Wanderlust Journey

As a part of the austerity measures in Europe, the Italian government has cut funding to Italian cities. This cut has led the city of Rome to institute a new hotel tax of €3 per person per night at four and five star hotels, €2 for lower categories with children exempt from the new tax. [...]

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Last year, while we drank our way along the Rhine in Germany, one of our stops was in the lovely town of Bacharach. While we decided to stay at a hotel in the town, we did make our way up to the hostel at Burg Stahleck (known as the Jugendherberge Burge Stahleck) just to see [...]

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Whether or not a country in Europe is using the Euro can get a little complicated. All European Union member states, except Denmark and the United Kingdom, are required to join the euro when they satisfy the convergence criteria set out in the Maastricht treaty. There are economic benchmarks a country must meet in order [...]

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On our trip to Europe last year, we visited a lot of countries. We started in England, went to Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, then back up towards Scotland and finished back in England. During that time we used three (four if you count the Pounds from the Bank of Scotland separately from the ones from [...]

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On our month-long trip to Europe last year, we made stops in a lot of different countries with a lot of different tipping customs. We started in England, went to Ireland, then German, Switzerland, Italy, Scotland, and then back to England again. The United States custom of 15% for good service and 20% for great [...]

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Eyjafjallajökull is the name of the volcano on Iceland that shut down European airspace for about a week (see some amazing pictures from The Big Picture) and I bet you have no idea how to pronounce it. How do I know? I listened to the pronunciation about thirty times and I still can’t repeat it! [...]

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Whenever we go on vacation, we’re always looking to save a few dollars whenever we can. We will enjoy everything we want to enjoy, but on the other things we’ll try to minimize cost as much as possible. That’s why we bought International Student Identification Cards (ISIC) to get student prices at attractions and why [...]

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You know what I love the most about eating food in another country? It’s not that you get to taste the most authentic and delicious of food, you certainly do, but it’s the fact that you don’t have anything specific to do afterwards. There’s no rush to get the bill after you’ve eaten, there’s no [...]

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While Martha and I were on our trip around Europe last summer, one of our concerns was how to call home to our parents during the month. We considered using phone cards or buying a cell phone, but our decision was made easier when I learned that I could use just use Skype abroad! Skype [...]

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One of the classic college experiences is backpacking around Europe. It refers to the big hiking backpacks students would bring on these multi-week long treks around Europe where you could get a ton of culture without spending a ton of money. Frugality was the name of the game because students, in general, don’t have much [...]

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