Woot! I’m always sort of reluctant to book my flights to travel. Why? Well, the last couple of times it’s been because of my cats. I miss them so much while I’m away, and they must miss me so much, too (Right? Let’s go with yes.). And the others before that, I was just cheap. It’s a lot of money to put on my credit card and I’m the cheapest. BUT after I let a $500 British Airways RT ticket to/from Budapest slip through my fingers about a month ago, I committed to buying my ticket yesterday. Flights are cheapest on Tuesdays for some reasons (let me know if you know why that is) so yesterday was my day. My ideal flight that was $500 a month ago was now $1100, give or take, so that was out.
After consulting with a friend who travels a lot, I decided on a $570 RT ticket via Turkish Airways. It has a rating comparable to KLM and it’s supposed to be fine. Or at least better than WOW or LOT (setting the bar real low here…). So I booked that last night.
I’m flying into and out of Budapest because it was a good $400-$600 more to fly out of Vienna, so instead I’m going to fly back the night before or take a late/early train (I <3 the train) and take a 9:15am flight. Again, that’s not an ideal time, but it is what it is. To be totally honest, if I’d have booked a flight that left later out of Vienna, I wouldn’t have done anything super productive with that morning. I almost never do when I travel because I’m #exhausted by the last day.
I have a 5 hour layover in Istanbul on my way back, which I’m assuming isn’t enough time to get out into the city and do anything, but if I’m wrong, let me know!
I started going through my Lonely Planet pocket guides and marking things off on the maps tonight, as well as looking at hotels. Hotels are surprisingly cheap in both cities. (Anything is cheaper than London in the summer, though, I suppose.) Yes, I’m staying in hotels this time and not hostels. I’ll be in eastern Europe and not that I’ve seen the movie Hostel, but I’m not taking that chance. 😉
Send me your bucket item and off-the-beaten-path items for Vienna, Bratislava, and Budapest!
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