In Budapest

About two hours before going to the airport,  I noticed my carefully packed small suitcase wasn't rolling. I attempted to fix it but couldn't so I had to repack in a bigger suitcase that weighs a lot more than the small one. I had forgotten that I had put a large bandaid on the outside, the result of TSA's handling when I flew to Barcelona in June. Two screws are exposed and I was afraid that could result in someone's injury. Luckily, I always carry large waterproof bandaids for just such possible occurrences. All this becomes significant soon. 

The flight to CDG was uneventful and Delta actually pulls into a gate now instead of making you deplane and ride a shuttle. Unfortunately,  the French still haven't adjusted to the fact there are always huge crowds waiting to go through passport control. There was one agent for EU passports and one for non-EU. Our plane alone had over 200 passengers. Everyone was afraid of missing their flights and some people asked to be expedited. Ha  Ha. The French don't care. We had one hour to make the connection.  We made it because the plane was late. Our pilot explained Germany had caused the delay.

We arrived at the Budapest airport and since we had a couple hours to kill before we could check in at the airbnb, we decided to find an atm. It was a long walk in the opposite direction of reclaim baggage. After getting 60,000 HUF each, which is either a dollar or five hundred, we walked to the baggage area. Most of the luggage had already been picked up but I saw a woman with my bandaided bag. At first I thought she was taking it to lost luggage so I ran up to her and said that's my bag. She argued with me in another language which caused me to show her the bandaid and ask if she wanted to see my luggage tag and id. She didn't answer because she didn't understand what I was saying. I started to wrestle the bag away from her but luckily,  her husband appeared with her blue unbandaided bag. It wasn't even the same color blue. With a wave of her hand and a tsk, the woman allowed me to take my bag.

We took a taxi to downtown and went to a coffee shop while we waited for the airbnb. The owner texted to say we could get in early so we met with Anika who gave us keys and explained how to use them. She speaks no English but I'm an expert on Eastern European keys. The key is keep turning until the door opens which could be 3 or 4 times around.

After  brief naps, we decided to get a hop on/off bus and ride the circuit. The closest stop to us was stop number 3. We assumed we could buy tickets on the bus. The driver didn't sell us tickets and told us to sit. At about stop 12, after we had been across the Danube  on  one bridge and saw beautiful views of the Parliament and back to Pest on another bridge, a young man got on the bus and made us follow him to the office to buy tickets. We did get to ride the rest of the route which ends at Heroes Square, my favorite site in the city. We bought tickets for the next two days, including unlimited boat rides but we plan to go on only one boat ride to see the sites at night.

Heroes Square

The Parliament

From Heroes Square,  we took the metro to Liszt Square which has multiple outdoor restaurants. We were so tired, we stopped at one of the closest ones and had Hungarian food. Then we took a tram back to the apartment . Yes we got lost multiple times but not for long. And we're now proud owners of 72 hour passes good for all modes of transportation. 

Tomorrow we plan to take the hop on to Castle Hill, see the sites, and eat cream cake at the Ruszwurm Bakery because Johnny insists. The last time I tried to do that they were sold out but that was late in the day. I have faith we'll be able to get some tomorrow.