Nostr Web Client

Hearing more about travellers asking about going to Europe.

So for anyone looking at going to Europe (on holiday, etc) have a valid passport at least 6-12 months left on it (and a driving licence/ international licence for car rental). Check if you need a tourist/ work visa or not for the EU from your country (UK now even has visa requirements for EU nations, although might not be enforcing it yet). For anyone not sure how the EU operates, it's a bit like the states but without as many guns;

there's federal (common laws) across all countries, but also individual country (state laws) like different speed limits, drug use tolerances, taxes, but other than that, it's common sense behavior across all with different languages, cultures, histories and food, with most under 40 years olds speaking fluent english.

As a standard rule, "Act like a prick, get treated like a prick". Be nice and pleasant to people and there's no issues, same as your country. Mind your wallet/ bag in public. Look up where bad neighbourhoods/ streets are. Don't look like a tourist. Basic common sense while traveling. Carry some cash. Also most take Euro (incl. contactless payments), but not all. When you land on mainland Europe (excluding Ireland or UK) you can drive over borders with no passport checks for the most part, just road tolls usually. Ireland and UK are islands, shock horror. Learn a few local language phrases (please/ thank, etc) and your acceptance from locals will 10x. Now go enjoy your trip!

Reply to this note

Please Login to reply.

Discussion

Dr. Bitcoin, MD 8mo ago

Heading to Finland soon. Not sure if it’s in the EU or not, but tour post has good things to know.

Growing up in the US on the border with Canada in the pre 9/11 era, I’ve never really thought about borders and only fairly recently realized one needs a passport to get to most other countries.

Why buying papers that must be given to anyone who has other papers more or less immediately upon demand is necessary before foreign travel doesn’t click in the rational part of my brain, but this seems to be the way all countries do it.

BitcoinBizHub 8mo ago

Yeah Finland is in the EU, but doesn't use the Euro, most Scandinavian countries have their own currency and are pretty cashless for the most part. The US is so big that you don't need a passport to get sun and ski, mountains and beach a bit like the EU. But we're on an island here so always needed passports to travel to any country except the UK. Buy if you're in the Schengen area (where Finland is, you don't need passports to drive or fly to other countries also in shengen area) more so just for ID, so a driving licence would probably do for that. But Finland borders Russia, so you'd need a passport and visa to go there, but there's probably travel advice against it for US citizens (the norm). But you could drive to Norway/ Sweden/ Denmark, etc or any other nearby country with a land bridge, without a passport. But Iceland, UK, Ireland you'd need your passport to travel from Finland as their islands. Enjoy the trip and safe travels. Never been to Finland, but sounds cool.