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A Chess Game

I don’t play chess, but I have some vague notions of how masters play, that they are always several moves ahead in their minds, anticipating a number of scenarios. That’s rather how my life is. I’m always thinking far ahead, planning for what ifs, allowing for contingencies, and always doing my best to have an end game.

There are some bloggers who like to lay out their whole game plan ahead of times, with all its possible twists, for their readers to pick apart and dissect and give advice on. That’s just not me.

So that’s my mindset in answering here a couple of comments I got last night. I’m doing so in a post because I can imagine that other people are thinking things along the same line.

But before I start, let me digress for a moment and comment on an astute observation:

“I wonder if life is easier in Spain in the areas that have more tourists.”

Exactly. One of the reasons that Almería so appealed to me is that it is not on the tourist track and could show me the real Spain. One month here has taught me more about what this country is really like than any number of visits friends and family have made. This is why I want to travel, to see how people live in other places, not to play tourist.

Now, back to the chess game:

“No matter what happens you always have the option to fly back to Canada”

That has never been an option at this time of year! When I left, it was knowing I would be on this side of the pond till the spring and I had a loose plan to get me there, depending on what opportunities presented themselves.

First of all, I don’t have a home to go back to in the winter season. Power’s off completely, there’s no water, I don’t have any windbreaks set up, and I have no internet etc. Moreover, the cost of going back to North America is not cheap and once I get there, travel within the continent is even more expensive. The plan was always to maximise my initial ticket to get to this side of the pond and only return to North America when I absolutely have to.

Which brings me to another comment:

“However, this is not the time to fly back to Canada; it is like trading one cold country for another cold country, i.e., the UK. ”

I was always going to end up in the UK in early 2017. I’ll be a few months earlier than I planned, but it was always going to be my end point. One reason is that it’s the cheapest country to fly back from. A second reason is that it is where there are the most housesitting gigs. But the most important reason is that I can stay six months. This gives me a lot of options I didn’t have in the Balkans and in the Schengen area in that I can bounce around at my leisure and take longer sits if I want to. The climate won’t be great, but spring will come much earlier than it would in most parts of Canada.

“But, if you could find cheap transportation to and lodgings in Mexico for your remaining time”

And here is where we get back to my initial point about not giving my readers all the information. I will just say that Mexico is not an option right now for reasons that will become clear in the next couple of months…

So all that to say, I’m right where I need to be, albeit a few months earlier than planned. But that might end up working well if what I think is going to happen in March does happen. And even more so if what happens in May comes to fruition.

All this boils down to three scenarios for my return to North America. The only one I’m ready to discuss right now is my plan A that I left with last year — at some point in June, I’ll fly back from the UK to Regina with funds I’ve been keeping aside for that and spend the summer at Haven, riding the high of an amazing adventure!

Or maybe not… *evil cackle*

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Flexibility and a Shift of Schedule

I had a loose plan what what was going to come after Bulgaria, staying in Eastern Europe until December and then going to Spain or Portugal. I kept an eye on housesits and when a nearly perfect one turned up, I pounced even if it would put me in Spain a full two months sooner than I had planned. Thanks to Croft and another friend who acted as references, I got the job!

So I am flying to Madrid from somewhere on or about October 20th and then taking a bus to Almería, in the south of Spain. This is my dream Spanish location — far enough south to have warm weather, but still off the tourist path in a very expat-centric part of the country. My Spanish skills contributed greatly to my getting an interview. I would be lying if I said I’m not tired of being somewhere I don’t speak the language and that it will be an immense relief to land somewhere that I do.

I will be watching a house and a 12-year-old cat for seven weeks. That is the limit of what I can say in deference to my host’s privacy. I will not be sharing pictures of her cat or her home, but I am allowed to say where I am when I get there (I’ll actually be in a small town outside of Almería). And that I am looking forward to having access to a proper desk and chair for working!

I still have only an inkling of an idea of what I am doing between Bulgaria and Madrid, so please don’t ask me about that at this point. 🙂 Belgrade for a month is still on the table, but I’m also investigating the possibility of an organised tour of some sort through the Balkans. I really would love to see Sarajevo, Kosovo, and the Adriatic coast. But at the same time, work is slow, not particularly lucrative, and I didn’t manage to add to my savings here so I have to be frugal what with having to pay for accommodation for the next four weeks. The cheapest option is definitely a monthly rental and that’s also the option most conducive to working.

By far the cheapest option for getting to Almería is to fly from a large city, like Belgrade or Athens, to Madrid and then taking a bus to Almería. I toyed with the idea of a very long train ride through Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Italy, and France, but the cost was exorbitant. I’d rather fly to Madrid a few days early and play tourist.

Now that I have a hard target, I suspect the next four weeks will come into focus. And so, the coddiwompling continues!

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Balancing the Books

I just caught up on two months worth of bookkeeping, WHEW. The amazing thing is that I am so conscious of my spending that I balanced very nearly to the penny even though I did not have receipts for everything and I was juggling several currencies.

So this means that I finally have the cost of my hedonistic five days in London. I am not including airfare because I was going through London whether I stayed there or not. I think I did quite well considering how expensive the city is! My London trip costs, broken up by categories, with all expenses in CAD:

Accommodation: $222.00

Public Transportation (Oyster): $65

Attractions: $128 (thankfully, the British museum was free!)

