Went and had a passport picture made today. It’s better than the last one, but that’s not saying much.
The man who took it told me he’d been to Paris and Rome. Texas and Georgia. Grew up on Amsterdam, right here in Atlanta. Never been anywhere.
I nearly fell out of my chair. Nice little office he had there on Pharr Road, in a little house on an expensive piece of real estate. His clothes looked spendy and I could tell his haircut was a salon job.
I wanted to ask him why he’d never just gotten on airplane and flown the coop, but he was more interested in telling me all the different Visa and passport regulations for other countries, and how every single where was different from every single where else.
His office was full of knick knacks from other places – said his customers came back from places and brought him things. I think he might have had an insurance company on the side, but he didn’t try to sell me anything, and I didn’t ask. Maybe I’ll bring him back a little Pope in a Globe or something.
We’re looking at places to stay and we’re this close to booking one. In the next day or two I’ll start my list of what I’m packing, and it won’t be much, since we’re renting an apartment and will be able to just do laundry right in the middle of the whole shebang.
People have all kinds of advice when you’re going on a trip, but what I really need to know is how to convert the money easily. I’m very good at math, but when I get there, I tend to just go to sea and hand it over willy-nilly, so I suppose it’s a good thing I’m not much a souvenir shopper, elsewise I’d come home flat-busted.
Just like a Slattery 
I can tell you how to do that. Call your credit union that you have an ATM card with, and tell them you are going overseas. Your card needs to be Mastercard/Visa, if cards other than that still exist. You need a 4 digit PIN code not longer.
They will in turn put your travel dates in their system so you don’t get shut off, and tell you your daily withdrawal limit. I have a currency converter app on my phone so I can easily remember that a Euro is more than a Dollar, but your mileage may vary. Not everyone is as bad at math as I am.
And that’s it–withdraw money at ATMs. You might go ahead of time to the bank and get 100 E as walking around money, but you don’t have to.
Convert the money at a bank at home, before you leave, if you can.
Well, that’s contrary to what the guidebooks and the Wall Street Journal advise. I’ll take about 100 euros with me, just to get me going and withdraw some when I get there to get the best rates. Plus, you know, the child pickpockets are all over the place.