Day 51. Thursday 21 May.

Out of the apartment just before D’s planned departure, again with plenty of leisure time at the bus station to enjoy that special ambience!!! – and watch the passing parade of humanity.

Our bus arrived late, the throng as usual jostled for entry, and we were away. We were on the express bus, with one stop at Gyor.   It’s only a 280 km or so trip to Budapest –  two hours and 35 minutes according to Flixbus – and it was uneventful until 46 km out, when we turned off the M1 and trundled along B roads for some considerable time.

 Every so often we could see the highway – and the reason for this detour. Traffic, and thousands of trucks, crawling along or stationary, due to roadworks. Their deadlines would not be met by a long shot. We eventually rejoined the main route, having bypassed a significant section, and joined in the crawling. Arrived about 45 minutes ‘late’ but that suited us as we had a 1500 check in. We even had time, given we hadn’t eaten since breakfast, for perhaps the worst coffee on the trip – certainly the worst snack, a very stale bagel of some sort at a café by the bus station (and a very grubby bus station it was…not a good look to welcome visitors to Budapest).

Uber gave us a taxi to our apartment (Uber has been terrific throughout) – self check- in easy, albeit we’re on the second floor and there are three flights of stairs. But, being folk of the right age, we managed to lug the luggage in. Anything still remaining in the backpacks after this leg will stay here: the balsamic, a newish tin of oil, a partly used bottle of laundry detergent, baking paper, salt & pepper. Found a big Lidl nearby & T indulged in a marinara mix for tonight, recalling how terrific it had been in Spain.

Forecast for the next few days is actually hot at around 30 degrees and T has nothing appropriate in the suitcase…hmm! D pointed her to $12 cotton T-shirts at Lidl. We can’t understand why our bags seemed so heavy today, as there’s nothing much new (yet) in either.