Welcome to the second installment of Financial Friday. Where I tell you how much I shouldn’t have spent traveling…or at least that’s what it felt like this week…
Travel
Nothing happened here until Tuesday when I went back to the airport super early. The return bus trip to Keflavik was $24.35.
The flight from Keflavik to Frankfurt via WOW Air was $109.28 after the baggage fee for my carry-on.
On Wednesday, I hopped a flight from Frankfurt to Athens via Ryanair which should have cost me $33.96. Except I was a dumb ass, and forgot to check in until it was past the 2 hour window. Yeah…that little blunder cost me an additional $62.18. Bringing the total cost of the flight to $96.14.
Since the Athens airport is quite a ways from the city center, I caught the train into town: $12.44.
Accommodation
Bus hostel was still $30.44 per night for 4 nights this week.
The Meininger hostel in Frankfurt set me back $74.68 for one night…but at least I was close to the airport…. I guess. Still, ouch.
And Athens Backpacker hostel ran me $129.61 for 7 nights which comes out to $18.52 per night. This is, by far, the best price for accommodation yet!
Food
I managed to get away with 1 more grocery run in Reykjavik: $13.30. Between what I got then and on the previous grocery runs, I was able to feed myself for the remainder of my time in Iceland. I even had 2 bananas left over that I put in the ‘free food’ box.
I was pretty stuffed trying to finish off my food in Iceland so I only got one meal in Frankfurt: a personal sized pizza, a cheese pretzel, and some water…that turned out to be sparkling water. I should have known better, and read the label more closely. Anyway, that was $6.72.
When I got to the Athens airport, I got a salami sandwich with some water: $9.92.
When in town, I stopped by a couple gyro places. The first was with chicken: $3.65. The second was with pork: $3.78. And both those prices include the $0.50 bottle of water.
I liked the chicken gyro so much, I had them for two more meals on Thursday: $7.30. They’re so good…and so cheap!
Other
There’s the obligatory travel insurance: $3.07 per day.
I broke down and bought a USB-C cable at the mall in Reykjavik: $23.80. Those are the cables that my GoPro uses.
I also had the GoPro cable I left at home mailed to the hostel in Athens: $26.17. Forgetting that cable was not a cheap mistake.
On Saturday night, a few friends I met at the hostel in Reykjavik wanted to go out dancing. We ended up hitting the Paloma bar/club downtown: $9.99. It was a good time, and a lot of dancing.
On Thursday, I ran down to the laundromat and did my first load of laundry since I’ve been on the road: $8.82. About a week and a half before I had to do my first cloths cleaning…not bad.
Summary
| Week 2 | ||||||||
| Fri | Sat | Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Total | |
| Travel | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 133.53 | 108.58 | 0 | 242.11 |
| Lodging | 30.44 | 30.44 | 30.44 | 30.44 | 74.67 | 18.52 | 18.52 | 233.47 |
| Food | 0 | 13.3 | 0 | 0 | 6.72 | 17.35 | 7.3 | 44.67 |
| Other | 26.87 | 13.06 | 3.07 | 30.24 | 3.07 | 3.07 | 11.89 | 91.27 |
| Total | 57.31 | 56.8 | 33.51 | 60.68 | 217.99 | 147.52 | 37.71 | 611.52 |
So another week way over budget. Granted, about $100 of it was my own fault between the airport check-in and the GoPro cable. At least now I’m in a ‘cheap’ country though. I think I should be able to keep my expenses under $50 a day. And maybe…just maybe…I can make up for the expensive beginning.
