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Most likely I'll post some pics as part of whatever update I give, and given that there is no way all three of my daughters will think that they look good in the same photo at the same time, pics will likely be pulled and right there is your incentive to check back every day to see how things actually went before something gets taken down.This section will contain the running commentary from the trip, in regards to the most recent country we have been in. But once I'm able to start the next country, I'll put the historical posts in the "Old Updates - XYZ" tab above. This all assumes I (or one of my kids) will be able to figure out how to make this website work.

If you want to read about the first 28 days and our time in Italy, then click here.

If you want to read about our time in Turkiye, then click here.

If you want to read about our safari in Kenya, then click here.

If you want to read about our beach vacation in Tanzania, then click here.

If you want to read about our amusement park/desert experience in the U.A.E, then click here.

If you want to read about our desert/beach experience in Oman, then click here.

If you want to read about our jungle ruins experience in Cambodia, then click here.

If you want to read about our elephant/beach experience in Thailand, then click here.

If you want to read about our beach/city experience in Australia, then click here.

If you want to read about our adventure/beach experience in New Zealand, then click here.

If you want to read about our under water adventure in the Maldives, then click here.

If you want to read about our Taj Mahal adventure in India, then click here.

If you want to read about our Disney adventure in Hong Kong, then click here.

If you want to read about our Disney adventure in China, then click here.

If you want to read about our Political/girlie adventure in Seoul, then click here.

If you want to read about our Adventure with friends in Japan, then click here.

If you want to read about our Disney Adventure in France, then click here.

The Journey Continues - Hungary

Paris to Budapest

To jump directly to one of our days in Hungary, click here:

DAY 242

DAY 243

DAY 244

Day 238

We woke up early to catch our Uber at 6am. The train to and from Disney is convenient, but it was surprisingly expensive, and for 6 people it turned out cheaper (and in theory) easier to Uber. We got down to the meeting place and the Uber messaged me that it didn’t have the address to the hotel. I sent him a message to meet at the parking lot and then went into the hotel to try to find a way to get a better address for the driver. As I was talking to the security guy, a van pulled up and our family started loaded bags in and we were on our way.

About 10 minutes later, I got a call from Uber - it was our Uber driver! Apparently, this van was not ours, and there was some sort of mix up/language barrier issue when Megan talked to the driver. But what were the odds that there was another group of 6 people going to the airport at 6am? We stayed in the taxi and they took us to the airport. I spent the next 5 minutes trying to call the front desk of the hotel to tell them that the car they ordered for someone else wouldn’t be there (for some reason, hotels never make it easy to call the hotel directly - they always send you to some central switchboard). Eventually we got in contact with them. Then the driver had to talk to his boss about why there was a mix up and I felt bad, even if it was at least 50% the driver’s fault (Megan later told me that she gave them our name and he said yes, so it was probably more than 50% his fault, but I should have double checked the app).

It wasn't our Uber, but it looked nice.

We got to the airport and it turns out that I told the driver the wrong terminal, so we spent the next 20 minutes going from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2. We were flying Air France, and I don’t have status there, so I got us all business class tickets to ensure that we could board first and have enough space for our bags. It actually wasn’t that much more expensive than economy. Since we were all business class, we all got into the lounge and ate breakfast there - it was a pretty good breakfast set up.

Then we boarded, and I discovered why the tickets weren’t that expensive - a lot of flights in Europe that are short, will sell “business class tickets” that are really just economy seats, where its 3 seats to a side, and they don’t sell the middle seat, giving you extra space to spread out and more luggage space above, but not really more leg room or seat width, and you are still stuck with an arm rest next to you. But it served our purposes and we made it to France without issue.

We landed in Hungary, and since its part of the EU, there was no customs, and we got our bags and then loaded into two Ubers (the Uber said it seats 6, and it does, but it couldn’t handle us and the luggage). Keira, Elenna and I were in the Uber and I talked to the driver for most of the way. He was more than happy to talk about things to do and see in the area.

We got to our Airbnb, and we weren’t supposed to check in until 4, but they let us drop off our bags. The kids came in and started unpacking, which stressed out Megan since we weren’t supposed to be there and the cleaning people hadn’t finished, and we were just supposed to drop the luggage and leave. But we eventually repaired the luggage explosion of our kids and got out of the room.

