Handy Travel Item: Sleep Sheet

In my previous post I mentioned doing posts about handy items that are frequently overlooked by numerous travellers. So, what exactly IS a sleep sheet? A sleep sheet is a sheet or bed liner often made from satin or silk that travellers use to lay on top of hostel mattresses. This is often for hygienic reasons as nobody wants to catch bed bugs while on holiday! 

Sleep sheet folded in its pouch

I'll give the hostels the benefit of the doubt that most of them frequently wash their bed sheets between travellers but it doesn't hurt to give yourself a layer of protection just in case. In the worst case scenario, bed bugs may be the least of your worries. Many models of sleep sheets now also feature a pillow flap for you to insert a pillow in. Again, for HYGIENE PURPOSES! 

So, if you ever run into some questionable duvets/pillows, you'll have a nice clean, silky sheet cocooned around you instead of that! Some hostels require you to bring a sleep sheet or hire linen from them. Some hostels (e.g. YHA) offer linen free of charge but this may not be the case in many other Hostels. You can save money by using your own sheet instead of having the hostel provide one for you. Sounds like a win-win situation so far.

Things I Need To Buy Before Flying

I am essentially backpacking through Europe for 3 months from December to February. Now, there are many useful guides and blogs around that give potential travellers like me extremely handy tips and information on how to make travelling easier whilst making the most of your trip. Some of these tips are usually about items many novice nomads overlook when making a packing list. 

I am going to make a few posts on handy things I will be buying/taking with me on my trip that some travellers may not have even considered prior to investigating said travel blogs.

A Travel Journal

Source: google.co.nz via Angela on Pinterest

A very handy item indeed! We may live in an age of iPads and Macbooks but keeping a travel journal gives you a solid item to record your memories in by hand. There's just a classic appeal or romance to being able to preserve your travel memories in a notebook. It's more personal and you can take it with you everywhere in your bag or pocket.  This means you can whack out your journal everytime you stop at a chic Parisian cafe or Bavarian biergarten to doodle your thoughts or spill your drinks onto. Writing in a journal while you are on the streets also makes you less conspicuous to potential thieves compared to broadly typing away on your expensive looking laptops. 

Thoughts before going on my Eurotrip!

So, it is almost a month before I fly to Europe for the first time ever. I am admittedly stoked about it! Some people have asked me why I was so determined to travel to Europe which is obviously a very expensive holiday destination in comparison to Asia. This is considering direct flights to Asia are only around 8 hours and often with much cheaper airfare with many budget airlines (e.g. Jetstar, Virgin, Tiger Air) offering amazing return flight prices from $600. Europe, or Germany specifically as it is the first country on my trip, requires a 13 hour trip to your stop over destination, which is Dubai with Emirates, then another flight to Munich which takes around 6 hours. That just sounds gruelling compared to flying to Asia! Not to mention, the return airfares flying to Europe usually starts from $1500.

Source: designaglow.com via Joanne on Pinterest

However, I have been to Asia for every overseas trip I've ever been on. I travelled to Vietnam (five times), Japan, Cambodia, Thailand, China, Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore. These countries were amazing and no doubt are all popular holiday destinations for people all over the world. Now, I am really seeking somewhere different culturally and aesthetically to give me a broader view of the world. Then the idea of an Eurotrip was conceived!

There are actually a fair few reasons