Saturday, June 16th 2001

The planning begins with a look at my schedule for next week: "So let's see. I'm leaving for Riga, Latvia on Thursday morning. I could do another trip from Sunday or Monday, and return Wednesday." Right from the start, this promises to be stressful.

And of course by then, I hadn't even decided where I wanted to go, just that I had to get away from here. I realized that my only means of transportation would be by plane, since trains are slower, and fuel prices make travelling by car also too expensive.

Of course, had I opted for a regular airline, my plan would have been impossible to realize, since their fares aren't exactly within my budget. Ryan Air, on the other hand, will fly you to a few targets in the UK and Ireland for very competitive prices.

Pretty soon, I found a flight from Frankfurt Hahn (HHN) to London Stansted (STN), bringing me to London Stansted on Monday afternoon and returning me back to Frankfurt Hahn on Wednesday evening.

Of course flying Ryan Air means that I will depart and arrive at airports outside of the cities. Distance from Stansted to Central London is 56km, but the Transportation from Stansted page shows that I can get to Victoria Coach Station in central London in around 1hr 40 for a GBP£10 (in LUF, EUR, USD) return fare. Frankfurt Hahn (Map) is about 110km away from Luxembourg.

After doing these verifications, I decided to go for this flight, which would set me back 109 DEM (in LUF, EUR, USD) for a return flight.

Next, I had to find a suitable accomodation. Suitable, in my case, meaning inexpensive. So I had to settle with a youth hostel, and dormitory-style room. I quickly stumbled upon St Christopher's Hostels, and there opted for the The Village. The beds are advertised "from GBP£12", but I ended up with a price quote of 2188 LUF (in EUR, USD) for two nights, since I had chosen the smaller 6 Bed Mixed Dorm rather than the 12 Bed variant. I would also have to pay a US$2.00 (in LUF, EUR) booking fee when reserving over the Internet.

When I informed the family of my plans, I was told that I was crazy, and it was suggested that at least I chose a different date. Which I refused, since if I'm not doing things like these "now", I will always end up delaying them and never getting around to actually doing it. But needless to say, they were not all that happy when I told them half an hour later that despite their objections, I had now booked and confirmed everything.