We are now less than twenty days (nineteen, to be precise) days away from the Big Trip. Time is starting to move quickly, and I still have things to work on.

Dan and I have been going over some Rick Steves travel videos, even while we’ve seen all of them in the past, and I’ve also found other helpful ones on YouTube that have helped me figure out the cities’ layouts a bit more, as well as convincing me to avoid certain things. (For instance the “elevator” in Lisbon may be kind of cool, but do I want to wait one to two hours to take it? I doubt it!)

Today’s task was all about tipping.

I don’t want to be the ugly American, nor do I want to be a condescending one. In some places if you tip extravagantly it can be considered an insult. Different countries deal with tipping differently. I need to know what “tip” is in all the languages we will encounter because the tip might be added to the bill. I need to know if we can tip using our credit card (not recommended in most places because the individual we tip may or may not see that €) or leave cash. Or do we hand the tip to the person because otherwise it’ll quickly get swiped by someone?

So I’ve started entering all this information on to a spreadsheet page I created.

Another column on the same spreadsheet is about how to get around. In a large number of cities we will just be on foot, but if we have longer distances to travel what do we use? Do they have Uber? Is a taxi better? Buses? Subways? Is there a different service we need to use (and download on our phones)? The answer to this last one is yes, there IS at least one other service I downloaded. And there might be more, so I still have more reading to do.

I also need to learn how to say certain phrases I know we’ll need to say. Granted, many places will speak English, but it seems polite to attempt to speak the country’s language.

I wonder if it’s obvious that I’m a real control freak.

Hm.

And I think Dan and I have decided we won’t know if it’s backpacks or roller luggage until we pack! The big question is how many times will we be on surfaces like this and how bad are they when you have a roller suitcase?