How to Plan a First Time Trip to Europe

  • published on10, Dec, 2017
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This past September, I successfully took an American to Europe for the first time for an amazing trip. Having grown up in various parts of Europe myself, I’ve already experienced the magic of Europe many times over. However, when my nearly 30 year old boyfriend confessed to me that he had never been to the Eastern hemisphere, I knew what I wanted my next big trip to be: a tour of the classic cities of Western and Southern Europe. Plus, one of my favorite things to do is play tour guide, so this would benefit both of us greatly.

Here’s how I prepared for my three week trip to Europe, including how I decided which cities to visit, how to travel from city to city, and how to pack.

Europe Trip Preparation by Timeline

6 months (March 2012):

– Language refresher (French, German, Italian)
– Plot route and cities to visit
– Purchase European guidebook

3 months (June 2012):

– Purchase airfare (21 June)
– Apply for passport
– Purchase walking shoes

2 months (July 2012):

– Post apartment on AirBnB
– Hotel reservations (19 July)


1 month (August 2012):
– Purchases: luggage, clothing, camera(s)
– Train tickets (30 Aug)
– Complete detailed budget

Right Before (September 2012):
– Call credit card companies
– Get haircut + make final trip-related purchases
– Double-check packing list & State Department Travel Warnings

 

When to Visit Europe

Dates: Wed, 9/19/12 – Sun, 10/7/12

I knew I wanted to visit Europe in late September, because it’s my favorite time of year in any city. But Western Europe is especially enchanting

High-level Itinerary

 

Paris > Brussels > Amsterdam > Stuttgart > Mannheim > Heidelberg > Eberbach > Heilbronn > Bad Wimpfen > Schwabisch Hall > Munich > Garmisch > Venice > Pisa > Florence > Rome

10 Signs You’re a Bad Manager

1) Micro or macro-management. — You give poor feedback or no feedback. Your report asks for more feedback and you don’t give it — a boss who cares about your development will be glad to share her perspective on what you’re doing well and how you could do better.
2) You set impossible expectations or no expectations – you reserve negative feedback for the annual review; you state multiple times that the review is “good.” You do not give details about bonus potential, nor their correlation to your review.
3) You don’t protect your team – you always “agree,” with your cohorts and throw your team under the bus as needed. You approach her with your concern about not having enough resources to tackle that new project or about butting heads with the department down the hall, and she’s unmoved. She may be signaling, “I’m not willing to change anything for you. If you want to make a change, it should be to a new job.”
4) You’re passive agressive or excessively aggressive – you always agree in person, and then disagree vehemently – behind people’s backs
5) Inaccessibility or indifference. — You consistently show up late for meetings and/or are distracted throughout meetings. All of your one-on-ones seem to get canceled or rescheduled at the last minute, or worse — your boss forgets you had a meeting altogether. The harsh reality is managers will make time for someone whenever they feel it is important enough to do so. So if you can’t get an audience with your boss while others can, he/she obviously has a specific problem with you.
6) You don’t keep your 1:1s confidential.
7) You take credit for your team’s work — unfairly. — you don’t help pull the weight, you don’t give good feedback, you don’t give any guidance.
8) You don’t engage your team in a healthy way — you talk over them, cut them off, tell excessive stories about your home life, bro-out with coworkers and then lay it on thick for other teams. You always derail your team’s meetings with non-related comments and don’t give good feedback prior to meetings when she prepares with you in advance.
9) You try to assign menial tasks or make your reports do your job for you. — You request reminders ahead of weekly meetings for you to prepare yourself. You worked hard for that bachelor’s degree. Even harder for the master’s. You have a sharp mind, a few years of experience under your belt, and you’re itching to get ahead. But it’s hard to do that when your boss views you as the office intern. Despite your qualifications, your boss has chosen you as his errand-runner, coffee-bringer and bagel-fetcher. Although you’re one of the hardest workers on the team, your efforts are being wasted on menial tasks because your boss has — for reasons known only to him/her — picked you as a whipping boy and personal slave.

10) You fail to teach your team anything they don’t already know.

11) You overload your team with work.

12) You discourage your team speaking with your boss / company VIPs. — Others might get invited to meet important clients or the board chair, but the boss never seems to ask you. And he seems to make a deliberate effort to keep you away from his own boss.

13) You make multiple mentions about your team’s future at “other” companies. — You imply you’re looking at other jobs and she doesn’t seem to care. Smart bosses will try to move heaven and earth to keep a great employee—but they won’t object when a mediocre employee considers leaving.

14) You discourage outside development through classes, conferences, seminars.

What I Learned in 2012

  • published on10, Dec, 2017
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1) You have to pick your company very carefully. Culture is everything. Don’t pick management teams who are “too nice” or too mean.

2) Know when you’re ready for the next step in your career. Don’t waste your time treading water.

3) Demand recognition for your efforts.

4) Be strategic in your relationship building. Treat senior team members as mentors, your coworkers as allies, and junior team members as mentees.

^^^ A draft I lasted edited December 31, 2012 at 3:05pm. Very entertaining to look back on my apparent mentality at that time, as I publish this unfinished post at 5:52pm on December 10, 2017.