a surprisingly disappointing article from ars, i expect better from them.

the author appears to be confusing “relay attacks” with “cloning” and doesn’t really explain the flow of the attach that well.

really this just sounds like a complicated MitM attack, using the victim’s phone as the “middle” component between the victim’s physical card and the attacker’s rooted phone.

the whole “cloning the UID attack” at the end of the article is irrelevant, NFC payment cards don’t work like that.

if this is your first time doing a big trip together, honestly, forget about it being prefect. it won’t be, and that’s ok. trips don’t need to be perfect to be meaningful, in fact, i’ve found the opposite to be true. the more wild and unexpected the adventure is, the more memorable and important it becomes to me.

so I’d say it’s best to keep an idea of things you’d like to see or do, but also be flexible and willing to adapt. traveling with someone that forces everyone to stick to a rigid itinerary is never fun and is a good way to ruin the trip. all it takes is one lost bag or one missed train to throw all your careful planning out the window. better to roll with the punches than self destruct when that happens.