The film did hold me in a sturdy grip all the time, I couldn’t let it go. It was not my meaning to see the film at all, but I could not stop to watch. How could it be possible to isolate yourself like Hans-Erik Norberg did, for so many years and WHY…?

The film team lead by the documentary director Erik Strömdahl really succeeded (or was it Hans-Erik himself?) to reach out to my heart, I felt such a compassion for him. And sadness: no one should be forced to live like that without human closeness!

The answer was obvious after a while: with a childhood of sickness (several heart operations), abuse of his father and bullied around in school, he decided to not have any friends anymore. Just like that. Or maybe not if thinking about it: I can understand where it was coming from since he had been betrayed so much and from his own family too. Why is it that we humans so easily pick on other human beings?

Everything changed though after the director of the film got in contact with him. To finally talk to someone, someone with patience, understanding and compassion, who tried to understand what happened and helped him to understand himself what have had happened.

The title of the film came from Hans-Erik himself, when people asked, he said he came from Jupiter. It says it all. Can you imagine how off he must have felt himself to be from other persons?

The film team even let him come with them to southern Sweden to explore the friendship of one of his old friends who lived down there now, plus visiting his relatives he had not have had contact with all those years, to straighten out some misunderstandings. After that things turned out different for him.

Especially after they also took him over the border to Copenhagen, Denmark. You should see his face expression when they did drive over the bridge and he got to know that they had passed the border. That he was actually ABROAD now. The fascination in his face will never leave my mind… How he did put down his feet on the new country’s ground, like it was on the moon he had landed!

If I ever get tired of traveling I will try to remember that expression of his feeling when being abroad for the first time in his life!

He said himself: it happened something when they went to the Tivoli in Copenhagen. He suddenly got a very happy feeling and it would not leave him, since then he was much more happy… It breaks my heart, that such things that the film team did, could change his whole life vision. From being such an offish person, to this new, open for life person, with so little attention! He should have had that 45 years earlier!

When the film team was leaving him, one of the young girls did give him a long hug – afterward they got to know that it was the first hug EVER he got from a woman… Can you imagine to be in his shoes…?

Available at YouTube with English texts, have a look:

The film team continued to meet him, to help him to shop among other things – I guess they couldn’t let him go as I couldn’t when watching the film – and finally after the Christmas holidays they couldn’t get in touch with him suddenly and went there to see what was up.

They didn’t get any answer when knocking on the door and checked with the health care which had not have any luck either, so finally they contacted the police which went in to the apartment and sadly enough found him dead…

I so wanted a more happy ending… *deep sigh*

©Lifecruiser Love The Man from Jupiter
 

© kalcutta – Fotolia.com

Generally I would not recommend traveling with your cat, but sometimes it’s necessary and also some cats may cope very well with it if getting use to it from an early age or not getting motion sickness/having any diseases. They are individs just like us. Check by doing some minor roadtrips before you leave on your longer one.

The biggest problem you probably will face is to get the cat to drink water, so you can try to help your cat putting water drops around the mouth – or tongue if it’s hanging out – if possible. Be sure to bring your own tap water with you, because the cat might not drink from bottled water – you know how picky they can be.

Put a wet towel over (or in a part of) the cat carrier to keep it shady and cool. Try to find a small fan driven by batteries and place it in front of the carrier to use if needed, but not not directly to the eyes of the cat to avoid drying the cat’s eyes out.

Except for the belly and the paws which is the same as for the dogs, also keep their outside of the ears and the armpits cool. Since it might be more difficult to cool down a cat with water, try using a misting spray instead. If the cat want to play, try throwing a couple of icekubes.

Cats generally are better at finding cool places to lay down at by themselves than some of the dogs do. Place some cool bottles and see if the cat want to lay around them. You could also freeze them before you go travel to keep them cool during the trip, but don’t let the cat lay beside them when they are frozen without anything in between.

If you need to make a stop and park the car, use extra windshields for the windows to keep the car cool or don’t put the cat back in the car again until the AC has been on for a while and the air in the car is cool again. (What ever you do: don’t let the cat out of the carrier, it will escape!)

To keep a cat cool at the hotel room, test if the bathroom is cooler than the rest of the room which it use to be. Also make sure your hotel room have airconditioning when you book it and check that it is working the first thing you do when you arrive. If not you have bigger luck when asking for a room with a working AC if you do it at once.

