A Very Expensive Blunder - When the Rat Race Traps You

Sometimes what you force yourself to believe is that you have thought things out carefully. Then you are surprised when this “best” thinking really goes haywire. Those are times when it goes wrong, derails, crashes, and makes you feel lucky to have financially survived at all.

When we were planning this trip, the airfare from Budapest was outrageous. I always look at alternate airports: Vienna, Munich, or other places where there are budget airline flights. Vienna is only 3 hours by train, Munich is 8. The best deal I could locate was from Munich which shaved about $300 from each of our plane tickets. MÁV, the Hungarian railroad has specials for €39 for a one-way fare to Munich. We booked one night at a hotel near the Munich airport where we would get their shuttle to the airport in the morning. So far so good.

What was not factored into the equation was getting to and from the hotel. Okay, it was a subway and then a bus ride, so not a great expense. Their courtesy airport shuttle was not a free service, so we paid something like €15 for the ride.

While still in Nicaragua, I got to thinking that after two long plane rides lasting over 13 hours, one night in Munich on the way home may not be sufficient. We opted for two. Now this is an interesting tidbit. Ron had used Priceline.com to book our Munich hotel for the first night and paid $77. When we decided to extend it to 2 nights, I did it directly with the hotel and paid $69.

Munich is behind the times with hotel services. WiFi cost $5.99 an hour or with a minor discount if you opted for the 7 or 24 hour plans. I refused to pay it mainly due to the fact that they had 2 different plans, one being faster than the other and of course more expensive. When I balked at reception, the young lady gave me codes to access the complimentary version. Needless to say, you type in the code, which releases a carrier pigeon to deliver your e-mails and a tar coated funnel that allows your incoming mail to enter your inbox. Every ten minutes, I was knocked off of the connection. Was I ticked!

Our first night we went to the Hofbrau Haus for a beer. Some costumed Bavarian men shared a table and chatted away in good English. One has a cousin in Erd. It was too noisy and busy to have dinner there. We ventured over to Paulaner im Tal where we had a great dinner, excellent service and delightful surroundings.

The next day, we went to the train station to book our tickets back to Budapest. When we bought the outgoing ticket they would not sell a return for 2014. We went thinking €39 each, €78 total, so I would pay cash. Up to this point, we had only used the credit card once the entire 7 weeks, a fact I was proud of accomplishing. We asked for our tickets and the ticket seller said €240. WHAT??? What happened to €39? Well that is if you buy 3 days in advance. If we could leave on Monday rather than Sunday, we could have snatched that fare. I had to go to school on Monday. I had taken off more time than anyone appreciated, so I wasn’t about to risk the ire with another day. We had to use the charge card again.

Our second night, we went to Hacker Pschorr Brauhaus for dinner. We have eaten here on prior trips for Munich and for what you get, the food is good, plentiful, and reasonable considering this is a major tourism city. We really like the atmosphere of the outdoor area, which they cover and heat in winter time.

Three things about our waitress set me off. First I ordered a beer from their menu. She shouted "What is that? I have never heard of that." Suddenly, I felt transported back to Budapest. I pointed to the German menu and she shrugged her shoulders and wrote it down.

When Ron later ordered a 2nd beer, he repeated which of the beers it was that he had the first time, requesting a second of the same. When she returned we immediately realized it was the wrong beer by the color. She took off so fast we did not bother to try to get her back to remedy it.

Finally, the icing on the cake was when I paid the bill. It came to €38.50. I gave her a €100 bill and 50 € cents. Rather than leave my currency on the table while she made change, she immediately put it into her wallet and then handed me a €10 note. She was ready to zip off, but I stopped her saying just a minute, I gave you a €100 note. Even if I had given her a €50, the change was still not correct. Without blinking an eye and without any remorse, she said "Oh, right!" She then proceeded to give me more change, but still shorted me €2. Before this, the €2 Euro was going to be part of a €6 tip, but then I changed my mind. I said what you shorted me is now your tip.

