Chasing clovers through endless fields of green: The Hard Road to Budapest: post 1 of 3

Hi Everyone! Sorry it has taken me so long to update this but I didn't have any access to my computer after Budapest. The battery cord had short circuited and I had to wait until I could receive a new one from DELL, which proved to be a pain, but all-in-all I am up and writing again. So as you know I ventured to Budapest for our Easter holiday and the following blog will go over our adventure the best I can explain. We had a nightmare of a day trying to actually GET to Budapest but you will read about all that in time. The first part of the blog you will read is something I wrote in my journal on the bus...the first bus of many to come, on the way to the airport. It is mostly written in present tense because, well it was happening in the present. The rest will vary.

Written April 9, 2009
It was one of those mornings that just suck (sorry mom, but it really did). You try and convince yourself everything is okay because you're on your way to Budapest, but the first thing you manage to say to your Canadian roommate is, "this is not my happy face!" It's 6:15 am Thursday and you peal your eyelids off your vanilla-colored pillowcase only to hear the worst sound ever. Now in San Diego I would have looked out my window and thought, "oh crap, El Nino is back!" But here...No. I just realize of course my luck is another typical Irish day. Wind blowing in multiple directions around you so hard that you can practically see the little rain tornado that surrounds you.

Now of course the only thing making me happy is knowing for the first time I will be in at least 70 degree weather since December. Take that Ireland! But at this moment you can't help but feel that the Irish weather Gods are playing you for their fool since in 45 minutes you will be walking to the bus stop in that rain. Typically a 20 minute walk into town we leave extra early considering we have our backpacking bags. This might be a good time to mention that if ever you plan on going into a smaller town in Ireland, be aware that taxis don't run in the mornings and if you try to arrange one to pick you up they will agree to it, but just won't show up. Taxis here are run personally and not through like a business really. It's like they wake up and decided, 'ah screw them I want to sleep longer.' (We have learned this the hard way previously)
So 7 am comes and Steph and I toss on our jackets and head out the door. My hoodie, sweatshirt and jacket manage to keep me pretty warm but just extremely wet. My chucks on the other hand, well they are currently finding refuge on the heated paneling along the bus floor. After finally making it to the bus stop we hopped on the bus and headed for Waterford where we would transfer to Dublin....where the next problem occurred.

Now 9.30 am:
After changing buses in Waterford, I am now sitting in the middle of nowhere on our broken-down bus waiting for the rescue one to come get us in about 30 minutes. It all started as we were riding along and just on the outside of Waterford city our bus just happened to stop automatically as if it had stalled. After this happened a few times the bus drive (who never said a word) pulled over and checked all the side doors and inside compartments. Never saying a word we thought everything was OK until about the 5th time it stalled and all the "do-dads" had been checked.
Now, we are sitting on the bus, in the rain, in the middle of no where and Stephanie has just walked outside for a smoke...in the pouring rain.
I just keep sitting here thinking "Budapest, Budapest Budapest," if we ever get there.

Stephanie upset at the broken bus

10.24 am: New bus picks us up an hour later and we are on our way to Dublin...again.

Now, this is the time where my journal writing ended because given the next few chain of events I didn't really feel much like reliving the experience at the time.

Once we arrived at the Dublin bus station, shoes still wet and all, we had lost the extra hour and 30 minutes we were going to have for lunch and decided to just head straight for the airport and get something there. Very smartly we had checked-in online the night before and printed our boarding pass, so all we had to do was go through security since we had planned to pack in a carry-on. We arrived a bit later then we wanted to, but had enough time to pick up a few magazines for the flight, go to the ATM, exchange our money into Hungarian, and head through security. We had to search for the right exchange counter, as only one in the whole airport had Hungarian money stocked. After finally finding the counter we then had to go back to security to find our right boarding gate (as we so frantically forgot to do so). Once we found the right terminal and found the gate, we decided to relax and get some food since we hadn't eaten anything all day.

4 pm: Our boarding gate

Since our budget airline, RYANAIR, didn't have assigned seats we were really upset to notice as we approached our gate that the line to board was extremely long already. The next 15-20 minutes or so were spent with Stephanie talking about how we hoped that someone was going to be nice enough on the plane to move around so we could hopefully sit together. We were so distracted with the possibility of not getting to sit next to each other that we didn't even see the bomb that was about to be dropped on us.

