For months now, I’ve been trying to find the cheapest way to get myself to Europe. I knew there had to be a city that would be insanely inexpensive to get to even from Regina and from which I could get to my next destination for very little. I thought that Frankfurt might be that city and, indeed, there are great deals there, but it’s not the best deal.

As it turns out, the best deal is… London! Actually, both London and Glasgow are very close in price, but if you’re going on to Central and Eastern Europe, then you might as well go directly into London since you’d have to go through there from Glasgow anyway. I am finally ready to book a flight as soon as my passport gets here. I should be spending the last week of June (this month!) or the first week of July in London!

I have three options to get to London:

1. I can pay out of pocket for the whole trip and do the Regina-Calgary-London route in 13 hours door-to-door. Rates for that are between $400 and $450, but I’m seeing deals as low as $325 on less desirable routes.
2. I can use my travel reward points and pay only about $100 in taxes and fees, to do Regina to several different Canadian destinations to London, with super long layovers in 30 to 45 hours… If I had a job that I could literally do anywhere, that option would probably be a no brainer, but since I don’t I think I will save my points for the trip home and just pay out of pocket this time around since I’m not on a super tight budget.
3. I’m going to keep monitoring deals from Toronto since I can get to Toronto for free with my points. If I find something under $300 from Toronto, it would be worth doing the trip this way.

From London, I am sitting on three different possibilities. From least to most likely:

1. I am waiting to hear back about a housesitting assignment in London for July. I know that I would very likely never get another opportunity to spend a month so very near central London for very little cost, hence why I am considering such a twist in my travel plans. But I find this to be a very unlikely outcome and it’s not one I’m counting on.
2. I am also waiting to hear back about another housesitting assignment in a mountain resort town outside of Prague, Czech Republic. I would really love for this to work out, but the family is having trouble confirming their travel plans even though we have been talking about this for over four months! I won’t know for another two weeks and so I’m not going to make any plans beyond London at this time. London to Prague, or just about anywhere else in Europe, is so inexpensive that I’ll be fine to book at the last minute.
3. Just do a few days in London and then fly to Bulgaria or to some other destinations and take my time getting to Bulgaria.

London is one of the most expensive cities in the world and was never on my radar of places for me to visit. When I was in Scotland 18 years ago, a lot of folks told me I should take the train to London for a few days and even then I did not see the point when there was so much to see and do in Scotland. I never regretted my decision. So other than the British Museum, I had absolutely no idea until a couple of weeks ago what I would want to see or do in London, but I did know that I would regret not spending at least a few days there. Now, I have a bit of an itinerary sorted out and I’m beyond ready to get there! 🙂

So if option one doesn’t pan out, which would give me a lot of time to explore the city, I found surprisingly decent Airbnb rates for private rooms. So as long as the accommodation doesn’t all disappear before my passport gets here, I can treat myself to a holiday in London for four or five nights. It will give me time to get over the worst of the jet lag and to see a bit of that huge city. However, I may not have that much time if the Czech gig works out since at the rate my passport is taking, I won’t get to London till the very end of June and I would be needed near Prague on July 1st.

But if option one does out, I would be in London till August 12th, and then in Bulgaria through the rest of August, September, and as far into October as I can stand the weather. I will then need to find somewhere warmish and out of the Schengen Area to hole up until the end of December, when I would head to Portugal and/or southern Spain for three months.

If option two works out, I would be in the Czech Republic to the start of August. I wouldn’t have had time to visit Prague at the beginning of my stay, so I would spend some time there, then go to Poland for a week and then start working my way down to Bulgaria. I have a detailed itinerary for that planned where I’d be able to see Budapest, Bucharest, Belgrade, Athens, and a host of other cities and countries before arriving in Bulgaria at the start of September. I would then be there as long as I can stand the weather, up through the end of November, and then my itinerary would line up with the first option.

If neither of the first two options works out, I’m probably going straight to Bulgaria.

But, really, I’m not ready at this time to commit to anything beyond getting to London other than being certain that I will end up in Bulgaria at some point (I have not learned to say, “Beer, please,” and “thank you” for nothing!) and that I want to spend the dead of winter (January through March) in Portugal. The Schengen Area rules are making things complicated and I have to make up my mind about Turkey.

Things are going to move very quickly in the next couple of weeks! Soon as the passport’s here, I’ll book a flight and at least a couple of nights’ accommodation in London. Once I know what date I’m leaving, I can plan to terminate my vehicle insurance, my power, and my cell service, all of which will reduce my budget significantly and help me pay for things like my worldwide health insurance and a special commercial policy for my electronics.

I’ve got my packing list pretty much locked down and am awaiting just a few more online orders to be able to start packing trials. You can look forward to a detailed packing list post when I get to that point, something I’m sure the ladies will enjoy more than the men. 😉

And, of course, I want to keep working as much as I possibly can before I go! I’m starting to refill the coffers a little and I have as big a client load as I can juggle right now, so I am leaving with no concerns on the work end of things.

I just have to remind myself that I’m not heading on a year-long vacation and that my focus should be on staying long-term in a couple of locations (my preferred mode of travel anyway) than trying to hit as many countries as I can since, surely, this won’t be my last time across the pond…

So London! Last time I was in the UK, a pint in Scotland averaged about £1.25. I have a feeling I’m going to get severe sticker shock the first time I walk into a pub in a few weeks! 😀