Cats have a habit of finding all bags, boxes or suitcases to hide in, so look out that you won’t lock in your cat in your suitcase

© pterwort – Fotolia.com

When it comes to travel with other transport like buses, train or air, always ASK about all the conditions for the cat before booking anything and make sure you book with a responsible carrier.

How do you know if your cat is dehydrated and overheated? Look out for the signs: unusual panting and drooling, lethargic, fever, vomiting, Diarrhea and muscle tremors among other signs. Wrap the cat in a wet towel, place the cat in cool place, put on a fan and try to get the cat to drink water but don’t force it.

If you suspect your cat have had a heat stroke, even if you got it out of the primary danger, always let a Vet check it up, since there can be damages to inner organs if unlucky!

©Lifecruiser Love Cats
 

I planned to describe the attraction of the Yorkshire Dales,
Why over 1.75 million Brits would visit there this coming year?
What bringing the Tour de France through this region?
Memories of what it was like to farm there.
The scenic beauty,
Tranquility,
Land that reflects Yorkshire attitude.
The setting of Herriot and his veterinary tales.
Inspiration for Charles Kingsley to write ‘The Water Babies’,
That was the plan…

I’m not the first to advise the importance of “having a plan” for anything to do with travel; I may be the first to add the caveat;
“Make sure you have a cunning backup plan too!”

21 July 2013

It was Sunday and the good weather continued. We got away early as planned and had left the urban sprawl behind before most people had risen from a Sunday lie in. From Ilkley we took the “back roads.” Narrow but at that time of the morning quiet; passing behind Bolton Abbey before dropping into Burnsall from the Appletreewick direction. Today I wanted some pictures for my planned article from deeper into Dales Country. Wensleydale was on my mind. A few good shots before the sunlight got too strong and a picnic by a beck while I “took in the vibes” and perhaps jotted down a few thoughts and notes for later use. From Kettlewell the road up dale changes its mood completely as the valley narrows in. Twisting and turning like an unbacked filley; I was soon hearing suggestions of a required stop from my two companions as the coffee before leaving made its presence felt. But I had a plan, I had it covered. Starbotton; quaint and picturesque is at the midpoint between Kettlewell and Buckden where I remembered a small car park with facilities that sits at the back of the small village shop. With luck the shop would be open and we could purchase a few of the excellent small cakes or scones to add to our picnic. The shop was open and I negotiated through the group of walkers that were gathered around the narrow and tree-lined entrance way that climbs into the car park at the rear. The bottom of the car park was already quite busy with “serious” walkers (the ones that carry ski poles) completing their pre-expeditionary routines.  Mindful of the two dogs that we had, also in need of an airing, I made my way up and parked in the quiet and empty corner at the top. Five minutes later, the dogs duly “aired” the three of us trudged back down to visit the shop for our goodies.

The “What Happened Next…”

We entered the tiny village store. Pressed our eager noises against the display of limited though tempting assortment of goodies. Made our selection of highlights to add value to our picnic meal and, after the exchange of a few pleasantries with the amiable shop keeper, happily paid over our monies to help support the local economy. Within perhaps 10 minutes we were contentedly re-entering the car park entrance chatting about the planned day ahead. We were no more than a third of the way back up the slope to where the car was parked when one of my companions stopped abruptly:

“What’s that pink notice on the windshield of the car?”

“Dunno. Probably a flier for a local event or something.” It was the first thing that came to mind. But no, It was a ticket; we were in a Pay & Display Car Park… Apparently!

In disbelief we looked around. Nowhere within sight of the car could we find any notice or signage of any kind. We looked at a greater distance. There would be a yellow bibbed official who had issued the ticket somewhere: None. Right at the bottom of the car park, where the other early visitors had parked up we spied the notice board and between the bodies, Ah… Yes there was the stainless steel box of a Ticket machine. Our pink notice demand an all day fee now and production at the National Parks Office in Grassington or risk prosecution under by-laws. Disbelief was replaced with a sense of typical Yorkshire outrage. It was decided a two hour ticket was ransom enough and we would investigate further. Where were the “Have You Paid & Displayed Notices” that we understood were a requirement at such locations.

The first is the main board which you don’t see when entering the site and the second is at the entrance. The subject rumbled on all day between us. Discrete and easily missable signage followed by ransom demand seem inappropriate and by the end of the day my attitude was very much “They think I can read a wooden notice whilst driving through pedestrians? I’ll be delighted to see them in court!” A few days later I shoved the offending pink ticket, our Pay and Display Ticket and a short note containing the details and the fact I would be emailing the appropriate person at complaints.

