studentsineurope

Peggy Retka has had a passion for travel ever since her first international experience. When she was fifteen, Peggy traveled in France for three weeks with her high school language teachers. She discovered a fascinating world that offered different experiences and perspectives from her hometown of Hastings, MN. From that point on, she was hooked.
Peggy [...]

As you get ready to leave for your trip abroad, you may find you’re a little nervous. Don’t be embarrassed. Foreign travel is a big deal, and that goes double if you’ll be gone for more than two months and triple if this is the first time you’ve done it. Culture shock is real, you [...]

I’ve been running around like crazy these past few days trying to get everything taken care of before I go! As always, I find there’s more to do than I think, and some of it takes more time than I thought it would (it’s always a good idea to start your preparations early). Such is [...]

There’s an important rule of thumb when packing: soft packs smaller than hard. What this means, practically, is that you shouldn’t pack anything in a box. If you’re taking something that came in a box or a cardboard sleeve or any other packaging that won’t give a little in a crammed suitcase, take it out [...]

As my search for cheap flights around Europe continues, I keep running across really helpful websites. Apparently, there’s a lot of student travelers out there who have trouble managing the myriad budget airlines that criss-cross the continent of Europe, and a lot of civic-minded web designers interested in helping us out!
My latest discovery is flylc.com [...]

Welcome to the countdown! In twelve days, I will leave the United States for a five-month European adventure. It’s a glorified couch-surfing trip, really. I’ll be seeing friends, hanging out, and engaging in my favorite tourist activities, which include visiting museums, going for runs around the lovely cities of Europe, and finding odd local foods [...]

If you’re a frequent traveler, chances are you’re always on the lookout for perfect travel bottles. Every time you stay in a hotel, you check out the free shampoo. Does the bottle have a twist-on lid? No flip-top? Is it under three ounces? If so, you probably stick as many as you can in your [...]

As I continue planning my backpacking, figuring out how to get from a lot of random A’s to a bunch of unusual B’s, I’m running across quite a few helpful websites. My most recent favorite is a Dutch site, lowcostairlines.nl. Be warned, the site is actually in Dutch with no way to switch it to [...]

The first time I heard someone order a Guinness-and-black, I thought it might be some kind of variation on a black-and-tan. Then I remembered that Guinness IS the “black” in “black-and tan” – there went my theory. But I’ve never met a drink I didn’t like (except for Chinese white spirits, which were pretty terrible), [...]

After a lot of annoying delays, I’m finally preparing to return to Europe for a few months of backpacking, seeing my old friends, and meeting some new ones. Like many long-time student travelers with friends all over the place, my itinerary looks like I spilled a box of thumbtacks on a map and decided to [...]