29 March 2017
The excitement in the Theron home runs high. We are even packed and ready to go...we do not leave for the airport until 10am...so this is totally unheard of for this family!!!! It must say something about the expectation!!!!
This will be the first visit back to Europe since we relocated to South Africa form Scotland in 2014. The children has not been on a plane during the last 2.5 years. They have been planning for weeks next to which member of the family they will be sitting, what movies they will be watching...and contemplating if they would sleep or just watch the screen the whole night!!! Philippa(age 8) has even written down a list of must-see movies!! I find this hilarious...but coming back to leading our children into writing a vision for themselves...she's totally got that one cracked!!!
So travelling from South Africa to Europe with four kids in tow is not cheap. How do we do it...or hope to do it!!
We decided more than year ago about the best time for Spring skiing, and bought our plane tickets the day they became available. Throughout the rest of 2016, we booked and paid for our accommodation, lift passes and gear hire. Yes, to go skiing is expensive, but good planning and constant Internet scanning for cheap deals, can turn a big adventure into a manageable experience!!
To fly to Europe form South Africa is the most expensive part of our trip, therefore we decided to maximise the time off school and do a bit more exploration. One thing lead to another, and we narrow our focus to the foreign culture of the Magyars, or more commonly referred to as the people of Hungary. So for the second week of our trip we will be visiting Budapest, Eger and the southern grasslands. We used cheap low cost airlines Wizz and Easyjet and fly from less popular airports. This is cutting the cost of internal air travelling with more than 50%. We plan on a set amount of luggage, which bring the cost down too, since you are paying separately for every bag you checked into the hull. We booked our own accommodation in youth hostels, airBnB's and camping cabin's...again saving a great deal in comparison to using a travel agent and booking into hotels.
Our last week will be spend in Scotland. We will be visiting friends and staying with them. We are so thankful for the love and expectation our friends are showing in hosting us. We are renting a car from a local dealership vs one of the mainline companies and dropping it off at the airport, before we are flying home. We are travelling in a group of 6, so we've found that most of the time you save yourselves a great deal of hassle if you book your own transfers or cars versus using public transport. Public transport does not always turns out to be the most effective or cheapest way of overland travel.
So hi HO hi HO and off we go.
My last secret bit of travel cheek is: I'm packing a great amount of food. Kids (and grown-ups) get hungry...every sent/penny adds up...so I'll be well stocked with travel snacks, energy bars for the slopes, we even take our own filter coffee with us (our AroPress is always with us).
Over the next few weeks I'll keep you up to date with our progress on the slopes, our experiences in Hungary and let you share in the joy of being re-united with friends from a different era.
Until we meet again!