” Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. “
Arthur C. Clarke
This would be a good time for Tech Tips. What we are using and are really happy about:
Keep your smart phones. We have T-Mobile and we get free text messages and data internationally from them, which is handy (WARNING—Your phone must be unlocked if you want to swap out SIMM chips in foreign countries…..ours are because we switched from AT&T to T-Mobile prior to our trip). The problem is our T-Mobile service may be sketchy due to roaming conditions. Also, I didn’t want to abuse the international service to the extent T-Mobile insisted I buy a full-time international plan. Even so, I really didn’t want to buy or rent another phone to use in Greece (and beyond). Caution though, roaming coverage isn’t as good as local service is at home and if you really need it, you might find yourself with no signal. In addition, I’ve dozens of apps loaded on my phone and I don’t want to lose those or have to load them on a new phone (if I can even get them in Greece or wherever). I also loaded a currency converter on my phone (and laptop) which is very helpful. So why be happy to keep my American smart phone if it doesn’t function like it did back home? See below.
Vodafone Mi-Fi. In Athens, we bought the data hot spot and bought 5 gbps of data. On our first day in Athens, in pouring rain my T-Mobile GPS connection failed. Sucks to be lost dragging 50 pounds of luggage in the rain. Welcome to my world. Thankfully we got directions from a delivery courier. Our Vodafone GPS almost always works now, and we can use the hot-spot when the hotel Wi-Fi stinks (like it did in Delphi). It cost me about 48 Euros for the box and 12 Euros for the 5 Gbps. I’ve since had to buy another 5 Gbps, but its been a life-saver. Vodafone is not your only option, there are other carriers, and they are unlocked so you can pick another carrier in the next country if Vodafone does not service it. Oh, and when we go to Egypt, we buy an Egyptian Vodafone SIMM chip for the Mi-Fi and more data and we are good to go. (you can set up your account and add data over an app you load onto your phone.)
Charger batteries (Portable Power Banks). Those little boxes that range in size and are as small as a tube of lipstick up to the size of a brick. I got three of them, two are about like two packs of cigarettes (end-to-end), and one slightly larger and heavier. Ellen already had a small one for her personal use and took it as well. We’ve never run out of juice, whether on the run or in a hotel room with not outlets located where you need them. With our devices I can power two phones, my hot spot, two PCs (Mac and Windows) and an Ipad for about 24 hours. Maybe its overkill, but you won’t find me running around an airport looking for a plug.
Adapter plugs. Amazing, everyone doesn’t use 110v like we do in America (or is it 120v? I get confused). I think most people already know that the EU, England, Africa, India, Asia, all use 220v (or 240v). Some of your devices may be able to use both, but not all, but none of the countries outside the USA (except Canada, Mexico and some of Central America) use the plug hardware we do in the USA. Due to this, the plugs all look different. We got a couple of adapters that morph into all the different configurations (or so we hope). Problem solved! Or is it?
I did mention that not all devices can use both 110v and 220v. Do you want to risk frying your smart phone or computer because it won’t adapt? Not me. So, we got a Voltage Converter (I paid about $50 bucks for mine, it can do 4 USB cords and 3 AC charger cords at the same time). Don’t confuse a plug adapter to a voltage converter…..they are not the same. Yeah, this voltage converter bugger is bigger than I wanted for packing, but now we are safe. I also brought a voltage gauge that I already had ($7 bucks at Home Depot) just to be sure the juice is safe. It always has been. I’ll post pics. What we have started doing is setting up a charging station for all our devices. It works well, and now we don’t worry about forgetting a cord plugged into that socket tucked behind the bed or wrapped up in the sheets because we were charging our phones and reading emails in bed. They are always at one spot in the hotel.
Cord Carrier. We keep all our power cords in one little zipper bag that tucks into the suitcase or my carry-on backpack if we might need to recharge during a long flight. We flew WoW Airlines and EasyJet from the US to Athens, so not a lot of frills and there were no electrical outlets on the plane. We have too many cords. At least two for every device, just in case we lose one or it breaks. So far so good.
Take what you use. Unless you plan on going native cold turkey (and they (foreigners) are almost as wired as we are in the US, if not more) you need your tech. If you normally do stuff on your PC or Mac or IPAD, keep them. It can be challenging and unsettling not being able to do the tasks you need to do (email, phone calls, text messages, blogging, video games, facetime, balance your checkbook, online banking, pay your income taxes, research, read a book, order tour guides, watch movies, etc.) We’ve seen some amazing stuff every day on our travels, but it kind of nice to pop up a movie we downloaded on Ellen’s IPAD whether on a plane or in a hotel before we go to bed. Here is a list of the junk we took:
- Ellen’s Mac
- Ed’s Windows laptop
- Ellen’s IPAD
- Ed’s Android phone
- Ellen’s iPhone
- Ellen’s headphones (noise cancellation)
- Ed’s headphones (noise cancellation)
- Ed’s camera (yes, I like my Nikon better than my phone)
- Ellen’s iWatch
- Ed’s FitBit
- Ed’s Kindle
- Ellen’s Kindle
It’s a bunch, huh? Surprisingly, all this stuff really doesn’t take up that much room. The Mac and PC charging cords are the worst. I can do my blog. Ellen can do her posts to Facebook. We can watch movies, and maintain some semblance of our previous lives. We still do have to pay bills and take care of business back home while we are 3,000 miles away.