I hand my boarding pass to the check-in man, he double checks my passport is the same on my boarding pass and he scans it. I hear the bling of the scanner as I am already walking toward the plane to board. As I look back to make sure Stephanie is behind me and I hear the dreaded words called out to me, "excuse me miss, you need to come back." At this point I am looking at Stephanie not able to pass forward and I should have ran onto that plane! We go back only to find that the horrible airline of RYANAIR has within the last month made a new policy that even if you do online check-in you have to STILL check-in at the airport and get your passport/visa checked. EVEN though my boarding pass has my same passport number on it, immigration, AND airport security had no problem with it. At this point it was if we were on candid camera and I start balling my eyes out (reliving a similar HORRIBLE experience with this same airline when I was snowed-in into France..check out the past blogs). Stephanie on the other hand is now cussing, not at the man who is telling us this (because we know its not his fault, as he feels really bad for us now that I'm crying) but cussing at the chances of everything going wrong today and RYANAIR as a whole. So we gain composure and I ask what it means now. What do we have to do? He tells us we have to go back through security, immigration and back to the ryanair desk and get them to validate it. Clearly not going to be able to make this flight---along with about at least 30 people this has been happening to over the day.

We do like the man says, freaking out knowing there isn't another flight out to Budapest for another 24 hours and pissed off at the world. But, one of the best images that sticks into my head that day was the moment we had to go through Irish immigration, even though we technically never left the country. I was in front and I couldn't find my registration card to go with my passport since we were going through the EU-passport lane (beacuse I have a work visa we are allowed to take the 'fast EU lane') It's at this moment while I am dumping my purse out on the immigration Gard's desk-window balling trying to explain to him that I can't find my registration card at the moment but I didn't even leave the country because Ryanair changed the rules on me. The nicest, white-haired 60-year-old man was the first one to feel genuinely sorry for us and was just as confused as we were. He told us he saw a lot of people go through this today. He gave us some advice on how to approach Ryanair and told me its okay he doesn't need to see my other ID. He added for us to try and have a good Easter holiday regardless....meanwhile I'm trying to pick up Stephanie's things as she has dumped out her whole carry-on onto the floor of the immigration line trying to find her documents.

After waiting in a 40 minute line BACK at the Ryanair desk we only find the most UNhelpful girl there who said there is nothing they can do and it was a new policy but we will have to buy a new flight out if we want to go. We play both good-cop and bad-cop making sure that they know exactly how we feel about them, in a very constructive way (after all, kids were around and we did manage to watch our language...well I had to help Steph with that a few times.) Ryanair lady informs us she cannot help us any other way and we will have to go upstairs and look online to book anything under 400 Euros --one way!

So three hours later and God only knows how much money in coins we spent, after getting advice from parents, coworkers and every other flight desk operators in the airport (except ryanair) we decided to book a one way ticket to our destination of Budapest. We got 260 Euro something on-way flight, roughly $400 (ouch), to Budapest leaving the next night....three times the cost of our original return ticket. It was the Easter holiday and we had looked over our other options and decided we had our hearts set on leaving the country of Ireland. There was no way we wanted to stay there for the long weekend anymore.

Stephanie getting advice on what to do...at the internet which took all the rest of our money

So with a nice final kick in the pants to our visa credit cards, we booked out flight leaving Ireland the next day, with the very same flight number. At this point there is only so much you can do, and I will never do another flight with Ryanair as long as there is another option I can take. The worst part was even after all this we still had to book our one-way with them, since they were the only ones with flight availability still. Yes we should have read the fine-print, but don't have online checking then- plain and simple. If your going to change the rules on everyone WITHOUT giving any notice or heads-up, then the least you can do is have the decency to compensate when things go wrong.

At that moment I didn't think it was possible, but I fell more in love with Southwest airlines than I ever have before. Now if only they flew international.

That night we took the Bus back to the city, found a hostel to stay in and treated ourselves to some much needed beer. We returned the next day (bus number 6 within 2 days) with enough time to do airport check-in, verify over and over again that we would be able to board, and finally sit down to read our magazines from the day before...finally on the plane to Budapest!

What an extra $400 boarding gate looks like