Let me tell you first, plane rides should always always be boring. Travel by plane is supposed to be the safest form of travel per person, per mile of any mechanical form. Figures lie and liars figure...everyone I know spends far more time in a car than in a plane. Also, if your car wrecks you might die but you probably will just get banged around a bit. When you are sitting on top of more fuel than a gas station has in it's underground tank and it falls forty thousand feet...you probably ain't just getting banged about a bit.
On the way to Hungary, the captain came on the intercom to announce that we would be stopping in Limerick, Ireland to disembark a passenger. I wasn't aware that flights had become like sharing a taxi across town, "No just let me off in Ireland thanks." We landed in Limerick so that the Garda could get on board to escort a man off the flight.
Apparently he had had a psychotic episode (hallucinations and delusions) while crammed into the back of the plane with two hundred other people. His behavior had made the flight attendants nervous enough that they had sat a man on either side of this man with the problem that were roughly the size of bulls.
After the Garda removed the man from the flight the two very large men got to move up to business/first class and were given several bottles of wine each. I thought this was a nice gesture. One really wouldn't want a person not in their right frame of mind deciding they really just had to go out side...at forty thousand feet. A couple bottles of wine and a bigger seat are fine recompense for babysitting.
We got under way again after the Garda conducted interviews for three hours of the passengers who observed the man during the flight. I and several other passengers of course missed our connecting flights. Austrian airways though had agents on the ground meeting the flight and helping get people sorted unto other flights. It was an amazing job in my opinion. It shocked me to see airline personnel who realize that travel can be stressful and then go about their jobs in such a way that makes it less so where possible.
I eventually made it to Budapest. I was lucky enough to be able to email Rachel before she left for the airport to let her know my flight was delayed and emailed her again in Vienna and let her know what flight I would be on.
Rachel was already in Hungary for about a week on business and would be staying another week and a half after I left to finish up. I was expecting that she would be actually accompanying me as we looked at houses. I was only somewhat correct.
Rachel took half a day and with the help of a nice young woman that works in HR at the factory we looked at three houses in Jaszbereny. The other three houses I saw that week were about an hour away in two other towns closer to Budapest. Due to the drive and the road conditions, I didn't think that these houses would really be suitable. It was about an hour on a nice late summer day with light traffic. During the winter and in heavy traffic Rachel would probably have had to pack a bag to stay the week in Jaszarokszallas every Monday.
Rachel was unable to take the day to go up to see the houses that the relocation company had set up for us because of other commitments at the factory. She was also unable to go with me to see the gym in Budapest that had a boys gymnastics team that might have been suitable for our son, again due to work commitments. Who schedules their budget planning and their house hunting trip for the same week?
So I set my parents up to babysit for a week and I flew several thousand miles from Indiana to Hungary to look for houses with my wife. We looked at three together and I looked at another three by myself. I looked at one gym that was too far away to be useful and talked to a coach who was thinking of setting up his own gymnastics program in the town that we would probably be living in for our son. And I spent an inordinate amount of time in the public bathes attached to the hotel waiting on my wife to get back from work. Not exactly what I would call a particularly useful house hunting trip.
The return flight was more exciting than the first flight. We were weather delayed on the way to Cologne from Budapest because of the weather at our destination. After an hour of sitting in the plane, we took off for Cologne. We landed safely at Cologne, but it looked as though I had missed my connecting flight to O'Hare.
Fortunately my flight out was also delayed. I had to be re-ticketed at the gate, as due to the delay Lufthansa had a removed me from the flight. That was sorted out quickly and I boarded the flight, only to wait another hour for more bad weather to clear.
Our pilot eventually was cleared to take off and away we flew. Take off is often a little bumpy, but this one was one of the worst I'd risen through. We flew through some rain and then what sounded like mad dwarves with hammers beating on the outside of the plane.
Before we had leveled off the distinct smell of an electrical fire wafted through the plane followed by an announcement from our captain that we would be landing in Frankfurt. Smelling smoke on a plane is scary, but when the pilot comes on shortly afterward and says we are landing now and adds not to worry about the fire trucks that's just because we have so much fuel, one is justified to be a bit white knuckled.
We landed fine, but were chased down the runway by several airport fire trucks. We were told that we would disembark and transfer to another plane as the current one had a broken windshield and was out of service temporarily. The impression you are left with is that this is all no more unusual than a flat tire, but I don't usually have fire trucks follow me home if I have a flat tire.
Five hours later we were reembarked on a new plane, but they had to do our tickets and seat assignments by hand. Nine hours later, we arrived in Chicago, at O'hare. Had I only had to contend with the original delays, I could have made the last flight to Indianapolis from Chicago. Unfortunately, by the time my flight landed in O'hare, the airport was trying to close. The ticket counters were shutting down and of course we all had to be processed through customs and collect our baggage. I went to the united desk after finding my way through what is probably one of America's most poorly marked airports.
I was told that there were no flights until the next morning. I was booked on the next out bound flight and told by the ticketing agent that United had no more responsibility towards me, but that I could go check with Lufthansa. Now these are supposed to be partner airlines, one would think that they could go ahead and issue a voucher for each other just to save everyone a bit of time and trouble, but that would be wrong. I took my baggage and walked down to the Lufthansa desk being accosted on the way by a con man trying to get money for the train so that he could locate his car that was towed.
The United airlines people had primed me to expect a fight when asking the Lufthansa people to take responsibility for the delay and put me up for a night. The Lufthansa people either saw me coming and decided to practice their judo or are always polite, apologetic and understanding of what weary travelers need. The first desk clerk asked me what she could help me with in a charming German accent and handed me off smoothly to her co-worker with assurances that they would send me to a hotel close by and provide a meal voucher for dinner and breakfast. The young man filling out the paperwork apologized for the delay again and assured me with very clear directions where i needed to go to catch the hotel shuttle.
After showering and catching about four hours of sleep I was ready to go at five in the morning. I caught the shuttle back to the airport and checked in for my flight to Indianapolis. A few hours later I was home with my kids. And that was the inauspicious beginning of my second adventure in expat living.
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