I had a strong suspicion that this may be a way for the staff to fleece the tourists. As we were leaving, she nodded at us as she was speaking to another waitress and they both started laughing.

As it turned out the ‘savings’ flying from Munich was reduced by transport there, hotel one night before, dinner at the hotel since it was in the middle of nowhere, transportation passes to get to the hotel, shuttle to the airport, transportation passes when we returned, two breakfasts and dinners out, two nights in a hotel, and a very expensive train ticket.

I think Budapest will be our airport of choice for the future.

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No Cents for Hungary

People have been asking me for years when Hungary will join the Euro Zone and are flummoxed by the fact they have not yet. Of course, these are all tourists who are asking, because they are still cautious about handing over a 5,000 forint bill and barely getting any change back. All of those zeros can be alarming. I remember when Italy had lira. There were so many zeros on some of the bills; they had to add an addendum to it.

Well the Budapest Times had an enlightening article concerning Hungary and the Euro. It has never been an issue of desire, but a need to meet all of the required Maastricht criteria, the treaty that sets the rules for the Euro. "Orbán admitted that the country will not be able to meet the criteria of a 3% debt threshold until the next decade. This is a requirement that must be maintained for 2 years to be eligible for joining the Euro zone.

Tourists you need to bring your calculators or print out a currency cheat sheet here.

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Tomorrow is the 200 Forint Day

Starting tomorrow, the Hungarian government will begin issuing the new 200 forint coin, replacing the 200 forint bank note. Similar to the 100 forint coin, it will be minted in two metals with an outer and inner ring, made of 75% copper. The last date to be able to use the current 200 forint paper currency will be November 16, 2009. According to the central bank, the reasons are two-fold. The coins will have a longer life expectancy as the bills wear out faster and this is also to prepare people for the eventual adoption of the Euro. That will not be happening in the near future, but it is still interesting to think about the currency exchange identification between 100 or 200 forints and 1 or 2 Euros. Yikes, what a rate that would be sending inflation skyrocketing. The forint's name comes from the city of Florence, where golden coins were minted from 1252 called fiorino d'oro. Hungary's florentinus (later forint), was also a gold-based currency, which was used from 1325 under King Charles Robert

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Budget Airlines Again

Since the last post with the comment on SkyEurope falling out of the sky, I have been keeping a sharp eye on the budget airline news. So many travel writers and travel bloggers, mostly US based are still shouting the praises of "cross the big pond with the cheapest flight possible and then traipse through Europe with budget airlines". What this tells me is that they are not really doing their research thoroughly enough. It reminds me of a recent travel article for Budapest that was in the travel section of a top Arizona newspaper just two months ago. The author was raving about the experiences of the Budapest thermals and spoke so highly of the Racs Thermal. The Racs closed down in 2002. Travel writers should try their absolute best to get it right. If you have not been to a destination in years, skip the topic and write what you do know about from recent trips. Here are some snippets of news from different sites about the troubles of European budget airlines. "Hungarians, Bitter says, are not flying as much as Slovakians or Czechs and most of SkyEurope's Budapest flights were filled exclusively with foreigners going on holiday. He adds that fares from Budapest and Prague to Western European cities are similar, but Prague flights are an hour shorter, making them by far a more profitable venture. He says the Slovakian economy is also stronger, growing at 14% annually compared with only 1% in Hungary. "It's night and day." For the full article see www.flightglobal.com/articles/2008/04/23/223221/jason-bitter-slowing-down-expansion-at-skyeurope.html It also is a telling tale why Slovakia is going on the Euro in January 2009 and Hungary will be lucky to get there in 2012. Ryanair one of the oldest and most stable of the no frills is having problems as well. This was part of a longer article at www.flightglobal.com/articles/2008/04/23/223145/high-fuel-prices-lead-to-airline-casualties.html "Ryanair warned earlier this year that its profits for the fiscal year ending March 2009 could fall by as much as 50% due to high oil prices and fears of recession. The carrier has embarked on a cost-cutting programme that will see staff salaries frozen and aircraft grounded this winter to help it cope with its rising fuel bill. "We will sit 20 of our aircraft on the ground this winter because it's cheaper than flying them," says Ryanair deputy chief executive Michael Cawley. 'That's wrong and it's a huge issue for us. We've made a virtue in the past of having year-round servicesbut I want to point out the difficulty we'll have this year.'" EasyJet jumps into the ring with the headline EasyJet exec predicts cull of budget airlines. The stark warning of a cull of low-cost airlines came as the British budget airline's shares fell more than 4 percent after another spike higher in oil prices towards $120 a barrel.

