About 9 years ago a friend and I traveled from Dublin to London. We stayed in a hostel for a couple of days to go to a concert and do some little sightseeing around the city. Back then I was only in Ireland a year working as an Au Pair. This meant I had little money, so it was hard to save in the first place. I suppose the meals were provided but even so living on 100 EUR a week can be hard for anyone.
The day of departure came. We were flying from London Stanstead which is quite a distance away from London city centre. To get to and from the airport we used the bus. It is advisable to be at the airport 2 hours before departure. On the day of our departure just 3-4 hours before heading off to the airport, we decided to look at the bus timetable to see which bus would be best to take. Well, this is where the disaster comes in. It turned out there was no bus leaving between a certain time for 3-4 hours. It meant we would completely miss the flight even if we would have taken the next bus available.
So what do you do in a case like this? First thing that came in mind was to take a taxi to the airport. Now you can probably imagine the cost of going from London city centre to London Stanstead Airport. As far as I can remember he said something like £100. Looking back on it now, we should have gone with that option. Anyway, across from the bus station was another bus station that brings you out to the ferry.
We ended up buying a ferry ticket each. The bus didn’t leave until the next day which meant we had to book accommodation nearby. The next day we took the bus somewhere near Manchester to get on the ferry to Belfast. To make it worse, there was absolutely no available ticket to go to Dublin. On a brighter note, this was my first ever trip on a ferry, so I guess you can see a positive side in it.
This trip was definitely my most eventful one for sure.
Did you ever run into trouble while abroad?
*Disclaimer: This post was written to enter the Jurni Blogger Competition.
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you only live once. Enjoy it. That’s all I am saying. You won’t regret a penney you spent on your journey to the Seychelles. Personally I always spent too much money on holiday anyway. When we were in Spain I allocate 300 EUR for us all as we had full board. Well, that didn’t last long. We spent 500 in the end. lol Ah well. It will probably be the same when I am going to Dubai next year. I don’t want to go on a holiday and then constantly make sure I go over budget which means I can’t enjoy myself.
Well just on my last tip to Dubai and the Seychelles two months ago. I didn’t expect to spend almost a whole month’s salary in 8 days… Flights with Emirates were booked beforehand, so nothing left to do there. The Hotel in Dubai I paid upon departure I think. Stayed there two days as a long layover since I have a good friend who is Irish and lives down there now. Dubai was ok, cost-wise. Few Metro tickets here and there, the day arrived my friend and I went for brekkie and he paid for it and in the evening dinner in a restaurant in Pier 7 he paid aswell (which isn’t quite cheap, so the next evening I basically had to force him to leave his wallet in and that I would pay dinner this time.) I between I bought some postcards and posted them off and got myself somethink to drink and a snack, and taxis to go to Palm Jumeirah and back to the hotel, as I wanted to take some pics of the skyline by night.
I had only changed 100€ for the two days and it was ok.
In the Seychelles then the costs easily accumulated, taxi from the airport in Mahé 8km down to the Jetty 35€. I was warned the taxi driver rip everyone off. But It was the first day and I didn’t want to drag my big suitcase into the bus, (the buses are quite full anyway and then a suitcase would find no space either down there), then the ferry ticket to Praslin cost some 50-60 quid, in Praslin I also needed a taxi as my accommodation was on the other side of the island…also here accommodation wasn’t paid beforehand. I was glad that I had an apartment where I could prep some food myself, so I wouldn’t have to go out for food twice a day, same on the other islands. But ferries, food, few taxis and so on didn’t come cheap. So in the end I’ve spent way more than anticipated, Got paid the day I left for my holidays and 8 days later I had like 400€ left for the rest of the month.
Then in the last accommodation there was a fly problem, these nasty little flies you can find in bins and so on. I didn’t;t think it would bother me so much, but it was extreme. you couldn’t even prep your food, 3 mind later you had a few on your dinnerplate on the foot. YUCK! It freaked me out. The windows didn;t close properly either, you could close them and in the night they flung open. But even if closed there were gaps that could let flies in. The ladlady there said these flies were there on the other islands aswell. Ehm, I never came across them anywhere in Praslin or La Digue, even with the window or balcony door open all night, so this was a bit of a downside with these flies in my last accommodation on Mahé. And the massive sunburn I ended up getting on Praslin on that dream beach Anse Lazio. Ouchie. So all in all it was very nice -apart from flies in the last place and sunburn- but expensive. But it was nice to see two other countries/ continents ouside of Europe. The world is colourful and there is lots to see…