2025 - Europe, East to North West: Day 2: Thu 19 Jun - Dubai to Budapest, flight time: 5h50

Thursday, June 19, 2025

Day 2: Thu 19 Jun - Dubai to Budapest, flight time: 5h50

32(DXB) - 30(BUD) deg C

Walk: 11km; total:17km

We landed in Dubai on time but had to wait for gate initiation (or something) to happen. We were watching via the planes’s external cameras and were waiting for the person to arrive with the glow stick wands to wave us in. Instead, the line the pilots follow to the gate lit up, and off we went.

We knew our next flight departed from a C gate so made our way there via a short walk and a long bus ride. We found the nearest Emirates lounge and parked up waiting for our gate number. At the time of writing, still no number. We only hope it won’t change to an A gate.

The first thing we consumed in the lounge was a jolly good coffee. We then had another light breakfast

Emirates' lounge near gate C9

Our view

Google Maps shot of DXB International Airport

We boarded the plane to Budapest on time, took off pretty much on time, hence arrived a few minutes early. Both immigration and customs were a breeze, and it wasn’t long before we had our luggage and were in a taxi on the way to our hotel for the next seven nights - Hotel Orion, an old building in the Buda (western side of the Danube) part of Budapest. We are in room 43 that overlooks a narrow street.

After unpacking our worldly belongings we googled a few places of interest, then set off to find those places. We got a tad geographically embarrassed but only because we were too busy admiring the old buildings and not paying attention to Google Maps. We stopped at Lidl on the way home for our favourite chicken salad dishes. 6km later we were back at the hotel with very weary legs and feet.

After consuming our salads, we washed some clothes, ourselves and teeth and were in bed not long after. It wasn’t even dark yet!

Captions to follow when brain is functioning again.