Summer Holiday

[daveon]

I spent quite a lot of money yesterday :(

We booked, using airmiles, a trip for M to go to RSA for her Dad's 80th birthday in October. The plan was for me to buy a ticket, that way we get a half price return - or rather a better class of return for the same price as 2 economy tickets. The trouble was with buying the flat and everything else we didn't get around to booking the trip. As it's bonus day today, I thought I ought to. Only, naturally, the flight options that we booked a month ago for M were not appearing.

Fortunately a very helpful person at BA managed to fix it all. About £200 more than I had budgeted but I can live with that.

I also decided to book a holiday. What with the move, the work load I've been running at and generally not having had any significant time off since Christmas, I was in dire need. We definately didn't want to do a package, even though they are really good value. However, I just can fly Charter anymore. I spend too much time on scheduled airlines to cope well with standard check-in queues, tourist airport security and mobs of happy tourists doing their one flight a year.

So we spent ages looking around the various travel sites. We found a fantastic place outside Rome, however, it turns out to be practically impossible to get to without hiring a car and, having been to Rome before, I am not going on holiday to drive around Rome.

In the end we found a lovely hotel in Thessaloniki, which is, apparently, Greece's second largest city and has the best restaurants and culture in the country (well, according to a few tourist sites I checked). So we're going to spend a week there. I've never been to mainland Greece, but there's a pool, lots of things to see if we want. The hotel has internet and cable TV. And, according to the tourist websites, the city has a huge number of bars, clubs and interesting little restaurants.

So, for anybody interested...

Tonight: Probably Pizza; Veronica Mars and Green Wing
Tomorrow we're off to Bath to see old friends and stay in the Hotel we first used when we were looking to move to Bath. We thought that would be a nice way of rounding things off. I see a Curry at the Eastern Eye in our future.
Tuesday: Off to LA and then Vegas for a night
Wednesday - Saturday: Seattle
Saturday pm - flying down to Vegas to stay in the Venetian for MEDC
Thursday pm - flying home

Saturday - off on holiday

For the end of May it looks like I've got to head back to Japan and Seattle.

After that, I think I can stop flying for a month or so. More on that later...

Comments

[camies.livejournal.com]

I lived in Thessaloniki for a while and have been back several times - going this summer as well. This time of year you'd probably be able to see Mount Olympus across the bay (it's less often visible in summer because of heat haze etc). I can definitely vouch for 'interesting little restaurants' - some do barrel retsina which is worth trying if you like that sort of thing. The best place to swim is probably the pool on the roof of the Capsis hotel. The old town, up by the walls, is also interesting - there are also a couple of local restaurants, e.g. Tsinari and Vlachas, which are worth checking out up there.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Cool. Thanks for that.

I'm looking forward to it. The place sounds really interesting.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

So it looks like you'll be in Seattle for May Vanguard...