Gil White wants Eastern students to have “the best trip of your life for very little money.” White, who has been to about 60 countries, presented his lecture “Europe and the World on 84 cents a Day” Tuesday at 7 p.m. to a crowd of about 30 people in the Grand Ballroom at the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

“Some people think that to survive, I had to sleep in ditches and eat from dumpsters, but 99 percent of the time I was able to sleep with a roof over my head for 84 cents a day,” White said.

The two things to establish when a student travels at a young age are to have a budget and not to expect their parents to pay for it. White also noted that the top three things that will give you an education in life are school, work and travel.

“You will learn more in the first four months of traveling than in the first 18 years of your life,” he said.

One of the ways White said to get cheap transportation is to hitchhike because many people in Europe either catch rides or walk.

“Half of the fun is how you get to your destination,” he said.

White shared various stories of hitching rides on his trips including one in Hungary where the driver was clapping his hands and singing, then asked White to sing. White then sang to the driver, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” He said it was a small price to pay for a ride through the Syrian Desert.

In researching plane tickets, he recommends charting prices weeks to months in advance to get the best deal. In terms of renting a car, White doesn’t encourage it because it’s very hard to afford unless you have a group of three to four people. Instead White recommends taking the train the first few weeks for good transportation. A cheaper alternative is the bus; you can buy a Euro pass either here or overseas to cover fares.

For accommodations, White said that many times he stayed with people he met along the way who let him stay with them. One thing he says to do is always repay people that you stay with along the way, whether that is with gifts or doing chores with the family host.

White recommended that travelers take food with them in their backpack, especially if they plan on hiking a lot. He also recommends farmers markets overseas for their cheap and good food. If travelers don’t want to prepare their own food, he said cafeterias at universities and hospitals are great for good food.

White says that he recommends overseas travelers take a good backpack, an international student identity card, visas that allows traveling in specific countries, a journal, radio, camera and things to trade.