Trip Re-Kap - The Wedding

The wedding was on the weekend right before we were coming home. We (meaning M.Kramlik) of course needed to be there for the bachelor party as well, which was the weekend before. Since the wedding was in another city the groom's family rented a coach bus for us to take from the village to the wedding.

 

 

Let’s just say that the Hungarians know how to throw a great party. We all had to meet at the Groom’s parents’ house at 10 am for pre-wedding celebrations and to get on the bus. We ate some cookies, drank some shots, and then packed onto the bus. Where the partying continued!

 

 

The wedding was divided into three parts. First we went to the hotel where the reception would be for a pre-church service meal. Appetizers were served along with drinks. This gave all of the guests a chance to mingle. Which for me meant a chance to take lots of group photos!

 

 

 

 

 

Then we walked over to the church which was literally right outside the hotel's door.

 

They had a traditional Catholic service which lasted about an hour. I tried paying attention but I was so overwhelmed by the beautiful church. It was one of the prettiest churches I have ever seen.

 

 

 

Tamas and Linda looked beautiful and I of course cried when they said their vows. Even though I couldn’t understand all of it, I knew what they were promising to one another and it made me think of my own wedding. After the service it was time to eat and party!  We ate like Kings and danced like fools.  Ok, I danced like a fool and M.Kramlik drank it up. 

 

A good time was had by all.  This next morning however, was a bit rough for some of us.  I think by the time that we walked back to where we were staying it was about 5AM!!

 

 

 

 

Yikers M.Kramlik...looking real rough.  And because nothing says "Good Morning" like a shot of warm palinka...bottoms up!

I have no idea how he managed to do that shot, I would have thrown up!  After this it was time to say good-bye to our friends and get back on the bus and head for home.

Little did we know that we were in for a really big surprise when we got to the airport the next day!  

The next night we headed to the airport.  We purposely booked these tickets because 1- they were cheap and 2- we could leave at night which just about never happens.  It is always in the morning.  We arrive to the airport with plenty of time, wait in line forever, and finally make it to the ticket counter.  It turned out that because our flights on the way over were screwed up, it affected our return flights.  They couldn't find us in the computer system and I swear the lady at the counter made six different phone calls and then with just about no time to spare handed us our tickets.  We were the last two on the plane with seats at the back! 

Now the lady at the ticket counter was only able to issue us our boarding passes from Budapest to Helsinki and Helsinki to Manchester.  She told us that when we got to Helsinki that they should be able to get us the last one from Manchester to Chicago.  When we arrived in Helsinki it was 10:45pm, so needless to say no one was around to help us out!  Ok, we will find our place to camp out for the night and talk to someone in the morning. 

We started out in these lounge chairs, but M.Kramlik couldn't get comfortable.  So we moved over to these rows of chairs.

In this large section of the airport it was only M.Kramlik, myself and one other person.  I slept as best as I could be every little noise would wake me up and I wasn't warm enough either.  We were going to try to find a hotel room, but we got turned around in the airport and couldn't find it.  The next morning we both had agreed that we were glad we didn't spend the money.

When we got up the next morning we headed out to find someone who could help us get our tickets.  We found the American Airlines agent who proceeded to tell us that they can't issue our tickets.  When we get to Manchester they will have to do it there.  Alright, so off to find some breakfast.  We found this little cafe.  I showed you the pictures of us earlier but here is one of the cafe itself.

 

 

We got on the plane and headed to Manchester.  When we arrived there we go through security and headed to the American Airlines desk again for our boarding passes.  This time they tell me that there is a group of passengers who are in the same position as us and they will help us directly at the boarding gate.  Alright, so off we go.  When we got to the boarding gate, they tell us that we are not listed on the flight manifest and the flight is full.  Ok, first of all this is not something that you tell someone who has just spent the last 9 hours "trying" to sleep on airport chairs.  I tried to stay calm at this point, but I think that the steward helping us is realizing quickly that I am losing all of my patients.  He told us that he is going to speak to one of his colleagues and would be back for us in a little while if we could just have a seat and wait.  So back to waiting, it seems like all of the other passengers that were in the same boat as us, are all going through and boarding the plane.  Oh, did I forget to mention that detail.  Yup, this was all happening while our flight was boarding!   The steward finally came back and told us that they found seats for us but that they aren't together..ok felt a little better but who wants to sit next to a stranger for 7 hours when they could be sitting next to M.Kramlik! 

So we went and visited Terry ( I should have known that only good things were going to happen at this point).  He asked us if his colleague had us in a panic, M.Kramlik replies with something like, "Yeah, she was freaking out."  To which Terry replied, "Imagine being married to that guy....not that I am."  At which point I knew that we were in good hands.  Terry made a phone to Helen and says, "Helen darling, I have two love birds on honeymoon can I take seats something and something (I don't remember the numbers and letters anymore).  He hung up and says no worries I am getting you on the flight!  I think I cried a little bit in relief.  He issued us our tickets and of course M.Kramlik has to go to the bathroom.  We walked across the way and M.Kramlik goes in and I sit down to wait for him.  While I am waiting Terry came over and says to me, "I need to take the tickets from you, but trust me you don't want to say no to this.  Because I am going to give you two First class tickets, they only bad thing is that you can't sit next to one another."  My response was something along the lines of "Who cares it's First Class!"  M.Kramlik came out of the bathroom and I tell him what happened with our tickets.  Terry came back over with our new tickets and told M.Kramlik that he owes me diamonds.  M.Kramlik told him that he will get him one too!

