A month had passed since arriving at Harlaxton, and that meant a few things. One: the first long weekend was upon us. Two: so was the first British Studies exam. And I wasn’t ready for either of them.

The similarities between Budapest and the first British Studies exam are actually quite plentiful. I bought my tickets to Budapest the day before we left, and I studied for the British Studies exam the night before we took it. I felt mostly confident while traveling and while writing my essays, but at the same time I sort of struggled through both of them until the bitter end. I got a B on my British Studies exam, and I feel like I got a solid B in Budapest too.

While everyone else rushed from the exam to their cabs or coaches, April and I had enough time to pack, eat a meal, watch a movie, roast a turkey, etc. before catching our train to London Luton Airport. (Side note: We ended up in a Street Car with another Harlaxton student and her dad on the way to the train station, and her dad insisted on paying for all of us. This just made me really happy and grateful.)

We made it to Luton decently late at night with plans to sleep in the airport. Yeah, that did not happen. The outside door was stuck open for hours, so it was freezing cold no matter where you went. All of the comfy Starbucks benches were claimed by other sleepers, so we sat at a table at Burger King. We were on the wrong side of security, so we were extra paranoid about our backpacks. When security finally opened at 3:30, we hopped in line and got through without a hitch. We had Starbucks and Auntie Anne’s pretzels (in England?!) on the other side while we waited for our flight.

We got to Budapest around 9 am and I promptly got a paper cut from a map of the city. Our sweet friend Santiago let us check into our Airbnb early, and then we went for a short walk to explore. We walked past a Jewish synagogue (it was expensive to go inside) and ended up in a cute café. We stopped at Tesco for some groceries on our way back to the Airbnb so we could make spaghetti for dinner. We turned on the TV, found a channel in English, and immediately fell asleep. We woke up a few hours later and made our spaghetti, then went right back to sleep.

Friday was the day we were supposed to go to Vienna, Austria. It was also the day we found out Vienna may wait for you, but the bus to Vienna definitely does not. In a moment of severe stress, we got on a bus to get to the bus station instead of taking the metro. The bus managed to get us to our destination, but unfortunately it got us there five minutes too late. Our bus had left us, and the next one didn’t leave for a few hours, so we decided to take the L, get some chocolate (a pastry for April and milk for me), and move on with our lives. We made our way back to the Airbnb to rethink our day and attempt to get a refund on our return bus tickets.

When we got there, I remembered I was sad about multiple things. For one, did I mention we missed our bus to Vienna? And I’d also been thinking a lot about how we weren’t going to get to watch the Olympics opening ceremony because we would be in Vien—WAIT! We looked, and the ceremony (in English) was just starting in five minutes. We then proceeded to watch it for FOUR HOURS instead of hanging out in Austria. You win some you lose some, you know?

We said, “At 3:00, we’re turning the TV off and going to the thermal baths.” So at 3:00, we turned the TV off and went to the Szechenyi Thermal Bath. We didn’t bring towels or flip flops, so we rented towels and walked around barefoot. There were a lot of thoughts and conversations about feet, but it’s been a while and we’re still okay. It was freezing outside, but the bath was steamy as heck. We found a sauna and sat in it for two minutes before our eyeballs started to melt, and then we returned to the very crowded bath. We were there for about two hours before we started to get a little hangry.

If you know April, you know she’s got to have her pizza, so she navigated us to a place with Pizza King in the name. When we sat down in the place with Pizza King in the name and ordered our pizzas, April looked out of the window and saw the pizza place she meant to navigate us to a little bit down the street. We decided to stay where we were, and it worked out very well. Our pizzas were delicious, and I had the best glass of lemonade in my life, so I definitely call this mistake a win.

Before heading back to the Airbnb, we stopped to get another bottle of chocolate milk and some ice cream. We flipped through the channels and saw The Green Mile starring Tom Hanks was on. Neither of us had seen it (although I say Tom Hanks is my favorite actor—I am, in fact, a phony), so we watched it and were both amazed. We ended our day—a day filled with crushed dreams and chocolate milk—on a high note, if I do say so myself.

On Saturday, we were determined to “carpe the diem” as I would say. It started on a poor note when we had to check out of the best Airbnb ever with the best host ever, but it got better when April reminded me I had chocolate milk in the fridge. We made our way to Starbucks where I discovered they do not have rewards in Hungary. Not to worry. I waste my money on Starbucks no matter what form the money takes.

From Starbs we began our day of exploration. We started with the Parliament building (incredible), made our way to the Fisherman’s Bastion (beautiful), and ended up at the Liberty Statue (am I out of shape? Yes.) all before catching our ride to the airport. I sat in the car swerving through every alley in Budapest and was sure we were going to die, but we somehow made it in one piece. We ate disappointing airport food and flew home, experiencing the worst landing of my entire life.

There were no trains that would take us home in the middle of the night, so we found ourselves sleeping in Luton once again. This time, though, we found the comfiest chairs in Costa with a safe place to keep our bags, and we were out like a light. When I woke up, April told me she had tried to wake me but had been unsuccessful because I was sleeping so soundly.

I honestly have no recollection of getting to London, but we made it and I ate a muffin before boarding our train back to Grantham. I have been craving chocolate milk ever since.

It’s time for Humans of Marlaxton part three!

Meet April, AKA “Mr. Ed”, April British, Ape, etc. I met April after I started hanging out with the WKU girls, and we became real pals after the London trip. It’s another one of those friendships that I don’t remember forming, but now I can’t imagine Harlaxton without her. She is a fellow Hilltopper, an avid dabber, and a boyband throwback song fanatic. She loves Hamilton and art, but she is also a chemistry major who never talks about anything related to chemistry. Every so often, she makes odd noises to show surprise or disgust. She enjoys cereal, ice cream, and Papa Johns big cookies. We are Budabuddies, lib (library) buddies, Bistro buddies, sing-along buddies, and adventure buddies, and I love her very much! Hi, April!