Trans-Atlantic Tuesday: Money

As I was going through my wallet today I found something that reminded me there was a big part of my Prague trip that I forgot to mention; money!

Czech Koruna

1 Dollar

=

1.24 Euro

=

22.19 Koruna

The Czech Republic is part of the European Union and so they do not use the Euro.  While the money is beautiful, and I loved that the conversion rate for euro to the Czech koruna was highly in my favor, I realized how spoiled I am to have the euro.  

The euro allows me to travel from country to country and not have to worry about constantly switching currencies.  This is especially important because it allows me to understand the money that I am spending.  It was an adjustment first moving to Ireland, and understanding that every time I handed over 10 euro it was really 13.3 dollars.  Eventually you start to get a sense of the currency, but it would be extremely difficult to have to do that for every country that I go to.  

*Side note: the exchange rate has changed since I arrived. In August 1 euro=1.33 dollars, now the rate has dropped to 1 euro=1.24 dollars…it may not seem like much but it is an 9% difference! 

I think the best part about the euro is the freedom it allows me.  I never like to travel without a lot of cash reserves, for emergencies I hope never happen. However, I did not spend all my koruna and so now I am left trying to figure out what to do with it. With the euro, I do not have to worry about the money becoming useless. 

The hard part is ensuring that I have enough to last me through May!