I prefer trains which go city center to city center, and so far haven’t rented a car in Europe. This article: Trains in Italy, no Cars Needed Here reminded me of how much I hate Italian trains (remember my Me Vs. Trenitalia.com post?). I hate booking them on their horrible website and I hate being hours late because the Italian conductor decided to take a super long coffee break in and didn’t tell us anything for hours. But would I really want to rent a car in Italy? No, that’s an even scarier thought!
So I am now somewhat more train skeptical and this fall we will be renting a car for the first time in Europe. There are just certain places that its complicated to get to using public transportation. It is possible to go Bayeux, France to Mont St. Michel by a combination of train and bus, but it costs more and takes longer than a 1 day car rental so that’s what we’re doing.
So we have a day long rental in France and I am in driving lessons again! My neighbors are scared. “There she goes again, lurching down the street with her white-knuckled friend hanging on and hoping she doesn’t kill his clutch.” Grab the children! Actually I do myself a slight diservice, I only threw him against the windshield once.
My naturally cautious nature had me smoothly and slowly letting the clutch out after only a few minutes. Now I just have to figure out how to smoothly transition between gears, both up and down so that I am not freaking out over mental checklists of procedures and can drive like a normal person. I have successfully mastered first and second gear and am now ready to leave the 15mph neighborhood and graduate to the 35 mph side streets. Watch out world, I’m going European!
Oh and for those of you going Bayeux to Mont St. Michel by public transport:
Train Bayeux to Pontorson (book at http://www.voyages-sncf.com/), takes 1 hr 45 minutes, there were 2 trains with same day returns available for our August date), cost 20.80Euro
Bus ride for the 5 miles Pontorson to Mont St. Michel, buses are coordinated with train times (times for line 6 Pontorson-Le Mont St Michel http://www.mobi50.com/, 13 minutes one way, 2.20E one way)
Total cost for two people roundtrip = (20.80+2.20)x4=92E
Total time on there = 3 hrs 45 minutes
Total cost for 1 day car rental= 83.61E + gas.
But, even though gas will eat our savings we could see something other than Le Mont St Michel that day for instance a side trip to Honfleur is now a possibility with the time saved not being forced into a particular itinerary.
I don’t know if I could call Paris the tea capitol of the world like the HIP Paris Blog, but it certainly has its appeal. Especially when you consider the availibility of authentic macarons to accompany the tea.
I’m putting together a list of tea places in Google maps so if I happen to pass near one of them during our 1 day in Paris this August I’ll be able to pop-in and see what all the buzz is about.
I’m not going anywhere this spring (sob), but if I were I could totally go two weeks with just these items: Dress, skirt, dress shirt, long sleeve shirt, short sleeve shirt, cardigan, trench coat, guidebook size purse (with all important cross-body strap and closed top), pants (that go with both button down shirt and more casual shirts and is sink washable), and two pairs of shoes (both flat, comfy for walking and which can dress up skirts and pants). It all sort of goes together and can be mixed and matched (long sleeve t-shirt under dress, button down with pants or skirt, t-shirts with skirt or pants, etc.) for a wide variety of occasions and most of it is sink friendly.
“I realized why I overdo it. I stared at my closet, overflowing with jeans and cardigans. That’s what I miss when I’m away: choice. Call it superficial, but having more than one or two t-shirts reminds me of home. I make a lot of sacrifices to live abroad. When the homesickness sets in, I can find some solace in my suitcase.”
“When your baggage is your home, sometimes it’s nice to have a two-story suitcase.”
I relate, but I can’t do that. It stresses me out lugging so much around. I would rather give myself a budget to buy it there if I need it than to lug it around for sure, but we’re all different.
Ok, saving for Europe spending challenge #2 was to get through our most routine money spending event “grocery shopping” without spending unnecessarily. Results were mixed.
I love tea and usually splurge on loose leaf good stuff, but I did manage to settle for some Bigelow Tea Constant Comment this week. I also made a menu and a list and I stuck to it where food was concerned.
But then I got to the personal products aisle. My favorite shampoo/conditioner, which I can actually feel the difference after I use it was on sale. Ahem, it was $7 instead of $10 for beautiful, organic, makes my hair lay straight and smell like heaven shampoo. I could have bought Dove for $2 per bottle and been fine, but I had been so good with my food purchases and it was 30% off so it snuck its way home with me. Deduct $10 from Europe trip savings.
I find saving money to be like dieting for me, it just doesn’t work if I feel like I am depriving myself. I come up with justifications, cheats, and can turn a bad day into a bad week/month/etc and suddenly I’m having a garage sale and wondering “Where did all this stuff come from?”.
Dieting is something I have given up. I have dieted and lost the same 40 lbs twice in my life. But I have also lost 25 lbs the right way, slowly over the last two years, where it was not a diet, but truly a lifestyle change and I know how good it feels to not be lecturing myself, but to be thinking about things in the context of taking care of my body.
If I approach money with more of the attitude that I now approach food with I may be healthier overall. So I’m going to change all my self lecturing over my shampoo to a quality vs. price decision. It is just worth it to me and I’ll find another creative way to replace the $10 in the Europe fund.
