Out of the way

I am in Vienna for two days. In order to get here, I had to get the cheapest possible last-minute ticket. So the itinerary is:

OSL-CPH-VCE (Oslo to Venice via Copenhagen) with SAS. Then I spent 10 hours in Venice. Sadly, the friends I have in Venice were either on holiday, or I didn't have their phone number.

Then I caught the night train to Vienna. I like night trains. The bed might be too short and too hot, but there is something I like about sleeping on a train. Unfortunately, as I was looking out the window, my glasses blew off, and out the window. Which will make this a very expensive trip I was very upset to lose them (I hate losing my glasses, not just because it is expensive, but because reading without them makes me very tired...).

Now I am here.

To get back, I was looking at a flight from Vienna to Oslo. In a miracle of environmental genius, Austrian airlines decided that the price of a one-way flight would be the same as if I had taken a return flight, plus a little - a total of just over 500€. SAS sells tickets for exactly the same flight - but they were selling them about 50€ cheaper.

But instead, tomorrow night I will take the train to Budapest and spend the night there. (Funnily enough, it is a cheaper place to hang out than Venice, too). Then, early in the morning, I will fly from Budapest to Vienna. And there I will get on exactly the same Austrian airlines flight, but I will save €200 - which should cover a pleasant night in Budapest and still wind up saving plenty of money.

Airlines seem to work like this. A longer flight is cheaper than a shorter one. And the price of the same ticket can vary depending on where you say you live. It may help them get the most money out of people (that's the goal - they know that english people will pay more or less than spanish people, so they charge them more or less for the same ticket). But it means that I travel a lot more than I really need to, just to save a few dollars...

... I suspect there are better things to do with my time. And the fuel that keeps these things shipping me around.