What do you need when you travel abroad? Theoretically you need a passport, money / credit card and your house key – in case you want to come back. Everything else can be bought as you go.
The tricky part is that your suitcase is big and you want to bring familiar things, things you love, things that fit, things you don‘t want to try to find when you‘re traveling; especially when you travel like the typical American tourist: 3 countries in 2 weeks, with an itinerary packed full every single day, no time to float or discover.
A traveler sees what is there; a tourist sees what he has come to see!
Nowadays we have to bring a few more travel documents than the passport: a valid drivers license if you want to rent a car – or if you are lucky and have a brother in Germany who happens to have a few extra cars standing around. You also need your vaccination card (and get funny looks when you show this American cardboard piece with some handwritten notes and a wannabe stamp of some kind – vs the European version that is digital and barcoded and everything fancy: believe me, with my American cardboard sheet I couldn‘t get into a restaurant in Germany last November, until the manager was called and she vouched for me because my sister went to school with her etc.) You also need your greencard, if you are not an American citizen. And that greencard expires every 10 years, after which you have to get a new one or an extension. Of course mine was about to expire in July, 2 months after we wanted to leave. And – because I‘m a smart fox – I tried to be on top of things and renew it way ahead of time so I‘m not ending up in last minute sweats / heartattacks! But you can only apply for an extension 6 months before the expiration date. So exactly on January 26th I filed for extension, just to get a letter a few weeks later later, saying, that this letter is kind of an extension before the real extension can be applied, because they are slightly overloaded with work. That‘s just fine with me, now I travel with my passport, my greencard, my extension letter, a drivers license and my vaccination card. And my house key and a credit card. So far, so good!