HDMI cable, or Apple Adapter. OK, this is cool. At least for me it is. On a plane, using the IPAD to watch a movie is fine (you have to share ear buds- This bud’s for you), but even without the buds in bed or on a couch, the IPAD is dinky. We had to buy one (Apple HDMI adapter) in Athens because we didn’t even think about this (Apple products are very expensive in the EU. The cord is $39 in the US and 57 Euros in Greece). We tried to do a wireless interface to the TV at our Air BNB, but her apple wouldn’t connect and I just didn’t want to mess with every TV in every hotel we go. Most TVs have HDMI, so this works well. Now, we just crank up the downloaded files or movies you purchase on Amazon and have a little entertainment. We still read a lot, but it let’s us relax together, and its what we normally did back home. So, it’s a little bit of home in a wire for us.
Wi-Fi calling. Technically, it comes with your phone, but its good to let you know that this works well internationally. We don’t pay international rates for voice calls (and we don’t do many) but sometimes you have to call home, talk to the bank, credit card company or work about some issue. This makes it easy. Usually its just a setting on your phone. Sometimes you need to make sure the voice roaming is off. That would be a nasty surprise to get that in your next bill as most rates are like 25 cents a minute and up. Also, most international plans from companies like AT&T and Verizon are about $10 a day. If you stay gone a year like we plan, that would be more like a mortgage. Unfortunately, my phone won’t do Wi-Fi calling. I bought it off Amazon, so no telling where it came from or what they did to it. You may also find AT&T phones are difficult if you unlocked it and switched carriers (or so tech support told me). You may also be able to download an app to get around this issue.
Set up a Virtual Private Network (VPN). We signed up for a one year contract with ExpressVPN. There are dozens of providers you can do this with. Express had good ratings and a free month to see if it works for you. It did. So what and why did we want this? This is layman terminology, and may not be 100% accurate on the terminology (so shoot me), but its like a tunnel in the internet that connects your PC to a location (proxy server) back in the states. So you jump on the Internet in Spain, and it looks like you are in Odessa (for some obtuse reason) or wherever else the provider has their farm set up. Why? I worry about being hacked when using a hotel or public network. No matter how careful you are and if you have a firewall or Norton’s or McAfee I still worry about getting my digital pocket picked (I carry a RFID wallet too). This is especially concerning when I do online transactions (booking.com, AirBNB, Amazon, banking, credit cards, etc.). We tie into the hotspot, turn on the VPN (if its not already on) and tunnel our way back home.
We don’t worry so much with our Vodafone, but still to be safe we use it all the time. Better Safe than sorry.VPN benefits. YouTube/TV. No! You don’t get YouTube/TV for free. Follow along slowly, now. Back home, we had Netflix and Amazon TV (we are Prime) and we thought, “Cool, we can watch our favorite shows when on the road.” Not so fast, Sherlock. Amazon and Netflix have a limited lineup based on the country you are in. Something about licensing or some tripe (we didn’t do Brexit, dammit). So, unless you love watching “CSI”, “Chicago Fire”, or “The Housewives of Who Gives a Fuck Where” you may be out of luck. In addition, we found out that they don’t allow access through proxy servers so there goes part of the value of a VPN. Never fear, you may really enjoy Survivor Greece, with Greek subtitles. Greek TV really bites.
YouTube/TV, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to mind. So we ponied up and did the monthly fee and we can catch ESPN, and all sorts of other programs which makes it really nice. We just plug in the HDMI adapter to Ellen’s IPAD and make some popcorn and we are good. Did I mention that Greek TV is even worse with reality shows than we are back home? Make America Gag Again!
GPS. We went to Europe originally back in 1995. We rented a car and were lost most of the time. We had maps, but missed our turns time after time. Not only do they drive on the wrong side of the road, the signs look different, drivers behave differently, I’ve even been in a London cab that got lost and he had to ask for directions, and so it was just very stressful. It didn’t help that we got into a fender bender in York. That doesn’t happen now. I love GPS. I cry when I don’t have coverage. It gives me courage, and it makes Ellen believe I can get us from Athens to Delphi to Kalabaka to Nafplion. I always thought Kalabaka was a Polish sausage, but not here. At least we’ve cut down on the amount of Valium she’s using (she’ll probably make me remove this line since it’s totally not true….I’m the one that snorts valium). We carry maps, as backups, but guidance on the road (and on foot) comes from the handy GPS on our smart phones. It has really changed the way we travel from 25 years ago. Thank goodness.
OK, that’s enough. I hope there were one or two pearls a reader may think is a good idea, we thought about this a lot before we left and still made mistakes. Ellen and I don’t know it all, (far from it) and perhaps there are clever solutions we don’t employ, but so far, this has worked for us.