Hairgrove's in Hungary: Leaving on a bus, train, and airplane.

No journey about leaving Hungary is complete until an old woman starts chasing you. When we left the high school that morning one of the house-keeper's chased after us. She conveyed to us that we needed to give her the keys to the school back. We had already left them in the school for our contact to pick up. However, explaining this was not so easy. She stubbornly tried to convince us to give her back the keys through a series of hand jesters. And we stubbornly tried to convince her that we had left the keys at the school like we were told to do. After a few minutes she threw up her hands and left waddling back to the school, shaking her head in dismay. I hope she found our keys and laughed.

We got on the bus to take us to the train station. After almost a year of living in Hungary we were ready for one last trip--home. We came to Hungary with 5 bags and left with 4 bags. Not bad right? This time we made sure our bags were under the weight limit. We got to the Debrecen train station early to go on the train to the airport. We did everything right up to this point, but the Hungarian Gods thought they would throw us a last few twists and turns our way.

When we got to the train station everything seemed okay, we bought our tickets with a lot of cushion time before our flight left. Hungarian trains are notoriously late, so it is no surprise that our train from Debrecen to Budapest was late. It was 30 minutes late, but we still had plenty of time as long as the journey went smoothly from here on out.

The train ride was uneventful until we stopped about half way in Szolnok for 30-40 minutes. Standing still on tracks with no idea when it might end is slightly terrifying when you are trying to catch a plane. Finally, the train started to move again and we arrived at the airport an hour and half behind schedule. Keep in mind we have 4 heavy bags because this next part is important. The elevator at the train station that helps you get to the over pass to cross over to the terminal was broken. That meant we got to drag our 4 bags up lots and lots of stairs. If you ever want to know what something is worth to you---drag it all the way to Europe and back again and you too might consider packing lighter in the future. There were many times during this journey where I wanted to light the bags on fire and say, "Oh well" and walk away.

So as we cussed our way up the stairs and made it to the terminal we now were almost two hours late. We got into the airport terminal to check in and I thought that if they tell us something is wrong with our tickets or bags I might freak out. Luckily, I did not "freak a fruit-loop" because everything checked in just fine. Had we not left when we did we would have missed our flight. In the last few minutes waiting to board the plane I bought my last Hungarian souvenirs, which included a sticker of the country and a bottle of water. The lady at the counter thought it was strange I was paying in all change, but I didn't care. You have to get rid of the change somehow, and you can't exchange it, so might as well use it up on little things.

Our flight was on Wizz Air, yes that is a real company for incase your not familiar with European travel. We landed in London around 1 p.m. where we had a quick lunch and then got on a bus that took us across London to our hotel and the airport we would be leaving from the next day. Being able to converse easily in English again was like a gift from heaven. We had not been in an English dominated speaking country in so long it almost felt strange to see signs in my native tongue.

However, despite me being an American girl I think I still had a bit of Hungarian-ness to me because while figuring out the buses a random old Hungarian woman came up to me and asked me how to get somewhere. I tried to help, but I'm not sure if I was successful. I think it's funny that the first person that came up to me in England was someone Hungarian. Even while in the airport I could hear strains of conversation that sounded Hungarian. Will I always hear Hungarian? The language may haunt me for a long time. (Ha, ha).

The next step after taking the bus to our new airport was to find our hotel for the night. Ben and I had some difficulty figuring out how to get there. We thought we would have to wait a long time for a shuttle bus to take us there, but a kind ticket lady helped set us straight. She was so nice to us I almost wanted to kiss her.

Once on the bus we had to maneuver our 4 bags so we wouldn't annoy the other passengers, however I think we were unsuccessful. We traveled only a mile before we got off the bus with our bags. Ben dragged two bags and I dragged two bags. We looked for our hotel, but it was nowhere in sight. Then it began to rain. Ben went into a random hotel to ask for further directions and then we continued onward. Dragging the bags only helped me to further appreciate all our stuff. If you sense sarcasm you may be right. Blisters formed on our hands and our feet got sore--and it was raining. We arrived at our hotel feeling like two wet, tired dogs. The excitement of London had well worn off and the thought of a warm shower and dinner became my only priority. We had a lovely dinner and watched Wimbledon on the big screen as it played live from London. Ben had always wanted to be in London while Wimbledon was happening, but unfortunately we could not stay.

Once again we had traveled two countries in one day. We said szia to Hungary, cheers to London, and got ready to say howdy to the USA/Texas.