Volcano Woes
Last week, I was in Budapest for work organising the first ever CEO Forum. The two-day event was coming to an end on Thursday, April 15th when we were notified that a volcano in Iceland had erupted bringing air traffic to a halt in the United Kingdom and subsequently, other countries as well. My flight to Brussels was scheduled at 8.25pm that evening. Towards mid-afternoon, news of further airport closures began to trickle through and I feared for the worse – my flight to Brussels was cancelled as I join hundreds of people unable to fly.
Joining me in this predicament was Elmar Toime, our moderator who initially flew from Australia via London for the CEO Forum and was heading back to London.
Peas in a pot
Like a true Sarawakian born on the sunny side of planet earth, I decided to remain optimistic and explored all alternative options out of Budapest. I managed to book the first flight from Budapest to Brussels the following morning and just in case this option does not succeed, Elmar and I booked a car with Hertz for tomorrow morning.
On to Plan B
Waking up at 4am, I saw that the Brussels airport remain closed and it meant, plan B moves into action. Without a map or a gps in hand, Elmar and I set out early the next day for our road-trip after picking up our brand new Mercedes from Hertz rentals. By then Volcano woes had spread across northern Europe as well and we were convinced that it was the right thing to do.
Expect the unexpected
Cruising out of Budapest we entered the highway west bound to Austria and I was behind the wheels. 20 minutes into our journey on the two-lane highway, I noticed that the car in front of me slowed down considerably and came to a halt. The negligent driver was waiting for a chance to cross the inner-lane and turn off to the Tatabanya rest area. Although, I managed to stop on time, the car behind hit the rear end of my car!
The other car belonged to a Hungarian family who was rushing a member of their family out to Vienna airport to catch a plane to Toronto. We were just thankful that everyone was un-hurt. Needless to say no one from the family spoke English and we didn’t speak Hungarian either. Somehow we managed to console each other using sign and body language.
A military police in an un-marked car was passing through and stopped to lend us assistance. The Hungarian military policeman spoke perfect English but police officers whom arrived later only spoke Hungarian to out dismay. Our car was towed-away and we were brought to the Tatabanya police station to make our statement and file a report in Hungarian.
Hungarian Police Day too!
The Tatabanya police station is simple, basic and situated close to the highway. We felt at ease and comfortable at all times even though we were not surrounded by anything familiar except the loud coke vending machine. The police officers arranged for an English-Hungarian interpreter and the report was completed quickly. Eva, our interpreter kindly filled us in that it was Police Day in Hungary and we were lucky to find a policeman to help us out since they were all out parading and celebrating Police Day. I guessed every cloud has its silver lining.
Comfort Food
After 5hours, we were finally back on the road and on our way with our “down-graded” replacement car – a Skoda. Elmar decided to give left-hand driving a go.
We arrived at the border to Austria and Hungary, hungry. Trying out my emergency German we stopped at the nearest Auto-grill and had some comfort food – “Schnitzels mit pommes”. Gobbling down our food and eager to continue our journey, we headed back on the highway and kept ourselves busy with chatter and games.
- Road trip activities
> We counted DHL trucks in both directions.
> We spoke to cows and asked for directions
> We pretended to be Hungarians driving in a Hungarian-plate car
> We admired the blue “plane-less” sky
> We enjoyed the sun
Hitting a Wall
5 DHL trucks and 38 cows later close to Nurnberg, we decided to spend the night in a Bed & Breakfast in a small town called Altdorf. To our surprise, the charming town with its quaint buildings and quiet cobbled streets, was just perfect. We found ourselves parked in front of the Alte Nagelschmiede hotel. Using my emergency German, I asked for 2 single rooms and prayed that there will be no misunderstandings.
After a warm soup and a glass of wine we had a good night sleep and looked forward to 635km more to go.
Detour around Koln
Outside, Koln the highway traffic came to a halt and the radio announced a massive accident on the highway causing more than 20km of traffic jam. I got out like any curious Hungarian and tried to look for the cause but only saw long lines of traffic curving around the hill.
At the first opportunity, Elmar and I decided to get off the highway into the countryside. Needless to say, we got lost a few times and had to ask the cows and horses for directions. Eventually, we found our way back to the highway and saw the big accident from a highway bridge. Like a true Sarawakian, I had to slow down to a snail pace and take a picture with my iphone disrupting traffic behind me.... :)
Rejoining the highway, we made our way to the Belgian borders and were in Zaventem “spooky” airport by 5pm. Elmar and I parted ways and I happily drove home to be with my family.
Elmar, a DHL package
What happened to Elmar? He spent the rest of Sunday in Brussels and trying to get on the earliest train back to London. Finally, calling in on some favours at DHL, Elmar managed to get himself to Calais and DHL brought him over the channel the Monday.
Life lessons
In times of crisis, each and every one of us has many choices. We can choose not to accept or, to accept and do nothing or, we can choose to accept and do something. This road trip has shown us that with a little bit of creativity, optimism and resourcefulness we will all find our way home.
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