There is one cardinal rule of wandering Europe

There is one cardinal rule of wandering Europe: never, ever leave your bag unattended.

I picked up the habit of keeping my hand on my bag at all times while I was in France, and I still feel automatically wary of any stranger who brushes a bit too close when we’re in public — and for good reason! One of my classmates nearly had her wallet snatched out of her bag; it was lucky that another classmate spotted a little kid with his hand in a pocket of her backpack that he’d unzipped, fishing for anything of value. It’s a habit I’ve carried with me to Boston and I don’t think I’ll be losing it anytime soon!

Another good rule of thumb is to stick with a partner. I’m all for adventuring on your own; I love running off around the city by myself to explore. But at night, particularly on weekends, it’s generally a good idea to stick with someone — just to make sure that you both get back to the hotel and no one ends up lost. Not having GPS can be a killer!

In all honesty, safety here is the same as safety in the U.S. Use your common sense — if you see some sketchy looking guys down an alleyway, then don’t go down that alleyway. Use sidewalks and (though it pains the Bostonian jaywalker in me to say this) follow the lights.

One tip I did pick up, however, was to always watch how much money to request from the ATM — people here don’t like having to dole out change; I once had to pay for a 230 dinar lunch with a 2,000 dinar bill (the equivalent of paying for a $2 lunch with a $20) and got some dirty looks and huffing thrown my way. From then on, I always went to the ATM requesting anything that would be doled out in 1,000 bills or less — if you can find a way to break your money on your own, and not rely on cashiers to do it for you, you’ll have far fewer people frustrated with your business!