"There are currently about 50 low-cost carriers on the European market -- that's absurd," Francois Bacchetta, managing director of EasyJet France, told a news conference.

In a few years' time there will be no more than about three or four of us left in Europe," he said. Posted at www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSL2332471920080423.

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Cesky Krumlov

Breakfast was served in a little coach house across the courtyard from our room. They had a fire going in the old stove making it cozy. On three of the tables, there were platters of ham, cheeses, and salami. On the counter, three types of cereal, coffee, hot water for tea, juice, and three types of rolls. Definitely not Austrian type rolls, but plain unadorned rolls that could easily have been overlooked.

We walked down to the brewery to find the hours of the tours. The one and only would be in an hour, so we walked to the castle and decided to forgo the tour. As you cross over the moat to the castle, there were people gawking at something. It was the castle bear, though the signs asking not to feed the bears implied there were others not visible. The bear was having a grand time playing in the water, obviously enjoying the show he or she was providing for the tourists. Then s(he) climbed out for a good back scratch on the tree putting an orgasmic look on his or her face.
We toured all around the castle and the grounds, but did not take the tour. If you are interested in the castle's specs, here you are. The gardens were lovely, but void of flowers due to the change of seasons is my guess. The shrubbery is expertly maintained. The various views from the hike up and around are breathtaking.















How does one change this clock for daylight savings time, I wonder?
I must say that as lovely and picture perfect as this village is, I don't understand how people manage or managed to walk on these cobblestone streets. I wore my most comfortable shoes, my Crocs, and my feet were killing me. Some of the young women residents, they had to be residents, were running around in high heels. On these stones, it is like being a stilt walker maintaining your balance. The stones are not flat, but full of surprise bumps, hills, valleys, and stumbling blocks along the way. In winter time or even in the rain, it must be treacherous.

For as many restaurants and hotels as there are, what is painfully absent are bakeries. We found a couple of cafes that had meager offerings and went to one by the river for an apple strudel and coffee, but compared to Austria, this is where they are deficient. This was the only moment, I wished I could transport back to Linz, but hurry back with pastry in hand.

We were favored with the weather, having clear skies and sunny days. We spent the whole day walking around and around, and around again. We covered the same streets, alleys, and coves multiple times in our day and a half. We found a lovely park and sat watching the teens sneaking their cigarettes and booze, like the world over, teens are the same. The street surface was making the village painfully beautiful and I was ready to return to the room to read. After finishing "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" by Kim Edwards, I started the other book I took along "The Last Testament" by Sam Bourne.

The Czech Republic is still using their old currency the Koruna and not the Euro. We were running short on Koruna and did not want to exchange more Euros than needed, so we strategically planned where we would dine, the cost and exchanged that amount. We chose a restaurant associated with a youth hostel based on the menu. When we returned later this evening, a fire was blazing in the fireplace and the one room held three tables similar to our last night's dining experience. The room was a converted stable with horse artifacts, collars, and such decorating the walls. The food was excellent and the place was definitely atmospheric.

For a last hurrah, we went to the somewhat tacky Horror Bar for a drink. As can be expected, the downstairs bar was decorated like a permanent Halloween exhibit with skeletons, cobwebs, mummies, and bats complementing the decor. We were amongst the oldest patrons with a few young Goth enthusiasts rounding out the crowd. There was one older woman also who was either the owner or some weird groupie, not sure which, but she acted like a regular.

Tomorrow, back to Linz and then home again, home again, lickety split or not so.

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