When I left to travel the globe, I’d never even heard of Schengen.  I still haven’t visited the city in Luxembourg, but its main significance to travelers isn’t a cathedral to visit, but the treaty that was signed there in 1985.  Ten years later it was implemented with the creation of Europe’s modern borderless “Schengen Area”, which operates much like a single country (like crossing borders of different states in the United States) with external border controls for travelers coming in and out of the entire area, but with no internal border controls. The borderless zone created currently consists of 25 European countries.

What is the Schengen visa?

The Schengen visa is a single tourist visa (the stamp you get upon arrival) that you can use to visit 25 European countries without the need of separate visas for each country.  This visa allows hassle free internal travel (air, road, train, etc.) between these countries.  It allows visitors (at least from the U.S. and other similar privileged countries) to travel freely within the Schengen countries for a maximum stay of up to 90 days in a 6 month period.

In 2006, they implemented the right to move freely, meaning that passportless travel is allowed inside the entire European Union, if you have a national I.D. card from an EU country.

How does it affect my travel?

Although it’s easier to cross borders now, we, as foreigners (if, in fact, you are reading this and not a citizen of the EU), have even less time in Europe than we used to have.  Intended to eliminate border checks between countries, the treaty makes it easier to move from place to place, but limits the amount of time you can spend in the region as a whole. It’s not enough to hop across a border, get a stamp and come back, you have to spend 90 days outside of a Schengen nation. Fortunately, the UK and Ireland (who have opted out), and Romania, Bulgaria (these two are on their way in), and Cyprus (who have yet to join), are not in the Schengen zone, so you can always head to those countries for the 3 month period before you can re-enter.

Okay, now follow this:  The rules state that a visitor must be outside the region for 90 days for every 90 days he or she is in it.  In other words, you have three consecutive months to travel around all of the EU and then you must leave for at least the next three consecutive months before you can head back in.  This is a bit of a pain for the long-term traveler.  Before the Schengen, each country had their own tourist visa…so I could hang around Germany for three months, then head to France for another three, and then maybe Italy for another three.  Now I have just 90 days to see it all.  During my ‘round the world trip, I planned to get to Europe and spend quite a bit of time there…something I learned upon arrival that I couldn’t do as planned.  Bummer.  Did I overstay my welcome?  Yes, by about a month.  In scouring the internet and talking to other travelers, I heard urban legends of lock-up, being banned for life from the EU, and other various possible punishments.  I also heard a short overstay could mean nothing, which is what happened to me….absolutely nothing.  But it was a gamble and I was lucky (not trying to stay there and live illegally did help).   So while it cuts down on border controls, and allows citizens, to travel freely and find work in other countries, it makes traveling for a foreigner more difficult.

Are you traveling for the holidays?  Some find it a chaotic hassle, but I kind of like being in airports or train stations during the hustle and bustle – so many trying to get home to loved ones near and far. I have spent some of my favorite holidays abroad either completely alone or laughing and breaking bread with new friends and making memories that I cherish always (thinking of Sean, Craig, & Helen in Sydney, Elissa in London, Kristy in Sevilla, Adam from Philly in Krakow, Couchsurfers in Milano, Halley, Sonia, Vanessa, & my other Egypt friends).

“I am happy, in life right now, but money is my biggest stress.  I don’t need a lot, but just want enough for my family so it’s not a worry,” says Manuel, a recent Airbnb host of mine in Portugal.

His words echo those of so many others I meet around the world – many affected in countries near and far by the current economic climate.  Many of us ‘feel’ it in the United States, but I tend to think a lot of us never come close to feeling it like others around the globe.

I am often asked how I was able to pay for my trip around the world.   And my simple answer is ‘travel is cheaper than you think.’ I wrote about the details of how I did afford it here.

Now I am ‘back’ and living a somewhat more rooted life (read: I have an apartment in Chicago and pay monthly rent and utility bills – something I did NOT do when traveling full time, which is one of the reasons it’s cheaper than people realize – I wasn’t paying for a vacation, but just my daily living expenses).   But now I am still traveling several times a year and am often gone for a month or so at a time.  So, the new question is, how can I afford this now? How can I afford to travel AND still be paying rent and bills back home?  I don’t have some master plan…except just basically this secret: 

I spend less.

Here’s how:

(more…)

Warning: If you are squeamish or prude or don’t have genitalia, this post may offend you.

If you read the title as “big on bid-detz” then this is going to be a hard sales pitch.  But hear me out.

The poor, little bidet.  It gets a bad rap and is probably the most misunderstood bathroom fixture this side of the Atlantic.

Well, I think bidets (bih-DAYS) are awesome.

(more…)

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore. Dream. Discover.
- Mark Twain

Have you ever dreamed of quitting your job and traveling?  Running off and escaping the 9-5 to sit on a beach? Or just taking a longer break to live and breathe and enjoy life for once?  I have met dozens of people in the last five years who have told me this is their dream and they ‘wish they could do what I do.’ Well, if you are a regular reader of this blog – you know it really is possible – without a trust fund, without a partner, and…without a ‘net.’

(more…)