Monday 21 November 2022

Day 4 On The Road to Budapest

We set off by bus from our hotel.  Viking is not exactly open with the  information that the trip from  Prague to Budapest is by bus, and that it is about 6 hours.  However, things never go quite as planned for us:  There were two accidents about 3 - 5 km apart on the highway ahead of us, and our lane slowed down to a crawl, then stopped entirely.  

The guide, to his frustration,  couldn't figure out why it was taking so long to clear.  The rest of us, (there were only six of us besides the driver and the guide) weren't really bothered that much.  We had a bathroom on board, literally so small that once inside, there was no room to  change your mind.   We had water, wifi, and a place to charge our phones, so we were reasonably content.  After all, this was beyond anyone's control, we had lots of room on the bus, and we were all a laid back bunch.

But, as I  have often said, there will always be arseholes among us,  and thus it was true here:  this particular one was driving a sports car, and obviously felt he was "special".  We had 2 lane northbound and the trucks kept to the right, while busses and cars to the left so we made a center lane for the use of emergency vehicles.  Mr Hot Wheels, decided that this waiting around was for the peasants and started playing hopscotch.   He sped up the center lane, and tried to pull in wherever he could  and two drivers let him in.   However, these two drivers who were as annoyed at this would be Andretti as the rest of us, had something up their sleeves:  the one in front of him backed up, and the one behind pulled forward,  close enough that Mr Hot Wheels could not get out.  Then, they rolled up their windows and ignored him.  In the immortal words of George Peppard in the original A Team -" I love it when a plan comes together."  I couldn't speak his language,  but some gestures are universal.

Anyway, we arrived in Budapest about 4 hours later than planned. Our guide tried pointing out landmarks but by then it was dark, but I admired his efforts.   We arrived at the Viking Skadi, went for a delicious meal on board, came back to find our luggage in our room, which (surprise!) Is smaller than the pictures show, but very well appointed. And we were more than comfortable. 

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