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If you really want to make a friend, go to someone's house and eat with him - the people who give you their food give you their heart.

Download offline apps

Before you leave for your trip, load your phone with offline apps that will come in handy in the instance that you don’t have wifi, there’s no service, or the connection is unsecured. Tripit lets you manage your itinerary (hotels, car rentals, flights) without a data connection. Maps.me is convenient for finding your way around. Google translate will help you in conversation with foreigners. XE Currency Converter lets you compare live currencies of multiple countries at once. You can use each of these apps offline, which will be helpful just in case.

Be wary of public internet connections

Have you ever hopped on a public wifi network and received a notification that says “this connection is unsecured”? It means that the usual security measures and encryption of the wifi connection are not protecting your data. That puts your personal information at risk to hackers or whoever else is snooping on the same network.

When you receive an unsecured connection notification, simply get offline and put your phone on airplane mode. It’s better to wait until you’re on a secure network than to have your information hacked. Trust us, whatever you wanted to go online for (be it internet cats or work emails) can wait if it means protecting your data.

Invest in a universal power adapter

Buy yourself a universal power adaptor with USB ports immediately. If you’re travelling across different countries, this handy device includes every socket-outlet shape in one place. Plus, the USBs let you charge multiple devices at once.

Get yourself a portable hard drive

The Cloud stores certain information, but it’s reassuring knowing that you’ve got a backup with a portable hard drive. Before your trip, back up your devices, and email yourself critical information (contacts, passport, visas, and reservations) so that if something were to happen to your things, you can easily retrieve certain information while you’re still travelling.

Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.