We got to the meeting place for the World School Hub we were spending the week with, but unfortunately, we got there about 30 minutes after the group photo. The girls stood around debating who to talk to for about 10 minutes before eventually going to talk to some kids. Elenna joined them for a few minutes then got up and walked away to find some younger kids, and eventually found some.

Liam saw some kids with a ball and quickly went over to them and played for a while. He has no inhibitions about hanging out with kids older than him - these kids were about 4-5 years older. Megan and I introduced ourselves to some of the parents. The hub sent out a bunch of options of things to do, so Megan had bought us tickets to the circus, but it turned out that everyone pretty much was just hanging out and we were the only ones going to the circus, so it was a little disappointing to leave the group.

We left with little time to spare, so we went there in a rush, getting there about 5 minutes before it started. Lily and I waited in line for food (we hadn’t eaten lunch) and then joined the rest just a few minutes before the show started.

Even while traveling, we are able to get a healthy lunch.

We weren’t sure what to expect from a Hungarian circus, but Megan later described it as part Cirque du Soleil (acrobatics, some dancing and story) and part 1 one ring circus (dog show, bird tricks, etc.). There were a number of acts where we were incredibly impressed, including a man and woman who flew around the arena, connected to each other only by a mouth piece (with one end in each mouth and short rope in between).

I hope that these circus performers have good dental coverage.

We wanted to eat in, so I went to a grocery store near our place, which was more of a bodega and somewhat limited in the food. So instead we ordered in some pizza and pasta which was pretty good. We watched Task Masters, an Australian comedy/game show, which Keira has been watching for some time and introduced to the rest of the family, and then went to bed.

Day 239

We slept in late, and the plan was to meet up with the World School hub at 11am at a park. However, it was raining, and people seemed to be taking some time getting out, and we met up there around noon. It started to rain hard, so we stood in a nearby mall area talking to people at the hub. Eventually, it cleared up and we all moved out to the park.

Liam had a ball playing ultimate frisbee with the teenagers who all treated him so nicely. It was great to see. Then he ran off to the playground area and played with some kids who were in the 9-12 year old range.

I'm not sure if Liam has a future in ultimate frisbee, but he did have fun.

Megan and I talked to adults, and some of them were going to a “ruin bar” so we joined them. It was really neat - it was an indoor mall, essentially with bars all throughout as well as some cafes/places to get some food.

The ruin bar, looked a little run down, but that was the point.

We had a couple of drinks and talked to some people.

The bar was pretty neat.

Then Liam played the piano.

Liam likes a good song.

So far, the hub is neat in that it offers a number of options of things to do, so you don’t have to do any of them, and you have flexibility (our kids stayed at the playground, while Megan, Liam and I went to the bar). However, since there is nothing that everyone HAS to do, you never really know if people will be joining you (eg the circus the day before). So it has its pros and its cons.

After the bar, we went back to the playground and I went grocery shopping again, while Megan watched Liam play. For the second time, we dragged him away from the playground while he protested because he was having so much fun, but it was time to go home to get ready to go out to a board game place.

We didn’t have much time, so although I had some food this time, we only had time to make sandwiches and then we walked over the place, about 25 minutes away. Liam complained that his feet hurt and he was too tired and he needed to be carried. I told him that I knew how to fix his legs - I handed him my phone so he could catch Pokemon while we walked, and he didn’t complain anymore.

The game place was fun - the girls played a game with 3-4 other girls that they had met earlier in the day and them seemed to be having a good time. Liam ran right off to a teenager, who gave him a high five and then he played cards with them. Then he moved over to a pair of 10 year olds and played with them. Megan and I sat at a giant table with a bunch of adults and talked and had some drinks.

I think that they had more fun that this picture makes it seem.

The place closed at 10pm, so we walked home. It was drizzling a bit and the plan was to Uber home, but it was 21 minutes for the Uber to arrive and it was a 30 minute walk, so we just walked. Liam complained about the walk, and after he slipped on the wet ground I carried him for a bit, but he walked about ⅔ of the way.

Day 240

The next day it was supposed to continue to rain, so we went to a Synagogue. It was very ornate, unlike most synagogues- it almost looked like a catholic church.

