Fall Break Part 7--Welcome to Eastern Europe!

The last day of our cruise was a day at sea. Many people love these days at sea, I personally think they drag on forever. However, it was nice having time to relax finally on our vacation. Plus, I was getting a cold and didn't feel like doing much either.

Here are some pictures of our last day--they are mainly of the water and the sunset. I mean what else is there to take a pictures of while at sea?

Is it morbid that every time I'm on a cruise ship at sunset I think of this quote from Titanic, "And that was the last time the Titanic ever saw light."

Don't worry this was not the case for our ship. The next day we were up bright and early to check out and to go to the airport. (Warning, this is where I start complaining.) Our flight was not a direct flight to Budapest. We flew from Barcelona to Prague and then from Prague to Budapest. The flights would have been unremarkable except for my sinus cold. If you have ever flown on a plane with a sinus cold then you may be able to relate. During the landing the cabin pressure was so intense on my face and ears I thought I was going to explode like a New Year's Eve balloon with confetti! The pressure was so miserable that I started crying, because if I didn't cry I would have shouted, "God damn it! Land this bleeping plane already!"

When we had left Barcelona that afternoon the sun was shining and the air had been warm. When we arrived in Prague the sky was dark and it was raining. The man behind us asked, "What time is it?" Ben told him, "It is the same time as in Barcelona." The man shook his head in disbelief and then said, "But it's dark and it is snowing." (It wasn't really snowing) I then piped up and sarcastically said, "Welcome to Eastern Europe!" I think he misunderstood and said, "Oh, do you guys know of anything fun to do in Prague?" Ben told him we lived in Hungary, but that didn't seem to matter much to him. We seem to have this problem a lot. People just assume we know things, when we know absolutely nothing. This happens more to Ben than to me. I told Ben the reason everyone assumes he knows things is because he never looks unsure of himself, he just keeps putting one foot in front of the other (even if sometimes it is in the wrong direction).

Once off the plane in Prague we had a short layover and then continued to Budapest. When we arrived in Budapest the plane broke out into applause. This is a Hungarian tradition I found out later (thanks to Wikipedia). By this time my entire head was in bad shape--the entire right side of my head felt paralyzed with pressure, and I couldn't hear anything out of my ears.

From the airport we had to catch a train to Budapest. Sounds easy in theory (if we spoke the language and/or had internet) but it wasn't easy. First, we had to take a bus to the train station and then decode train times, then figure out how to make the computer ticket thing take our money. After an hour of figuring it all out and getting some nice people to help us along the way, we were ready for home. Our train didn't come until 8:45 p.m. and we had to wait for about an hour. I stood there next to Ben and started crying. I was so sick feeling, I couldn't hear, I couldn't breath, and now we had to continue waiting. It felt like we may never be home again. So there I was a 25 year old woman, crying and telling my husband that I wanted my Mommy. Pathetic right? Yeah, I thought so too, but I didn't care.

Eventually the train came and after a few delays here and there, it finally rolled into Debrecen at 11:30 at night. Because it was so late at night the buses had stopped running. So we took our one bag and rolled it all the way back to our apartment. We opened the door to our apartment a little after midnight, relieved to finally be home.

So there you have it....our Fall Break trip was over.

7 countries (Hungary, Czech Republic, Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Vatican)
20 postcards bought
1000 some pictures took
And 2 very tired, but happy people later.
The End.