One-Way Ticket to Barcelona

As I mentioned a few days ago, my ticket is bought and friends and family know of my plan to saying adios! to my damn cubicle (but I'll miss most of my coworkers, especially those that help the days go by fast).

My excitement cup filling up to the brim, I try as hard as I can to stop it from overflowing.  All efforts are futile.  I have way too much to plan and to do before I leave and the fact that I have only bought a one-way ticket out of the States and no return ticket only adds to the excitement.  But why stop it from overflowing?  After all, the whole point of quitting my job and pursuing an adventurous life is to feel alive with excitement! Instead of excitement restraint I should get a bigger, larger cup.  Maybe a jug. Or a keg.

Purchasing the ticket was harder than expected.  First I had to make the transition from thinking to doing.  Procrastination was a leal friend.  Having too many options was worst of all.  What city should I fly to?  How do I get the cheapest flight?  How do I get from city 1 to my next destination?  How many steps in advance should I plan for?!  Buy a ticket the day after I quit work or a month later?  It was an overwhelming undertaking...at first.  Then I remembered my own advice and took one step at a time.

I broke it down to a few steps.  

First I chose the last day of work.  May 31st.  Second I estimated how long it would take to finish straightening out all my shit (sell furniture, bed and car) after I quit.  I gave myself a one week deadline.  Then I looked for flights leaving anytime after my deadline (June 8th).

Time frame in mind, I set out to looking for candidate cities.  Doing a quick search in travel blogs and websites I settled for the following cities.  Frankfurt, Germany; London; Barcelona, Spain; Paris, France.  Why these cities?  Leaving the States isn't cheap.  I had a better chance of finding cheap(er) tickets out of the US to the old world if I looked for flights to these cities.  And why not these cities?  Being greeted by delicious Parisian dishes or by London's incredible architecture would not be a bad first stop.

Now I had to find cheap flights.  The usual bargain/discount sites all offered the same flights costing $800 and up one way.  Most options included 1-3 layovers or offered terrible flight times.  Let down, I confided my defeat to a good friend who happens to travel a lot.  He suggested using a Google software to find the real, cheap tickets.  I gave the site a try and although skeptical at first I soon fell in love with it!

Here is how to do it: 

Fill out the search query and the program scans for the cheapest flights out there.  As with anything Google, it is easy to use and the results clearly laid out.   The best part is, they make no money from finding the cheapest flights!  Tickets cannot be bought or sold on the site.  You have to find and purchase the flights discovered by Google online or directly from the airline.  The program will not do this for you.  The name of the program is ITA Software by Google and you can access it here.  I found a cheap flight ($400!!) leaving from Chicago on June 12th at 9 pm and arriving at Barcelona the next morning.

It took me a while to find the tickets online.  I did not trust purchasing my ticket directly from the airline so I bought it from Cheapoair.com.  Cheapoair usually offers you most plane tickets out there and you can purchase cancellation protection (money back if tickets are not purchased by Cheapoair or if you cancel your travel) and travelers insurance for a measly $20.  Cheapoair offers their own promo discounts which pretty much covers the $20 insurance package (google "Cheapoair discounts" or click here) I found the ticket, included the insurance package, filled out payment information and immediately hit enter.  Ok, maybe not immediately.  I may have panicked for a good 15 minutes.  But I eventually shook off the rationalization fairy from my shoulder and hit enter.

The safe route or the exciting option

I'm debating on whether to purchase a return ticket to some other US city or not.  I could plan out the next legs of my journey (if only to take advantage of the early-bird cheap prices) but I could also wait until I get there to plan ahead.  The former is safer, the latter is more, well, adventurous.  My gut feeling is to buy a return ticket to a US city where I have relatives who would take me in while I planned my next adventure.  Cheapoair offers cancellation protection so I could always cancel my flight a week or two before if everything went well.  I love adventure, but safety precautions should always be taken.

Recap

One-way ticket to Barcelona in the bag. Next step is to purchase a refundable, safety-plan return flight to the States.  Plan the next few steps of my trip to snatch those dirt-cheap prices ahead of time.  After that I should start figuring out what to do with all my personal belongings and my car.

All this can wait tomorrow morning.  It's almost 11 and I should go to bed.  Monday mornings are bad enough as it is.  Sleep deprivation would only make it worse.

Good night fellow explorers!