My globe-trotting daughter’s overseas travels will soon be coming to an end. She has finished up her month-long community health nursing studies in England and will be flying back to Chicago this coming Wednesday. She’s had a thoroughly marvelous time and says she will really miss lovely England and all of the other places she has visited. Clearly the travel bug has bit hard, and neither of us is unhappy about that at all. Fortunately, aided by plenty of planning and preparation and a slew of good advice from others who were familiar with the cities on her itinerary, she met with few bumps in the road or unexpected difficulties along the way.

Since this journey was first planned, the final leg, after the studies in chilly England were complete, was to be a long weekend in Greece, primarily in Santorini. Jenny and her friends decided that rather than spend time in another big city, they would only stop over for a night in Athens on either side of some island time. The idea of warm days (at least, comparatively warm) spent at a relaxed pace after all the rush and bustle of the rest of the trip has been a bright beacon for the last several months.

So it is with some trepidation and more than a little interest that I’ve been watching the news of financial crisis and strikes in Greece over the last several weeks. Jenny has had little desire or opportunity to closely follow the news while abroad, but I didn’t burden her with constant updates about what I was hearing concerning her final stop. I did give her a brief heads up a few weeks ago when the stories of the first batch of strikes cropped up. I purposely kept my remarks low-key; I saw no need to make her anxious and figured if something of the events in Greece filtered through to her, better that it come from me. I didn’t want to scare her or her friends off of their plans; the situation doesn’t seem dangerous to them, and the last thing the Greek economy needs is tourists and their money staying away.

This past Wednesday saw the largest demonstrations (mostly peaceful) yet in Athens, with civil servants protesting the government’s austerity plans aimed at fixing the debt crisis and proving to the European Union that it can get the economy under control. In addition, strikes grounded flights, stopped ferry service and affected public transportation in Athens. I let Jenny know all of this, since they were to fly to Athens, take the metro to Piraeus where they would then catch a ferry to Santorini. I told her that I doubted more strikes would follow so quickly on the heels of this one-day event. I was glad to hear that she was not overly concerned, even if her travel plans might be affected along the way. She seems to have acquired enough travel savvy and confidence that the recent events in Greece will not faze her or deter her from her plans.

From what I can tell from a few brief lines on Jenny’s Facebook page, so far everything has gone as planned. Santorini is “gorgeous” and time at the beach is on the schedule for today. I’m so thankful my little girl has had such a fantastic and horizon-expanding trip. Even if she should meet with a few unexpected surprises on her way home, she’ll be able to add them to her list of events that have helped her evolve into an experienced global traveler.

– Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader

This month’s issue of Global Traveler has a wonderful article on London, with plenty of great suggestions on what to see and where to stay and dine. I shared the piece with daughter Jenny, as she and her fellow students would be spending a month in the area during their study abroad experience. Our family had actually stayed in London for several days a number of years ago when Jenny’s big sister was studying in England, so she had already had the opportunity to experience some of that delightful city’s offerings. We visited St. Paul’s, the British Museum and the National Gallery, shopped at Harrods and took in a play in the West End. There was not enough time to see everything we wished, so Jenny has been looking forward to getting back to London.

 In just the last two weeks on daytrips in to the city, she has toured the Tower of London (and has decided the jewels alone would make it worth being Queen of England), spent some time in the museums, visited Harrods (again!) and thoroughly enjoyed a production of Sister Act: The Musical at the Palladium Theatre. That is not all she’s taken in, though. No, as a nursing student, Jenny has also visited some lesser-known attractions in London that have been, at the very least, eye-opening.

First stop was the Hunterian Museum, located at the Royal College of Surgeons. John Hunter, an 18th-century surgeon, collected and preserved thousands of specimens of plants and animals (and assorted human body parts) in order to better understand anatomy and improve medical treatment and surgical techniques. His original collection was purchased by the government in 1799, given to the Royal College and grew exponentially over the decades. Even though a large portion of the collection was lost during the bombing of London during World War II, Jenny was amazed at the number and variety of items on display.

They then proceeded to the Old Operating Theatre, dating back to the 1820s and the oldest in all of Europe. It’s actually located in the attic space of a church which adjoined St. Thomas’s Hospital — convenient, I guess, whether the surgery was successful or not. Actually, a large skylight just above the operating table provided good light, and the gallery gave apothecaries and physicians-in-training the opportunity to observe and learn. This was, of course, in the days before anaesthesia was available (except for opium and alcohol, that is), so speed was important. Jenny’s group saw a demonstration of how an amputation might be done, including the knives and other instruments used. Her one-word assessment: “Gross!” Usually, these modern nurses-to-be would also visit the Florence Nightingale Museum, also located at St. Thomas’s, but it is closed right now for updating.

