Departure Day

The packing process began 2 weeks ago when we rode our bikes to Mauthe Lake
to camp overnight. We fit all of our belongings into 4 panniers, 2
handlebar bags and 1 trailer, 1 trailer less than our past bike trips. The
jury is still out on whether we will have enough space once our gear gets
into it's normal, unorganized state enroute. Also, John carries a lot more
weight with this setup, so he should be really strong when we return.

This morning we did the last minute packing, house cleaning and trip to the
coffee shop with John's mom before Gretel picked us up in the minivan
(quickly becoming known as the Elsner airport shuttle) for an uneventful
trip to Ohare. We arrive with 3 hours to spare for our 4:40 departure on
British Airways to London then Budapest. Our bags we searched in Chicago
and for some reason they confiscated the chain wax that we had packed. The
flights to London and Budapest went well. The adventure began in Budapest
when only the smallest of our bags showed up on the baggage carousel. We
calmly inquired about the other 3 bags containing the bikes and the trailer
and were told that one bike was still in Chicago but the other bike and the
trailer were still in London. We filled out the proper forms, went to the
ATM to get some forints (Hungarian currency) and made our way out of the
airport via a minibus shuttle to Csaba's mom's house in the Buda hills in
Budapest.

After a 2 hour nap and a nice snack, we took a walk to stretch our legs that
had been crammed into economy airplane seats for 8 hours. Our destination
was the Citadella, an old military outpost at the top of a big hill with a
nice view of the city below. Shortly after leaving the house, we weren't
sure if we were taking the most efficient route, so we asked a woman with a
small child. She told us to follow her and walked us about 4 blocks out of her way to point us in the right direction. What a great first impression the locals have made.We climbed many stairs to the top and enjoyed the view. Back at the house's mom had a wonderful chicken soup dinner for us. We managed to call home on our new calling card (a source of concern for Marie not knowing what numbers to dial, etc.). Our eyes were drooping and we passed out by 9:30. 10 May 2007 We wiped out our jet lag by sleeping until 10:45. The minute we got up Csaba's mom had a feast of a breakfast ready for us. We had bread,tomatoes, paprika, salami and a variety of cheeses along with some hot tea. Not quite the breakfast we are used to, but afterall it was 11:00. Our bags were delivered to the house just after we ate and we decided to work on putting the bikes together. They appeared to be undamaged at first, but we quickly found out that John's back tire was out of true and his back brake wasn't working. We took a short ride and Marie's was fine. We called the bike shop in town that we had communicated with by email a little while ago. The guy said he was a one man shop and couldn't help us until next week. That wouldn't do because our plan was to leave Budapest on Sunday. After some discussion, we decided to brave the crazy city traffic on our bikes and make our way across the river to get a new brake cable and housing. It was now about 3:00, not a particularly good time to go. We got to the end of Csaba's mom's road (one whole house away) and stood on our bikes staring at the busy road that we had to cross. There was traffic going this way and that and coming from everywhere. Our plan was to turn left, but after standing there looking both ways for a few minutes without a small child. She told us to follow her and walked us about 4 blocks out of
her way to point us in the right direction. What a great first impression
the locals have made.

We climbed many stairs to the top and enjoyed the view. Back at the house
Csaba's mom had a wonderful chicken soup dinner for us. We managed to call
home on our new calling card (a source of concern for Marie not knowing what
numbers to dial, etc.). Our eyes were drooping and we passed out by 9:30.