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Everybody who heard we went has asked us how to do it, so here is everything Meredith and I wish someone had told us. None of this is official. It's just what worked (and what didn't).

BEFORE YOU GO

• Buy the pass at home. You can't buy a Eurail pass in Europe, or at least you're not supposed to be able to. A travel agent can order it, or the student travel office. Get it a month ahead.
• Passport early. It took us six weeks.
• Call your bank and ask if your ATM card will work over there. Ours did, almost everywhere, and the rate was better than the exchange windows. We brought some traveler's checks too, just in case, and cashed two of them the whole trip.
• Get a hostel card before you go. Some hostels charge you extra without one.
• Break in your shoes. You will walk ten miles a day. I am not kidding. Meredith counted.
• Read up a little. We each had a guidebook and traded off carrying them, then ripped out the countries we were done with and mailed them home.

ON THE TRAINS

• Get your pass stamped at a ticket window before you ride the first time. Don't write the dates in yourself. They will make you buy a ticket.
• Look at the board, not the platform. Trains split up! Half of a train can go to one city and the other half somewhere else. The cars have signs on the side saying where they go. Read them.
• Reserve night trains as early as you can, and pay a little extra for a couchette (a bunk) instead of a seat. Even our horrible couchette was better than sitting up in a seat car all night. Probably.
• Fast trains in Italy need a reservation even with the pass. It costs a few thousand lire.
• Bring food on board. The snack cart is expensive and runs out.
• Sleep with your money belt on and your backpack where you'll feel it if somebody moves it.
• Wake up for the Alps. Whatever train you're on, if it goes through the mountains, stay awake.

MONEY

• Only change a little money at a time. Every time you cross a border you're stuck with coins. We ended up with a bag of leftover change in five kinds of money and gave it to a girl from Toronto who was going the other way.
• Look for the euro price on the tags. You can't pay in euros yet, but it helps you compare from country to country, because the euro is the same everywhere.
• Lunch is the cheap meal. Get your hot meal at lunch and eat bread and fruit for dinner.
• Grocery stores are your friend, ESPECIALLY in Switzerland.
• Museums often have a free day or a student price. Bring your college ID even if you just graduated.

PLACES

• Amsterdam: get to the Anne Frank House when it opens, before the line goes around the block. And look both ways for bikes. Then look again.
• Paris: the Louvre is huge. Pick three things you want to see and go find them. The Champ de Mars picnic is free and the best evening we had.
• Switzerland: do the Lauterbrunnen valley. If it's clear, do it today, because tomorrow it might be clouds.
• Venice: stay a night if you can. The day-trip crowds leave in the evening and it gets quiet and magic.
• Florence: climb the dome early, before it gets hot. Book your hostel ahead, it fills up in summer.
• Rome: long skirt or pants for the Vatican, and a water bottle you can fill at the street fountains.
• Munich: a beer garden at lunch, on a weekday, under the trees. Trust me.

STUFF NOBODY TELLS YOU

• You often have to pay to use the public bathrooms. Keep coins.
• Lots of things close on Sunday, and in Italy a lot of shops close in the afternoon.
• Ice is rare. Get over it.
• Learn "please," "thank you," "excuse me" and "where is the train station" in every language. People are SO much nicer when you try.
• Write home. We sent postcards from every city and some of them got there after we did. My grandma still has them on her refrigerator.
• Go with someone you'd still like after three weeks of sharing a bunk bed. Meredith, you're the best.

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