Intro: Gear Up for your Adventure | After spending the last six years living all over Europe and running my young travel company, I want to share a handful of insider tips picked up from a life on the road.

So you’ve decided to make the best decision of your life by studying abroad? Bravo! Whether you will be eating endless gelato in Italy, exploring the rainforests of Costa Rica or basking in the sun in Australia, those four months will be unforgettable. So now it's time to prepare yourself. How do you even begin such a daunting task? Well, here is a list of 15 tips to consider before flying to your new home away from home.

There are also some really interesting and strange facts about Europe you probably didn’t know:

• Did you know in Switzerland it is illegal to flush a toilet after 10pm? Yes really…

• Europe is named after a Phoenician princess called Europa; she was seduced by Greek God Zeus when he disguised himself as a bull.

Check out this list of 21 bizarre facts about Europe that have been put together in this awesome infographic!

I love these double-layer Wrightsock socks to avoid blisters while traveling, spending long days on my feet.