Okay, real quick. I got some messages after the last issue.

A few of you wrote in to say it takes way more than 45 minutes to get to Baltimore. Yeah. You got me.

Anyone who knows me knows my sense of direction is terrible, and my spatial awareness is even worse. I basically know three routes by heart. The gym, the supermarket, and the salsa club. That's it.

Maybe that's why my family is equal parts scared and amazed that I travel solo as much as I do. A guy who gets lost on the way home, out exploring foreign countries by himself. But here's the funny part. Solo travel has almost nothing to do with having a good sense of direction. It has everything to do with being ready for things to go sideways.

Which brings me to this week.

I was in London back in April. Before I left, I had to get authorization just to enter the country. Not a visa exactly, but a digital approval you apply for online.

I could have waited and dealt with it when I landed. But think about it. What if I had no wifi at the airport? What if the approval took a few hours to come through? So I handled it before my flight instead. Easy. I walked off the plane and breezed right through.

That trip taught me a simple lesson. Do the paperwork early and everything gets smoother.

Here's the thing though. This summer, Europe changed the rules in a way that breaks that lesson completely.

Europe has a new border system, and it's slowing everything down.

It's called the Entry/Exit System. As of this spring, it's live across almost every European country. Here's what it does. When you arrive, instead of just stamping your passport, they scan your face and fingerprints to log you in and out of Europe.

It's not hard. But it takes time. And when a few hundred people get off their flights at once and they all need to be scanned, the lines get long. We're talking waits of up to two hours at some airports.

Now here's the part that matters most. You can't do this one ahead of time. There's nothing to apply for. No website, no form, no head start. The scan happens at the border, in person, and all you can do is wait your turn.

And it's not just the border.

Travel in Europe comes with moving parts. Strikes, air traffic slowdowns, packed airports. This isn't me bashing anyone, it's just reality. These things are common enough that a smart traveler plans for them instead of getting blindsided.

The truth is, we live in a time where anything can happen. Weather, strikes, tech outages, a brand new border system. You can't control any of it.

So what do you actually do? You build in buffer.

This is the whole game now. You can't prep your way out of these problems, but you can give yourself room so they don't wreck your trip.

Here's my rule. Most people tell you to get to the airport three hours early for an international flight. I say make it four. That extra hour is your cushion for the new border lines, a slow security day, or whatever surprise pops up.

For layovers, give yourself two or three hours of buffer. A tight one hour connection might look fine on paper. But one delay and you miss it. Two or three hours means a hiccup is just a hiccup, not a missed flight and a ruined day.

And when you land, don't book something tight for that same day. Give yourself a window to clear the border, grab your bags, and breathe.

Quick clarity, because people are confused right now.

There's a lot of noise about European travel rules. Here's what you actually need to know for this summer.

• The new border scan (EES) is automatic. You don't apply for it. It just happens when you arrive.
• You may have heard about ETIAS, a separate approval you apply for before you travel. It is not live yet, so you don't need it for summer 2026.
• The UK is separate. If you're heading to the United Kingdom, you do need to apply for their authorization before you fly. That's the one I did for London.

The bottom line.

London taught me to prep ahead. Europe taught me that sometimes you can't prep at all, and the only thing that saves you is buffer.

So next time you fly, build in the buffer. Get there earlier than feels necessary. Pad your layovers. Leave room for the day to go sideways. Because when everything goes smoothly, you've lost nothing. And when it doesn't, you'll be the calm one while everyone else is panicking.