Travel advice to your younger self
Jul 25th, 2015, 05:33 PM
#41
Note to my younger self: you will always wonder what would have happened if you had gone to Biarritz with the cute guy driving a refrigerator truck full of pork when you were hitchhiking in the Dordogne in 1972. It will always be the road not taken.
Jul 25th, 2015, 06:06 PM
#42
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 17
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Pack as light as possible. My partner and I now laugh at the big hard-sided suitcases we brought on our first trips to Belgium, Amsterdam and Italy. It's taken us awhile but we do carry on now and it is so much easier. I've needed to ween my partner off of bringing every over the counter medication that might be needed. Something similar will be available almost wherever you go and possibly something better. Also, we live in NYC so we have most food items available to us from throughout the world. I don't know whether that is a good or bad thing because it takes away from bringing home "that thing," but we now consider what we bring home.
Jul 26th, 2015, 03:16 AM
#43
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 428
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
We rented our first apartment in Paris in 2000, after suffering through many yearly visits wandering "bredouille" through the food markets. We were very lucky with this one, since it had been renovated by a wealthy American - complete with huge gas stove/oven, large fridge and all the other stuff commonly associated with American-style gourmet kitchens.
We were there for Christmas and New Year's, and so invited 2 couples for a celebration dinner. We were flabbergasted to find out how much money we had to spend on simple items - especially "the proteins". Also, even though we are both very good cooks, we found that much of the food didn't react in the same way to our normal recipes, so unfortunately some expensive dishes ended up in the trash. We learned quickly to ask the vendors for advice, and to Google French cooking sites for recipes.
Just a caveat - make sure to check out your kitchen very well before you fall in love with the exposed beams or the location, and don't "buy with your eyes" when you shop at the markets.
We only had one other apartment kitchen that came close to our first "Julia Child Experience". All the rest (20 apartments) only had 2-ring hotplates, small micro-convection ovens and dorm-sized refrigerators - typical for Parisian residents. Granted, a good cook can make a meal over a Bunsen burner, but it's not as much fun.
We were there for Christmas and New Year's, and so invited 2 couples for a celebration dinner. We were flabbergasted to find out how much money we had to spend on simple items - especially "the proteins". Also, even though we are both very good cooks, we found that much of the food didn't react in the same way to our normal recipes, so unfortunately some expensive dishes ended up in the trash. We learned quickly to ask the vendors for advice, and to Google French cooking sites for recipes.
Just a caveat - make sure to check out your kitchen very well before you fall in love with the exposed beams or the location, and don't "buy with your eyes" when you shop at the markets.
We only had one other apartment kitchen that came close to our first "Julia Child Experience". All the rest (20 apartments) only had 2-ring hotplates, small micro-convection ovens and dorm-sized refrigerators - typical for Parisian residents. Granted, a good cook can make a meal over a Bunsen burner, but it's not as much fun.
Jul 26th, 2015, 07:38 AM
#45
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 74,699
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hey J,
>What advice would you have given your younger self....
You can't make up for a lifetime of deprivation by trying to eat as much cheese as you can in France. You will get sick.
You can't spend 3 weeks sleeping on trains. You will get sick.
Fly cheap, sleep cheap, eat well.
Gelato is better than ice cream.
Paris and France are two different countries.
Don't visit more than one major venue (Paris, London, Rome...) per week.
Fly out to the farthest stop, Fly home from the nearest.
You don't need any more clothes for a month than you do for 10 days.
Get local money from ATMs. Do not get local money as a cash advance on a CC.
It is unlikely that you will need a rail pass.
If you don't visit Paris before you die you will be very disappointed when you get to heaven.
There are reasons why all of the major tourist destinations are major tourist destinations.
Learn to say, "Hello/goodbye, please/thank you, how much is this, where is the toilet" in many languages.
Have a good life.
>What advice would you have given your younger self....
You can't make up for a lifetime of deprivation by trying to eat as much cheese as you can in France. You will get sick.
You can't spend 3 weeks sleeping on trains. You will get sick.
Fly cheap, sleep cheap, eat well.
Gelato is better than ice cream.
Paris and France are two different countries.
Don't visit more than one major venue (Paris, London, Rome...) per week.
Fly out to the farthest stop, Fly home from the nearest.
You don't need any more clothes for a month than you do for 10 days.
Get local money from ATMs. Do not get local money as a cash advance on a CC.
It is unlikely that you will need a rail pass.
If you don't visit Paris before you die you will be very disappointed when you get to heaven.
There are reasons why all of the major tourist destinations are major tourist destinations.
Learn to say, "Hello/goodbye, please/thank you, how much is this, where is the toilet" in many languages.
Have a good life.
