However, I think it’s crazy there were absolutely NO water fountains in the airports. I actually went to the bathroom to fill my water bottle, since I couldn’t find any water! Whether it was safe or not it tasted lots better than the stuff I get from my own tap here in Chicago. Or that I used to get in Tucson, Arizona.

Stores in the US *used* to be like that (ie: not multi-purpose). Thats the growth of the supermarket here. My Mom grew up in Chicago in the 30s-40s and still talks all the time about how they had to go to different stores to get everything. I really wish it were still like that as convenient as supermarkets are.

There’s also a trick about TCV Tariff tickets if you’re planning on both Eastern and Western Europe which lets you buy tickets on any domestic network from Eastern Europe for cheaper (I didn’t try this myself but looks cool). In detail here: http://europetrainsguide.com/Advice/Western-Europe/Western-Europe-%E2%80%93-how-cheap-it-can-be.html

I hadn’t realized you had moved on from teaching. Since I did things the other way around, I was a journalist and I’m now a teacher, I did not get how you could take so much time off from a teaching job!

What a shame that you were both sick in Paris, it is indeed a lousy way to end a trip!

I find my limit for travelling abroad generally vacillates between two and three weeks. Two weeks when we are on our own and we know nobody, three weeks when we are hooking up with friends and / or family. Our longest trip was four weeks with very little internet access, about seven years ago. We could not do without regular internet access at this point in our lives.

I hope you are both feeling better now, and again thank you for your response! You could have saved the hotel fees and just been sick here instead LOL. Not quite spitting distance from Versailles, but almost.

I am Italian in Rome. The water in Italy is drinkable and of excellent quality.

Unfortunately, there is a big speculation on the sale of water. The collection of signatures for the referendum was to have public water and non-privatized (not to mention the quality that already exists).

In Rome there are many public fountains where the drink, and do not understand why tourists buy water paying dearly.

The car parks in Italy (especially Rome, Florence, Naples, Milan, Palermo) are a real scandal. The police does not control and the educated citizen lives experiencing the arrogance of undisciplined drivers. Italy has a strong car culture is also due to poor quality of public transport.

Greetings from Rome.

Alessandro

Tap water is GOOD almost everywhere in Italy. But people are silly and obsessively afraid of germs, so they buy bottled water for home use too.

I wish we had long, effective strikes too like in France…

Our trains suck, eew, did you sleep on them?!

The situation of the banks from my country is still (in case of small and some middle banks) “nervous”.. Spanish Banks. They still are paying around 4% for deposits without vinculation (“new” cash, you know), while the oficial rate interest set by BCE (ECB) is 1%.

In other way, now a lot banks and new groups of savings banks (SIP’s) from Spain are focusing in the USA retail market for expand their mothel of retail banking and financial business in global.

PD. I just saw this weekend the film Wall Strett (2).. very poor in comparation with the ones form the 80′s.

I subscribed to your other blog to read more about the trip. That picture you posted from Venice was outstanding!

The part of the strikes that we saw in France was energetic but non-violent. Many marchers/chanters and interruptions in transportation services that meant a LONG trip to the airport on our final morning. It was interesting to see the global recession from another country’s vantage point.

We did take a night train from Rome to Paris, with tickets for a 2-person cabin with sleeping berths. But other than that, we didn’t do long-distance train travel, just short trips.

It was a great trip!

(I see other people have mentioned it before. Oh well, let me confirm it, then.)

I totally agree with you on the weirdness of going back home after having been gone for so long. I’ve spent some time traveling in Europe for work for 4-6 weeks at a time and even though I stay in apartments instead of hotels, it’s still really nice to get back home. North American apartments are much more spacious and comfortable than European ones!

You forgot to mention the frequent transit strikes in France! It’s mostly the regional (RER) trains, but the metro has been hit a bit as well this fall.

Also, as another commenter mentioned, in France, you can ask for “une carafe d’eau” and then they’ll bring you a large bottle of tap water and they’ll usually bring you further ones as well!

When he was in grad school he did it before arriving for his internships abroad. He says it was a great way to arrive in a new totally unknown country and make friends and tour guides along the way. I remember calling him his first weekend in one of the Stans, I said poor thing you are all alone there, what are you going to do this weekend? He said no worries, Mom, I’m staying with new friends and we have a great weekend planned.

I said wow you already have friends there?! He said yes. Then he told me about the couchsurfing site LOL.

Now he’s out of school and employed and he lives in guest houses instead. (He is a humanitarian aid worker.) But he has great memories and friends from those places and periods, and knowing him I’m sure he’ll sign up to be a host rather than a guest as soon as he can.

This time I’ll probably get a Eurail Pass because I think I’ll end up saving money with it. I guess we’ll find out in a couple months!

I used the Eurail 6 day pass this past May when I went to Italy. It was great for my first European solo trip but for future trips to Italy, I wouldn’t buy it.

The pass pays for your ticket but it doesn’t guarantee you a seat on the train. You need to buy a reservation (usually around 10 euro) for most trains except the Regionale ones. I went to Italy during the shoulder season so I never had a problem getting a reservation/booking a ticket. This might be different if you went during the high season.

The Trenitalia website will show you the prices of all the trips except the Regionale ones. When I got there, I found out that those trains were much cheaper than I anticipated and not worth the $ I spent on the Eurail pass.

It all depends on where you are going, how fast you want to go, and how much you are willing to pay to get there.

My own short experience (mainly Italy) is that it is easy to get on a train and go. I did not have a eurail pass so I cannot say whether it would be a good deal or not. One thing you want to remember in Italy is that there might be multiple trains to get to the same destination but they might make more/less stops. Pick a train with fewer stops, it can make as much as 2 hours difference in how long it takes you to get somewhere depending on how far you’re going. Generally, I think Eurail trains make fewer stops, may have food compartments and have a/c but I think you can also use your pass (maybe with an upcharge?) on the more regional trains as well if that’s all that’s available to wherever you want to go.

Also, if it matters to you, the more regional the train the less likely it will have a/c. Also, don’t use the bathrooms while the train is in station – usually it just drops waste on the tracks as it’s moving so it’s bad form to stink up the station.

One last note, a particular difference from the US – on the weekends, especially Sundays, you might find fewer trains running. Just because there was a 9pm train running Sat night, does not mean there will be a 9pm train on Sunday. If you decide to extend a stay in a particular spot (ahem, Cinque Terra), you might find that your travel options have shrunk as a result.

Good luck and have fun! It’s not difficult, just go with a spirit of adventure and flexibility and any little hiccups will be more like funny stories for when you get home rather than episodes of anger and frustration.

Just curious: I thought Kris was a teacher (I could be wrong). How did she get so much time off?

Don’t get me started on French charcuteries & patisseries or I’ll shed tears… how I miss them!

I loved the way you went about documenting your travels — still keeping us, the readers — in your thoughts and sending fabulous timely photographs — allowing us to live vicariously through your tales!

The guest posts (as you can tell) were mostly englightening, but they didn’t seem to garner quite the amount of comments or attention as your very own articles do. (2-3 articles a day were quite suprising!)

My favorite, ofcourse, had to be that of Gail-Vaz Oxlade, and not only because I have the pleasure of personally knowing her, but because I consider you both the father and mother of personal finance blogging — your caring and very personalized apporoach alongside her chastizing and informative nature really helped me completely alter my perception of and respect towards my money.

I would love to know what you enjoyed the most as well as the least about your vacation?