I hope you have fun on your exchange.

Right now, Europe is EXTREMELY expensive for Americans, making one of your “unexpected costs” the exchange rate. When last I looked the Euro was quickly approaching $1.50! And of course this will affect EVERY thing you do!

For short and moderate distances I recommend train travel. It’s more comfortable and more convenient and many times cheaper than even the advertised “cheap” air fares. You find when you look into a $25 fare, by the time you get all the taxes applied, it can quickly become $100!

We just returned from a three week trip through Europe. We are generally not into the “souvenir” thing, I make a huge scrapbook of all our photos when I return! But you can count on high prices in any “touristy” part of Europe. I don’t know what the prices will be in Madrid, but in Switzerland and Southern Germany, we saw meal prices ranging from about 15 euros for a cheap lunch to 50 euros for an expensive lunch.

About 15-20 percent higher in Sweden and Finland. We were staying with friends and family, so didn’t do a lot of restaurant things. We generally liked to stop in a grocery store for bread, cheese, and some meat and make sandwiches along the way and we’d pay about 10-15 euros for three or four people that way. Add another 5 or so for drinks.

As to museums and such … some things are still pretty reasonable,

For example, the Mercedes museum in Stuttgart Germany is 8 euros, 4 for students.

The Ludwigsburg palace (also Germany) 6 Euros, 3 for students

You get the idea. One thing that’s very helpful in Europe is to have a student ID card, you save LOTS of money that way!

Good luck and have fun!

As for traveling to other countries, I went to Switzerland (Geneva and Lausanne), London, Madrid and Belgium (Brussels and Brugge). The have many student travel agency that do trips cheaply (most of them are bus rides). Because you are in Spain, you will probably have to fly to cities like Paris, London, Rome, Amsterdam, etc. The student travel agencies also offer flight package that are somewhat reasonably priced, but many times you can book your own travel on the internet for less. I went to Madrid for 5 days and I spent about 300 for transportation and accommodations. (I spent about $150 on Iberia Airlines for a roundtrip ticket that I booked through expedia.com.) I found the hostel in one the the European travel guides that you find at Barnes and Noble, that lists hostels/hotels in the back. I called the hostel myself and made arrangements. I would suggest pricing the flights for the places you want to go now, to give yourself a better idea of how much you will spend on travel. One tip I can give you is to bring your student ID and driver’s license because many times you can get into museums for discounted prices.

I really can’t think of any unexpected cost except that sometimes the weather is not the norm and you have to be prepared to purchase clothing that you did not bring. Should you have any other questions feel free to email me or post them here. I hope this was helpful.