So yes I flew to Scotland for boots and to visit with friends. But I manage to do some actual sightseeing. My friends were kind enough to drive me throughout the countryside where I got to see some castles, waterfall, bagpipes and more. While I did not eat some haggis, I did get a taste of Scotland and I will definitely be back again, one day.  Here are some random pictures

Of course there a pictures that I wish I could post, but it being a public blog and all, it’s better that I don’t. But on a fun note, I just happened to be at the same hotel as the Scotch Guards.  You know the ones that guard Buckingham Palace? Turns out they can smile!

So to add a chaotic mess to this blog, I writing about previous trips but I will be adding new trips in as well. So I’ve added the month/year to the title of each post.

My first trip to Africa was in May,2013 and I feel in love. I was actually quite surprised that I enjoyed safari as much as I did. So when exploring warm weather vacation options for February, Tanzania come up on my radar.  To fly to Tanzania, the plane stops in Kenya. When I started looking into the different safari options, Amboseli in Kenya seem to fit the bill. So I flew into Nairobi and out of Dar Es Salaam.

United does not fly to East Africa, so I booked United to Zurich via Newark and then Swiss down to Nairobi. I had a  tight connection in Zurich, 45 minutes, so I starting watching the Newark-Zurich flight to see if had any issues.  I was scheduled to fly on Thursday evening, arriving in Nairobi on Friday night. On Tuesday I noticed a nasty line of winter storms were scheduled to hit the New York area, so I called and got rerouted thru Dulles ( Washington D.C. area).  Ok until Wednesday morning, I got notification that my flight had cancelled, that’s OK, I can go earlier, maybe bring my laptop and do a little work during my 4 hour layover in Dulles. I did not like my seat (bulkhead) so I keep checking to see if something else opened up. Around 11AM, eureka, flight’s wide open now, hmmm, sure is because it CANCELLED. I’ve been rebooked for 8am into Dulles. Well now that’s a really long day in the airport.  Around 3pm, I get another notification, CANCELLED. Ok no problem, let me call the UAL and figure out my option. The first lady, I get you on a flight to Dulles tonight, I said who’s going to Dulles? I am trying to get to Nairobi. Well we don’t fly there. Yes but your part of this group called Star Alliance and Swiss flies there. Well let’s see, I can get you to Newark, ok yes, I am have to go. Hung up and called again. This time the agent says to me, How quickly can you get to the airport? Can you make a 6:00 pm departure to Europe? It’s now 3.30pm, I still had to go home to get my suitcase. I said if you want to send a helicopter, since United is into jets that option did not really work.  So finally I got rebooked to go Wednesday night on Lufthansa to Munich and connect to Zurich, where I would have to spend the night and pick up my original itinerary. So made dash home, finish packing and head to the airport.

I had always planned on doing Pack for Purpose. But due to my itinerary change (no tight connection), I was able to check in a bag. So I ended up running over to Walgreens and buying a whole bunch of toiletries that the Day Care had requested. I had found an old suitcase in the garage that was perfect to just give with the donations.

So I had made arrangements for a taxi to pick me up at 7.15 pm. I had a 9.20 pm departure, but with having to check bags I wanted to get there with plenty of time. Taxi did not show up until 7.55 pm. To say I was stressed would have been an understatement. I get to the airport and I one to the last to check in the flight. Immediately the gate attendant says to me, I am sorry ma’am we do not have a business class seat for you, you’ve been downgraded. OK. I mean what else could I say? I needed to get Nairobi on Friday night, because I was scheduled to go on Safari on Saturday morning. But then she actually looked at my reservation, oh shoot, picks up the phone and says you have to find her a seat, argue, argue, thank you. Here you go ma’am, we were able to locate a seat for you.  Apparently, the seat I was given had been ” blocked” and they unblocked it for me. So when I got on the plane, my seat mate demanded to see my ticket because he was so convinced that nobody was supposed to be in that seat. Too bad for him.

So I fly to Munich, have time for a pretzel and then connect to Zurich. Have I mentioned how much I love flying Lufthansa?  But they sure do like to make their passengers get their exercise. When it was time to board my flight to Zurich, I was not surprised when we were bused out to the plane, then had to climb up to board. Upon boarding,  they were handing out Toblerone ‘s.  It was a 45 minute flight, they still served full meal. I was not really hungry, but I did not want to be rude. Something I learned in my previous years of working for an airlines, you eat when you are giving food, because you never know when a flight might get delayed, stuck on a runway, holding pattern, etc.

The meal would have been nice, but the flight encounter turbulence.  As a seasoned traveler, I’ve had my fair share of turbulence, but this flight was slowing creeping into my top 5 of bumpy flights.  As soon as the flight attend caught my eye, I gave up my meal, because I was not interested in wearing it.  No sooner did she get the carts locked down, did the pilots tell them to be seated.  I was in the first row, so I was facing the flight attendant jump seat.  She caught my eye and tried to give me a smile. At that point, I just closed my eyes and tried to focus on something positive.  As you know the plane landed safety, or you would heard the story by now. But it was by far the worse flight I’ve ever been on with turbulence.  The pilots were awesome about keeping us informed about what was going on, not that any of understood it, but just hearing from them gave the appearance of calm.  Funny enough, the flight attendant said to me, it was one of the worst for her.  If I recall correctly, the pilot said something about a storm coming out of nowhere when we were trying to land, and it was damned either going up or down, so they just brought us down.  I may have just had a crush before but it was now full on love for Lufthansa after that flight.