I had calmed down slightly by the time I sent in my email of complaint. I included the exact details of the event, the pin-point GEO location of where my car was parked and attached the images shown here. I also conveyed my intention of writing this post, invited a response from the National Park Authority and sat back to wait. I received a very courteous and prompt reply; my email was being forwarded to the Head of Rangers; who followed up the very next day.

My opinion of National Parks Officers as tending to be officious and intransigent was about to be challenged to change. I had received prompt acknowledgement and then personal attention to what I had submitted. Time had been taken over this email and it was “conversational” and promise was made to look into the visitor management and signage at the location that I was talking about. I felt that I had some kind of small human relationship with the people trusted with the guardianship of this precious place. I started to appreciate the problem of balancing conservation with access and the often conflicting interests within the National Park. I wanted to know more.  A cunning plan was forming. Are Parks Rangers a “special” sort of person? What walks of life do they come from and what pressures do they work under?

I replied to the email with thanks for the attention and a request. I’d like to spend time with a Ranger and see “first hand” what their work involves for a future article I’m planning about A Day In the Life of a National Parks Ranger. Once again my communication has been rapidly forwarded and acknowledged: this time by the Media Officer at YDNP. I hope we can get something arranged in the near future.

I have promised to notify the Head of Rangers where and when this is published which I will do. Perhaps they will comment which would be nice. Meanwhile I have a cunning plan…

The “What Happens Next…”

I plan to visit the Yorkshire Dales to describe the attraction,
Why over 1.75 million Brits would visit there this coming year?
What’s bringing the Tour de France through this region?
Memories of what it was like to farm there.
The scenic beauty,
Tranquility,
Land that reflects Yorkshire attitude.
The setting of Herriot and his veterinary tales.
Inspiration for Charles Kingsley to write ‘The Water Babies’,
That’s the plan but we’ll see how it turns out.

***

Like Baldrick from Black Adder
It always pays to have a cunning plan…
And then have a cunning back up plan too!

 ***

 

©Lifecruiser Cowboy Trails

 

Other Cowboy Trails Posts at Lifecruiser

© bertys30, Fotolia.com

In our favorite winter escape country Spain, it’s a heat wave coming with extremely hot winds from Sahara in the South, but even the islands out in the Atlantic ocean or in the north of Spain has a horrible heat wave. When looking at my weather app the latest month or so, Costa del Sol in Spain have had at least 10C degrees more than Rio de Janeiro in Brazil!

Even places in European countries which are not really known to have the hottest weather (like Scandinavia and UK) are also gonna have a hot week with higher temperatures than normally accoarding to the weather forecasts.

The heat make it risky not only to get a heat stroke and especially for already ill or old persons, but also the danger of fire breakouts. Many tourists are not taking it seriously and take precautions to avoid start of fires: not cautious enough when BBQ’ing or with their cigarettes thrown in the extremely dry nature.

Never, ever throw your cigarettes in the nature! Always put out your cigarettes in some water to be 100% sure they are put out. Never BBQ in the nature during heatwaves! At other times, always have water with you (or use sand) to suppress the fire. Make sure an extra time that it’s really put out. You don’t wanna be the cause of people losing their homes, do you?

Never ever leave either your kids or your pets in the car alone during a hot day, not even for a few minutes. If they already are dehydrated or on the way to get a heat stroke, minutes can be enough to be dangerous. If they look like they are not really feeling OK: get cold water to them FAST! Shower them with it as well as let them drink a lot of the water. Read my tips on How to keep your dog cool while traveling.

I have noticed before that people are generally not thinking of the risks with the heatwave – probably persons that is not so very used to heatwaves. Locals tend to know what to do, so if you happen to be a tourist in a heatwave: ask the locals what they do to cool down.

Most well known precautions to avoid a heat stroke:

• Stay out of the sun in the mid of the day 11pm to 03pm
• Wear appropriate clothes: loose fitting, thin clothing and protect the head from the sunrays with a hat or scarves
• Use sunscreen – don’t forget to apply several times during day!
• Use quality sunglasses with proper UV-protection
• Avoid alcohol and caffeine which can cause dehydration
• Avoid spicy food (except from salt you need it in the heat)
• No extensive exercise or sightseeing to avoid getting too hot and dehydrated
• Drink as much water as possible a day
• Cool down with water: showers, pool or sea dipping
• Rinse your wrists under cold water, splash cold water in your face, neck, shoulders, back and in the fold of your knees
• Learn to listen to your body, don’t overdo things
• Make sure you never fall asleep in the sun!

