<p>SO glad your daughter and friend(s) had a great trip. I hope they took tons of pictures and kept a journal…or blog.</p>
<p>I Eurrailed across Europe for 10 weeks after college in the fall of '85, back when Frommer’s book was titled, “Europe on $25 a Day” With the exception of airfare, passports and traveler’s checks, which were taken care of in advance…we completely winged it (no internet!). My college roommate and I red-eyed to London and back out of Boston. We bought train passes and stayed in youth hostels and affordable hotels. It was a fantastic experience~ one I will never forget.</p>
<p>Youngest DD successfully flew to Europe via Iceland, they had the best fare and we had been advised that most of the other airports were vulnerable at the same time as Iceland. </p>
<p>She is safely ensconced in a “castle” and has already attended language school and driven on the autobahn.</p>
<p>Curm, I am passing on the Italian lodgings as Spain/Italy are the only places where DD has not yet found free R&B, though she just connected on facebook with an undergrad friend who will be in those places approximately the same time, they may need some decent places to stay.</p>
<p>Not trying to rub it in, Curmie, but the best thing about the gap work year Dd took is that she has earned and saved her own money to fund her trip, which is why her itinerary is based upon where she can find a free place to stay ;)</p>
<p>My D arrived in Europe two days ago for a full year. She is alone. Only thing we funded is the phone (because I would not want any skrimping on phone since I care about it for my own needs as well). </p>
<p>Other D will be in Europe for two weeks next month…one week with others and one week alone. She has not travelled solo in foreign countries before like her sister. Again, only thing we are funding is the phone. </p>
<p>D3 has gone from funding her own R&B and language classes to finding a job with the family who lives in the “castle” and now being able to use her savings for side trips. It is a sweet deal and I am so relieved she won’t be going broke doing this.</p>
<p>^^^Agreed. Good to be resourceful! My D who is there for the year is being paid to do it. She created the jobs (one for summer, one for school year). </p>
<p>My other D has all expenses paid by others for the week in Europe but has chosen to stay a second week on her own and will have to fund that herself, though the flights are paid for by others. She figured while over there to take advantage of that and stay a week and see more by herself.</p>
<p>curmudgeon - your daughter sounds like she is a wonderful young woman - I can commiserate with you on the ‘slightly over budget’ problem.</p>
<p>My lovely 19 year old just finished second year. I now call her “Lola” - as in what Lola wants Lola gets ;). Can you tell she is the youngest?
In March she concocts this ides of a study abroad. Can’t do a semester since she is a med tech major. she decides to go to Barcelona for a 7 week summer study. 8 credits.</p>
<p>We are at week 3 and already has exceeded cash budget for spending money for the trip. My ‘non-drinker’ found alcohol and discoteca’s in Spain. Somehow she can’t resist lovely concoctions like “kill bill” and “finding nemo”. argh.
she calls me up on monday - wants to go to Madrid for the weekend. I say go! Have fun! She is ‘worried’ about money. ugh. I tranfer another $200 and give her my blessing. Bull fight is tomorrow!
