I could hear my sister coughing and banging around before 05:30, so I think she was eager to be going home after yesterday after yesterday’s sickness. I got up at 06:00, and took my time getting ready, tidying up, and doing the washing up one last time in this apartment.
Our Welcome Pickups taxi was booked for 07:20, but we assumed they’d be trying to pick us up from the wrong place since ‘Miles Home’ is marked incorrectly on Google Maps. However, about five minutes before we left the apartment I got a text message from the driver to say he’d had a ‘tyre defekt’ and had booked us a taxi. I thought this could mean we’d be late, but we soon received another message to say the driver would be there in 4-5 minutes and to let him know once we were in the taxi.
We got to the airport a little before 08:00, which was earlier than I was expecting as it seemed rush hour traffic is non-existent here. The bag drop was then nice and quick, and security is one where you don’t need to remove laptops from your bags due to upgrades. However for some bizarre reason they still insisted I removed my belt made from plastic that has no metal to it whatsoever. It doesn’t even look metal. The downside to security here though is that anyone with pushchairs or have paid 2300Ft for fast track can skip the queue so whilst you may be at the front of the queue, when there’s three groups of parents about it means you could actually have a longer wait.
After less than half an hour the gate was announced so we made our way over to the B gates, and through passport control as expected. There’s a lot of souvenir places in the airport, but I noticed none of them sold the same sort of wooden secret boxes that I’d seen in the different towns. There were however plenty of other things to choose from, but nothing that caught my eye. Instead we waited at the gate for our flight to board, and I noticed a sign that said in order to keep costs low, they try to minimise the time on the ground. That made the following process make sense.
As the two lines of people went through the gate we went downstairs and out into a holding area on the tarmac. It was in direct sunlight unfortunately, so it wasn't a pleasant wait. Whilst we were there a group of people decided they wanted to jump the queue, but even then, we were still on the plane before them. At this time though, there wasn’t a plane for us to board - we had to wait for it to land, disembark, and prepare for us to board, all whilst we were outside. The boarding process was then quick, and easy. My sister coped with this flight much better than the previous one, although she was tired and slept for some of it. She was just now starting to feel ill, not from her sunstroke yesterday but a bug she'd likely picked up a few days before, maybe even when we'd been in the crowded Stansted airport a few days before. It wasn't the sort of souvenir you normally take back with you for sure.
It always seems like the aircraft disembarks at the point farthest from passport control and the baggage hall, and today was no exception. Even the electronic gates for Stansted had very long queues, but fortunately were moving fairly fast. The baggage claim was then slow enough that I had time to have my packed lunch, and use the washroom.
The shuttle bus was pretty much a fifteen minute wait, so it was likely we’d only just missed it. Again this was waiting in the sun, but at least it wasn’t as hot as in Budapest. Due to diversions, it was a fair drive to the long stay car park, but then once we’d found my car it was then a straightforward drive home, getting back just after midday. The holiday was now over, but my hope is that it won’t be too long until my next adventure.