Another maybe not so wellknown precations for tourists (from colder countries) which the locals know well, is to put wet towels in the fridge to get cold and put them over your body to cool down – repeat as neeeded.

Also if you have place for it in your freezer, you could put a plastic bag with your bed sheets in the freeze for a couple of hours before bedtime to easier be able to fall asleep. (You always need a good night sleep to cope well the day after).

I always pack ready fluid replacement bought from the pharmacy with me when traveling, which can come in handy not only when you lost fluid because of heat, but also after vomiting or stomach diseases. If you have not packed it, you can make it yourself as below.

How to make a fluid replacement for grownups:

• 1 liter cooked water, let it cool
• 6 teaspoons sugar
• Half a teaspoon salt
• Optional: drops of lemon

Drink it in small portions but often. The fluid replacement can be stored maximum 24 hours in the fridge. Don’t give it to children, they might not be able to handle that much salt, buy ready fluid replacement in the pharmacy for them. The most obvious sign of dehydration is that they don’t pee anything or having a darker pee than normally, but there are many other signs where headache is a common one that I myself always get.

Do you have any other tips to cool down or avoid being dehydrated? Please leave them in the comment or leave a link to the information.

©Lifecruiser Love Heatwave Advices
 

© javier brosch, Fotolia.com

The most obvious sign that your dog think it’s too hot is that the tongue hangs out of it’s mouth. Why does a dog hangs his tongue out of the mouth? He tries to regulate his body heat. The moisture on the tongue will make the blood flow to be cooler.

I can’t say this enough strongly: never ever leave your dog in the car alone during a hot day, not even for a few minutes! It’s very painful for them. Dogs do not cope with heat very well, in fact much worse than we do ourselves!

If traveling by car: try to travel when it’s not too hot and keep the AC running all the time. Do stops regularly along the way and if you can find any places where the dog can take a bath along the way, make the stops there. Have enough towels in the car to last for the whole trip. A bath will cool down the dog for a long time.

If leaving your dog at your holiday rental while you’re going out: make sure that it’s not too hot and that there is enough air. Do leave the airconditioner on for the dog and if it use to be power outage in the area: leave some windows open to be sure the dog get some air.

Always exercise your dog when it’s least hot, which means in the early mornings and late evenings. Try to let them use their heads instead of their bodies. The brain needs the most exercise for them to get calm and satisfied. Try to avoid asphalt roads since they absorb heat trough their feet.

That’s also why the best way to cool down an already too hot dog is to place the dogs feet in cool water and sprinkling the chest with cold water or cover him in wet cold towels – plus letting him drink cool water of course. Also remember that a dark coated dog will be faster dehydrated than a light coated dog.

© capsicina, Flickr.com

From my own dog experiences I will also learn you my own trick to avoid getting the dog too hot in advance:

Have a piece of an old bed sheet with you that you can wrap around yuor dog, wet it with cool water and place it on his body. Sometimes it’s also enough when the dog lays upon it. Keep it wet. It’s a great cheap way to keep your dog cool, the bed sheet don’t take up much space/weight and you will need to have water with you anyway.

Also give your dog some dog treat that have been in the freezer or if not possible when out: give the dog an icecream, which will cool him down a lot – at least so that he stop panting for a while, but that will only help temporarily. The sugar in the icecream will make him thirsty eventually – and maybe add up his weight if you have a overweight dog.

Use your fantasy: set up a childrens pool, put on the sprinklers. Don’t be mad of the dog if it has been digging itself a hole in your garden and laid down there – it’s a way to find a cooling place.

How do you know if your dog is dehydrated? Look out for the signs: unusual panting and drooling, lethargic, fever, vomiting, bloodshoot eyes and paleness among others. If you lift the skin: will it fall back fast again or not? If not, the dog is probably dehydrated.

Don’t put ice on the dog – visit the Vet to be sure that your dog will be OK!

©Lifecruiser Love Dogs

Some other dog related posts at Lifecruiser:

Dog on vacation – kayaking
The Dog Bar: Water, snacks and hopefully no Bar fights
Dangerous Dark Bark Passion
Memories of bath maniacs
The Memorable Boxer
 

It’s a curious thing, that seemingly spontaneous ovation that often accompanies an aircraft’s safe return to terra firma. I call it the Landing Clap, a common yet enigmatic phenomenon of modern air travel.

