This trip begins with a SunPark shuttle bus driver grabbing his radio while carrying a full load of passengers on I-95 to Philadelphia Airport, and calling, "306, I've got an emergency, my bus is on fire!"

Actually, it begins several months before that. We were having some work done by a lab in Budapest, Hungary. That story is long, but in brief, I had absolutely no idea what we were dealing with over there. I had this image of a land of short men in fur hats and mittens, up to their waists in mud (think "Elbonia"), and a lab run by a woman in head-scarf and apron who was always chasing chickens and pigs out of the workspace. I talked it over with my boss Dick, and he agreed that it would be of benefit to the company for me to visit and audit the lab's facilities.

And, of course, to take the company camera.

I was a little worried, though, since my knowledge of the Magyar tongue is utterly zero, and even though people glibly say, "Oh, everyone speaks English over there!" I usually find the people who do not, or who eagerly try to speak "Hunglish" to me. It would be nice, I thought, to have a companion who could guide me through the city and show me the cool things. Also, it's nice to have someone to hang out with. But I did not know anyone who lived in Hungary. I asked the folks at Eurofurence, and they said that they had never even seen a Hungarian, and doubted even that they really existed. It seemed very sad to me that there would not be any sort of Furry community (which would mean there were people there with common interests to mine) in the whole country. Then, on a whim, I decided to see if "www.furry.hu" existed.

Much to my delight, I was directed immediately to FURRY.HU.

I made the aquaintance via email of Ralesk, who as it turned out planned to go to Eurofurence this year and shock the Germans with proof that Hungarians are not mythical after all. We chatted back and forth, and then met at Eurofurence. He turned out to be a capital fellow, and agreed to show me around Budapest, where he lives, and where I was going.

All was set, then! I found some decent tickets, but sadly they were on Lufthansa, which is an airline I have developed an intense dislike for. They aren't nice, not at all. Besides, I could not use any of my US Airways miles to upgrade to first class, so I was stuck in the back with the rabble. Next time, I'm definitely taking US Airways...if they are still around. Since this was a business trip, I had my scariest black suit laundered, got a fresh haircut, and headed for Philly Airport.

The passengers in the shuttle all just sort of looked at each other when the driver made his radio call. "Did he just say what I thought he said?" asked the man next to me. I leaned forward and peered over the driver's shoulder. Sure enough, there was a big cloud coming from under his hood. I explained to him, though, that this cloud, being white, was not likely to be caused by combustion, and that the temperature gauge on his dashboard pegged at "H" probably meant something. Another shuttle was dispatched, and after the usual airport check-in hassles, I headed for the US Airways Club, and the trip began in earnest.

A note about the pictures: All are in JPG format, and all are 600x800. They are meant to be viewed on a monitor that is set at 1024x768 resolution or better. If you do not know how to do that, right-click on your desktop, click [properties], then [settings], and look at "Screen area." It might also be helpful to close some of the menus at the top of the browser screen (Netscape and I.E.) so that the full picture is shown, without the need to scroll to see all of it.