This synagogue almost looked like a church.

We learned a bit about the history of Jews in Hungary - almost 500k Hungarian jews were killed in concentration camps during WWII, in just 8 months, mostly in Auschwitz.

There was a beautiful sculpture of a tree in the courtyard, with each leaf representing a lost life from the community during WWII.

A WWII memorial sculpture.

After the synagogue we split up with Liam and me going on a Pokemon hunt, while the girls went dress shopping for the World School Prom. On our travels, we also stopped at a butcher shop, since I had found some meat at a previous store, but wasn’t quite sure the quality of the meat. I also wasn’t able to find chicken breast at the few stores I went to, but this butcher shop had some, so I bought them. They gave me the option of putting the meat into wax paper, or sealing it in plastic, which I didn’t know was possible, but was incredibly helpful in getting the chicken.

It was raining the whole time we were Pokemon hunting, so we went from overhang to overhang to catch things, but I was getting cold after about 90 minutes so we went back to the house and put away the groceries and I did some laundry. This house has a washer but no dryer, and unlike other places, there isn’t a clothes drying rack, so I have been hanging the clothes where I can find space. This has those metal bars attached to the wall in the bathrooms that should heat up, and that is where I put most of the clothes, although I can’t figure out how to turn them to warm.

Then Liam and I did some work in his workbook, after I realized that he might have had 1 day of schooling in the past month. But he hadn’t forgotten anything and picked up where he left off.

The girls came home and then I cooked dinner. Unfortunately, as we were getting out the plates we realized that the dishwasher isn’t doing a good job of washing the dishes, so now we have to clean everything by hand.

After dinner we went to another board game place. The kids by now have some friends and went off there. Liam ran off and played with some kids for a little while, but then they left and he came back and joined the adults table.

Megan and I at the board game place, before Liam came back. The bottom floor looked a bit like a dungeon.

This meant that Megan and I were playing with him and kind of ruined the flow of the adult conversation for us. Liam and I got into a game of chess, and although I had to help him a bit, he was pretty good at it.

A word about Budapest. I really like the city. The area we are in has the large stone buildings that are reminiscent of other cities in Europe, where you can tell that some of these buildings were 100-200 years old. But it also has nice shops and restaurants. Although some of it is a little run down in places, it all feels very safe. It also seems like a pretty cool place for people in the 18-22 year old range - plenty of bars and people getting decked out to go clubbing. It seems like some of the older kids go out clubbing until late at night, and take the public transportation home (but not our kids).

There was something about Budapest that I really liked, but I just can't put my finger on it.

Day 241

The new Marvel movie Thunderbolts came out and we had debated seeing it while in Disnedyland Paris, but the movie times didn’t work out. Nevertheless, it was still top on my list of things to do in Budapest. So Keira, Lily, Elenna and I went to a movie at 10:15am, figuring that it would get us back by 1 and give us time to meet up with the rest of the hub. In a phenomenon that I should be used to by now, when I checked the distance to the theater at night, an Uber was 4 minutes away and we could be at the theater in 15 minutes. So I left 30 minutes for us to get there, but we left a couple minutes late, it was raining so it was 9 minutes for the Uber to get there, and we were scheduled to arrive 6 minutes after the movie time. I wasn’t too worried because coming attractions always take up some time, but not knowing how Hungary movie theaters work, left me a bit worried.

We got there and had time to buy popcorn and sit - the movie didn’t actually start until 10:30, and since it was 10:15 in the morning no one was in line for snacks. The movie was quite good (if you like Marvel), so we all were happy to have fit it into the schedule.

When we got back, the hub hadn’t really reached a consensus on when and where we should meet (by this point, we weren't surprised). It was a rainy, wet day, and although the rain had just stopped, it wasn’t great weather, but most of the people seemed to be going to a park that was 25 minutes away by taxi. There was a thermal bath there, but people didn’t seem to be doing that, so we all reluctantly went downstairs to get an Uber. When we waited 8 minutes and Uber still hadn’t found us a car, we decided to just scratch it and go back to the to the room. Liam and I walked around and Pokemon hunted for a few hours. We walked into a pretty neat Harry Potter-ish themed restaurant. We also bought some things for dinner and breakfast (we go through peanut butter and bread like its going out of style).

