zolireds.net » flight

Travel plans

Z! — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:21:07 +0000

Due to reasons beyond my control this year appears to be the most difficult one of my life as far as finances. I don’t really want to get into details about the whys because that would lead me to an endless rant on my country and that’s not the purpose of this post. But no matter how many difficulties I come accross I still try to look ahead and make up plans. That might not help daily survival but at least helps keeping my spirit high. Over the last few years I really got used to travelling a lot – thanks to discount airlines and to my good friends all over Europe – but with all the recent financial issues I had to realize that I won’t be able to continue doing that this year. So what I did was basically put down some travel plans for destinations that might be more affordable for one reason or another. Here’s what I came up with:

Bratislava: I wanted to see Jon Lord with a classical orchestra there in early March but I had some health issues so I had to cancel it. Next weekend I’ll give the Slovak capital another try though as I’m going to attend a Deep Purple gig there. It’s gonna be an interesting trip for so many reasons…
Vienna: I had multiple plans for visiting Vienna in 2009 and luckily I could already pull off the most important one: seeing Pure Reason Revolution at B72. To make the trip more worthy I spent an entire weekend there with a Russian friend of mine with whom we had a blast walking around the city and taking a healthy dose of the Vienna spirit.
Eskilstuna: I remember almost ruling out a visit back to Sweden a month ago but luckily I found a relatively cheap flight to Arlanda and I booked it immediately. I’m really looking forward to see my friends there again and to attend another Pain of Salvation gig… not to mention my first ever Anna Ternheim concert. I’m so excited.
Belgrade: After doing a one day trip to see and pick up Pain of Salvation at the Legacy Festival in Belgrade last year I already knew that I ‘ll want to go back there one day to visit Kalemegdan again. It would be really nice to make that happen this summer.
Prague: Visiting the Czech capital is a long time dream of mine but I never really gave it a real thought so far. The travel itself is quite affordable by bus. It’s not the most comfortable way of travelling but the least pricey one.
Kiev/Chernobyl: The last time I looked into this it seemed rather impossible because of the expensive flights to the Ukrainian capital but in the meantime I figured out a much cheaper way to get there. Well, it would mean a 23 hour long train ride which I don’t really fancy but I’ll give this a second thought.
Moscow/St.Petersburg: Surely this would be one of the most exciting trips of my life but I can’t say that I’m really planning this at the moment. I already looked into the possibilities last year and figured that the flight and the visa alone would cost more than 2-3 trips within Europe.
Norway: I would love to go back to my second country as well but unfortunately I don’t think it’s gonna be possible this year… or maybe for the winter? Well, I’m not really sure about that though as -35 °C is not something I’d call fascinating.

Well, that’s basically it. The plans, the ideas… I wonder how many of these will actually come true. I really do hope at least a few and I’ll see about the rest in coming years.

Chernobyl plans shattered

Z! — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:50:40 +0000

Last fall I put some travel plans together for a trip to Chernobyl, Ukraine. I admit that this sounds a little bit bizarre but that place always fascinated me ever since I was a kid. I was 13 when the disaster happened and I still remember it very well. We lived in fear for weeks and it deeply influenced everyone’s life in one way or another. I definitely don’t consider myself a catastrophe tourist but I would just like to go there and see the place. Until today I hoped that this can happen (hopefully this summer) but after checking the flights at Malév I had to settle for another setback. The prices of some of their flights have gone up significantly and now flying to Kiev costs exactly the same as if flying to Moscow. I’m not sure if it has anything to do with Malév’s takeover by state-owned Russian airline Aeroflot but in any case I have one less thing to look forward to…

Norwegian vs. Hungarian = No Sweden?

Z! — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 09:54:11 +0000

So Wizzair did it again… they left their passangers at Skavsta yesterday without any information given to them. Guess I was lucky to travel with them twice without any major delays or cancellations but I definitely should think twice before I book a flight with them again in the future. This is easier said than done though because they are still the cheapest discount airline in Europe and their low prices might be tempting to take the risk. My other option to find my way to Sweden is Norwegian but even being a low cost airline they are still twice as expensive as Wizzair. And they fly to Arlanda which is a further 150 kms from Eskilstuna so I would have to take the train twice adding to the overall expenses that are already higher if I choose the Norway based airline. So as it seems now there’s no Tuna trip for me in 2009…