She is home in a month, flat broke and may be meeting your Mudgette at the Betty Ford Clinic ;)</p>
<p>Well, my daughter was way, way over budget with her sojourn hosteling through Europe last summer… but it was her credit card, so not my problem. I assured her that the bank would be very happy with her as long as she made the minimum payment every month, advised her to try to pay more than that-- and now that she has a full time, salary-paying job I figure she ought to be able to pay off the credit card before the student loans come due. </p>
<p>I don’t think there’s really a way to travel extensively without going over budget. No matter what you plan for, there’s always something else that comes up. </p>
<p>But d’s got things figured out. The new job will also entail travel, possibly to some exotic locales… but in the future, it will be on the company dime.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for my D there are direct consequences to her over-spending…and she’s realizing those right about now. The parental money pot is limited and we just shifted ear-marked money from one category to another. So…it was effectively still “her” money she over-spent. She just moved it to from column A to Column B. (Right about now she’s scrambling to keep some other plans alive.)</p>
<p>curmudgeon, been following this thread (with smiles) for a bit; glad your d had a great trip! Curious as to her thoughts on Rome. Our s is starting to look at places to study abroad for a (spring) semester and it is on his list of possibles. The other is Prague, but he is thinking he wants to go where it is a bit warmer. Not a world traveler by any means, this would be his first trip abroad so anywhere in Europe looks great to him right now. He would have the potential of course to do excursions (which of course mean extra $) to other Italian cities. The program is based in Rome, though. Just wondering if she talked much about it. Thanks!</p>
<p>KandKsmom, my d just got back from her semester abroad in Rome. She loved it! And yes, she did have excursions to other places; one was included in the tuition (she chose Venice). She also went to Florence, spring break in Crete, visited friends in Dublin and Vienna. Rome is a fascinating city. She is also not a world traveller, but loved the fact that it didn’t matter that much when sightseeing in Rome; every time you turned a corner, there was something else to see, even if it wasn’t what she set out to see! She learned how to use the public transportation, how to make herself understood in Italian, how to make her way through Italian culture.</p>
<p>If you have any specific questions, please feel free to ask.</p>
<p>Curm, you know your D will figure out the $$ in the end. Glad she had a glorious time – and be thankful she took pics! S1 was in China in Feb and did not take a single picture, even though he was here for the huge ice festival.</p>
<p>S1 is heading to Budapest at the beginning of Sept. through mid-Dec. Cheapest tickets we’ve found are $933 RT, which was lower than I expected – didn’t seem to make much difference which East Coast city he flies out of, which was surprising. Fares drop in October to the mid-$700s. (DH and I are contemplating going to Eastern Europe while S is there, but we will be doing it on frequent flyer miles.) </p>
<p>Any recommendations for Budapest/Prague/possibly Poland? We would be flying into Munich, which is as far as our United miles will get us.</p>
<p>CountingDown, if your son was up in Harbin for the ice festival, I know why he didn’t take any pictures. I was there in January and every time I took my gloves off to take a picture my hands froze. It was 30 below zero!! I was wearing a down jacket under my down coat and gloves under my mittens. Crazy cold but good fun. We did take a few pictures including some sitting on blocks of ice - we titled those “rumpsicles.”</p>
<p>Curm, I thought you were mean like me. You are a softie, aren’t you? My kid has probably heard mom’s “big trip” story enough to know that she had no choice but to stay within her budget while traveling in Europe. My most exciting trip was from Michigan to Montreal to Bar Harbor, west through NH, VT, and upstate NY, then Toronto, then home. We stayed with a friend’s family in Montreal, then in a very old hotel with a couple other friends in Bar Harbor. Our digs for the rest of our trip state-side? My Chevette … we stayed in national park campgrounds, sleeping in my car. We drank very cheap wine, dined on such delicacies as KFC, and only splurged once (that was on tickets to the drive in to see ET). We stayed in a dorm at Victoria University in Toronto, and we walked for what may have been miles to buy Molson Ex at the package store. We ran out of money on our last day - had to save enough for the bridge toll on the way back & had no credit cards - but got lucky because it was some Canadian holiday or another & there were 10 cent hot dogs in the park. With stories like that, my kids know NOT to ask mom for money on their jaunts!! :)</p>
<p>Puzzled88, yes, he was in Harbin – late Jan.-early Feb. He thought Chicago would be adequate preparation for a Siberian-influenced winter, but nope! Other folks with him posted pics and the festival is truly spectacular.</p>
With the exception of airfare, passports and traveler’s checks, which were taken care of in advance…we completely winged it (no internet!). My college roommate and I red-eyed to London and back out of Boston. We bought train passes and stayed in youth hostels and affordable hotels. It was a fantastic experience~ one I will never forget.</p>