Liam decided that we would have to come back and eat here, since he thought his sisters would like it.

We got home and unpacked the groceries, and I did another load of laundry. Since there is no clothes stand to dry things on, I had to move things around, replacing things that had dried with the new round of wet clothes.

We ate dinner at home and then went to game night again.

Once again, the girls seemed to have more fun at game night than these pictures would indicate.

There was a Pokemon Go subgroup chat at the hub, so Liam and I went to the park to catch some Pokemon in a raid while the girls hung out at the house and then went over to game night. After we caught some Pokemon, he found someone to play on the playground with him for another hour before going over to meet up with them.

A successful raid.

Day 242

The next day the plan was to go to the thermal baths, but like every day, the hub got a late start. We went over to a central park area and met some people from the hub and waited around as other people showed up.

Plenty of neat places to wait for the hub to show up.

The thermal pool tickets started to get a discount at 3pm, so we bought tickets for that and then walked around. Keira wasn’t feeling well, so she stayed home, so Lily and Elenna walked around with some friends, while Liam, Megan and I walked around the park.

We separated from the girls as we headed to the thermal spa.

We ran into this cool park area for kids. There was a mini-street area, with roads, traffic signs, etc meant for kids on bikes and scooters to play around in. There was also helicopter and airplane climbing toys. They even had an area where you could pretend to put your bags through baggage check and get screened before getting on the plane.

Its not clear why other countries have better play areas for their kids than we do.

We met up with the girls at the pools and went in. The lobby of the building was beautiful.

I think I use the word "ornate" a lot in this blog, but the spa was ornate.

Liam and I had one dressing room, and the girls had another, so Liam and I went out to the pool and waited for the girls to arrive. Liam doesn’t particularly like hot tubs, so he kind of sat on the edge, but kids were only allowed in the outdoor pool and it was cold and rainy, so he slowly got in. Just when I thought that maybe the girls had ditched us for some of the indoor pools that the bigger kids could do, they showed up. Apparently there were two outdoor pools and they were at the other one, until the realized that we weren’t coming.

It was a little rainy, but not a bad day to be in the thermal pools.

We left Liam with the girls while Megan and I explored the interior hot tubs for 15 minutes. It was a neat place, but I didn’t need to spend more than an hour in the pools, so Liam and I walked home. It was a 40 minute walk and we caught Pokemon on the way. I stopped at a McDonalds because, well I like McDonalds, and I try to eat at one in every country if I can. They had some spicy chicken strips that were pretty good.

We got home and I gave Liam a shower, and then started cooking dinner. Soon the girls came home and we ate dinner and then headed off to another game night.

Day 243

The next morning we went to the Harry Potter place that Liam and I found for brunch. It was a pretty neat place, and the waffles were pretty good (had chocolate sauce, chocolate bars, whip cream).

Food wasn't bad, but the atmosphere was pretty neat.

Then we walked over the Parliament building. It was beautiful. Incredibly ornate on the outside and inside.

A very pretty government building.

Keira was feeling better and joined us, but the three girls went on a 1pm tour while the rest of us when on a 2pm tour because the tickets were sold out when we tried to buy them. While we waited, we walked over to a sculpture on the river bank of pairs of shoes that represented people killed during WWII (apparently, shoes were valuable, so the Nazis had people take off their shoes before lining them up on the riverbank and executing them).

A moving memorial.

Then it was our time to go on the tour. The inside of the building had stained glass windows and gold covered walls. I wondered why we don’t build things like this anymore, but during the tour they essentially said that the construction of this building was a huge driver to staving off a recession (essentially a huge government work program).

I wouldn't mind an office in this building.

After that, we met up with the girls and some other hub people at a cafe for a while. I had wanted to go see the Buda Castle and underground caves (my taxi driver from the airport said that was the must see thing to do). The girls weren’t interested, so we let them stay and socialize. Megan wasn’t terribly interested and would have stayed chatting with the other moms, but since I wanted to go, she and Liam came with me. I started to feel some pressure that this trip had better be worth it.

The girls stayed behind and hung out.

