Bye Bye Money

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Is It Even Possible to Travel Cheaply?

Traveling is expensive. Even though I am in Europe, it's still expensive! The other day I booked a few trips and let me say that as much as I love traveling, it hurts every time my savings account goes down! Bye bye money! But it's not like I have any major responsibilities, and it's not like I can take it to the grave with me, so I may as well spend it on something that I love doing.

Well at least I can say that I will soon be going to London, Lisbon, Madrid, Barcelona, and Avignon, all in the month of October. Is that too much? My savings account says yes but my heart says no way! But I am traveling very very cheaply. I swear it is just getting there that is expensive! Staying there is a whole other story with my budget. I am staying in hostels or Bed and Breakfasts for under $60 a night. Cheap right? Sketchy? We'll see about that. But it's all booked. And even though I am so excited to go on this adventure, part of my heart breaks every time I buy a plane ticket. Bye bye money.

And on a completely different note, I still don't have social security in France. I guess people weren't lying when they said that it takes around six months to get social security. I'm really starting to develop this hate-hate relationship with french bureaucracy. I have a social security number since I was born in France, but it is inactive because I spent my whole life in the United States. And since I need health care and aid for housing, I need that number to be activated. To activate it, I need a job (which I have). So I went in ready to activate it until they told me that I needed a pay stub from that job. Now I need to wait until October to get all this together. Really? Good thing I've spent so much time waiting in line to just be told no. Wonderful! I waited until September for my work contract, but apparently that isn't even enough! So one more month uninsured by the french medical system and one more month of paying full price rent. I feel like I don't fully exist in the system, I mean I'm there, I have a number, but I can't do anything. I mean I am a citizen, I should be taking advantage of all it has to offer, but I can't, because there are so many different hoops to jump though in so many different offices. Oh well, at least I am getting some exercise wandering around the city on my days off looking for these offices. So here's to hoping I don't get sick (which I am currently fighting a cold as I type). So I guess I won't be saving any money for a while!