2015-01-12 05:47:30-05
Wandering Earl 
It all started last Wednesday when, during an afternoon break from doing some work, I decided to go online and look up random airfares from Bucharest. Always a sucker for the beach, the first destination I looked up was Goa, India. And the first airfare I found was $340 USD (one-way) with FlyDubai and Air India. I suddenly got excited. I then decided to continue searching other destinations. Within an hour, I had found airfares to places such as Tbilisi, Georgia ($178 USD) and Male, Maldives ($400 USD) and Warsaw, Poland ($101 USD) and Hong Kong ($505 USD) and Fethiye, Turkey ($115 USD) and Tel Aviv, Israel ($145 USD) and Brunei ($575 USD) and plenty of others, that were, in my opinion and experience, remarkable deals. Naturally, it got me even more excited. It wasn't my plan at all to travel anywhere in January but once the idea creeped into my head during this airfare searching session, I knew it would be difficult to just forget about it. Then, that evening, I went outside to grab some dinner and despite wearing my warm gloves, I couldn't feel my fingers after a few minutes because of the -16C (3F) temperature here in Bucharest. By the time I reached the store, whatever had been dribbling out of my nose had turned to solid ice, my face was partially numb and my toes were nearly frozen (the toes problem is admittedly my fault since I’m quite bad at staying warm in winter). Beach, anyone? Upon returning to my apartment, I felt as if I had no choice but to continue the airfare search and because I was so intrigued by what I was finding, I also started looking at flights from other locations, simply out of curiosity. The airfares I soon found would make anyone with even the slightest interest in travel want to purchase a ticket, pack their bags, hand their cat off to their neighbor and get on that plane immediately. January sure seems like the cheapest month to travel. I never knew. - NYC to Oslo for $250 USD
– Chicago to Istanbul for $460
– London to Bangkok for $560
– Los Angeles to Medellin for $375
– Paris to Athens for $205 Yes, those are for roundtrip tickets (all found on JetRadar.com and Skyscanner.com). It really can't get much cheaper. Of course, I know that last minute travel is not feasible for everyone and to take advantage of some of these fares, you really need to be flexible and ready to leave, well, very soon. But I know that some of you are looking for such a random getaway, some of you have been waiting for the perfect deal to get started, some just want to have a unique international adventure for as little money as possible. Just think, by next week you could be sitting in a completely different destination, perhaps in Asia or Latin America or Europe. Crazy, right? I'm not saying you should quit school or quit your job or make some radical decision to leave your current life behind. Nothing like that at all. All I'm saying is that there are opportunities out there. Perhaps January doesn't work out for you. Maybe February or May or September will. Keep your eyes open, sit down at your computer from time to time and start typing in random destinations. You never know what airfares you'll find and one day you just might find the fare that makes sense, the one fare that turns your desire to travel, whether for the first time or for the hundredth time, into reality. Modern Travel is Simply AmazingThis concept of modern travel still messes with my head. I've been traveling for 15 years but when I think about the fact that today I am writing this post from a train in Romania and in two days I could be, well, somewhere else on the planet, maybe India, maybe Italy, maybe Hong Kong, I am just blown away. Is it not incredible that we can get to the other side of the world for $500 and in less than 24 hours? And who says you need to go to the other side of the world. Here in Europe, you can bounce over to another country for the cost of a movie ticket. In my random airfare searches the past few days, I've found a flight from Craiova, Romania to Bologna, Italy for $12 USD each way, including all fees. Not bad for a 2 hour flight to a different country. There are flights from Frankfurt, Germany to Barcelona, Spain for $100 roundtrip and flights from Sofia, Bulgaria to Rome, Italy for $110 roundtrip. Within one country, airfares also border on the absurd at the moment. Flights within Turkey are as low as $20 USD with Pegasus Airlines, within India, you can fly from one corner of the country to another for less than $50 bucks on several airlines. Bangkok to Chiang Mai, Thailand on Bangkok Airways will cost you $51 USD. Nuts. I need to stop looking up flights. On another note, today was a bit of a tease. The temperatures here in Romania shot up a good amount and I would almost venture to say that it was a âwarm' day. The snow and ice are melting, I could walk around without my winter hat on my noggin and my toes were wiggling around with joy all day. But man, I keep coming back to one thing – $340 for a ticket to Goa, and I could be there tomorrow, in a nice little hut right on the beach. What would you do? Have you found any unbeatable deals lately? Anyone want to meet in Goa?
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