Thursday, March 10, 2011

Vacation time!!

About every few months, I start getting the itch again to travel.  I'm just going to blame that deep, dark passion on being in Europe (although, I think I came out of the womb with the feeling of wanting to see the world).  The trick is, slowly start gnawing on your husband until you've planted it in his brain that he needs a vacation and that it's his idea. :)  Then, you make all the plans.  That's how I show control. hee hee hee.

Well, it's worked!  We just booked our trip to...THE CANARY ISLANDS!!  Okay, I hope you all don't feel like I'm bragging, because we really do this on a very cheap budget.  In fact, I take pride in how cheaply we can go see/do things.  It's turned into a sort of talent for me.  We have a family here in our ward that we've made friends with.  Our kids LOVE each other.  They play very well and they are all learning German because their kids go to German schools as well.  This family is very laid back and just fun to be around.  So, we all decided it would be fun to go together.  That way, it would actually be cheaper for us all.  We have rented a villa to share and split the cost in half.  Here's the link to the villa we'll be staying in: http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p800967?cid=E_hrownerinquiry_DB_O_20110307_propID_link_LPROP_1

There's also a really cheap discount airline here in Europe called Ryanair.  The prices are amazing and we've used them many times before.  It's a little annoying flying with them simply because it's like herding cattle just getting onto the plane (there's no assigned seating) and Europeans generally don't stand in a line in a polite way.  However, it's totally worth the cheap airfare.

So far, our round trip tickets for our entire family came to a grand total of 320 Euro which is about $440, and that's with all our tickets and baggage check in.  Not too shabby huh?  The villa is only 600 euro for the entire week, and after dividing it between the two families, we only have to pay 300 euro which is $414.  Not to mention all the money we will save by being able to cook our meals at the villa.  It has a fully stocked kitchen, so we won't have to eat out unless we want to spend the money.  I'm super excited.  We don't even have to rent a car because we can just walk into town and the beach.  The public buses are really great down there too from what I've heard.

We will be heading to the island of Fuerteventura.  I'm pretty excited, if you can't tell.  I am in a huge need to just do nothing for a while.  We'll will be there at the end of April, for one week.  Hooray!  Until then, I'll be dreaming of nice, white sandy beaches and warm weather...