Food (including afternoon tea at $55): $255

Souvenir (Moleskine notebook): $20

Total: $690 ($138 per day, counting my arrival and departure days as all expenses for those days were in London)

My first month in Bulgaria was extraordinarily cheap, even less expensive that Mexico, because I had no rent to pay here and no household setup costs since the house is so well equipped. I don’t feel that revealing my entire budget is relevant, but here were my Bulgaria costs for July, remembering that I live in a tiny village with few opportunities to spend money!

Food (including beer and my very few restaurant meals): $299

Public transportation (two round trips to Sofia, two taxi rides): $29

Household: $8 (this is just toilet paper and paper towels, which are extraordinarily cheap here!)

Toiletries: $8 (shampoo, body lotion, body wash (I only came with small carry on sizes), razors)

Telecom (SIM card, plus top up cards, of which I still have 20BGN outstanding!): $36

Hotel: $93 (for two nights)

Movie: $10

Tourism (two walking tours): $20

Total: $503

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Trying to Figure Out London’s Oyster Card

One thing I remember from Scotland that has not improved in 20 years is that there are a lot of different transportation agencies in the UK and they don’t place nicely with each other. So it’s a miracle, really, that London has such good public transportation considering how many players are in the game. They all operate under the name Transport for London (TFL), but they are very much separate entities (including Underground, Overground, National Rail, but there are many more!).

All of these companies servicing London agree to use a payment method known as Oyster. It’s a prepaid electronic card that offers big savings over buying individual tickets. UK residents (and visitors from some other countries, depending on their banks) can use a contactless credit card instead and get the same rates. There are other ways to pay for transport, including daily travel cards, but going with Oyster made the most sense for my trip because it offers a daily cap. That means that after spending so much, you get unlimited travel. Once I got to my Airbnb, I would only be traveling between zones 1 and 2, with a daily cap of £6.50.  I downloaded my journey history and see that if you make at least three trips in a day, the daily cap offers a lot of value.

I bought my Oyster card at Gatwick train terminal, paying a refundable £5 deposit and adding £30 of credit. It would cost me £8 just to get to Central London, plus however much to get to Kensal Green. This first day wound up being very expensive, transportation-wise, because I went back to Central London in the late afternoon, with my travel costs for the day being £15. But if I had not gotten my Oyster card and had instead taken the much better advertised “Gatwick Express” train, I would have paid £20 just to get to Central London. So I think this illustrates the value of going with Oyster.

Here is my travel history and the fares:

Saturday, June 25th:

Gatwick to Kensal Green: £10.20

Kensal Green to Regent’s Park: £2.40

Baker Street to Kensal Green: £2.40

Total: £15

Note: I did not reach any caps on this day.

Sunday, June 25th:

Kensal Green to Westminster: £2.40

Knightsbridge to Baker Street: £2.40

Baker Street to Kensal Green: £1.70

Total: £6.50

Note: My last trip was capped. If I had, say, taken a bus from Kensal Green to home, the bus ride would have been free.

Monday, June 26th:

Kensal Green to Euston (on National Rail): £2.40

Russell Square to Kensal Green: £2.90

Total: £5.30

Note: This day offered me the least value since I didn’t reach my cap.

Tuesday, June 27th:

Kensal Green to London Bridge: £2.90

St. Paul’s to Green Park: £2.40

Piccadilly Circus to Kensal Green: £1.20

Total: £6.50

Note: This is a day that if I hadn’t had a card with a cap, I would have likely walked from St. Paul’s to The Wolseley to save the £1.40 I would have spent on a full fare ride…

Wednesday, June 29th:

Kensal Green to London Victoria: £2.40

Note: This is where I cashed out my Oyster card and got my £5 deposit back, but still got to keep the card and the little wallet with three slots they’d given me to go with it. I was rather happy with the latter item since I only brought a change purse with me and was worried that my cards will get scratched up in it. Now, I have a solid and slim place to store my cards safely.

Total spent on Oyster while in London (not counting the deposit): £35.70 or about 65CAD.

Topping up Oyster is where things got really messy. There are self-serve machines at all stations where you can top up. I tried three times in one day and while TFL took my money, none of the credit was applied to my Oyster card. I knew that I had to tap my card a second time for the top up to “take,” but I never got the prompt for that. When I called my bank, they had London Overground and Southern Rail (I think) as having taken my money, not TFL. When I called the Oyster helpline, they were absolutely useless, something that makes a lot more sense now that I understand that many different companies take payment for Oyster. I’m monitoring my credit card and none of the failed Oyster charges have actually posted. Once I catch up on my bookkeeping, I will be able to confirm if Oyster released my funds or not.

How I ended up successfully topping up was going to a newsagent (convenience store/dépanneur) in Kensal Green with an “Oyster Stop” poster in the front window. She was very patient and guided me through the steps, giving me a receipt as proof that I’d added £10 to my card. I recommend topping up this way even if it’s not as convenient.

One final Oyster tip, how to use it! For rail travel, you have to touch in and out at the start and end of your journey. For buses, which I did not use, you just have to tap in. If you forget to tap out, you will be charged the largest possible fare. Also, note there are very steep penalties if you cannot provide proof of payment and that fares for some zones differ based on the time of day! I wish I had known Sunday that’s not the case for zones 1 and 2 because I would have left earlier instead of waiting for the “off peak” time to save a few pounds.

Even after using Oyster for four days, it still leaves me a little bewildered. But it was really nice to be able to pass through the gates so quickly like a local!