✈️ I Went Abroad and All I Got Was This Chaotic Pile of Coins

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I just got back from my study abroad trip through Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic — and somehow I’ve returned with a heavy purse full of coins and cash from every country we visited. Not just souvenirs or cute little keepsakes. I mean actual legal tender that I can’t really use now unless I magically teleport back.

Let’s call it: “The Accidental Currency Collection.”


🧳 Where I Went

Just to set the scene — we visited:

  • 🇩🇪 Berlin, Germany
  • 🇵🇱 Kraków, Auschwitz, Birkenau, Warsaw – Poland
  • 🇨🇿 Prague, Czech Republic
  • 🇬🇧 a 6-hour layover at Heathrow Airport in London where the chaos peaked 

💸 The Mishap That Started It All

So the extra money situation started in Berlin at a flea market. I was trying to take out just a little cash from an ATM — you know, just enough to buy a few things. But nooo. The machine refused to let me cancel, and next thing I knew, I was standing there with way more euros than I ever planned to carry.


Fast forward to Prague, where I stopped at a cute little food stand for a snack. I got this delicious cinnamon fried dough (10/10, would recommend) and asked the woman before I paid if she took euros. She said yes.


What she didn’t mention? She was going to give me my change in a fistful of Czech coins. I’m talking heavy, clunky, why-is-this-so-metallic coins. 🪙🤦🏾‍♀️

🪙 Current Contents of My Travel Wallet:

  • Germany 🇩🇪 – Euros (thanks to that stubborn ATM)
  • Poland 🇵🇱 – Złoty (barely used since our tour guide gave us public transportation tickets for free)
  • Czech Republic 🇨🇿 – Koruna (hello snack stand coin storm)
  • UK Layover 🇬🇧 – I thought I could use euros in Heathrow. Wrong. Not even a bottle of water.


My professor later confirmed what I already suspected: no U.S. bank is going to accept coins. And I believe it. Chase would probably look at me like I walked in with sand dollars.


😩 So What Now?


  • I’ve got plenty of souvenirs, clothes, and candy.
  • But now I also have a small fortune in coins and leftover bills I can’t use — just casually hanging out in a side pocket of my suitcase.
  • And since I wasn’t trying to blow it all on airport snacks, here we are.






💡 What I’m Doing With It



  • Creating a “travel money pouch” for future trips (because who knows, I might end up in Europe again…).
  • Turning the chaos into a blog post (hi 👋🏾).
  • Considering framing one of the coins like it’s a war medal for surviving group travel, foreign ATMs, and snack stand betrayals.


🎰 Final Thought:



I didn’t plan on becoming a currency collector, but here we are. The next time I travel, I’m asking three times before paying, budgeting realistically, and avoiding coin-heavy food stands no matter how good the fried dough smells.


But I’m still going to see if my bank will take the cash — because I took out money in each country so I wouldn’t have to keep swiping my card, and I’d love for at least some of it to go back into my account. That said, I do plan on visiting Europe again (mainly the UK, since my college has a campus there), and hopefully I can use some of this leftover cash and coins if the bank decides they’re not dealing with this mess.

Seriously though, the money was so confusing — especially in Prague. 😵‍💫


My mom said she’s taking me to Chase to see if they’ll exchange at least the bills — they did it for her when we came back from Greece, so fingers crossed they’ll do it for me too. I’m not getting my hopes up for the coins, but I’ll try anything that helps me unload at least some of this travel money.


Until then, my wallet sounds like a slot machine and I’ve made peace with it. 🪙💼💤


—


Awkwardly Introverted

Overthinking everything, including snacks that come with surprise coins.


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