Today was a long one…we had a 6:25 flight to Budapest from Dusseldorf on Eurowings. We returned the rental car which went smoothly, then printed our bag tags and checked in for our flight. The one snag was that we were only allowed to take one racquet on the plane. I had put one of my three racquets into my suitcase already, and had room for a second…Vicki also had room and weight for two racquets, but it took a while to put them in the bags.
After that small snafu, we went through security (which resembled pre-check in the USA…shoes stayed on (but not jackets), and liquids (100 ml max) and electronics stayed in the bags. Then we were scanned and through with an hour to spare. We were able to use the Lufthansa lounge and have breakfast, and Vicki could get ice, without which she cannot survive (more about that later)!
I had arranged a pickup at the airport and that went ok, except the driver was told he’d have one passenger and one small bag (not what my reservation receipt said for what it’s worth), and grumbled but took us to the apartment. We managed to get into it ok (there were some stairs but not many), but had a hard time leaving, as the key would get stuck in the lock and it was hard to remove it. A nearby worker helped us and now we can exit if not easily. Other than that the apartment is great, with AC, a washing machine and plenty of space.
We walked midday to the courts…though only 500-700 meters away, it’s straight up, lots and lots of steps. We made it up there though and the club is large and impressive. Ironically, after so many steps up, registration was two or three flights down. There was chaos at the courts around noon because after registration opened, players were allowed to play three events, but the tournament changed that to only two events so many players lost doubles or mixed partners. This tournament is an ITF Masters 1000 and is the European Regional Championships.
Vicki and I registered and then had a sandwich for lunch. We talked to Danny Shaw, an American who grew up in California but now lives in Vienna, Austria. Louisa Gouveia, one of my German Club teammates also dropped by to say hi, just as I had messaged her. I also saw Jurate Hardy and met the top seed in Vicki’s division, from Russia I think.
.After lunch we walked back to the apartment, Vicki slept and I did some exercises. Around 4pm we took a Bolt Taxi (Danny strongly recommended Bolt and it was a good idea, reasonably priced and Vicki is now an expert at it) back to the club. We picked up our player gifts (a nice towel and a small water bottle), then ran into Nicole and Marie from France who were just heading out for practice. We were able to join them going to the club..the timing was perfect.
At the Szepvolgyi Tennis Center club there were three practice courts…so Marie and Nicole from France (W75) and Vicki and I were able to get in an hour’s practice. After practice, Vicki booked a Bolt Taxi, and while we waited asked for ice for her water bottle…and was given ice frozen into a bag consisting of partitions which make cubes, but to liberate the cubes one has to peel off the blue plastic…she really likes ice and the woman at the club was very nice to provide it!
During the day we visited four small food stores in the area. Vicki was looking for peanut butter (a rarity in Budapest apparently…so far no sightings), turkey or chicken lunch meat (you can have any kind of lunch meat as long as it’s made from a pig…though again we were not in a super market, only a local small store); even the tinned meats were mostly pork though I did find tuna. It’s strawberry season here though and we’ve passed several stalls while in a taxi, they look amazing, so I’ll try and find some Tuesday. The fourth store had very good dark chocolate though :-).
Vicki plays Tuesday at 12:30, but I don’t play probably till Wednesday, I’m in a round robin group of three; the other round robin group is of four players so I’ll scout those matches after our early morning practice, then continue the peanut butter search while Vicki plays her match at a club quite a ways away situated near the Danube River.