And so it begins again…. this time my journey is to Budapest.  One five hour stop in Minneapolis and then a quick stop in Amsterdam and then to reach my final destination, Budapest.  All by my lonesome…

Since I had a 5 hour layover in Minneapolis, i went and caught the light train to the Mall of America.  It is less than 10 minutes away from the airport by light rail.  So from the gate to where i got off the plane, right to the mall doors, took less than 30 minutes.

I shopped around the mall for a couple hours and even managed to get a couple new hats custom embroidered…. finally a new red p.phresh hat to replace my old one!

Unfortunately the guy working the machine got the placement wrong on the red one… the p.phresh should’ve been lower to the bill… but i think it can be salvaged.  I may add some Super Mario Mushroom patches i purchased a while back from video games live.  And just like the old one, it still says “zucru” on the back…. love it.

The black pinstripe one didn’t turn out as good as i’d hoped either… i’ll have to fix it up with a marker when i get home… stupid americans.  At least he gave me a discount.

I stopped at Famous Dave’s for dinner at the mall before i headed back to the airport.

And when i ordered an iced tea, i got it right this time and ordered a raspberry sweet tea!

And when i headed back to the airport, it still only took me 30 minutes to get back to the terminal, pass through security, again, and to the gate.  If you’ve got more than 2 hours to spare, i recommend going straight for the Mall as soon as you get off the plane.

After boarding the plane we were delayed an hour.  As we were on the tarmac, we had to turn around cause they forgot to load some “Priority Pets” on the plane.  We ended up waiting back at the gate to get the pets on the plane, then had to wait our turn to get back on to the tarmac and take off… we were delayed a whole hour!  Not cool, cause my connection in Amsterdam was only 2 hours.

Once we hit Amsterdam, i flew out the gate and headed to the terminal.  I had to ask where my connecting flight was cause none of the gates were listed on my boarding pass.

After walking for 15 minutes I reached customs, where i waited in line… less than 1 hour to get to my next gate…. i was beginning to worry.  I got up to the counter, and the guy looked at my passport, my boarding pass, and stamped my passport, and i went through to the next security checkpoint.  Take my laptop out, take my hoodie off, take my shoes off, take the liquids out, take my belt off (i didn’t even have to take my belt off in Winnipeg!)… go through…. get my shit packed up and put the belt back on.  I flew down the terminal cause i didn’t really know how far my terminal was.  I had less than 45 minutes to get to my gate.  And then once i saw where my gate was roughly i slowed down and snapped a few quick pics of the airport.

A wine and seafood bar inside the Amsterdam airport!

I got to my gate and sat down to rest.  I noticed a couple with Canadian Passports.  I talked to them briefly, they were from Toronto, both originally from Budapest and now lived in Toronto, that was cool.  We boarded the plane.

The skies were copmletely clear and i could see right down to the earth.  In many spots there were small towns where you could see buildings on the ground.  They were all along the way from Amsterdam to Budapest, i think i even flew over Prague at one point.

I arrived safely into Budapest and now had to cab it to the hotel i’d be staying at.

After checking in, i registered for the seminar i was to attend, and picked up my badge and portfolio.  Seems so posh!  Leather folio case with pad of paper and pen… y’know standard stuff.  I was the only one from my company, and didn’t know anyone else that was attending.  After registering i decided i’d hit up the area and check it out.

My hotel is right on the Danube river on the Pest side of the city.  Right across on the other side of the river you can see the Imperial residence.  It’s all very nice.  The architecture here is wonderful, and the view across the river is AWESOME!

As i was on my way to my room, i ran into a familiar face!  The guy i ran into i went to another course regarding the same topic back in one of my earlier trips to washington.  He is based out of Montreal so it was nice to see someone i knew!

He was planning to go out for a walk around the area, so i went and grabbed my jacket to tag along.

I got some dinner, no goulash yet, but i promise to get some before i leave.  And saw the area surrounding the hotel, all trendy shops, some never before seen, and some that can be found back home, H&M, Zara, Lush, Foot Locker, but there were a few local to the city.

Headed back to the hotel and i have an early start tomorrow.  7:30am.

For more photos of today, check the gallery.