Essentials for Europe

As most of you know, this summer I will be embarking on the most spectacular trip of my short life, (thus far).

I will be taking a 20-day trip through Europe with three of my friends. We booked the trip through a website traveling company called EF College Break. (efcollegebreak.com). It is a discount "travel agency" for budget-tight college kids, and provides tours through Europe, Egypt, China, and many other countries. The itinerary is shown at left, with some discrepancies. First, we WILL be going to London before the "official" tour actually starts, since it was, as this map shows, originally part of our itinerary, but has since been removed, due to previous travelers comments of the tour, poor exchange rates, and overall high cost of visiting London.

After spending two days in London, we will fly ourselves to Amsterdam, where the new itinerary of the tour officially starts. Then, after 3 days in Amsterdam, we will travel by train through Brussels, Belgium for a short half-day stay and onto Paris, France. The rest of the shown itinerary is, for the most part accurate, save for the French Riviera part, which has also been removed due to past travelers' disinterest in it.

To get to the point, I will be leaving for said trip on June 7, and I can hardly contain my excitement. Basically I'm writing this blog to inform you, and to brainstorm ideas, and have them written out, for things (or "Essentials" as the title implies) that I am taking, or should be taking to Europe, minus the obvious things like clothing, etc.

Its important because since I will be moving from place to place frequently (about every 3 days or so, sometimes less), and so I need to be careful what I take, and its essential I pack lightly, despite being there for 20 some days.

Here is my list thus far, and I would love to hear suggestions from frequent travelers or otherwise of things you have taken and are glad to have had them:

1. I just bought an awesome little journal that I am taking to record what I did each day while I was in Europe, including all the details so I can go back later and remember EXACTLY what happened everyday I was there.

2. My camera (OBVIOUSLY), but I included it on this list since there's more to it. I currently have a 2 GB memory card which holds, I believe 1000 pictures or so...It might be 2000, but now I'm not sure... Anyways, I am planning on purchasing another memory card, hopefully a 4 GB, just to be safe and not run out of room on the memory cards halfway through the trip! (along with the camera, I am bringing all its necessary accessories, like the charger, etc.)

3. I am in need of one of those "necklace" wallets, which is worn around your neck to guard against pick-pocketing (a huge problem in many if not all European major cities.) Or some other form of a secret wallet.

4. I have gotten an "OK" to use my Grandma's European outlet converter to take on the trip, and I believe I'll be seeing her in late May, and will hopefully be getting it from her then. (obviously important since European outlets are not the same as our outlets!)

5. ???

This is the list so far, but am very much so open to suggestions. When you read this it would be great to ask others to do so as well (if they know me that is :-) ), to see if they have any suggestions.

I am also still debating on what kind of suitcase to take on this trip. When I pack, I only want to fill it from 1/2 full to 3/4 full. This way I can fill the rest of the space up with my purchases I make whilst in Europe. I am torn between taking a standard duffle-bag type suitcase, or the popular "rolling" suitcase. Both are readily available to me as well. And keeping in mind a few points of:
-Most streets in Europe are likely to be cobblestone, and difficult to "roll" a suitcase on.
-The duffle bag could get very heavy to carry.
-The duffle bag is more flexible and can be squished and stretched (to a degree) as needed.
-The "hard" rolling suitcase is expandable as well (to a degree), and will be easier in airports, etc.

I would love to get your opinions on this matter!!

Thanks for reading!

And this is the first of many blogs that will be related to my Europe trip! So keep an eye out! Later I will post my full itinerary and what we are doing in each city!!

back again

Hey, sorry everyone, please excuse my prolonged absence from blogger, I just have been so busy lately!

