Yes, it was an epic adventure – exhausting but in the end, it became everything we had hoped for when we first started planning, and then far exceeded our hopes!
Having returned safely and without any snags in our journey, it seemed only fitting to share some key takeaways – those things that we learned and more deeply appreciated about the world we live in – as well as a few tips we found valuable and which helped make it a more enjoyable experience.
Just our way to “pay it forward”.
Takeaways
Traveling can be an enjoyable as well as enlightening experience – offering us glimpses of cultures past as well as insights into current cultures. We have many more similarities than differences.
On this trip, we were exposed to some of the rich histories of the countries we visited – far older than our own in the US, and often with many more political and cultural swings. The Czech Republic is a prime example – history extending over 1000 years, and over just the last century, swinging from a parliamentary democracy, to a member of the Soviet Union, and then to a parliamentary republic after the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992. Rather humbling in these days of what feels like hyper-nationalism.
Planning
Some might all this boring or tedious, but I can’t emphasize this enough. There’s an amazing amount of information out there, and while sometimes hard to sift through, in the end the payoff is less hiccups and surprises while traveling.
Things such as vignettes (when driving), seat reservations or supplemental tickets (on trains), public holidays leading to restaurant or museum closures, all can conspire to up-end an otherwise smooth journey. Plan ahead or surprise later.
Over-packing
Because of our multi-modal trip, we wanted to travel light. Changing outfits daily is a luxury, and luxury is “heavy”.
We each had a carry-on suitcase and a (less-than) 30L backpack. We sought accommodations with washing machines – and used every one of them. No electric dryers in our stays, which meant overnight drying – not a problem with wash & wear clothing.
With all that, there were items we didn’t use, and we used items more frequently than thought.
Tech
Our mobile plans are are expensive for european coverage (~$10/day). With the general availability of wifi and VoIP messaging (such as WhatsApp), we opted for airplane mode the entire trip.
While there isn’t widespread wifi, we found it generally available in the cities. Most public transportation hubs had public wifi, and many restaurants now rely on QR codes for menus – so they have wifi available (though sometimes one needs to ask for the password).
We tried an eSIM card for European mobile networks, though switching (on an iPhone) caused some settings to get messed up, so we abandoned and stuck with wifi when necessary.
Needless to say, be sure to pack your phone charger and an appropriate adapter and remember to fully-charge your phone nightly. Having a charged phone also helps when many activities now use electronic ticket delivery.
Navigation
Can’t tell you how many times we saw people walking with their phones, attempting to navigate to some location. Navigation is essential, whether in cities (Prague’s Old Town or Amsterdam’s maze of canals?) or on the trail.
And while google maps rules in the front country, where mobile service is available, an app like maps.me, with offline maps and navigational capabilities is essential for the back country (or when in airplane mode!). Maps.me helped us tremendously on this journey.
