Another trans-Atlantic voyage under our belts; and compared to some previous such trips, it was fairly uneventful and smooth. Yay. We had issues with our carry-ons being too big and/or heavy on recent trips, so that was my biggest concern, well, after getting all packed and not having our suitcases too heavy. I love being married to a brilliant man; Norbert thought of leaving all our carry-ons with Josiah off to the side when we checked in for our flight – one less chance to bug us about them. And then no one ever looked at them during our whole trip – partly because when we boarded in London we were sort of running to the gate and they were just so happy to get us on board (but I’m getting ahead of myself). Also in Denver the TSA folk were just extra nice. I know they can get a lot of bad press and all, so I just want to give a shout out. I had several boxes of Girl Scout cookies in my carry-on (that shocked some of you, huh?), and after I walked through the metal detector and toward my case the two women who were running the scanning machine commented that it was my bag. I was all, uh-oh. And then they asked all impressed how I’d gotten Girl Scout cookies this time of year! Much chit-chat back and forth at that point, they even showed off and told me which kind I had. It was nice to laugh during what can be a stressful part of travel these days. And evidently, they see a lot of Girl Scout cookies in carry-on bags.
Sunset at Denver International Airport
The long flight itself was smooth. There were too many movie options, not enough time. The kids both enjoyed Epic, sort of wish I’d watched it too – I’m all curious now. I enjoyed a Georgette Heyer classic novel, Joshi read Ender’s Game, again. Some of us got some sleep, some of us none, but that’s normal for our family. Landed safely in London where we were amused and delighted to find Dr. Who relics displayed in honor of the BBC sci-fi show’s 50th Anniversary this year. Bought Joshua a sandwich and waited for them to announce which gate our flight was leaving from. Long story short, as we finally made our way toward the gate we discovered it was much farther from the waiting/shops/food area than we had expected and they changed our gate status to ‘closed’ as we walked and then ran toward it. That was a little stressful, but as I hinted at before, again no one looked at our carry-ons and we were just waved through. And I should say that our carry-ons are perfectly fine, not too big, but they got me all paranoid on previous trips.
An old Dr. Who set relic, a Dalek!!
Our temporary corner of Budapest, at Sunset.
We left Denver at sunset and arrived in Budapest at sunset. Safe, sound, only missing one piece of luggage (Joshua’s long, tall case with his hand-carved wooden bow did not leave Denver with us, but followed after and actually arrived at our doorstep this afternoon) we have arrived back in Hungary. It is such a blessing to have a friend’s home to stay in too – it’s a small, one room apartment, but it’s better than a hotel and our dear friend left us all sorts of welcoming and helpful sticky-notes all over his home. One of my favorite Hungarian gifts to give are their ‘Welcome’ signs. They say ‘Isten Hozott’, which a literal word for word translation of means ‘God Brought You’. We feel not only welcomed, but also that God has brought us back home.
Our little Welcome sign, one of many, many thoughtful notes left for us.
And now for the apartment search! But that’s another blog post….
lakatosfamily 