Just this past Wednesday the group took in a little more medical history when they visited St. Mary’s Hospital and the lab where Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928. Fleming had been working with staph bacteria before he’d left on a two-week holiday. On his return, he was clearing away Petri dishes that had become contaminated with mold and happened to notice that the bacteria in those dishes seemed to have been killed by the mold. Jenny found this quite instructive and deduced a few nuggets to live by: Taking a break from work can be good for you in unexpected ways, and perfection in housekeeping could be detrimental, also in unexpected ways. (I would say that when she was a teenager in our house, she had already embraced that last philosophy!)

It just goes to show that there are always fascinating places to see and new things to learn that are often off the beaten track from the usual tourist destinations in the cities we visit. Follow your own interests and inclinations, grab a map or Google a bit and create your own personalized tour.

– Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader

If you’ve been reading my blog over the last few months, you are aware that my younger daughter, Jenny, has been traveling in Europe the last three weeks with a group of fellow nursing students. They have now settled in the picturesque town of Guildford in Surrey, England, to begin their one-month study of community health issues and some practicum experience. Jenny really enjoyed her whirlwind tour of several cities on the Continent but now seems equally pleased to be somewhat settled for a while in one place with a room to herself. I thought I’d just share a few of her impressions of the places she visited along the way and a few lessons she and her friends learned on this, their first big travel adventure on their own.

It doesn’t take much snow to foul up transportation in London. One inch brought havoc to the rail lines, closed the runways at Gatwick for several hours and caused them to rebook on a later flight to Madrid. The girls from Chicago just couldn’t see what all the fuss was about.

Loved Madrid, the Prado Museum, Plaza del Sol and . . . sangria! Also fell in love with Barcelona (I have yet to talk to anyone who’s gone there and doesn’t) and wants to return. After cold and snowy England, the girls loved the sun in Spain.

Jenny celebrated her 22nd birthday in Paris, preferred the Musee d’Orsay over the Louvre and learned a valuable lesson: Check to be sure the site you want to visit is open before you take the time and expense to go there. The group trekked out to Versailles on a Monday only to learn the palace is closed on Mondays (and the grounds, in January, are rather subdued).

Roman men can be charming at any age. On their first evening in the Eternal City, the ladies enjoyed the chivalrous attentions of their “older” waiter (For all I know, he was only 35. Ah, perspective!), and the bartender bought each one a rose from a roving vendor. St. Peter’s was impressive; but Jenny found the colors in the Sistine Chapel to be much brighter than she expected, and the Creation of Adam to be smaller than she thought it would be (again, perspective!).

Squeezing too many cities into too few days along with certain train schedules can lead to frustration. Upon arriving in Florence, the group found that there were no remaining seats available on the train they planned to take from their next stop, Venice, to Munich. Instead, they would have to take an overnight train north, leaving them less than 10 hours in Venice. They never even took a vaporetto to see St. Mark’s Square — sacrilege!!

Food and transportation expenses gobble up the euros; so do entrance fees (and drinks at the hostel bar??).

The Wombat’s hostels in Munich and Berlin offered great, free (except for the tip for the guide), half-day walking tours of those cities, full of great information. Dachau touched Jenny deeply: “I don’t think it is possible to explain how I felt when we were standing in the gas chamber. The evil that existed is unbelievably horrific.”

Be sure you get on the right train. The trek from Munich to Berlin took all day and five trains to accomplish; it should have been one train and a few hours. At least the snowy countryside was pretty!

Based on all the other things Jen has said or written to us thus far, I would venture to say that her greatest lesson is how much there is yet for her to see and learn, and what a great teacher travel can be.

– Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader

My younger daughter, Jenny, is just finishing her first week in Europe. While her primary purpose while there is to complete her community health nursing clinical in England, that program doesn’t actually begin for another two weeks. She and several of her classmates are currently traveling about the Continent, and her brief phone calls and Facebook postings indicate they are having a wonderful time. I think it would be difficult for anyone with such an experience before them to not enjoy it thoroughly, but Jenny and her friends did a lot to ensure their good time through solid groundwork in planning and organizing their modest version of the Grand Tour.