We took a bus over the “labyrinth”, which was a little annoying because the metro passes we bought successfully on our phone a couple of days earlier, weren’t processing this time around. We missed our bus because I couldn’t get a ticket on line in time. But we eventually got there.

We found the entrance and then walked down a couple flights of stairs to the ticket booth. By now it was abou 4:15 and the place closed at 6pm, but we figured that was enough time - the guided tour (which was now sold out) was only supposed to be 50 minutes). We walked around and it was pretty neat - they were caves, but often with marble or brick walls. There were statues periodically throughout and every once in a while there was a place with bars on the wall and there was a scene behind it - such as a mannequin dressed in 18th century clothes.

There were a lot of neat little areas in the labyrinth.

We came about the “Cave of Darkness” that warned it would be dark, with only a rope to guide you through the caves. Megan went first and I was at the end. As it got darker, Liam decided he didn’t want to do it, so Megan convinced him to climb on her back and they went through the tunnel that way.

It shouldn’t really have surprised me how dark it got, since we were 60 ft under the ground and even the places that had lights weren’t all that bright. But after 20 feet, it became pitch black, and I put my hand right in front of my face and couldn’t see anything. Every once in a while, Megan got a little further ahead and couldn’t hear me talking to her and would get a bit nervous. In full disclosure, it was definitely a bit disquieting there, and I would fall behind in part because I was afraid of running into something - since I’m tall, there is alway the chance that I’ll hit my head and I had my hand in front of my face the whole time. Even the rope wasn’t all that helpful because when you went around turns, you wouldn’t know you were turning until the rope turned, but since the rope was attached to the wall, that meant on right turns, you wouldn’t know to turn until you were inches from the wall.

Eventually, we got to a part of the cave where it started to get brighter. All of a sudden I saw something appear in front of my face and instinctively pulled back, until I realized that it was my own hand that was in front of my face (I had forgotten that I was holding it there since I hadn’t seen in there for the past 5 minutes).

Periodically there were maps on the wall that showed where you were, and the general set up was a circle with a couple of tunnels off to the side, but they would all dead end, so it was pretty easy to make sure you didn’t get lost.

Is Liam happy or scared to be there?

We walked to one side and it started to get misty, which added a cool effect to the dimly lit cave. But then it quickly got really foggy, such that I couldn’t see anything more than a few feet away and I couldn’t see anything below my knees. Liam was happily saying that we were in a “creepy cave”, apparently nonplussed by the lack of vision. At one point, I almost said, yeah but I can’t see if there is a rat or something crawling across the ground, but then I thought better of it, since what we don’t know, can’t hurt us… Right?

Initially, the fog had a cool effect, but then it got a little too much.

We turned around because we weren’t sure if we actually could get lost in the tunnels, but once we looked at the map again, we went back into the mist, more confident that we couldn’t get lost. Eventually we got through the mist (we had to hit the dead end and turn around) and then we got to a place that had a movie projector in it, showing a person singing opera, and there were some movie seat chairs. A bit strange.

You don't see a movie in an underground labyrinth every day.

The place looked like an abandoned subway, and I could picture people hiding in here during the bombings during WWII - apparently this series of caves had been used as such a place, as well as a wine cellar among other things over the years. The caves had been naturally formed and used by neanderthals thousands of years ago before being discovered and repurposed, often with some bricks/stone added.

We left the caves and walked around the square.

Everywhere you went, there was beautiful architecture.

Then, we saw a little souvenir shop and Liam got to try on some things.

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Luckily we don't have room to buy things, or we might have wound up with some junk to bring home.

There was also a scenic lookout area and a restaurant next to it with a beautiful view of the city.

A view from the Buda side of the city to the Pest side of the city.

We also found a playground, but since it was getting late, we only let Liam run around for a few minutes before we we headed back to the house. The girls had just gotten home a few minutes before and we got ready to go out again to another game night. Lily had wanted to try Chimney Cakes (a cylinder pastry with no ends to it, so it looked a bit like a tunnel). We ordered cinnamon ones with Nutella inside and they made them from scratch. It took a lot longer than we thought it would, so we ended up 30 minutes later to game night than we wanted, but we got some fresh Chimney Cakes, which were excellent, so a fair trade in my view.

