Travel luxuries are allowed when one turns 50

Having fully recovered from the Costa Rica trip that I set up to avoid the imminent expiration of the Alaska Airlines companion fare, we are about to embark on a World War II-focused journey that is not rooted in my typical bargain mentality. This is a trip rising from the splendor of my upcoming 50th birthday and will take place with all the requisite trappings of a mid-life celebration: sciatica, motion sickness and poor distance vision.

We are trying out the low cost carrier, Norwegian, which offers non-stops to London from Seattle, advertising fares as low as $400 roundtrip and so it is with much pride that I report to you that, due to inflexible departure dates and late scheduling, we managed to pay FOUR times that advertised low fare. I might offset every travel savings I have ever pocketed for us with this one celebratory journey.

We’re stopping in Oxford for a few days to recover from our flight and then we head to Krakow for 4 nights, down to Budapest for 4 nights and then down to Taormina, Sicily for 4 nights. Our stops in Krakow and Budapest are packed with trips to Auschwitz, underground bunkers and synagogues.  We’re seeing so many Jewish sites that I am hopeful that this will be the year that Ron becomes capable of pronouncing the word yarmulke and does not substitute the word beanie.

Our time in Taormina is mostly relax time but I’m hoping to do one hike to a town called Castelmola that has a restaurant decorated entirely in phallic items. We’ve also hired a local guide named Chiara to drive us around in her car for a day to maybe see some of the Baroque cities of Sicily. I do not know what I mean when I casually say “Baroque cities of Sicily”, but I read that phrase a lot as I planned this trip.  We were, in fact, going to do a big bus trip with 50 people to specifically Tour Baroque Sites! until I stumbled upon the idea of the private tour. It sometimes seems like we could save some money if I did a little less research. At any rate, for only three times the cost of the 50 person bus trip, Chiara has offered to take us to “Syracuse (the white town) and Catania (the black town) and Noto if we are not too tired”. I do not know exactly what she’s got in mind for us but she’s highly rated on TripAdvisor and sends out responsive emails at 2am Sicily time, telling me she was out at a party and nightclub for work so I think she’s going to be pretty fun.

Lodging has been chosen for comfort and view. There should be no wildlife lodging with us, hopefully. We’ve got a penthouse apartment in Taormina that I’m really excited about, with a huge deck overlooking the Ionian Sea. It’s funny, though, because even though I had a much more comfortable budget to work with for this trip (thank you, Ron!), these Central European cities are way less expensive than London and Paris.  We have a two bedroom, two bathroom apartment in Budapest…top rated apartments in the city…and our total for 4 nights is 425 dollars, which does not work out to much more than the room we had in La Fortuna with the ants and the toilet that liked to hint at overflowing before flushing properly.

Ron is up to his usual hijinks and will travel with only two pairs of underwear. He will pair this with three pairs of REI zip-off pants/shorts and that will comprise the sum total of things he wears on the bottom half of his body for this 16 day trip. Sometimes I want to encourage him to beef up his supplies a bit, given the whole human being/perspiration thing and the hot European summers and sometimes I don’t, selfishly hoping that I can take up some of the empty space in his underwear-less suitcase with a few of my own fashion items.

We head out Friday and we’ll report back from Oxford.  We’re excited to get back out there!!