The Anatomy of a Trip

The general idea when one studies abroad is to go and see as much as you possibly can now, because you never know if you'll ever be back. Many kids here in the program go for broke, spending all the savings they have amassed from work or, if they're lucky enough, whatever their parents give them. For those of us who have to work for every cent we spend on travel, lodging, food, etc. this can limit our reserves, but one learns the tricks to saving money abroad. Nothing will ever be cheap, but there are deals out there to save money. SideStep.com is a personal holy grail for cheap flights and Ryan Air is widely regarded as the rock bottom airline option. Granted I'm relatively sure from my trip to Ireland that the plane is held together by duct tape, but thats besides the point. Still there are many lessons I have already learned from my travel pursuits. Take my recent consternations for booking a trip to Wales and Liverpool this weekend as an example:
Between the trips I have booked, our day trips as a group that require me to stay here for weekends, our move to Greece in March, and weekends before finals I have blocked off for studying, there are few holes left in my schedule left to explore. Plus I've been bleeding all my cash with the conversion rate, so i was looking for something inexpensive and close. Then I remembered one of my bosses from my summer job in the Fairfield Probate Court has a sister in law who lives in Wales. A few e-mails later and I secured myself lodging for Thursday and Friday of the weekend. But seeing as their was little time left in my stay in Britannia, I began to think what else I wanted to see before I left. I definitely want to see Scotland, but tickets there can be pricey on train or plane and my options for staying there would be limited. I do have an Aunt who is from England and her father lives in Glasgow in Scotland, which is a possibility, but getting there would be expensive. And then there's the absolute must I have to do while here on the Isle: Liverpool. In case you didn't know, I'm a die-hard Beatles fan and Liverpool is the equivalent of a personal Mecca. Strawberry Fields, Penny Lane... all that. It was much more cost-effective to stay in Wales and head to Liverpool afterwards then for Scotland, so that decided that option.
Next I needed to figure out how to make the logistics of Wales/Liverpool work in a logical and relatively inexpensive manner. I investigated trying to leave Wales early Sunday and trying to squeeze Liverpool into a day and leaving for London at night, but it just couldn't justify the ticket price for the amount of time I'd be there. It worked out to being something like only 4 hours of time in Liverpool, all to just avoid spending a night in Liverpool. So then I began the hostel search, and much to my chagrin... nothing. The least expensive option was paying 22 pounds per bed for a private triple, which would be a decent deal if I had two companions but alas I'm keeping this weekend personal. After nearly resigning myself to that fate, I got some helpful advice from others in my program to check bed and breakfasts as well as hostels. The results? Success. 20 pounds for a single room for the night. Perfect, thats all I need, a roof over my head for a night. Worst case I was going to try the train station, and I'm sure that will happen at some point but its never good to plan on it.
Then there was the hassle of landing the train tickets. The web sites kept rejecting my credit card because I can't format my billing address correctly (it's designed for a UK address) so I had to do it over the phone. Well, that was until my pre-paid phone ran out of minutes in the middle of my transaction. Oy. So after topping up my phone, I was able to get back on the horn with one of the train companies and get my first leg of the trip down from London to Wales. A different provider would handle the Wales to Liverpool connection, but when I called them, they had just closed. Can you see how frustrating this can become?
I think the most important thing is that I have these opportunities and even though I worked to be able to afford what I have, its still a tremendous privilege to be where I am today. To even be fretting over pre-paid phones and travel fares seems petty to a lot, so I am certainly counting my blessings. Hopefully though after some decent rest (I only had three and a half hours of sleep last night after the Super Bowl and before my 8:30 class) I can tie up these loose strings and plan on an enjoyable trip. After all, I never know if I'll be back here lucky enough to worry again.