1. Go easy on the postcards! After a two-week tour of Ireland and Great Britain, I came home with over 100 postcards! Way too much! I have saved all of them and I sort through them from time to time. There are a few ugly cards I bought only because they were three or four for a pound (how could I pass up a deal like that!). As I am planning for an entire year in the UK, I have contemplated the thought of coming home with hordes and hordes of postcards I will never use, which is why I have decided to limit myself to one great postcard from each place I visit; one that has a picture I really love that will let me look back on my experiences with happiness and simplicity.
2. Try everything once! The two-week tour I went on was led by EF tours, a fantastic company that organized the most perfect first international trip I could have experienced. I did not have to worry about booking hotels, flights, breakfasts or dinners. With this ease came nonstop traveling to different tourist attractions. This running made everyone in my tour group famished for food by the time lunch came around, which was the only meal we had the freedom to choose what we wanted. I was so exhausted from lack of sleep and constantly moving that I was not as adventurous with my palette as I planned on being. So, with an entire year of foody freedom, I intend on trying every delicacy once.
3. Actually try to sleep on the plane! The tour’s first destination was Ireland, the country I travel via a plane to for the very first time. I was not afraid of flying to begin with but the excitement of being on a plane for the first time kept me from trying to get some much-needed sleep. This ended up biting me in the butt since as soon as we stepped off the plane we jumped right into the tour. The next few days, my jet lag was coupled with not catching up on the sleep I lost. I expect to be spending a lot of time on planes (or trains or ferries) so I am going to try my best to actually try fall asleep.
4. Bring a camera! I depended on my smartphone to take pictures for the entire trip, which worked out pretty well for most of the tour except for when I got to the attraction I was most looking forward to: Warner Bros. Studios Tour of the Making of Harry Potter. I am the biggest Harry Potter fan anyone could ever meet. I was so excited to finally arrive at the studios where the HP films were filmed and guess what happened? My phone ran out of storage. Yup, devastating. I depended on my friends to take pictures for me, but I refuse to make the same mistake twice! I am still searching for the perfect camera to take with me so if you have any suggestions, please comment them!
5. Journal consistently! I planned on journaling every night about all the things I saw and did that day, so I could keep track of names and places. In reality though I journaled every few days since I did not get back to our hotels until 11 or 12 at night and I was way too exhausted to write down everything I wanted. Even now, at home when I have free time to sit around and watch a movie, I do not journal consistently. It usually ends up being every few days, but there were times when my entries were weeks apart. I WILL do better in the coming months though. There is going to be so much that I want to record down so I can read about it years later and recount wonderful adventures I experienced.
I hope these five tips help you on your future travels!
Wishing you warm drinks and new adventures,
Maria
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