This morning I’m thinking of Paris. I know that our trip is really about new places and I should be excited about that, but Paris has a special place in my heart as the first city in Europe I visited and since we are flying into and out of there I know I’ll be able to carve out a little time to see some new places.
This video and post on the Around the World in 80 Mays blog on “How to start learning Italian” had one especially good tip for practicing a new language. Create a twitter account and practice your language of choice with quick 140 character updates. The kind of things people post to their twitter account are usually very conversational and to the point. I think this is a great idea.
I’m thinking of creating a similar post of language resources for languages I have attempted to actually learn in depth, Russian and French. Before traveling to any new country I get travel fluent. Travel fluent means that I’m not scared if nobody speaks English because I know just enough of whatever the language is to get by. I may not remember much of the three-weeks of Italian cramming now, but I could reactivate what little I do know on the plane next time I go back. I have attempted to get travel fluent in Italian, Spanish, Croatian and Chinese. In South America and Italy I was really glad I did this, but other places I was mostly just less freaked out and found someone who spoke English quickly so it didn’t matter. It was nice to know that if necessary with a lot of gestures and my “travel fluency” I can get by.
In Chile my travel spanish saved me 50% off the cab ride from the airport to the hotel. The English only speakers paid double what I did. Of course the fluent spanish speakers paid even less than I did, but I counted it a small victory.
I feel like I’m the only Russian studies major who hasn’t actually been to Russia. After 5 years of studying the language and getting my Bachelor of Arts in Russian Studies, countless culture, language and literature classes, my most exposure to Russia/Russians since I graduated was haggling over a TV stand at my garage sale this weekend. Russia is at the very top of my wishlist of places to go. But on my own dime I rarely go anywhere other than to see family so it may be awhile. I feel like my Russian fluency is fading and I need to find a way to reactivate and maintain it. In the meantime I keep dreaming by reading articles on Russia, Russian news and best of all Russian travel and keep up with my Russian literature appreciate with a steadily growing collection of Russian language books salvaged from used bookstores. This week I was disjointed to find this article on: “Should People of Color Go to Russia?” I am not surprised by this article at all. My Russian literature professor was from Bangladesh and even 20 years ago when she went to school she dealt with hooligans and Russian nationalistic attitudes. In some ways since the fall of the USSR the issues with Aryan supremacy have become worse. I know I am glad of my blonde hair and blue/green eyes when going through customs in most countries and only think it would serve me more in Russia. In South America I hate my hair because I get unwanted advances constantly, but I think it would make me more comfortable in Russia.
This packing list from the One Bag One World forums has me wondering if this woman is packing for Sudan or Europe and 6 months or 18 days. Really, does she think you can’t buy feminine hygiene products there if she needs them? Very survivalist in my opinion. I’m more of the type where I say: “Pack it if you absolutely know you’ll need it, otherwise buy it there.” Unless she’s hiking in Europe and not going to any cities she is going to stick out so much its not funny. Oh well, to each their own. 18 days in Europe will be wonderful no matter what you bring or look like, I’m jealous.
This reminds me of our anniversary trip last year only in reverse. We started in Rome and went through Paris to London. It’s giving me the travel bug. I want to return to Paris so much. Oh well, we’ll have to content ourselves with Hong Kong and Singapore for our anniversary this year. I’ll find a way to get back to Paris later. It is truly one of the most magical places I have ever been.
I am currently looking at plane tickets for a trip this summer for our fifth wedding anniversary. Wow, I can’t believe its been that long. I am daydreaming of Amsterdam, Paris, Zagreb and Barcelona, but we’ll probably narrow my list of like 40 places down to 2 based on airfares. I’m finding tons of fantastic fares. Some business class seats are less than coach, just because NOBODY searches for them assuming they are thousands of dollars. Well they are usually. But I can get me and hubby to Amsterdam from New York business class on British airways for less than $500 which is pretty amazing. And I can get us to New York on miles. Soooo tempted… I found even better deals through delta which is having 57% many of their European routes right now for economy class, but I really hate flying American owned airlines for more than 12 hours, the service just isn’t the same.
One airline I won’t be flying is Alitalia. Even though I can get San Francisco to Rome for $89! Long time readers understand my beef with the Italian train system. I have only posted so far about Me vs. Trenitalia and their booking system. The actual trip was even more of a hassle and ended up costing me a chocolate tour of Paris we had booked! Maybe I’ll tell that story later. Well here is further proof that nationally owned transportation systems aren’t always the most reliable, because honestly, they don’t have to make a profit, they are bureaucracies that aren’t accountable to share holders. Famous traveler and photographer/journalist Michael Totten has a blog where he posted just 2 weeks ago about his joys with traveling on Alitalia. My jaw was on the floor from nodding so hard. Cheap is good, but do your research, fare compare may get you a good deal, but go to the Flyer Talk forums to get real advice from the road warriors who aren’t trying to sell you anything.
.” It is by a fellow blogger and offers a different perspective on one of my favorite cities. I may just have to read it before we leave in August.
