One of the great pleasures of traveling in Europe is sending rude postcards back to the poor, pathetic souls who are stuck at home while you travel. If you do this properly, your friends may wish to respond with some photos of your wrecked car - and they can, even if you are moving around. Poste Restante, or General Delivery, is offered all over Europe. Address as below:
The number “1″ designates the central post ofEce and may not be necessary in some countries. Use it anyway. Also, check your guidebook for information on mailing to specific countries: France, for example, requires a postal code on everything mailed into the country. Mail may arrive without it, but will probably be delayed. Leave clear instructions for the folks back home. If you know the proper name of the town you’re sending mail to (Munchen, for example, rather than Munich; or Firenze rather than Florence), by all means use it. If not, don’t worry about it - it probably won’t matter a bit.
Officially, letters and packages will be held for two weeks in German postes restante before being sent back, and will be held for at least a month in other countries. (In Italy they may be there until doomsday.) Unless letters are sent to a specific post office with a street address included, they will normally go to the central post office in the city, to the “Poste Restante” window or desk. When picking up your mail, bring your passport, expect to pay a nominal fee, and don’t forget to ask the clerk to look under your first name, your last name, and “M” for Mr, Mrs, etc, if your bills or junk mail are being forwarded.
If you have an American Express card or travelers’ checks, some American Express offices will hold letters for up to thirty days. They won’t accept packages, though, because they claim to be afraid of bombs. Call American Express for a little booklet listing their overseas offices that accept client mail.