Today was pretty exciting, at least work-wise. For those of you who don't know, I work at Civic League Day Nursery as a teacher aide, mostly in the kindergarten-aged room. I came into work, after being called to ask if I could come in an hour earlier than I was scheduled, and seeing as how I love money, I did. Mary-Ann, my boss, who also happens to be a good friend from way back, greeted me as usual as I came into the office to hang up my coat. Then she proceeded to tell me about the "outbreak." Apparently there was a child in the room I work in who had LICE. And not only did he have it, he'd had it for the past 2 days! His mother had brought him to daycare with lice, knowing, as far as I know, about Civic League's "No Nits" policy. He had had the lice all day Monday, and was at daycare until lunch today, leaving PLENTY of time for it to spread to other children, or the staff!!

So I came in, and all the kids' stuff had been put into plastic bags, and I mean everything! Their coats, hats, gloves, snow pants, boots, backpacks, everything in their cubbies, blankets and pillows from nap time. And the entire room was sanitized. Needless to say, as Mary-Ann was telling me this, my scalp began to itch suspiciously... I highly doubt I have it, but just hearing that a kid had it gave me the weebie jeebies.

Then after that fiasco, we decide to go outside, as usual for playground time, despite the howling and ferocious winds. Well it just so happens that right next door to Civic League Day Nursery NW, is the school bus depot, or headquarters, or whatever you want to call it. The bus depot has a very large and tall antenna near its main building, on the side that Civic League is also on. The towering antenna is just a short grassy lawn and a small parking lane away from Civic League's playground.

It was quickly brought to my attention by one of the kids after we got outside, that, "the antenna is broke!" Puzzled, I glanced up at the antenna to see that indeed, one entire "section" of spokes or whatever you call them had snapped out of place, and was now laying precariously, though still attached to the main structure, on top of another set of spokes, and it was rattling and pitching in the high winds. I wasn't too worried, and went about keeping an eye on the kids so they wouldn't get into trouble. Slowly, the other classrooms trickled out, while the teachers did their best to keep the doors from flying off the hinges. It was eventually pointed out to all the teachers and the kids for that matter that the antenna was very obviously, "broke."

We had all for the most part forgotten about it whilst trying to keep from being blown over in the wind and watching the kids. Suddenly, I heard from behind me a great "CRASH!" I spun around to see the large piece of the antenna hit the ground, the crash had come from it hitting the edge of the roof on its way down to earth, luckily, it had not hit any of the parked cars nearby, but landed harmlessly in the grass. By this time, also, Mary-Ann had called the school bus company to inform them of their damaged antenna, and no one had yet come out to inspect it.

After the large piece had fallen, and the amazement slowly began to die down, we noticed that the second piece, now freed of it's heavy counterpart, was pitching even more in the wind then it had been previously. I tried to position myself on the playground so I could keep an eye on it while still being able to watch the kids. I would glance at the antenna, then watch the kids for a while, and break up fights, etc, then glance back at it. It was on one of these times that I glanced back, when I saw the section of spokes left over suddenly drop, I started to say, "There it goes!" but didn't finish, since it was suddenly caught by a small black wire, leaving the substantially large piece hanging there by, literally, a thread. Now free of its anchor to the main structure, the piece began to pitch and roll heavily flying all over the place.

By this time, the bus drivers were returning and walking through the parking lot, the other teachers and I were worried the piece may break off and hit one of them, or hit a car. Well it was probably about half an hour later, when I happened to glance at it again just in time to see the wire snap and the piece began sailing towards the earth, the wind caught it and blew it quite a bit further than the last one, and I again cried, "THERE IT GOES!!" Just at that time, a bus driver was walking by, and she either heard me, or the snap of the wire, and started running away from it, (luckily, she was plenty far away, as it turns out!), other teachers whipped around to watch the fall. This piece also crashed into the roof, but on the corner of the building, flipping the piece in further away. It landed in the grass as well, but then fell foward into two parked cars, I cringed hearing the metal spokes scrape across the hoods of the two cars.

Mary-Ann again called the bus depot, to tell them that their antenna was now in ruins on the ground. This time, they came out to inspect it, and survey the damage of the two cars. From what I overheard from across the parking lot, was both cars suffered only "a few scratches." And luckily no one was hurt. It was pretty exciting.