I have never seen or heard of anybody doing this. It's quite expensive to buy clothes on the go, especially if OP is going to travel through Scandinavia where everything in general is quite expensive. This is a greater issue if OP happens to be a large person where large sizes may be in short supply.

I suppose it's a matter of personal preference though. I don't find shopping enjoyable. Going to an outlet shop or a mall is a chore that gets in the way of doing fun things for me. Others might like the appeal of it.

There is something to be said about packing too much though. Overpacking is probably the most common mistake I see from backpackers. I remember watching Chinese tourists walking up the flight of steps to the hostel I was working at with gigantic luggage bags that felt as though they were holding bricks. I have no idea how they weren't ripped given the crap they were carrying with them from city to city.

For the first few extended trips I made, I always overpacked no matter how hard I tried not to. Now, I use a hard & fast rule to guide me: if it can't be taken on a Ryanair flight for free, it's too big. You can always buy small things on the go wherever you are.

This is what I do during my trips. It cuts down on doubling back, travel costs, and amount of time spent traveling from one place to another. I mean it ends up looking like a circle drawn by a double amputee holding a pencil in their mouth but it is a closed, circle-like shape.

Yeah. Nobody I know went to Morocco and came back raving about the beauty of Casablanca. Even the Wikitravel entry struggles to say good things about it. Fez and Marrakech received good reviews from friends of mine who went there.

How do they enforce the non-Muslim rule? Do they look at you and go "Not Muslim. Leave."? Do you have to answer three questions before crossing a bridge? What if you're white and converted to Islam or just a white guy who knows a lot about Islam but isn't Muslim?

Casablanca does indeed kinda suck. Marrakech is way better, particularly the old town market called the soog.

When just googling the mosque the link said that it is one of only two mosques open to non-muslims in Morocco. There are guided tours available apparently.
When I was there I "tipped" one of the attendants to get a tour of the hammans (elaborate baths below the mosque). My memory is obviously faulty. Maybe it was later in the day when there were no more tours and you could only enter for the prayer services.



Marrakesh is definitely worth a visit and the souks are great. In the evenings on the square in front of the souks there are a great many food stalls. There are street musicians, dancers and other performers. The food is great, the atmosphere is great, highly recommended.

Marrakesh is quite a detour from Spain though.

How safe is solo travel in rural Spain for an American with rudimentary Spanish?

As a rule, Western Europe is safer than America. The murder rate in Spain is 1/9th of what it is in the US and violent crime rates are also much lower. For things like theft, you're safer in the rural areas than in the tourist areas of like Barcelona and Madrid.

If you're not going to Spain until Spring then it should be enough time to get your Spanish to a low intermediate level.

Perfectly safe. You'd have to worry more about stray cats than people in rural Spain.

If you are going to Spain in March, check out the calendar for Las Fallas.

Strongly recommend Granada. I have lived there for half a year and it is a vibrant student city and known for its Spanish language schools - I can recommend Delengua there which is directly in the historical center Albaicin. It is also very cheap compared to other larger cities: google Granada tapas, which always come free with a beer and are more like a small meal than just tapas.

No, this is not how it works. A minimalist approach to backpacking is bringing one changing set of clothes and wash when needed in the morning in the shower.

I'd say pack and then remove half at least probably more. You won't miss anything and not having a load of stuff to lug around is a godsend. If you do need something you can buy it. The earlier post by Bob is pretty spot on.

Spain is safe everywhere at all times of day. Really this isn't quite true, there are places to stay away from (some neighborhoods on the coast in Cadiz, some very localized areas in Madrid or Barcelona) but the chances you'd wind up in a genuinely unsafe place in Spain are almost nil, and you won't recognize a potentially dangerous Spaniard in any case, because they don't look menacing to American eyes. However, you might get took at the the restaurants, so check the bill.

Iceland was cool. I went to the Blue Lagoon and I did the Golden Circle tour. Unfortunately i didn't get to see the Northern Lights because of weather.

I'm in Stockholm now. I like it so far. This is my first night.

