Flying to Marseille, France ~ McC Ab Test

(May 7) The young taxi driver who took us to Budapest Airport was very friendly, and got on to telling us he will leave Hungary and go and live in Britain. This is because of the rampant corruption he sees, and the difficulties of getting anything changed. He said Hungary has received more money from the EU than Germany did after WW II, but Hungary has achieved very little whereas Germany built a thriving economy. The government is now led by very right-wing figures, who do not agree with supporting Ukraine and instead snuggle up to Putin.

Things did not go smoothly with our flight to Marseille, which included a pause in Munich to change to another plane. The first flight was delayed, and by the time we arrived in Munich the weather was awful, with rain and turbulence as we approached. We hastened off our plane and found that the next plane was 20 minutes away (Munich is a big airport!) and was due to leave in 20 minutes! Visions of sleeping the night in Munich Airport came to mind. Things did not look good as we nearly ran (we can no longer actually run) through the terminal to a shuttle train which took us to the other terminal, where we went as fast as we could to the gate. Then - our phones told us that next flight was also delayed, so we had a chance of making it. And we did.

Our plan of buying a dinner snack at Munich had gone out the window, so we caved in and bought from the expensive on-board food available on the second leg. At least it was quite nice.

Because of the delays we arrived in Marseille toward 10 pm, and found the airport deserted apart from our fellow flyers. Our bags were the last out of course, and felt noticeably wet! Must have been out in the rain in Munich. The final hurdle was a trek through the carparks and across a bit of rough terrain in the dark to our Ibis airport hotel. It was great to finally make it to a comfortable bed.