Watching the nightly news can lead to some pretty scary thoughts.

Just think of all the stories they ran over the past decade (killer bees, SARS, ebola, small pox, TB, etc) that were supposed to kill us all.

If you must be such a worry wart anbout every little thing, there are many more likely things to happen to you while traveling Europe than bed bugs. It would be unkind for me to list them all, but there are a LOT... and hepatitis and bed bugs are far from the top of the list.

birthday girl, Do you mind my asking?

Do you have plane tickets?
Where in Europe are you going?
Do you have hotel reservations?
How about train pass or tickets?

Your multitude of concerns are all quite creative, but i have yet to read anything about you actually going on a trip.

Agree

Oh, let's cut birthdaygirl some slack. She is going to London and Florence in May. She has London all lined up but is still planning the Florence part. She has not been to Italy before and is on a somewhat tight budget. She is a little bit anxious and a lot bored (she has admitted this).

That's what I've gleaned from her postings. I've certainly posted out of boredom before. Glass houses and all that. :)

I think the issue of glass houses is a good one!!

I am just asking questions...that is all. And I was making a joke about the Hep A issue. Hep A is contractable everywhere and I try not to think too much about it.

I will reiterate once again----the news has been discussing over and over again the resurgence of bed bugs. I dislike bugs. I did not worry about this on my other trip to Paris and London.

Yikes! I wonder if those that are negative have had everything figured out from day one?????

Yes, got my tickets...am just finalizing the plane and room portion of my florence trip...hence all the questions.

Isnt this forum for fun and learning new things, and not for mockery and pretentious responses?

Just to add a couple more things, you can get a Hepatitis A vaccine. A friend told me that frequent restaurant-goers have been advised to get this vaccine, but I don't know by whom, or whether this is the US or Canada. One of my favorite delis requires all workers to get Hepatitis A vaccines after they had an outbreak problem a few years ago.

Bedbugs are an increasing worldwide problem everywhere, so any concern shouldn't be Europe-specific. As I posted somewhere else, see all the complaints here:
http://tinyurl.com/ks5ye

Understand, it's hard to convey tone on the internet. You said you were making a joke about Hepatitis A, well I was just joking giving you a hard time about all the crazy worries you're coming up with. I did not mean to mock or make pretentious replies.

Assuming I am one of the negatives you referred to, no I don't have everything figured out from day one, but there're some things I wouldn't ask on a public forum (like about my deodorant, for one!)

suze :-)

Personally, I dont think there is anything wrong about discussing deodorant....I should have asked about hair mousse instead since I need that for my do....

But then again, I don't shy away from what most people would not consider appropriate in "polite" society....

I am just tooo down to earth for all that...

You are right, the media has been full of bedbugs stories lately. That is why I posted the advice about using the hairdryer. I hope that you don't feel my tone was mocking- that was not my intention. Maybe silly, I will give you that but not mocking. Also I just got a laugh from the idea of someone using Vaseline on a hotel bed's legs- thought that you might find it humorous as well.

To the original question, by carrying your own bedding, you could possibly then be transferring the bed bugs from one hotel to the next, literally taking them with you, wouldn't you?