This was a long, long day. Or maybe it was two days. It’s hard to tell really.
Jenn’s dad came to the house to drive us to the airport. My brother brought over my mom and we got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. While waiting we had a grossly overpriced beer at the Great Lakes stand — $24 for three beers. Oh well.
The flight from Cleveland to JFK was just about as uneventful as you can get. We left on time and arrived early.
Chillin’ at JFK wasn’t too bad. We didn’t have to change terminals and everything was nice and clean. This is in contrast to the last time we flew through JFK where everything just seemed dingy, dark, old and crowded.
We got on the flight to Hungary and sat there. For an hour. While they fixed something on the plane. Then got in the queue to take off. And waited. For twenty four planes in front of us to take off. Finally getting in the air around an hour and 30 minutes after the nominal departure time.
Airplane food wasn’t too bad. I had the beef and Jenn had the chicken. SInce it’s an international flight it was also free. Unfortunately the mini bottles of alcohol weren’t free. Oh well, ya can’t win them all.
Beyond that, everything was a blur for me since I just fell asleep on cue. From what I hear there was the announcement of “is there a physician on the plane” while I was sleeping. I think I wound up sleeping for around five hours of 8 hour flight to Rome. Pete, Mom and Jenn, however, did not sleep really at all. Mom and Pete probably just had a lot on their minds. It’s unusual for Jenn not to sleep. Can’t figure out why.
The problem with Rome was that we had a total of 40 minutes to get to our next gate after we got off the plane. We made up a bit of time in the air, but first had to let the paramedics take off the sick person. As everywhere, certain things have priorities despite what you might want. Running through the airport we had to go through customs, get our passport stamped. Hop on a tram to the other terminal. Walk walk walk walk to then end of terminal B. (Yes, it was the last gate) and pick up our tickets for the last leg of our journey.
Check.
We got on the plane with no more than 10 minutes to spare before we were pushed off.
If only our luggage was that lucky.
Got to Budapest. Looked for, and failed, at getting our luggage. Filled out all the paperwork for it. Rented a car and drove through the streets of Budapest only getting minorly lost in the process. Though Jenn and I were a little stressed trying to get our bearings in a neighborhood with unmarked streets, Pete was getting pretty excited about getting to see Hungary for the first time.
Found our hotel and the accommodations are nice, clean and comfortable as we expected. Pete took a long nap with a little homework on the side while Mom, Jenn and I got our bus passes for the week. Cat nap and then to the grocery store for some provisions (mineral water, bread, etc.).
We met up with the woman that was in the group with my dad at the time. She brought over his suitcase and stuff that he had with him at the time. We chatted for a bit. It was rather awkward, but probably a good thing for al involved to get that off of our collective chests.
The final mission was to get dinner: Gerlocy’s. That was one of our favorite restaurants when we were here last time two years ago.
Mmm… yummy food and beer.