Eventually, the plane landed at Dubai International Airport. We got off on the tarmac and boarded the buses which were fairly wide and had limited seating so as to provide for the luggage. Someone complained that it was like going on Transperth trains and buses again. Angus started singing Viva la Musica, so some people started singing “Friday” in return as they saw it as the only song that Angus would get annoyed by. Eventually, we arrived at the terminal and had to go through the security checks before seeing with our own eyes the sheer brilliance and amount of planning that had gone into the floor layout of Dubai Airport. To proceed past security checks to the duty free shops and departure gates, one must first go down two floors and then go up two floors (so basically you end up on the same floor which you started on, but in a different area). Once we got to the duty free section, we first checked which gate we had to go to before setting off in small groups. One of the first places we went to was the toilet which had a really long queue because some people needed to go and other people, including me, needed to brush their teeth. Later, we all somehow congregated as a decently-sized Year 10 group in McDonalds. Jonty eventually joined us, saying, “All the shops you could go to in Dubai Airport- and you chose McDonalds! Well, at least you can see ‘McDonalds’ written in Arabic (ماكدونالدز)! That’s worth seeing.”
The next flight was basically uneventful- I basically just played Nintendo DS and listened to some music on the in-flight entertainment system. I was a little scared of the toilets on that flight at first because I kept hearing a random noise that sounded like a vacuum cleaner on steroids, especially when people came back from the toilet, so I began to think that that really was the sound the toilets made on that flight. I realised that this was not the case when I did go shortly before landing.
Eventually, we touched down in Vienna. We were stuck at the airport for a little while as people checked their instruments. I wonder what the random people thought of a whole bunch of teenagers playing instruments in the middle of an airport!
After a while, we left the airport through the “Nothing to Declare” gate. I could go through the gate relatively early since I had an instrument of my own and thus was not required to help out with the percussion instruments. It didn’t occur to me that Europe’s climate was colder than Australia’s, not even when someone said that they wanted to go outside to “feel the cold.” I didn’t put my jacket on before I left the terminal, and consequently I was fumbling with my bag and my neck pillow a little later in trying to put it on. Fortunately, a random guy held my neck pillow for me so my job was made a little easier.
I ended up in the bus parking lot of Vienna International Airport. I was thirsty, but I had been assured that we would be given food and drink shortly. Sure enough, before we boarded the buses, a tour guide named Nora stood up in a shopping trolley and spoke to us. I can’t remember all of what she said apart from introducing herself and the other tour guides and that they had provided us with food. I took the food- a chicken and salad roll, a chocolate bar and water. In my thirst, I gulped down some water, and soon reeled at the taste. It tasted a little like toothpaste mixed with water! I examined the bottle, but it wasn’t very helpful as all of the labels were in Hungarian. All I could understand were the symbols for calcium and magnesium. The chocolate bar tasted a little strange, and I didn’t feel much like eating since I was full on airline food. In the end, I chucked the second half of it in the bin, and saved the roll for later (which I eventually got rid of as well).
Eventually we got around to boarding the buses. I was on Bus 4, which happened to be the only bus of the four that was orange. Nora was our tour guide on this bus, and she promised us that she wouldn’t talk continuously for the entire three-and-a-half hour bus drive to Budapest- a promise which she failed to keep. On the way to Budapest, she talked about Hungarian history and language, as well as giving us special Music Tour badges.
One of the first sheets of paper, if not the first, that she gave us had a list of Hungarian words on one side and English words on the other, and we had to try and guess which Hungarian word went with which English word. I pointed to “hogy vagy?” and asked Nora if it meant “how are you?” Her response was, “Yes! How did you know?” I then proceeded to tell her that I’d looked up a few Hungarian phrases on the Internet beforehand, though neglecting to tell her that “hogy vagy” was the only one that I’d remembered. Nevertheless, Nora announced to the whole bus that I’d achieved an “advanced level” in Hungarian!
Here are the words:
I can’t remember too much of the Hungarian history Nora was trying to teach us. All I remember is that one of the kings (the first king of Hungary, I think) was crowned in the year 1000. All Hungarian children love that year because it’s so easy to remember. I also remember that she said that all of those years ago, when they tried to introduce Christianity into Hungary, Hungarians didn’t like it so they put a bishop in a barrel and rolled him off a steep hill into the river below.
She also said two things about Hungarian money. First, she said that 1000 and 10000 Ft notes are the same colour. Secondly, she said that 200 Ft notes are counterfeit. The smallest note you can get in Hungary is a 500 forint note.
Finally, we arrived outside the Hotel Ramada Budapest. We were given our room keys, and Boyuan, Amy and I set off for Room 403. We crowded into the larger of the two lifts in the foyer and set off for the fourth floor. Our room was near the end of the corridor, surrounded by people we knew, which was good.
Our room was fairly large in comparison to others- not huge, but comfortably big. We had two single beds and a sofa bed which had been made up. Boyuan took the sofa bed and Amy and I took the single beds. It worked out pretty well because Boyuan liked the harder mattress the sofa bed had to offer, and she also liked the extra space.
After freshening up a little, we went downstairs for dinner. Our school dominated the hotel restaurant. We were served three-course-meals, beginning with tomato soup and followed by a main course which I’ve forgotten because I practically fell asleep in it from sheer exhaustion. There was ice cream for dessert, though, and I managed to leave room for that.
After eating, we went back up to our rooms.
“Wow! We’re in Hungary!” Amy said.
All Boyuan and I could say in response was, “Oh, yeah! So we are!”
It simply felt so unreal to be in another country on the other side of the world from home.
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