The Landing Clap doesn’t follow every touchdown. In fact, with extremely few exceptions, it is rarely heard on domestic routes at all. The precious few times I have witnessed the Landing Clap on internal flights, it was at the end of a journey plagued by seriously heavy turbulence or obvious mechanical difficulties.

This leads me to conclude that, first and foremost, the Landing Clap is a joyful sigh of relief, a cathartic public celebration at the conclusion of a particularly disquieting flight.

Above and beyond the fear factor, however, the Landing Clap is a peculiar expression of love for one’s home and country. I have noticed that the salvo is always heartiest on national airlines and, with few exceptions, the applauders are always returning to their native soil. Spaniards on Iberia Air Lines who sit on their hands when the plane lands at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport will clap heartily when arriving at Madrid’s Barajas.

Scattered applause always means that a majority of a plane’s passengers are on an outbound flight. Hundreds of hours of subjective study have also proved that the length of any given flight is directly proportional to the heartiness of the applause. For example, the Landing Clap at the termination of a journey from London to Hong Kong (13 hours) is distinctly heartier than, say, on a flight from New York to Prague (8 hours).

Furthermore, the relative enthusiasm of any given Landing Clap is commensurate with the “cultural passion” of the clappers. Extroverts like the Spanish — or in my recent case, the Brazilians — clap with far more zeal than the relatively restrained English or Argentines.

But no culture is immune from participating in this curious ritual. Jordanians, Indians, Kenyans — I have heard ovations from them all. Even the famously unemotional Japanese engage in the Landing Clap.

The heartiest clap? That distinction goes to El Al passengers from New York touching down at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport. Because the plane is often filled with Brooklynites, this is one of the rare occasions where the majority of passengers applaud at the end of an outbound flight.

As for myself, I must admit to having literally kissed the ground when returning from particularly wretched places, but I have never participated in the Landing Clap. To me the display suggests a lack of sophistication that only serves to identify the infrequent flyers on board.

More importantly, the Landing Clap has a displeasing nationalistic sound, as unpleasant as Olympic medal counts and just a notch above soccer hooliganism.

Passionate applause is de rigueur when planeloads of Russians, Germans, Italians and others from flag-waving cultures return safely to their motherland.

Never mind that, statistically, it’s far more risky to drive a car — and landing actually signifies that the most dangerous part of the journey is about to begin.

Author Bio: Daniel Levine is a trends expert, keynote speaker and former writer of a dozen Frommer’s travel guidebooks. He is currently the Director of The Avant-Guide Institute, a global trends consultancy based in New York City.
 

They claim to be the biggest wildlife park in Scandinavia and I actually hope that it’s not the truth, because I found it to be smaller than I remembered. Of course the last time I went there I was really young and now when I’m old (lol) everything seem smaller to me…

Description of the wildlife park features:

• Around 750 wild attractions
• The world’s first Safari Wildlife Park gondola
• Marine World including the dolphin show Life
• Tiger World with Siberian tigers
• Gorilla Island
• Childrens Farm
• Aquarium (outside the entrance)

The main reason for us going there again was the new dolphin show called Life, which took them 1.5 year to get ready, filled with facts about dolphins and with a message about the life at the earth and the environment, matched with music from ET, Superman, Lejonkungen och Titanic.

I recommend going there when it’s not so very hot summer weather since then the animals are getting too lazy and hide in the shadows to keep comfortable. In the end of July there was a little elephant male born for the first time at Kolmården, so if you go there now you get to see the little one.

The one thing that impressed us the most was the rather new Safari Cable Gondolas with digital guiding in different languages which went around all the park (2640 m) making the best view to see animals up close from above. The only way we did see the lions and the bears, so that was great. You also get really close to the Giraffes since they are so tall!

Kolmården Zoo have had several serious incidents with wolf attacks and even one of the caretakers of the wolfs killed in 2012, so they stopped letting visitors in to the wolfs. Earlier it was possible to buy a wolf visit as a birthday gift. I was even considering it myself once since I got a giftcard that was valid for it.

You do have the opportunity to book a closer meeting with the dolphins instead, but of course that is a more expensive alternative and you are not actually allowed to swim with them, just to have close contact.