Terry then proceeded to board the plane with us and asked the guy sitting in M.Kramlik's seat if he would switch with him so that we could sit next to one another. 

While all of this was happening I was seriously thinking that I would never fly American Airlines again, but Terry really came to their rescue.  He so went the extra mile for us on everything. 

So there we were living it up in First Class.  We drank, ate, and got to lay down completely.  Living the high life!

There you have a little glimpse into our trip home.  Some highs and some lows.  But hey anytime I can fly First Class for free I am a happy camper!

Just a heads up no blog post tomorrow as I am going to the local German Fest with some friends, but I will be back on Saturday for a post all about it. 

Keep checking back here friends for all of the exciting posts I have planned.  Really I do, I promise.  Maybe if my hands aren't to tired from this post, I will quick post one of posts to come.

 

Trip Re-Kap

I think that most of you know that M.Kramlik and I recently went on a trip back to the homeland (Hungary).  Friends of ours were getting married and we wanted to be there.  We left the day before the 4th of July out of Chicago as we usually do.  However, this time since my parents were already overseas waiting for us to get there, we had to take the coach bus service to O'Hare.  We got on at the first stop that the bus picks up at.  Only problem was that it was late by about 20 minutes.  I think that we had about 6 other stops along the way before finally getting to O'Hare about 45 minutes behind schedule.  We checked in, ran through security and quickly grabbed a bite to eat.  While we waited for them to call us to board I thought we better have some photos taken.

M.Kramlik waving Bon Voyage!


 

 

When we were finally called to board and got on the plane we were told that we were going to be sitting in the row where the oxygen was stored.  This meant no overhead bin room, but ample leg room as the overhead compartments are bigger and so the seats are larger too.  AWESOME!!!  What happened next, not so awesome...we were just about to take off and the Captain came over the loudspeaker and said that there was a problem with one of our hydraulic cylinders and we had to go back to the gate.  Then a steward came over the loudspeaker to tell us that we have seven hydraulic cylinders on the plane and really only need one to fly it is required by the FAA that we have it checked out.  They weren't sure how long the fix was going to take but that the ground crew was already at the gate waiting for us.  It wasn't long after arriving at the gate that we were back under way and ready to take off for round 2.  Little did we know that we were going to get called back again by that pesky hydraulic cylinder.  This time we stayed at the gate what seemed like forever!  We had just about neared the two hour mark of sitting on the plane at the gate when we were finally good to go.  Ok, we take off.  Then I realized that we weren't going to make our connecting flight in London to Helsinki.  (NOTE: We purchased tickets from Chicago to London, London to Helsinki, Helsinki to Budapest and then the reverse coming home.  Only because summer is the peak time and this was what we could afford.)  So there we are flying along somewhere over the Atlantic when I start panicking over what we are going to do.  Know I very well knew that we weren't the only ones who were going to have this issue.  But, those of you that know me, I tend to panic when things are going just right.  :)  It is just one of my downfalls.  

 

Fast forward, eight hours later and we are going to land in London.  The steward comes back over the loudspeaker and tells us that we have to check in with the ground staff in London about our connecting flights and they can help us with what to do next.  This surprisingly worked out really well.  There were three people waiting for us with lists of the connecting flights that were missed and explained exactly what we needed to do.   This ended up working to our advantage.  They had a direct flight that was going to Budapest in about 4 hours so we were going to go directly there instead of to Helsinki first.  This sounded fantastic to me as I hate flying!  We got our new boarding passes and set off in search of a bathroom and some food.  This is where I got some sweet Olympic gear and a Starbucks Iced Grande Mocha.  They of course called it something else, now I don't remember what...I wished I would have written it down.  Then we paid the most ridiculous amount of money to call M.Kramlik's Mom and Dad so they and my parents knew what was going on.  I am told that they were all trying to track our flights and figure out where we were but it was a nightmare.

 

We made our connection no problem and were to Hungary a whole 20 minutes early!  We were both so happy to finally be there.

The street sign for the road that my In-Laws live on.

 



I know that M.Kramlik was just so happy to be home, but I was so happy because this was the first time that my parents have been back in Hungary since our wedding there 4 years ago! We ate, drank, ate some more and of course drank some more too!  I guess that is what happens when 1- you go on vacation and 2- when your in-laws own a bar!

 

 

 

This picture is one of my absolute favorites of the whole trip.  My three favorite guys (minus my brother...mmm maybe I will have to figure out how to Photoshop him in there!)

Oh I almost forgot we did a lot this too....

I swear this swing is a miracle worker!  You can be have a rough day or stressing about something and this swing takes away all of your worries and cares.  We actually fight over who is going to sit in it.  It also is an excellent place to take naps!  I have taken many in it.  Especially when it is raining because there is a roof over the porch.

Ipolyvece has the cutest train station.  I am not sure if anyone mans it but after going to the village for over 11 years now, this trip was the first time that I saw it.  Isn't it just so cute?

It reminds me of something you would see in a movie, doesn't it??

I think that I am going to have to break the trip re-cap into two posts.  I honestly didn't think that I was going to be this long winded.  The next post I will do will be about the wedding and our travels home.  If you thought me getting there was something else, just wait for the return to the USA story!  Let's just say that Sarah was a very unhappy traveler!


I will leave you with two more quick pictures.  The first one was taken at M.Kramlik's other Grandparents house in a village about 30 minutes away.  We went there one day for lunch. 

The second picture is my favorite one of M.Kramlik by himself at the bar.  This is his "traditional" bar pose and I think that on it he looks so happy, relaxed and just his natural self.