I had used my points to book a room at the Hilton Zurich Airport. It was short layover, and I had only packed warm weather clothes, so I pretty much just went from the airport to hotel.

Funny enough,  my original flight from Newark actually departed and my flight to Nairobi was delayed to allow those passengers to make the connection……..

Stay tuned

Last day of what has been a grand trip. After a farewell brunch with family and friends, I headed down to the docks for a harbor boat cruise. Somehow, is this in English, got lost in translation, so I ended up on a german only cruise.  Then I had to wonder what language I was speaking because I asked for wine and go this instead……

The Hamburg harbor was quite busy for a Sunday. Lots of cargo ships being loaded and moving in and out. Including planes.

It was hot and well I was tired so after the cruise I did want I tend to do in all major cities, the hop on hop off bus. Which was ok, until the English portion stopped working. So I decided to get off on the next stop, which happened to be the Wine and Food festival.  I’ve always loved visiting Europe for the Christmas Markets, but I am now seeing the allure of Festivals too! 

After sampling some wine, how could I not? I headed back to the hotel to figure out who the heck I was going to get my bags closed for my journey home. Did I mention that even with my best intentions, I managed to add to my load over the 12 days? 

One really nice perk of being Hyatt Diamond, is the free breakfast (my favorite meal).  And the Park Hyatt Hamburg, puts on a impressive spread. But after 12 days of hotels, I could not do it. I had to say no to the croissants. I guess it’s true, too much of a good thing, is still too much.

So I hail a taxi and off to the airport I go. Hamburg to Frankfurt on Lufthansa, connecting on United direct to Chicago.  Given that I got the airport super early, I went and hung out in the lounge. It was great for plane watching and thankfully, my love of croissants returned. 

It’s time for boarding so I hightail it to the gate. I had gotten rid of my larger luggage but I was still carrying 3 bags and an umbrella. One thing I love about flying on Lufthansa, they feed you, 10 minute flight, no problem, have a cookie. The only weird thing is they hand they out during boarding, while you trying to get settled, so my cookie ended up in the abyss that is my hand luggage.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the Frankfurt airport, odd I know, but I’ve learned to not mind it so much.  I actually really enjoy the Lufthansa Senator Lounge by the Z gates, because they have pretzels. So I was a little disappointed that I did not have time to visit on this trip. By the time I go my tax refund and picked up my airport chocolates, I had to run to the gate. 

Auf Wiedersehen Deutschland

Ahhhh, I made it. I had a nice seat on the upper deck and some friendly people sitting across the aisle. But wait, what is this sitting next to me? Another cuddler? Seriously? I may need to find an airline that only has single seats. 

Hello Chicago!!!

The End.

I am normally a pretty frugal person. Well about certain things. Sometimes I am not a frugal person, but then again I don’t have to be because I was frugal other times, so it balances out. Or so I like to think.

A few years ago, I planned the “trip of a lifetime”** or so I thought at the time. I researched and studied the travel blogs and bloggers, and figured out how to book a first class trip to Bali, Indonesia for 12 days for almost free.

So here I am going on this fantastic trip and I start being “cheap” about stuff. Not frugal, mind you, full on cheap. It was at that moment I decided I could give myself a pass and use something called Convenience Money.

Convenience Money is set aside amount of money that can be spent “guilt-free”. Convenience in the sense that there was probably a cheaper option, but this one just works better. Like paying for someone to get my Indonesian Visa and get by bags in Bali, yes I could have done it myself, but for $20 money well spent!

So rather then get upset about “over” paying, I just started assigning a value for convenience for each trip. Like when I order room service instead of going out to eat. Or when I decide to take a taxi instead of taking the train. Before this concept, I would stress about oh I could have saved $5, but now I just think hmmm this taxi ride was such a great idea!

So stop penny pinching and enjoy the trip. Setting a budget is important, so if you are hit with unexpected expenses, you can plan for it. And use common sense, convenience money is not meant to be stupid money. Still spend wisely, just don’t let the little things potential ruin your trip.
For the record, I had saved money doing some things cheaper on my Bali trip. Like opting not to take the nice hotel Mercedes from the Conrad Hong Kong, but instead opting for the free bus to the subway. Yes I honestly felt a little tacky rolling out of a hotel that cost $1,500/a night (I got it for free) and asking for the free bus. But if I had not taken the free bus, I would have not able to afford the room service hamburger. So it balanced out.

And of the $100 convenience money I had assigned for the trip, I came home with $40 and great memories!

**”Trip of lifetime” is no longer a phrase I use. Calling a trip “trip of a lifetime” puts unnecessary stress on it to be perfect. No trip is perfect. So I prefer “a trip in my lifetime”.

When researching hotels for my upcoming trip to Europe, I noticed that it cost more to get a room with air conditioning. So the frugal person I can be, thought for a minute, air or no air. What surprises me is that I even considered it! There are just certain necessities one needs when it’s warm. I could bend on location, room size and maybe even lack of room service, but I am not willing to suffer through no air conditioning.  I would rather travel less but travel well then travel more and be hot!