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Welcome to 2019!
Welcome back! I had to take a break from the blog in the last half of 2018, but hopefully in 2019 I will get to share some exciting and useful things here! Even though I wasn’t writing, I was still busy on the travel front: went to Ontario in August 2018 for a wedding went to Victoria and Vancouver for a long weekend in October 2018 went to the UK for 3 weeks in November 2018 started figuring out this miles and points thing!! In May 2018 I had applied for the Amex Platinum card, and I (hoped) but wasn’t sure if it was worth the steep annual fee ($700!).…
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Why do I need a credit card?
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How to Drive a Standard Transmission Vehicle
The aim of this article is to relay the concept to people who do not currently drive a standard car, but would like to be able to for renting a car abroad, or purchasing and learning to drive a standard at home. In Europe standard cars are the norm, whereas automatic cars are the norm in North America. 1/This is the car we rented in France last year. It would have been harder to rent an automatic car, so driving standard is a good skill! What does standard and automatic mean? These terms refer to standard transmission and automatic transmission. The difference is whether you change the gears while you…
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I’m sure it was great- but which airline did you take?
I think that the WHY of travel comes from somewhere deep inside a person and can be hard to explain. People have different reasons of why they travel. I know mine, but I am not sure they are easy to explain. I do often find myself very interested in the HOW of travel. Which airline did you take? How long was your layover? Did you take a train or bus? If you have recently told me that you went on a trip, I have probably asked you which airline you took. I like talking to people and hearing their experiences. Probably because I mentally note disaster stories and try not…
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I Need to Figure out this Miles Thing
I have been following One Mile at a Time for a few years now and really enjoy his posts. The unfortunate part is that a lot of the credit cards he talks about only apply to USA, so not directly applicable to us in Canada. I have decided that I want to start doing this miles & points thing properly and use the system to my advantage. I found another blog called Prince of Travel which is Canadian and might have information more applicable to me. My goal is to go to Europe on points this fall. I am not sure if this is doable, but you have to start…
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To Carry on, or not to Carry on?
On my last trip to Europe I took the following 8 flights in just under 3 weeks (actually 10 since we had to stop in Toronto on the Winnipeg-London route). In February 2017 I had gone to Europe for 3 weeks with a carry-on so I knew I could do it. 1/ Carry-on used in February 2017. 2/ Carry-on used November 2017. Money The difference this time was that I chose to bring a backpack instead of a rolling suitcase. I knew that going with only a carry-on I would save money, but I was curious about how much money. I checked all the airlines’ websites and came up with…
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Time Change + Long Distance
What is time change? Where does it come from? People that don’t travel often are pretty unaffected by the time zones and time change, so it can be confusing. I feel like I grew up always having to think about time zones, as we had to calculate that time it was in the UK to see if we could call our grandparents or not. If you got it wrong, you could be waking them up in the middle of the night- and you would hear about it! If you have ever been in a long-distance relationship you know that you seem to have two clocks in your head, the time…
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UnPacking Tips
Everyone always talks about packing hacks, the cutest backpack, and the generation of suitcase wheels to make your packing and trip a success. Here I am going to talk about my unpacking tips and a few things that I do post-trip to make it complete and improve the process the next time. Write down what you didn’t bring or missed having I have an on-going list of things to pack and I keep adding to the list every time I come back from a trip. When it is time to go again, I just print it out and start packing. If there are things I don’t need I just…
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Booked with Swoop!
Update: After posting this, Swoop emailed me to say that our times had changed and they were totally the opposite of what I wanted and why I had booked their times. I called the Service Center and got a full refund for the tickets. I am not holding this against them as all airlines change their times, and I will still try to book with them in the future. Note: they say that there is a $15 charge for calling the Service Center as they want things to be done online. For something like a full refund it cannot be done online, so they do not charge the fee. I…
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Preparing for my trip to Asia- 1 week to go!
It is absolutely amazing how things that often seem so far in the distance have a way of creeping up on you. My scheduled departure for my trip to Hong Kong, Cambodia and Indonesia is February 3rd– 5 work days away! This is my current list of things to do: (this is a real list- I use Google Keep for most of my lists) Get travel insurance I did shop around for travel insurance more than I usually do since I wanted more than just Emergency Medical. I looked at Blue Cross, Travel Cuts Globetrotter Insurance, and RBC. In the end I went with RBC and bought it in the…
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Handy Skills to Take to Europe
The beauty of travel is that you are constantly learning and discovering. Seeing things in a different way makes you realize how easy it is to get used to things at home. While living in Europe these are some small differences I noticed in my everyday life compared to living in Canada. Even if you like them better or worse, they make you remember that you are in a different country- and reminds you to love the ride. Pack your math skills | It is very common in North America for the waitress to give everyone at the table their own bill. She will even divide up that pitcher of…