If you are going there with kids, I recommend taking a day extra and either stay over the night at the nearby Vildmarkshotellet (Wildlife Hotel) for your own comfort or choose the more adventure way for the kids: the Safari Camp with it’s African style inside Kolmården, bringing your own sleeping bag. That way you get closer to the wildlife – if you are there under the right time during the summer.

If you want another budget alternative; why not stay at another camping area…? You can find campings around Kolmården at the Swedish Camping Map.

How to get there:

if going by car you have about 1,5 hour driving to do from Stockholm, you can follow signs from the E4. Or you can take bus or train, the InterCity train stops at Kolmården station. How to book the best train tickets, have a look at our Ultimate Train Travel Guide.

If flying directly nearby, you have the Stockholm Skavsta Airport or Norrköping Airport which offer good connections to Kolmården.

Be sure to check the opening hours, because it’s shifting depending on the time you go there. The Zoo is mostly open in the summer time or early autumn.

TIPS! Save the entrance ticket to Kolmården since it gives you 30% off at any of the other Parks and Resorts in Sweden – comes in handy if you as an example want to go to the Gröna Lund Tivoli or Aquaria in Stockholm.

You can see more of Lifecruiser Kolmården photos at Flickr.

©Lifecruiser Love Wildlife Parks
 

I usually get contacted rather often with promoting emails of all kind of services, sites or apps. Not every one makes it through to my writing, but Pablo Grandinetti’s (co-founder of Urbita/Travel Videos) email did. Read why below…

Being the first search engine for travel videos organized using Urbita’s database of around 180,000 cities/towns, it sure did catch my attention fast. On top of that they also categorize the videos by location and add other information of interest like available tours, music festivals or sports events.

This approach is of course very useful for us travelers, gathering much of the info we want for our research for any city we plan to visit. Not only that, but the info we get is like insider-info, local knowledge of a place which is essential for any traveler that wish to plan the best holiday at that particular place.

I like the fact that I can get a search result with better videos than just searching for videos generally in different common video sites. Travideos.com is after all, specialized in travel videos, making it more suitable as a travel planning tool. Try it out!

©Lifecruiser Love Travel Videos
 

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The worlds first permanent Icebar was built in Stockholm 2002, as well as the worlds first Icehotel was built up in Sweden and not anywhere else! Of course, since then this popular concept is popping up here and there in the world…

The Icebar in Stockholm is located in the Nordic Sea Hotel at Vasagatan, very close to the Arlanda Airport Express train, so even if you only have a short time in the city, you can get there.

All the ice in the icebar: the walls, art, the bar and the tables plus some seats, are made from ice blocks up from the northern Sweden: more exact Torne River in Jukkasjärvi, one of the purest rivers you can find today.

The few seats in there were covered – though who want to sit down in there…? It’s enough butt freezing standing up!

The icebar is re-designed twice a year with different designs. Right now the design is called “Frozen Format”. Our birthday guest we had with us, Jennifer, is from Rio de Janeiro in Brasil and she had never experienced the cold and ice like this before – other from the ice in drinks…

You get around 40 minutes in there, we stayed for 45 minutes and ordered nice drinks twice. You don’t need any longer time in there since you start to get really cold after a while despite the cape and gloves they put on you. We started to jump around in silly dances to keep warm. Whatever you do: don’t wear shorts and flipflops when going there… Ha ha…

If you want a more unusual wedding, it’s possible to get married in there. There are also several other activities there. You will find all the information you need at: www.icebarstockholm.se.

Also have a look at Lifecruiser Icebar Photos at Flickr.

I recommend having breakfast there, a very cool awakening indeed. If you don’t wake up after that, I don’t know what will wake you up!

©Lifecruiser Love Icebar
 

To help mitigate this problem, The Economist developed the Big Mac Index, which measures whether currencies are at their “correct” level by comparing the cost of a Big Mac all around the world.

For example, a Big Mac might cost $4.50 in the U.S. and 90 INR in India; but, when you convert the Indian price from rupees to dollars, the Indian Big Mac actually costs about $1.50, which makes the Indian rupee undervalued by about 67 percent (because the Big Mac is about $3 cheaper).

When a currency is undervalued, you’ll actually get more for your money when you travel there. And, of course, when a currency is overvalued, you’ll get less for your money when you travel there.

The world of currency exchange can be pretty confusing, so to learn more about the Big Mac Index, watch the video below:

This guest post was provided by Jessica Edmondson who has traveled abroad to Mexico as well as England. Her latest adventure has taken her to move from Florida to Washington. You can follow her on Twitter @jsedmond.