DAY 21 – Saturday, July 13, 2019 – Vienna >> Chicago

I slept well.  Anna made the Uber arrangements for me.  I thought she said it would take 17 minutes to get to the airport.  It was a little tricky waiting for the Uber because I needed the wi-fi in Anna’s apartment to get confirmation from the Uber, but I had so much luggage to get downstairs, and there’s no place for the car to park.  Somehow, we managed.  We had a less teary good-bye than I expected because I was so concerned about getting to the airport.

My Uber driver appeared to be middle eastern.  I think German was his second language.  He could not speak English.  After 40 minutes on the road, I started seeing signs to Budapest.  I was starting to get nervous. Finally, I saw an airport sign.  Whew!

In the airport, my checked bag was too heavy.  I had to move some contents to my carry on bag.  Then, they weighed my carry on – who weighs carry on bags? Now that was too heavy.  What? At first she said my personal item was too large, but then realized I was out of choices, so I moved stuff to my small backpack.  I finally made it to my gate – one and a half hours before take-off.  I can relax! Right? No. Lucky Me – I’ve been chosen for another random security check.  They escorted me to a room, where I had to remove EVERYTHING from all of my bags. After a quick look they said it was OK.  I was instructed to pack it all up now.  Frustrating!  On the plane, packed in like sardines, I couldn’t find my earbuds in my repacked bags, so I had to use the one the airline provided and they hurt! Ugh!

My flight arrived on time.  I made it through Customs.  I got directly on to the Van Gelder bus to Madison – which was a small miracle because the bus didn’t have that name on it.  Oh, well.  All’s well that ends well!  What an AWESOME vacation. It was so, so, so, so great!