From the East to the West

The trip started on Wednesday morning at 4:00am, and it did not start well. At security check #1 in Bishkek, I was told my ticket wasn’t valid. After ten minutes there, I was pushed ahead to the check-in counter, at which I was told first that my baggage would only go to Moscow and would then have to be re-checked. Why? They said it was because I had e-tickets after that, and then later said it was because I was to switch airlines. Neither were good reasons. After 20 minutes of arguing with the workers that it should go to Budapest, they finally gave in. Then they said that my luggage was overweight, which it was, but I had a plan to correct that problem. As I began my repacking plan, I was informed that not only was the one bag on the scale overweight, but that I was only allowed to check one bag! I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The reason for this was because I was only going to Hungary and not all the way to America. So, there I was with a years worth of stuff that was all relatively precious to me, and they were telling me I could only take half of it. Not surprisingly, after having not slept for 24 hours and having already gone through the aforementioned problems, my face got red and my eyes started watering. My efforts to conceal the tears were not successful, but neither were the tears in vain. Either the workers began to have compassion on me or they were just sick of arguing with me, but they sent both bags through… all the way to Budapest. Mission #1 was accomplished.

Thankfully, the trip only got better from there. There were relatively no problems in Moscow, and the only other “problem” of the trip came in a 1 ½ hour delay going from Frankfurt to Budapest.

The greatest part of the day, other than seeing my beloved friends Kim and Kristi again, was my time in Frankfurt. I was scheduled to have a 7 hour layover, so I thought I would try my hand at short-term European travel for the first time solo. Only one hour after landing in Frankfurt, I found myself sitting in a square surrounded by tourists from all parts of the globe, historic buildings unlike anything in Bishkek, as well as modern buildings decked out with more chrome than is found in all of Kyrgyzstan, Starbucks on every corner and Haagan-daaz ice cream sold by the scoop. I was back in the west, and not too sure whether I was ready for it, or desired it. In this matter, though, I have no choice. Hopefully, my time here in Hungary will be a great aid in the re-entry/re-adjustment factor of my return home… to a land of money, convenience, cleanliness, and busyness.

So, I arrived in Hungary after three flights, long hours in airports, a few shed tears, a whirlwind tour of central Frankfurt, and 48 hours of no sleep. Tomorrow, my friend Kristi and I are heading south to Croatia for a few days and will return to Hungary late Monday evening. We’ll spend our weekdays here in Hungary, touring Godollo, the small town I’m staying in, and Budapest. The following weekend we’ll make our way to Bratislava, Slovakia and Vienna, Austria; and the following weekend after that we’ll head to the Czech Republic with other ESI teachers in this region for a bit of a canoe trip and a whirlwind tour of Prague.

There is much ahead that I look forward to very much. At the same time though, it is not easy to instantly stop living in a place, culture, frame of mind that has occupied you for the last ten months. I suppose I’ll get used to living in two places at once for a few weeks.