Adventures of making it to Drupalcon Szeged 2008

Arriving in Szeged was not a smooth task. We had several issues ranging from flight times to Taxi drivers not knowing what we were talking about. But, we still made it!

So we left Augusta, GA at around 4:30p.m on Friday August 22, 2008 to try to make it to Atlanta airport to catch the 7:30p.m. flight to Laguardia airport in NYC so that we could try to catch the flight to Buddhapest on the next most recent flight. Well we did not make it to the airport on time to make the 7:30p.m. flight. Next we tried to catch the next most recent flight at 9:30p.m. on the same day. The 9:30p.m. flight seemed like a sure thing it had over 20 seats left open and since we were flying standby with Delta, with the lowest rank possible, we should have no problems getting on that flight. Well as soon as they start boarding we looked up at the screen and we were the 32nd and 33rd passengers to try to get on this plane via standby and were unable to make the flight. The next flight that left out of Atlanta was the next morning at 7:30a.m. again this time it seemed that it was a guarantee that we would get on this flight, there was 30 seats open and when they started boarding we were number 17 and 18. Even though we had a really good chance of making this flight we did not make this flight because a few minutes after boarding our standby number some how went above 30 again, probably a lot of people showed up at the last minute. So there was another flight around 8:30a.m. to D.C. so we decided that would be close enough and we could just make it to J.F.K. on our own. Well again we did not make this flight because of the number of seats. After these failed attempts to make it to NYC we finally decided to go to Cincinnati, a Delta connection hub, and catch a flight to NYC from there. Successfully we were able to catch the 3:30p.m. flight to JFK and to make the 7:30p.m. flight to Buddhapest with a bonus, first class seats.

After nine hours later and six hours time zone difference roughly 11a.m. the following day on Sunday we landed in Buddhapest. Great! we are finally here. Now to make it to Szeged. Well we talked to a few people about taking the train from Buddhapest to Szeged and the people we asked did not tell us that there was a train that left the airport so we ended up taking a taxi to the "nearest" train station that was actually even farther away form Szeged, the whole time the taxi driver was trying to convince us to allow him to take us to Szeged bargaining with us trying to get us to say yes, spatting out numbers like 300 EUR, 200 EUR, 130 EUR and we kept telling him no thank you we would just take the train and he finally decided to drop us off at a train station in the middle of Buddhapest. After making it to the train station we had to buy tickets. So we found the teller to buy tickets in this building that did not look much like any thing at all, but an old building. So we try telling the teller that we would like two tickets to Szeged and she gave David two pieces of paper. Then we asked the teller where the train was, she pointed behind her, so we went off to find the train. Well after a few minutes of asking people and walking around we ended up in the same place we started and we proceed to get on the train that seemed like it would have been the right one, but after showing the guy on board our boarding passes he pointed the train right next to us that was leaving. So obviously our next thing to do was to exchange our tickets. Little did we realize that our tickets did not have an actual time of day on them other than our purchase time, well my ticket did not but David's ticket seemed to have a time on it and of course our tickets were in Hungarian so we just made assumptions. After we went back to talk to the Teller again and hand her our ticket to try to get them exchanged she looks at us and just shakes her head and says "gone". Next we ask here when is the next one and she writes down 13150 which David interpreted as a price and I interpreted it more like 13:50 a time. Well either way she hands David's ticket back, which is actually nothing more than piece of paper that tells us the time of the next departure of our train. After finally talking to another teller we were able to purchase tickets for the next train, even though we only needed one more, we had not realized that the ticket that David had was just a time slip and that the tickets did not have a per train expiration but rather a 24 hour expiration. So after thinking to our selves we finally realize that we only had one ticket and that's why people were getting confused because David kept trying to hand the tellers a time sheet while asking about the train. We could just imagine what they were thinking, "yea 12:50p.m. it is now 1:00p.m. the train has left what do you want me to do about it." We finally looked up at the times on the board and realized that the previous number that she had written on the paper was indeed a time because the next train to Szeged was at 1:50p.m.

So now in Szeged we arrived at the train station at around 4:00p.m. or so we had to find the hostel we were staying at, but we forgot to write down the address or print out a map to where it was or even the name. So we pulled out one of our laptops and looked it up and tried to find an address. We did not find the address, but we did have the name of the place. Next we wrote the name of the place on a piece of paper we take it to on of the taxis around the corner, he did not speak English so he just nods his head in confirmation that he knew where the place was. So after loading up the car with our luggage and getting in he proceeds to do a u-turn and ask ever taxi behind him where the place was we were trying to go. Me and David just kind of looked at each other and with out saying anything we were both thinking "Damn, how the hell do you pick up a fair and do not even know where they want to go." After driving around town the driver getting out every so often to ask yet another person we finally arrive at our hostel. The driver tried very hard and was really helpful to get us to our destination.

Now in Szeged looking back on our adventure everything was Awesome and makes for a great story.

Currently still in Szeged for Drupalcon 2008 and having a blast, check out my flickr for some of the photos I have taken so far on the trip.