By now, I was getting a little bored of board game night. There were two places that we were alternating between, depending which had availability. The brighter, cleaner, less noisy one wasn’t as cool as the dungeon type one that was huge and decorated with all

sorts of 80s/Star Wars/Lord of the Rings stuff, but it was easier to have a conversation in. The main problem was that the younger kids didn’t often come to game night, so Liam would end up coming to the adult table, and I would have to play some version of Uno with him instead of talking to the grown ups.

Lily had spanish class at 10PM pretty much all week, so she would leave around 9-9:30, and her sisters tended to leave with her. This night we sent Liam home with them, and then Megan and I went out for a drink. By now it was 10:30 and the places that Megan wanted to go (a nice wine bar) were either closed or closing, so we went to a rum bar instead. It was nice, but since we are old, we didn’t need the loud music.

Day 244

Today was the day of the prom, so the girls weren’t going to do anything except get ready for the dance. They had 12:30 reservations to get their nails done, so Megan, Liam and I went to the Buda Castle. Megan got a little confused between the Buda Castle District, and the palace where the president lives, so we got dropped off at the wrong spot, but a 15 minute walk later we went over to the meeting spot of the hub. This was one of the times where we were happy that the hub was slow to do anything, because although we were supposed to meet at 11, we got there 30 minutes late and still had 30 minutes before the group started to move. There weren’t any kids Liam’s age there, so after a little while, we separated and walked around ourselves.

We bribed Liam with some ice cream, seen here.

We really liked Budapest. Usually there is some area of town that has old architecture or something neat to look at, but it seemed like no matter which way we turned, there was something. We walked back to where we were the day before - Liam had actually proposed that our plan today should be that we came back and eat breakfast at a restaurant with a great view that we had seen and then we would go to the playground. We got a much later start than he proposed, but we ended up eating lunch at that restaurant, and then went back to the playground.

Liam wasn't impressed with the food, but the view was amazing.

After that, we came back to the house and cleaned it a bit, while I went to the store and got some drinks and food. We were inviting 4 girls and their parents to come over and get ready for the prom with our girls.

Everyone came over and got ready. I think that this time was probably going to be more fun for the girls than the prom itself. At the game night, the night before, we heard some of the boys talking to their moms about how they planned on playing Dungeons and Dragons at the prom. When the mom pointed out that they were supposed to be dancing, they responded by saying that the prom was going to be 4 hours long, so obviously there would be plenty of time to do both. So, I had low hopes for the prom - or maybe it was exactly the type of prom that I wanted my daughters going to.

There was a lot of hard work to get ready, but everyone looked very nice.

We could have Ubered over, but thought that it might have been funnier to have these dressed up girls on public transportation, so we took a light rail to the meeting place for the group photo.

Most people probably didn't take the light rail to their prom.

I was impressed with how dressed up some people were. Our girls were definitely on the most dressed up end of the spectrum, but some of the guys were wearing nice suits. However, when we got to the square where the picture would be taken, I saw a person holding a cardboard box full of home made sheilds and burger king crowns and I thought that maybe we were in the wrong place - until I remembered that some of the boys wanted to play D&D while there.

No one wore shields for the pictures.

After the photos, we walked over to the pier and wished them all good bye. I had wanted to do a night river cruise too, so we walked over to where the cruise left, but it was a 40 minute walk. It wasn’t really a problem since we had 45 minutes to get there, until Liam fell and hurt himself, and then I had to carry him. I carried him about half the way, because usually Liam gets over his injuries within a few minutes (Liam is so accident prone that he probably gets hurt at least once per day on average), so I would put him down and then carry him again in a few minutes.

A picture on our ill-fated walk to the cruise.

We got to the pier 10 minutes before the cruise left, as the instructions said, but the line was already down the block. By the time we boarded, all of the seats near the windows were taken and we sat towards the front which offered us a decent view. Liam was tired and cranky, so I let him play Pokemon, hoping that would free me up to see the sights, but he would often have me help him with whatever he was doing, so it wasn’t quite the river cruise I was looking for.

I wish I got to enjoy more sights like this.

When we got off the boat, Megan realized that she didn’t have the key to our apartment. She had switched jackets with Keira at the photo shoot, but didn’t switch the keys. It was 9:30, and the girls probably wouldn’t be back at the house until midnight. We texted and called them to make sure that they did have the keys and try to arrange some time to get them. But they didn’t respond for the first hour, which I guess was a good sign that they were having fun at the prom.

