05-IX-1999.: Off we go

The day we took off into the new life. I had the office lada for the whole week, after unsuccessfully trying to fit the new battery into dad's trabant. Woke up really early, had to, because of the schedule. Dad came by to say goodbye... the scene wasn't dramatic, but not easy either. So we locked up the house and gave him a set of keys.

The van driver came right on time, so the bags and girls got into it, and I took off with the Lada. We met again at the house of Pali, where I left the car. He and Brlja and Joja were already waiting there, them all being within a kilometer or two of his place, they probably walked or had their wives drive them.

There was a snag at the border. Sloba had introduced a fee to be paid when leaving the country - back in 1995, which was the reason we switched from weekends at home to alternate weekends. One of the reasons I took the office car was to get all this paperwork done in advance, so we wouldn't have to waste time at the border. And I assumed the team would do the same - i.e. pay it at home and just bring the receipt - but they didn't. So we wasted maybe 20 minutes on that - while the four of them (driver included) paid at the kiosk, one by one.

My hungarian wasn't that rusty. By the time we stopped for coffee at Hódmezővásárhely or Kiskunfélegyháza, I was back in shape. She was happy to let me lubricate my language and enjoyed the ride.

We hit Budapest around noon - however, it took us more than an hour to find the street where the hotel was. We parked somewhere on Lenin tér, near the place where the bus going there starts from, and tried to figure out the map. The street seemed to be everywhere - it's zigzagging up the hill, and crossing some streets twice, and the map wasn't detailed to track the street all the way. We started in the general direction of the hotel and after a few wrong turns saw the bus clearly marked as the right one. Just about 200m from the hotel, the bus stopped, and we passed it slowly, going uphill... and then just yelled at our driver to stop. We saw Greg leaving that bus with a big bag in one hand and a suit-carrying saddlebags on his other shoulder. So we took him in and drove him these 200m to the hotel.

We got into our rooms (two rooms - one for Greg and me, the other, bigger, one for the girls. Then we gathered downstairs, had a chat with the guys and then we all went to a nearby restaurant for a big lunch. Some cabbage gulás, not really a good one, but the beer was right. The subject of the discussion was the development of Zero Yugoslavia (and the driver got his share of the glory, being tentatively appointed the transportation manager thereof). Had huge plans at the time, and these included how would Avai benefit. And whatever we decided would pass, simply because Brlja and I owned 60% of it.

Then the guys left to do their shopping and then drive home, take the disks and books that Greg brought for them. And, I guess, some cash.

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Mentions: Avai, Goran Staković (Brlja), Greg Reubenthal, lada, Pali Bodor, trabant, Voja (Joja), Zero Distance (Zero), in serbian