Hungry in Hungary: Where is our Apartment?

    It was a long drive from Prague to Budapest. We crossed through Slovakia and their capital Bratislava. Greta, our GPS lady, got us as far as she could as she told us there were no passable streets in front of our hotel. I stopped and parked in front of a dumpster, got out and asked a couple of Hungarians where our apartment was, hoping they spoke some English. They did and sent me on our way. This was to be one in a series of wild goose chases.
     I drove and found a pseudo parking spot leaving Lynda to mind the car. We hadn't had any food for about three hours at this point. I ran around from business to business, mostly pubs to find out where the apartment was. Lynda was not a happy camper sitting in the car by herself as I searched on.

     At one point I returned and had to tell a police man we were misplaced. Fortunately he let me keep the car in the tiny space I had deposited it in. I had entered an apartment building that some nice soul had thought might be ours only to be locked inside. What would I do? I ran upstairs and rang the doorbell of the first apartment that I could find. A young man, dripping wet and only holding a towel around him said I was in the wrong building. Then his towel slid down and I quickly departed asking him to ring me out. Finally, after calling the Oasis Apartments and getting a German lady saying that the number was not in service and she would connect me later my frustrations had reached a new high.
    What do I Do? Contingencies were going through my mind. Could I bite the bullet on this pre-paid apartment and try to find another room in this busy city? Would we just leave the city and head to some other place? Finally I googled Oasis apartments only to find there were several in the city. I called the closest to me and explained my plight. The nice lady told me what garage to park in and then we were on our way.
    When we finally found her office it was the wrong one. I asked her to call the one I thought was ours so she did. They told her to tell me to meet them at # 13. This number I have found covers a large area, including an area called Central Passage, a larger version of Austin's 6th Street.

    Again I scrambled around after leaving Lynda at a outside cafe nursing a large white wine. She insisted since she really had to pee. Happy wife, happy life came to mind but I wasn't sure that was going to happen in my future. Being a dutiful husband I let her have it her way and the pursuit continued. We are now about two hours into the ordeal. If I was wearing a step counter I would have exceeded my weekly total for sure. Back to the title of this blog, was this too much of a Big Chew.
    After a little longer I returned to the office of the nice lady, batted my baby browns and asked for more help. I had her put me on the line with the guy who makes the apartment arrangements. This time I told him to have his assistant meet me out in front of BB'z pub. For good measure I told him I was wearing a grayish purple shirt and gray shorts. I went there and finally a nice lady, Anna, came up and asked me if I was Mark. I replied in the affirmative.
    She was very helpful, had the key and showed me the apartment which turned out to be in a building right in the wild Central Passage. It was a beautiful apartment, as large as our house in Sun City. The car was parked in a garage that was not close so she said that she would get the remote that would get us into another garage close by. First she had to go back and get the remote from her office. I was to meet her at BBZ in half an hour.
    I returned to rescue Lynda whom I had passed several times in my attempts to find this place. Her look could kill but I told her it would work out. I gave her the thumbs up and went and ordered a beer. I sat with her and finished the beer; still no food.
     We decided to take her to the apartment and let her rest while I retrieved our car and luggage. I'm glad now I worked out regularly. Meeting Anna and with her accompanying me around a series of one way streets we found the garage and parked three floors down in the dungeons of Budapest. Pictures from the Prague Castle prisons were returning to my mind.
     I moved all our luggage, being thankful we pack light, back to the apartment. Finally we had food in our stomachs, went to bed, getting very little sleep due to the street noise. Richmond Row, Younge street and 6th Street could not hold a candle to the Central Passage since on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights the establishmentsame stayed open until 5 am.
     Perhaps this was an example of biting off more than we can chew. But perhaps tomorrow will just be another adventure.