We be Schengen

Stacy and I tried to do our research but clearly and wholeheartedly failed:) Before leaving on this trip, I checked many of the countries to see how long we could stay, if visas would be needed… All the countries I checked allowed 90 days for a tourist visa.

While doing a walking tour in Santiago, I was talking to this Danish girl in our group about our respective trips. When I started to tell her about Stacy and I’s plan to go to Europe for almost six months, she said, well how are you doing that? I asked what she meant and she started to explain the Schengen Agreement, where you can only stay in Schengen countries, essentially all of the EU, for 90 days out of 180 days.

The Schengen countries are not like other countries where you can leave for a day, go to different country, return and renew your visa. This is a hard and fast rule that doesn’t allow you to stay greater than 90 days out of 180 days in Schengen countries. Out of the six months we were planning in to spend in Europe, four and a half to five months were to be in Schengen countries. So the day before we were set to leave for Europe, we had to completely reconfigure our trip 🤷‍♂️

We had to take time away from Greece, Croatia and Italy (still going to all of them) to spend more time in Montenegro, Albania, Cyprus and the UK. We will now have a month in both Montenegro and Albania, 2 weeks each in Cyprus and UK (where we will stay with a good friend of Stacy’s).

Thank god for this Danish girl, despite my country’s overtures towards Greenland 😂, since because of her we had already purchased our ticket, that very night, from Greece to Cyprus, which we then had to show at the airport counter as proof that we were leaving the Schengen area within 90 days, which we wouldn’t of had. 🤦‍♂️Read more