Life, or something like it

[ellid]

Weekend was very quiet. Saturday I did laundry, went to the bank to see about ordering Euros for my trip, and vegged out at night. Sunday was church, where I checked the supply of novelty scarves, then over to Una's for what the perfidious louts BBC America had advertised as a Doctor Who marathon, only to find that it was a "Tribute to Princess Diana even though her death anniversary was in August" marathon. We watched "The Next Iron Chef" instead, and I finished another little scarf. Go me.

Monday I wrote, listened to my All-Audio Italian CDs a bit, vented a bit to Roomie about the political mess of our country and reciprocated when she needed to vent about work, and trolled the political blogging sites. Today was more of the same, only with a detour to get Sapphy an oil change. And since said oil change was over at Mountain Farms Mall, I decided to have dinner at the local Panera (yum) and pick up a bagel for breakfast tomorrow.

This weekend: order Euros before the exchange rate changes too much (I'm thinking $500 should do for a week's worth of food, museum admissions, and bus/taxi fares - opinions?), start cleaning the catastrophic mess that is my living room, and dig out some Easton Press books to exchange at Sage Books for double store credit so I can do my Christmas shopping. Also, sleep. :D

Comments

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

Hee! Did you forget to close your strike, or is this some kind of nihilistic post?

I think $500 ought to do for a week. Or I would, if I were not so jealous that I am not speaking to you. Darn it, I keep forgetting!

[ellid.livejournal.com]

Yikes! Thanks for noticing the bad coding!

*forbears to point out that she'll be posting a "want a post card from Florence?" entry sometime in December...*

[toyniffler.livejournal.com]

I haven't been to Italy since the Lira was the currency of choice so I really have personal experience of how much it costs to eat there nowadays. But it used to be very cheap. I suppose it still is if you avoid the touristy places. Also,never underestimate the lure of museum shops, they're expensive places ;)
Here's a link to public buses in Florence, seems useful!
http://www.ataf.net/Default.aspx?LN=en-US

[toyniffler.livejournal.com]

Bugger, I really have NO personal experience...Such a tiny word and so important

[dungeons-master.livejournal.com]

In Florence, nowadays? Make it 700$, just to be sure. Prices here are hiiiigh since the Euro came out, sometimes doubled, sometimes even more than that compared to when we had Lira. A week is not a long period, but you never know. And beware of taxies and bars: the owners tend to raise the price a lot when they notice the customer is a foreigner who doesn't know the usual price.
If you have an Italian friend try to stuck with her when you go shopping!

[tena524.livejournal.com]

It's been a few years since I did any foreign travel [pauses a moment to consider this in some dismay], but it used to be the case that you got a better exchange rate by using an ATM card abroad to get local currency. It may also be a good idea to acquire a stash of traveler's checks to take with you. AAA is generally a good source for TC's if you're a member.

Leave copies of the traveller's checks with the serial numbers clearly visible at home with Roomie, along with a copy of the important pages of your passport, just in case. In this day and age, chances are excellent that she would be able to fax copies to you or the nearest embassy in an emergency, which could save an incredible amount of hassle. Of course, a sort of reverse Murphy's Law applies, in that if you take precautions, you won't need them - an excellent argument for doing it!