Flights

Tova and I are in Budapest!

We left at midnight on Thursday night, flew for a billion hours (maybe 26 travel hours) and arrived Friday morning Budapest time. Independence Day too I've been told.

We had one very, very quick stop (1 hour) in Doha, then onto Budapest. I asked Tova on that second flight "Do you want to go on another plane?" Boy did she shake her head in one big definite "NO, no thanks, no way, nope, nooooo". So funny, so cute. I also was very over it by then.

Tova does flying well. She sleeps a bit, watches lots, looks out the window a tiny bit and mostly behaves very well. She like everyone else gets bored and uncomfortable. But she's a good girl. We had a little boy in the seat behind us that, for the time he was awake, would not stop opening and closing and banging and crashing with the back of the seat tray, the mum just didn't care. She let him do it, over and over and over. Mostly on Tova's chair. I moved her a few times, but she wanted to be where she wanted to be and didn't seem terribly bothered by it.. so I let it go. This kid also flicked the lights on, and off, and on, and off, and on, and off, and on, and off. I was too scared to put the eye mask on because I wanted to keep an eye on the non sleeping Tova. So.. meh.. whatever. It was annoying but out of my hands. He did sleep for bloody ages, so it wasn't so bad. Just strange that the mum didn't do anything, maybe she was sleeping?

Doha airport looks small from the sky, but trust me, it's not small at all, in fact it's humongous. We had to get a a buggy to drive us for about 5 mins to an elevator to go down a floor and walk for a few mins to then get a bus to our plane. We made it just in the nick of time.
On the flight from Melbourne, Tova and I were wandering the isles and Tova found a lady sleeping on 3 seats, Tova thought it was fantastic and wanted to join her.. lol.. I said no. The lady laughed. When we got off in Doha we met that lady, who just happens to live in Hobart near my Dad's house. She helped me with bags for a while and I got her fast tracked as my bag helper so she didn't have to line up for ages. Then she walked with me to my gate until we found the sign that said "10 - 15 min walk to gate blah", that's when we parted ways and I got a buggy ride.

We were met at the airport by a reasonably handsome Taxi guy, who carried both my suit cases, not wheeling them, but carrying them. Odd no? I told him there was nothing wrong with the wheels. I think he just wanted to look tough, which he sure did.. eye candy. So far there have been lots of very nice to look at people in Hungary. How do they do that?

We arrived in our posh suburb to a lovely little apartment, our home for the next month. We were met by the apartment owners, they are outstanding. They have gone out of their way to make sure we know where everything is. The husband walked around with us in the local area for about an hour, showing us where shops and busses are.

Tova and I went shopping on Saturday because everything is closed on Sundays. It's really hard to buy healthy, non dairy, free range, gluten free products, partly because I can't understand anything on the labels and partly because there isn't anything fresh. There are lots of rotting fruit and veg. Oh well. I noticed a fruit and veg stall the other day, so I'll go back there on Monday and see if it's less horrible than the vegies in "Spar".

Yesterday Tova and I went on the bus in the afternoon to the mall (a chaddy equivalent). We were looking for a few specific things. But wow, that shopping mall is confusing. There are levels such as 0, -1 and -2.. BUT not all elevators go to all floors. You have to go up or down a floor, walk around a bit looking for tiny passageways that have very hidden elevators at the end of them, take that one up or down a level or two. Get out walk to the end of the mall and find another.. omg. My legs fell off. Eventually we gave up and tried to find the bus home, that was an epic fail, so we got a taxi.

Sunday today, we've done not much. I've worked the entire day, except when we went for a walk around the block for some fresh air. We were actually looking for a cafe, for cake. Tova was excited. But NOTHING is open. Tova cried. Oh the for the love of cake. Tomorrow little Tova. We'll get cake in a cafe tomorrow.

We are here for Conductive Education.

The program starts tomorrow - Monday morning.

arriving to Budapest
Our street, front of our apartment. Budapest
Our street, front of our apartment. Budapest
Playing in the mall Our Balcony