What To Do When It Snows While You’re Traveling

The first snow fall of the year is today in New York City and if you know me, you know that I love the snow. Though what I mean by “love” is that I love watching it from indoors and going out in it *occasionally*. You will never find me hiking a snow covered mountain. That shit is bonkers.

But when I saw all the tourists outside in the snow tonight and on my train home, I thought, “man, I hope they knew this was coming and packed appropriately.” Because if anyone knows how much it sucks to pack inappropriately it’s yours truly.

This brings me back to last March when I checked the weather for my trip to Budapest, Vienna, and Salzburg, saw it was going to be 65* and sunny, and checked again two nights before and saw it was actually going to be 40* and rainy. I walked around Poland in the rain in Converse sneakers for almost 10 days in 2016 and I’d 100% learned my lesson.

So what did I do? I ran around looking for cute combat boots to bring with me on the trip that might keep my feet dry and was I glad I did because it did not in fact rain while I was abroad, but on my third day in Budapest it snowed.

Was I mad about this? Not one bit. It made the walking tours extra pretty and the streets extra empty.

My advice to you to avoid getting caught in in climate weather is to keep checking the forecast before you travel abroad. And make sure you bring appropriate footwear! But what do you do if you get caught and need some new gear?

Google “Flying Tiger” where ever you are (these stores are everywhere in Europe and in New York City, too!) and they’ll most likely have everything you need from socks to hats to gloves. They saved my ass in Poland and again in Budapest when I need emergency bandaids because the new boots that I’d just bought rubbed my ankles in a less than ideal way.

It continued to snow a few times in Vienna and then in Salzburg which was super picturesque. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Snowy Salzburg. 

Lastly: Enjoy it. Snow may not always be ideal, but it’s better than melting, right? Right.