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Monday, September 8, 2014
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MVOSS Creation Summer and Fall Product Line Up
10 Things We Learned from Our 21 Days in Europe (Revised)

We've been through these scenario last summer of 2013 but it gets better every year because it helps to express some lessons learned and I hope that sharing them will save you some pain and gain instead but some would surprise everyone because it corrected some of the myth or conventional wisdom of travelling:
1. Don't over plan or at least be flexible. Most of the most enjoyable places and people we saw and met where unplanned. If we stick to the plan we would not meet different people using AirBnB. When you plan and did not happen you may end up disappointed. With over planning, you may carry too much "baggage of ideas" with you and may add stress to your travel. Enjoy the adventure.



5. Share your trip in real time. People want faster information in any levels and sharing your vacation through video clips and photos is like bringing your friends with you. Don't care about what other people think like: "Oh he's bragging", "How can they afford to have such vacation every year", "How insensitive are these friends, too much feed - Unfriend". What you are doing is documenting and appreciating the opportunity that you work hard for and what God has given us to enjoy and share them - telling everyone: Hey, if we can do it so can you. If you wait a month later because you want to make touch up your photos (or what I call fakify it) and beautiful, you lose some of the beauty of reality.


7. Don't eat or shop where tourist buy even for souvenirs. We bought a lot of our groceries and normal food at many chains to at least feel the real people plus it is much cheaper. We bought our German and London souvenir shirt at the department store for 5 Euros that is usually 15 Euros in most tourist shops. Most tourist restaurant adjust the taste according to international standard but you lose the beauty of exploring the culture if you are trapped to taste what a tourist should like to taste.

9. Take the Hop on Hop Off bus all day tour but not always. Review each of the city that you go to and see what experts say about it. If the local bus will take you to all the highlights, get the all day bus pass instead and know where to get off while carrying your tourist map or phone app like Trip Advisor. We've tried Hop On/Off in London and Copenhagen but not in Paris or Brussels because of proximity of each of the highlight (like Louvre, Eifel, Elysee are all in one place that you can walk or just take a bus which stops in all the main spot). London's highlight is scattered but also concentrated in few area like Buckingham Palace is too far from London eye or few buses can take us there. Check out blogs and bus schedule for details.

10. Use credit card but carry cash & coins always. This would simplify the payment and documents how you spend and track your expenses and usually exchange rate is favorable to you. But most establishment requires chip in their card that American credit cards don't so we use the card only on certain places and just draw Euro in our ATM instead of bringing a dollar pocket money to exchange later. Call your credit card company before you travel to give them a heads up and extra insurance.

There are few more things I'd like to share but so far these are the 10 lessons learned that I hope will make your next trip overseas, not just Europe more memorable, enjoyable and affordable.
Until next time, please give me your comment and extra advice we can use for our next trip maybe next year.