"Send lawyers, guns and money..."

[tyggerjai]

Man. Eurail passes are expensive. ~$750 for 4 days travel in a month. Now, ok. that's unlimited travel on those days, and I can't get teh intarweb to easily tell me what it would cost to go from London to Venice ad-hoc, but sweet jesus, that's pricey.

In other news, banks no longer fund personal loans by putting the money straight into your account. There's no reason they can't - the loan is unsecured anyway, so it doesn't matter if you spend it on what you say you're going to or not. Presumably there's some sort of due diligence thing in there - they have to show their shareholders/board that they're not just giving money away for hookers and blow, but it makes it very difficult if your travel agent doesn't do written quotes. I'm about to go back to the travel agent to say "Ok - if I put 10% down straight away, will you give me a written _invoice_ that covers everything, so the bank can just cut you a check?", but at the moment, I'm thinking I can almost afford to do this with the tax return and credit card. The interest on the credit card is higher, natch, but not *that* much, and I can pay for the bulk of the travel & accomodation out of the tax return. Then I have a few months to get the credit card down to 0 (which is doable), and save some extra. Credit card limit is $3,000, we can probably save a couple of grand on top of that, so 5 grand spending money for three weeks in Europe sound about right, eh?

Eh. But if I'm doing that, I might as well get the bank to cough up a few measly grand for the plane tickets, which is the bit I *can* get invoiced. And if I add the Eurail passes to that, then that's $5K from the bank, which takes no time to pay back, the tax return can go on clearing the credit card, and we can save a couple grand on top of that.

I can hear my boss saying "ING Direct! Do it now! Get it taken straight out of your pay!!". And he's right, of course ;)

Oh, and I should have booked accomodation in Venice when frou_frou did. At the moment, I suspect we'll be camping in her hotel room :)

Oh - and if you're reading this and you're my girlfriend, you'll notice that we're back to plan A - Venice in Feb. This is because it's cheaper to go to Venice in Feb. and stay for a week *and* get a Eurail pass - even at Carnevale prices - than just flying to london over Christmas, even if there were seats avaiable on flights to London over Christmas, which there aren't :)

sol.
.

Comments

The Joys of Travel

[drzero.livejournal.com]

Whilst travelling by train is rather nice, have you considered flight? The budget airlines are insanely cheap over there (when I got the first quote for the flight, LON-VEN flight, booked online, cost roughly 30 Euros through EasyJet.) Just FYI :)

Sadly we won't be going to Venice on this trip, but we're still going to Carnivale at some point (read: priority for next Euro trip).

Re: The Joys of Travel

[tyggerjai.livejournal.com]

Yeah. The thing about rail, AFAIK, is that it's easier to wake up one day and say "Hm. Venice is actually very dull. Let's go to Prague.". And Just Do It.

But yes, I think flights is the way to go for solid, intercity stuff like that.

We have nothing like an itinerary - at ther moment, deliberately, it's "Arrive in london. BE in Venice a week later for a week. Be in Nottingham for a few days the week after that." So the first week will probably be Paris, and I'd like to get a few days in Ireland in the last week, but that's as solid as we get.

So are you guys still going to be in Europe in Jan/Feb?

sol.
.

Re: The Joys of Travel

[drzero.livejournal.com]

Yep, Paris 28/1 to 4/2, then London for a few days and Scotland for the rest.

Re: The Joys of Travel

[frou-frou.livejournal.com]

I'd really recommend that you book accommodation and train travel in advance if you can...preferably with flexibility to change as you need it.

I spent two weeks in the US with a 'flexible' train pass and discovered that it didn't count for much when all the trains to where you want to go, when you want to go, are booked solid. It took a hissy fit and a nice Boston station-master to fix it all but oh boy, was it a pile of unnecessary stress at the beginning of what eventuated as a fantastic trip.

The places you're going are popular whatever the time of year - having a few things organised will give you peace of mind - especially if you're going to places you've never been before.

But...

[bunnikins.livejournal.com]

..if we don't spend christmas with your family, we have to spend it with mine. Surely we can...I dunno, swim to England or something?

[fzou.livejournal.com]

When did banks stop funding money directly to a nominated account? It must have been in the last couple of months... which bank?

I got a $9k loan from CBA in January for my camera gear, I showed some printed but yet unordered shopping carts, and they gave me the money no sweat.

[tyggerjai.livejournal.com]

I have a feeling it's a Melbourne thing. I now recall going through this when I got my last motorbike, a few years ago, and being surprised, because the first motorbike they just stuck cash in my account. The CBA droid then said "Ah yes. That was before Crown Casino opened, wasn't it?".

So I think it's a Victoria thing. But it's *good* for the state's economy, honest!

Pain in the arse, anyway. Maybe I should take a trip to Canberra, since my actual account was opened there :)

sol.
.

[kitling.livejournal.com]

$5k spending money for 3 weeks in europe.... wow and I just did china for two weeks with $400 spending money and brought home piles of loot!

Another reminder of just how cheap china was really. But then my trip was not planned.

I'm green with envy about the costume ball with very expensive tickets to go, I mentioned it to bear and he said you were letting down the side, then I pointed out he got me a free trip to china and really it wasn't a hint :)