy I bought it from, it is unique and every time I look at it I think about Mykonos, my trip and it is a tiny empowering reminder of how many times people keep telling me "well I could never do something like that, taking a big trip all by myself." Still don't get why people think it is such a brave thing to do. I just had to do it!
6. Take pictures of all of the people you hang out with. You remember them as much if not more than the places you go. Plus pictures are more meaningful with people in them.
7. If you are traveling by yourself, take those one arm photo's of yourself places. They don't all turn out good but it's fun to look back through them.
8. Oh yeah, stop and make notes every day or two of the pictures you took. It is amazing how quickly you forget and it really sucks when you can't remember the names of the places that you loved!
That's all for now! April 28 Things I've learned so farHere are some things I've learned so far on my trip in no particular order:
1. Whatever you pack in your bag will way 200% more after you carry it for 30 minutes.
2. Say hi to as many people who speak your language as possible--you meet the most interesting people that way.
3. Always validate your ticket before you get on the train or as soon as you get on the bus. Haven't learned this the hard way but the fines are steep if you mess up this one.
4. Confirm the price before you order.
5. Be adventurous with what your order (like if you don't know what an ingredient is) but be prepared to leave a little hungry. My squid-ink pasta with scampi and batti batti (crawfish) in a tomato cream sauce was tasty if not filled with more legs and antennae than one should have in a single dish. And how are you supposed to eat crawfish anyways? No one else ordered it so I couldn't cheat and see someone else do it first!
6. Never name any food on your plate that has it's head/eyes still on it. Too hard to say goodbye to a friend that way.
7. Only pull out your map or guide when you really have to and be covert about it. Cut out only the pages you need (saves weight!). You look more like a local this way. That is unless you are sporting white sport socks with orange stripes above your calves in sandals with your khaki shorts, pockets full, tropical shirt, fanny pack worn in the front as god intended and a straw hat.
8. Spritz, the drink, do not taste as fun as it sounds.
9. Always keep a small amount of toilet paper on you.
10. Learn (if you are a girl) to hover and squat while going. I mastered this technique fully on the 3rd attempt. Learned to do laundry in my sink after the first attempt. Maybe wear a skirt your first time.
11. Never go to the bathroom on a train while it is stopped. Well not if you like the town. When you flush it goes directly onto the train tracks.
12. The woman who announces the arrivals, platform changes and delays does not work at all of the stations. She is a pre-recorded voice.
13. To get back on the bus for the ride home, get on across the street from where you got off. Okay, I don't do well with the buses at home either.
14. The older locals will pretend they don't understand your pronunciation of their language even though you may be perfect. Ask people who look 30 or under.
15. Buy postcards for yourself.
16. Watch for dog poop on the streets.
17. Flirt with every waiter, even the ugly ones.
18. Happy hour drinks come with free tapas that make a great mini-meal.
19. Pay a few dollard more for a restaurant at a table with a view, you'll never regret it!
20. Write little notes everywhere you go as reminders of what you did. Memory goes fast when you are seeing so many places. (That's how this list came to be!) April 23 Things I'm glad I brought on my trip!Okay, after 13 or so days here are the things that I am in love with that I brought on my trip. . . .
1. My Avalon sandals. They are so comfy and feel like wearing tennis shoes but more comfortable. Plus they came with extra padding inserts which will come in handy later. They are fairly "dress-up-able" and I don't think look too orthopedic considering they have 4 straps and are all adjustable with velcro. Makes me feel like a toddler again with velcro shoes (okay, technically that was the next generation). About $130 but very worth it. More comfy than my tennis or dance shoes.
2. Neutrogena Oil-Free Sunblock Stick spf 30. Was a little spendy I thought $7 but I wanted something really small to bring. It is the best face sunscreen ever! Highly recommend it--especially for you autoxrs.
3. My digital camera--nice and compact with a big screen, lots of great features (already have 380 pictures taken!). 2 gig cards x 3 have me covered for the trip. Cannon PowerShot SD630.
4. Peepo the Marshmallow Peep pen from Alissa. A unique writing implement that has gotten me a bit of attention while writing with it in my journal.
5. The day bag from Jeff and Missy. I would have bought something a little bigger and put more stuff in it. Glad I didn't and it is really tricky for any pickpocketer to get into if they tried. Haven't run into any yet!
Those are the biggies! Maybe later I'll list everything in my suitcase/backpack. |
|
|
