Mazatlán is gearing up for Semana Santa, a time I usually spend hiding away in my apartment! Really, things are crazy. Restaurants are busy with long waits, traffic is horrible (so a 20 minute bus ride becomes 40 minutes), and the beaches are filled with people.
This is usually the time of year that I start thinking about being someplace else for a while! Ok, I’ll admit – I think about that a lot anyway, LoL. In furtherance of my travel goals, I found a decent fare to Europe this summer. $460 USD roundtrip from Los Angeles to Copenhagen. This is considerably more than I usually pay, but Summer dates were available – so I jumped on it.
Just a quick plug here – I have purchased tickets from deals I’ve found on SecretFlying.com several times now. One time the airline kept changing flight times (and days), so eventually I took them up on their offer to cancel with a refund; but the other times everything went as smooth as butter!
Ok … Los Angeles to Copenhagen. This means I have to get to/from Los Angeles. There are several options available: 1. Fly. 2. Bus. 3. Ferry to La Paz, then bus. I have a bunch of airline miles, so I’m using some to do option number one. I would prefer to do option three – but I’ll save that one for another trip, or just the ferry to La Paz for the experience it would provide.
And now comes the twist to this travel story! I saw that Summer flights were available for this fare. Most of the published trips were from 7 to 10 days. When I travel I like to take my time so I plugged in a three month (well, 84 days) time frame – and the fare was still available. So I’ll be spending three months in Europe this summer. A few days in Copenhagen, then I fly to Istanbul for two months. Yes, two months. I want an immersive experience there, and I think with that much time I should get it! Then a week in Athens, a few days in Prague, 9 days in Budapest, and then back to Copenhagen for my return flight. This will likely be my last trip to Europe (never say never), so I think I’ll be glad I spent the time there.
After I return I’ll be heading to my house in Seattle to prep it for another winter. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve taken the Amtrak Coast Starlight so the ‘cons’ of doing the trip that way are dim in my mind. So I booked the train. Yes, it’s over 30 hours on a train – but someone else is driving and the scenery is really nice from the observation car! I’ll prep the house, spend a few weeks there, and then get home for a much needed decompression! And just in time for the snow-birds to start arriving!
Future trips will be to cities in México. I still haven’t been to the Yucatan; and have just passed through some cities in central México that I’d like to spend time in. I probably won’t be taking three month long trips; but maybe a month here, then decompress, then another month there, back to decompress, …
Time will tell!
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