We decided to go back to the apartment and hope that the people running the Airbnb would be able to get us into the place. It was a little after 10 when we got back to the apartment, but the Airbnb people hadn’t responded, so we tried to find a place where we could sit and wait for the prom to end or the Airbnb to respond. We walked about 5 blocks and tried a couple of places (one was too fancy - a 2 star Michelin restaurant, one was a buffet where we would have to buy the buffet to enter) until we came across a burger place. We were a little hungry anyway, so the fries and onion rings hit the spot while we waited.

We were running up against another problem and that was that our phones were dying. I had largely recharged my phone while the girls got ready for the prom, but with Liam playing Pokemon I was down to 2% by the time I navigated us to the burger place. Megan was down to 10%, but that was rapidly declining as she tried to get in touch with the parents on the prom boat to talk to our kids about the keys and contact our host. We finally got in touch with the kids, who had our key, and Megan told me the plan was for me to go and meet them there and get the keys and come back. I asked how I was supposed to do that if my phone was dead (I couldn't order an Uber or use Google Maps), and we eventually decided that I would take Lily’s charger so I could get an Uber back.

Megan eventually got in touch with the apartment hosts, and they were working on it from their end. The battery situation was bothering me, so I went up to the counter and asked if there was a way to charge my phone, and they unplugged their credit card reader so I could charge it. They were so nice. I tried to offer them a tip for their help, but they refused.

The hosts got back to us and said that they would send someone over with the keys, so we messaged the kids that we didn’t need them. We told the hosts that we would be at the house in 5 minutes, but they never told us how long it would take to be there. We got to the apartment, and we could get into the building so we sat on the cold stone floor waiting for the keys. Luckily, my phone was now charged back up to 11%. Liam was cold, so he and Megan sat around the corner on the steps, while I waited in the courtyard with a view of the gate to see if someone arrived. The host was charging us 25 Euros to send the person out, but that seemed worth it, since it meant getting into the house 90 minutes earlier and the Uber to the boat and back likely would have been about the same.

After about 10 minutes of waiting (which seemed longer) the guy showed up and gave us the keys. We walked up the two flights of stairs to our room, and although the first key opened the deadbolt, the second key did not fit in the knob lock. So we messaged them again, but by now it was 11:10, and if I was going to meet the girls to get the keys, I had to leave now. So I did.

On the way I was texting the girls to disregard the last texts and that I would, in fact, be meeting them and getting the keys, but they didn’t respond. The Uber was supposed to arrive at 11:30, but one of the streets was closed, and the driver took a big detour and I got there at 11:37, so I was worried that the girls might have moved on (the reason I was meeting them was that they wanted to go out to a restaurant afterwards with some of their friends). As I arrived, I saw some of the kids on the sidewalk, but not many, so my anxiety went up, until Keira finally answered her phone, and told me that they would be getting off the boat soon.

I borrowed Lily’s charger while the Uber came to pick me up (I had dropped to 6% by the time I was there). I wished everyone a good time and then got into the Uber and got back to the apartment at midnight. We got into the apartment and soon after the key delivery person came back and we gave him the second key back because it didn’t work, and we wondered if they would still charge us 25 Euros (we would have been better off if they didn’t try to give us the key because we would have stayed in the warm burger place, with my phone charging, or Megan’s phone charging), but they were nice in trying to help.

I put Liam to bed and then started cleaning the house - we had to leave in a rush to get to the prom photos, so there was food, dirty plates, and loads of makeup everywhere. I got the place in somewhat decent shape, but the girls still had to put away their makeup and stuff, so I knew that there was still a good 30 minutes of clean up.

At 12:45, I had Megan message the girls for an ETA and they were just leaving McDonalds then. I didn’t want to ruin their fun, but we had to check out at 10am, and they still had to pack and clean and I was worried about getting it all done. Apparently, the McDonalds that they went to essentially turned into a night club after midnight, with a DJ and everything - it didn’t close until 4am.

The girls got home and we wanted to hear their stories, but we also needed to go to bed, so we got a quick recap, and went to sleep.