Leaving Town

After the Awards Ceremony we packed everything up and drove from Debrecen to Budapest. We checked into the Airport Hotel Budapest, then piled about 20 Americans into 4 vehicles and drove back to Iguana for another round of Mexican food. We then walked around Budapest a bit, which allowed us to see St. Stephen's Basilica at night. Johnny, Mark, Andrew, and several others will fly out tomorrow morning. Of course Johnny has one more carry-on bag, which I wouldn't be surprised if he bought a seat for on the flight home.  Erica, Paul, Bonnie, Bruce and I will finish packing the balloon, drop it off at air freight, then turn in the vehicles at the Ford office. We'll have about half a day in Budapest to be tourists, then return to the Airport Hotel tomorrow night before our 7:00am departure on Tuesday.

The Airport Hotel is a little more "westernized" than where we stayed in Debrecen. The beds are a bit softer and we get a few more TV channels in English. It also has a really neat feature that I've only seen once before, in Japan. When you walk in the room you need to insert you card key to "activate" the lights, TV, furnace/AC etc. If you remove your key, everything shuts off. It's a pretty smart thing because you can't leave anything on when you exit the room, thereby saving energy (and $$$).

From the Awards Ceremony

      

Victory

John Petrehn (USA) has won the 19th FAI World Hot Air Balloon Championship. It's his second such crown in 3 years, having won in 2006 as well. Nick Donner (USA) finished second after leading the event most of the week. Stefan Zeberli of Switzerland finished third. Among other Americans, Joe Heartsill was 12th and Paul Petrehn was 19th.

The awards start at noon local time. I'll be taking lots of photos, but because we're driving to Budapest afterward I won't be able to post them right away. If our hotel for the next two nights has Internet access I'll get them uploaded this evening. Once in Budapest we need to drop the balloon off at air cargo, then return the vehicles to Ford.

Larry left Debrecen yesterday afternoon for an early flight this morning. He's actually going straight to Las Vegas for a work-related event. Tomorrow Andrew flies out, then Erica, Paul, Bonnie, Bruce and I follow on Tuesday morning.