Cheap Flight....Priceless Results

During the spring 2012 semester I was lucky enough to study abroad in Madrid, Spain. Now that it’s been over a year since I started that adventure I catch myself remembering the crazy experiences I had, and it wouldn’t have been a study abroad experience without a few mishaps haha.

On March 2^nd 2012 my friend Elise and I embarked on our 10 day trip to Munich and Budapest that we had been planning since the beginning of the semester. We spent our first four days in Munich and everything was amazing, minus the minor camera breaking, but that couldn’t stop us from exploring the city. Then on March 6^th we took a two hour bus ride to the small German airport where would were going to catch our cheap (and I emphasize cheap) Ryanair flight. As we approached to check-in desk to get our tickets we were hit with a huge shock. After a few minutes of complete confusion we were told that the flight had been cancelled for a while and my friend realized she had been checking the wrong email. After checking with the only travel agent booth at the airport we were told that a new flight to Budapest would cost, wait for it…over $300. So that was out of the question.

So now my friend and I are stuck in a random and very small German airport that we had just paid $20 and taken 2 hours to get to. To top it all off my friend then begins to have a panic attack. Holding back my desire to just give up and start laughing at our situation I went over to the corner of the airport had my friend sit and watch our luggage. Then I called my parents (at about 4 or 5am in the US time) and told them about our situation and that there would be a charge made on my card because I was planning to head back to the main train station in Munich to buy some tickets to Budapest. After our conversation I realized there was another factor that needed to be handled, the bus ride back. So my friend and I went over to the booth for the shuttle bus and I told them about our situation. I don’t know if it was my skills that convinced them or the sad look on my friends face but either way we were able to ride the bus back into Munich for free.

Once we arrived at the main train station in Munich our luck was back. We went to the ticket office and we were both able to get round trip train tickets to Budapest for half price. So we spent the rest of the day in Munich and then hopped on a night train to Budapest.

Looking back at that day now I can’t help but laugh. Now it seems like such a simple problem that can be solved in seconds, but when you are a 19 year old and living and traveling through foreign countries simple problems like this one don’t seem that simple. My semester would not have been the same or as memorable as it was without the unexpected moments like this one.