Iceland's pretty awesome. The capital itself doesn't get quite as much attention as the beauty outside of it does. I enjoyed their lamb soup (free refills too) and another place sold an Icelandic version of fish and chips. I was surprised to see a stand-up comedy scene in Reykjavik. No cover charge to see it either.

Nice architecture along the water and a terrific view of some mountains across the way. Hell, I use a picture I took there as my Facebook cover photo.

Didn't go to The Blue Lagoon unfortunately. Had to reserve a spot in advance and I thought it was too expensive to justify going. Had the same issue with Northern Light as you did. They kept cancelling the tours I scheduled.

If only they could salt the walkways. Had to walk along what felt like a skating rink to get to and from the train station.

Stockholm was great but Helsinki is very underwhelming. I am leaving tomorrow and I think I am taking the boat to Tallinn.

This is what I tried to tell you as a Helsinkian. Tallinn is awesome tho, and the ferry ride is quick, cheap and easy.

While in Helsinki, make sure to experience the sauna tho. I'd recommend "Löyly", you get to do some very chilly swimming in the sea while there as well. Fairly sure you can rent your own gear.

If you'd like to try out some excellent middle eastern food, go to Sandro in Kallio. Legendary place. Harju döner (close to Sandro) for epic döner kebabs, arguably the best in Scandinavia. Skip the Finnish cuisine, it's all garbage although try Karelian pies (you can find them in any grocery store in the fresh baked goods section) and the classic alcohol products: jaloviina, salmiakkikossu and long drinks. Long drinks taste like gatorade, they were originally supposed to be sports drinks for the 1952 olympics but then someone poured gin in there and suddenly we had a very tasty specialty drink.

In Tallinn, for the best food/bars/artsy stuff go to Telliskivi. It's an under the radar former factory complex / now a hipster neighborhood of sorts not far from the centre. You can have two beers for 3 euros inside on an abandoned train car that's still sitting on the tracks, for example.

I'm at a hostel in Old Town Tallinn right now. Great place (both the hostel and Old Town). Going to do the exploring mostly tomorrow.

Thanks for the updates. Jelly.

Good to hear that you're enjoying yourself in Tallinn.

I suspect that I will have to give it another shot at some point. Maybe I didn't give it a fair shake the first time I visited.

I'm on a bus from Tallinn to Riga. Anybody got info on where to hang out/eat in Riga? Thanks.

Old town hostel

Ideally you are staying at hostels and mingling and going out to sightsee during the day and clubbing with the gang at the hostel? Also make sure you do Krakow and after that would recommend heading towards Greece

Just arrived in Vilnius. Staying here til Monday

I'd be interested to see how you compare the 3 Baltic capitals, I assume I'd like Tallinn the best but I've never been to any of them.

Make sure you get the "bread fries" (kepta douna, IIRC) appetizer while you're in Vilnius. It's bread cut in to strips and fried, with a sorta mayo-like sauce. By description, it sounds disgusting, but it's one of the best beer snacks I've ever had. The smoked pig ears, on the other hand, are as bad as they sound.

I'm a big fan of Cepelinai, a large potato dumpling shaped like a zeppelin (hence the name) stuffed with something like ground meat or cheese curds. There's a variety of them available.

Try to find the mural of Trump and Putin smoking weed together. It was hard to get a decent picture of it when I saw it. I suspect that the owner of the place that has the mural on it parks in front of it to keep crowds from gathering for pictures and jamming up the sidewalk.

Tallinn is definitely cleaner and a more refined (for lack of a better word) place when compared to Riga and Vilnius. However, my time in Riga and Vilnius was more interesting. I remember getting a picture of Vilnius where you could see three different eras of architecture in one shot: the old town on one side, khrushchyovkas on the other and in the background, a bunch of large, modern office buildings that seemed to represent what the country is aspiring to become.

Might give Tallinn another shot in the future. Given how people talk about it, I have to imagine that I missed something.

I'm in Krakow. Doing a pub tour tonight and a tour of Auschwitz tomorrow. Heading to Budapest on Friday or Saturday.

I will be able to make more detailed posts when I find a computer to use.