It’s possible that just getting 10 individuals to agree on their two-and-a-half-week itinerary consumed the majority of their planning sessions, but I know that all of them also spent plenty of Internet time researching where they were going and how (most economically) to get there. Most of the girls had friends or family members who had traveled abroad (and some, like Jenny, had already been overseas, but none on their own), and all of us were dishing out advice, as well. (I was able to pull out articles from the past few years of Global Traveler on every city on their itinerary, plus others covering everything from health insurance to travel safety.) Going forth with maps and directions steering them from every airport or train terminal to their hostels in each city boosted their confidence that they could navigate their way just about anywhere. With Madrid and Barcelona under their belts already and only a snow-cancelled flight from London to delay the start of their adventure, this merry band seems to be off to a great start.

Here are a few things we are glad are a part of this trip, and which we would recommend to any traveling student:

– An international cell phone: Jenny was able to rent one for an extremely reasonable fee and calling rates. At least two other girls in the group have one as well, so if the entire party splits up, they can maintain contact. Although the plan is to keep in touch with friends and family back home primarily through the Internet, we’ve already found cause to be thankful for the immediacy and ease of having phone contact available. Which leads me to essential item number two:

 – Automobile Association of America’s VISA Debit card: We hit upon this item several years ago when Jenny’s big sister, Sarah, studied abroad, and I used one myself last spring while cruising the Mediterranean. It allows one to withdraw funds in the local currency from any ATM, and although there is a small transaction fee, the convenience and other benefits the card offers are worth it. Because I also have access to the account with my own card, I can load additional funds if needed, and there is an emergency contact number in virtually every country in case of loss or theft of the card (which Sarah had cause to use). When Jenny accidently punched in the wrong PIN number in Barcelona (jet lag and sleep deprivation), she used that cell phone to call me to confirm the right code and unfreeze the card (a nice safety feature). But for those once-in-a-lifetime, special purchases or truly emergency situations, Jenny also has

– A credit card which doesn’t charge for non-U.S. currency transactions. We REALLY stressed the unique and/or emergency aspects of the use of the card (and the fact that those are HER purchases), but we wouldn’t have sent her off without one.

 – A student discount card. Jenny and her friends used the Student Travel Agency to book their hostel stays and a few flights and get their rail passes. They found this simplified paying for those items, although the fares weren’t always the cheapest to be found. They expect to make great use of the STA’s discount card, which will provide them free or reduced entrance to an enormous number of museums and attractions all over Europe, in addition to all kinds of percent-off deals at a wide range of businesses in the cities they’ll be visiting. A side note: so far they’ve been very happy with the locations and cleanliness of the hostels they booked through STA, and all have had WiFi access.

We’re thrilled that Jenny’s trip is off to such a good start, but as any experienced traveler knows, all that preparation and the recommendations of those who’ve been there before certainly had a lot to do with it. Happy travels, ladies!

– Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader

My younger daughter, Jenny, heads off for two-and-a-half months in Europe in January, and she has had no problem coming up with a lengthy wish list of items for Christmas and her January birthday. While she has let it be known that cash would be most welcome, she’d also be happy with a whole slew of seeming necessities for the journey: a new piece of luggage or two, a video camera, iPhone . . . you get the picture: some big-ticket items.

Since she reads this blog, I won’t reveal what has been crossed off her list, but let’s just say that I’m hoping to find some items for her that will prove to be extremely useful on her journey and a lot more friendly to my budget. While I’ve done some traveling, I haven’t had to live abroad for an extended period with only a couple of suitcases to hold what I’d need for that time. And I certainly wouldn’t claim to be aware of all the handy and ingenious gadgets out there that make travel in a foreign country easier or more enjoyable. In addition, I’m pretty sure that what I might consider essential would not necessarily match what Jen feels she couldn’t do without.

I always look forward to Alexandra Kirkman’s Tech Toys column in each issue of Global Traveler. She presents an amazing array of items which seem to answer a plethora of busy travelers’ needs. I’m not particularly technically proficient but can clearly ascertain the value of the most advanced of products she finds. And not all are of the high-tech variety, either, but each provides a solution for situations many travelers face. I’ve been skimming through past issues to consult the column and believe I’ve found a few surprises Jenny may be glad to have along with her.

Nevertheless, I’d welcome hearing from those of you out there who travel often and have suggestions for those don’t-leave-home-without-it items. Whether it be the right kind of shoe for navigating cobblestoned streets, a readable travel guide — or even what NOT to take — I’d appreciate the input. Actually, any sort of travel tips aimed at a young woman traveling in Europe and staying in hostels with friends would be great. Fellow GT blogger and staffer Kim Krol has already graciously and generously offered Jenny some great comments and observations from her own study and travel abroad experiences. I think that’s one of the most admirable characteristics that I find the majority of global travelers possess: an eagerness to share with and assist fellow wanderers in their explorations of the world.

– Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader