I looked at my ticket again last night. RyanAir gets 10.48 euros for my ticket. The balance is airport taxes. Crazy, no? How can it cost just over 10 euros to fly round trip Graz-London? I’ve no doubt I’ll make it up in train fare and other expenses, London is, after all, crazy expensive, but it still blows my mind that I can fly there, round trip, taxes included, for 60 euros. That’s 76 dollars. Wouldn’t YOU fly to London for that? The bargain basement fare is only one reason I’m flying, though. I’m really going to spend the weekend with Mindy.
When Mindy still lived in Seattle, sometimes, on weekend mornings we would get in her car and drive somewhere just for the day. We’d do a little window shopping, we’d eat in a diner, and then, we’d go home again. No matter where she was living in Seattle, she was one of those people with an open door, you could drop in unannounced any time, be fed dinner, or coffee, or breakfast, or you’d be bundled in to the car for an adventure. If you showed at the door empty handed, you might be sent off to the store for a dozen eggs so she could make scrambles for you and whoever else had stopped in to watch cartoons on Saturday morning.
My Austrian life is pretty quiet and free from the kind of big hearted casual social interactions that I’m used to in my Seattle life. I don’t have a Jules and Emily to deliver muffins to as part of my securing the neighborhood rounds. I don’t have the P-S compound’s notoriously out of date waffle-cam – you might as well just go and see for yourself if there are waffles, because often, there are. Larry doesn’t call me to tell me that I’m fixing dinner for him tomorrow night, pick him up at work at 730, okay? I don’t get the random invitations to Jay’s wine tasting (really, drinking) evenings. I don’t have Nia and Terry and whoever else is free on Friday night to have a round at the Hop. There’s a lot that doesn’t happen here in Austria. It’ s pretty much me and the husband and the in-laws and conversation in a language that isn’t totally mine. (Please don’t get me wrong. You KNOW I’m not dissing the in-laws. But It Is Not The Same. You know that, too.)
Mindy knows what I’m used to in my Seattle life because she was a big part of it before she moved away. Also, she knows what moving away to a new country means. When you’re a slightly odd person of a certain age, making new friends is certainly a challenge, and she knows that. We’ll have lots to talk about, plenty of yummy food, and adventures in London. I’m just beside myself with excitement. It’s worth so much more than 10 euros. A bargain. I’m saying.