1. Check, double check, and triple check your plans. Don’t just assume your wrote the dates down right, and check in with people who are hosting you beforehand. I was going to stay with a friend in Hamburg on April 17th last year. I got to the train station only to find out that my ticket was for the following day, and I had to pay to get it changed—my friend was expecting me, surely it would be rude to show up a day late? Even worse, when I got there he was wondering what the hell I was doing there, as I had told him I’d be there the 18th. Oops.
2. Take obstacles in stride. Fretting the little things can take all the fun out of travel. Maybe you’re lost in a new city lugging around your broken duffel bag, or about to miss a flight, or Ryanair decides to throw in another hidden fee for kicks and giggles. Take a deep breath, hum a happy song, and take a second to appreciate that you are traveling, living the dream! If you’re a student surviving off of bread and salami in order to afford plane tickets, anything that robs you of a few extra dollars can feel like the end of the world, but trust me, it’s not. It’s all about attitude.
3. If you see something you might need later, take note of exactly where it is. Walking around in Barcelona, you pass hordes of bakeries. A little later your stomach is rumbling and you could kill for a pastry, but somehow all the bakeries in the city seem to have been sucked into a black hole. This is an unfortunately common phenomenon that never ceases to baffle me. If you haven’t been paying attention enough to retrace your steps to one, you’re not going to find another bakery until you finally give up on searching (then they’re everywhere again). This also applies to restaurants, coffee shops, grocery stores, print shops, and anything else you could possibly need while in a foreign city.
4. Say “yes” to things you normally wouldn’t consider. Travel is all about opening yourself up to new experiences, and the best ones come from the ideas that seem the craziest. Now, I’m not condoning agreeing to follow that sketchy man into a dark alley or trying heroin or anything, but when you’re kind of tired and somebody in your hostel wants to try a bar, do it. Try new foods, make friends. When a friend of a friend asked me if I wanted to go to Oslo, my initial thought was I don’t know you, why would we go to Norway together? But why not? So I went, and it was one of the best trips I’ve been on.
5. Remember, whether studying abroad or traveling around, you’re there to learn. One of the best ways to do this is by talking to locals, asking questions, and listening to whatever they have to tell you. The little old man in your train compartment has something to teach you about relations between Czechs and Slovaks, and that group at the bar would love to explain to you just how they feel about their government. Just be friendly and make friends.