Being 'Over ђЭ®Є'

Travelling

Since the last time I was here there have been a few minor changes affecting what it is like to travel.

The one change that is most notable is easy to guess. It's related to most of the countries 'on the continent' (as some of the brits say) using the same currency, the Euro. Moving between countries no longer means having to figure out the approximate exchange rate. Also, worrying about having a bunch of one currency that isn't valid in the next country is a thing of the past. When speaking about the currency we've found that euro = dollar and that cents is used in the same way we do in the states. The restaurant below our apartment in Wien (Vienna, Austria) had a neat poster that explained that each country has minted its own version of the coin money. This is a similar concept to the special quarters that have been minted recently in the states. The coin money comes in 1,2,5,10,20,50 cent pieces. There are also 1 and 2 euro coins.

The other change that has affected us as travellers is the absence of border guards on the trains when we cross country borders.


Language

Starting out in England definitely minimized the culture shock. Since we've moved over to the continent we've found that most people working in the tourist industry speak some English. Because of this it has not been too trying to find where we are going or get a question answered. We did purchase an english-german phrase book, this helped us in a few instances. I was able to tell a teller at a bank in Wien that I wanted to convert my English pound notes into euros. Most of the time we used 'Sprechen zee English' and 'Ich sprecha kien deustche' or 'Do you speak English' and 'I don't speak german'.


Weather

For the most part, the weather has been very nice. Warm, sunny days and no moisture have been a blessing. Coming from Colorado we are very sensitive to places with more humidity. In Italy I always seemed to be sweating, even if it wasn't that hot. The leaves have just started to turn colors and fall off the trees. The country side in Austria, Germany, and Italy that we've seen from the trains have still been very green and lush. Doesn't appear that the summer here was too harsh.

The past few days have been cooler in Italy and today in Switzerland.


Misc

I really enjoy experiencing and seeing the little differences between the states and each country we visit. Here's a couple of things I think are interesting:

* The keyboard I'm typing on is not from the US locale, this means there are different characters and letters are mixed up (for instance there is no dollar sign and the z and y keys are swapped) All the internet cafe's have either a program installed or a feature enabled in M.S. Windows that allows them to simulate a keyboard from any number of locals.
* Traffic signals are different. In Italy, on the stop lights, the green light starts blinking before it turns to yellow.
* Chain restaurants are a rarity. Besides McDonald's and B.K. we haven't seen many local varities. Instead there are cafe's everywhere.