Have you ever felt that your life is a stuck record? No? Well neither have I really, but you must admit that one does sometimes experience a good old déjà vu moment.

So I am back in Europe to participate in another GBI event. I won’t go I to the detail again – you can get it at GBI 2012. But that is not the rerun. Again this time Edvard Munch made his presence felt. Remember I was last seen proudly wearing that I ❤️ T3 cap – living in the Terminal 3 moment? Well my bike wasn’t. When I arrived at Budapest International I received an email from British Airways which casually announced that “one of your checked baggage did not travel with you today”. Of course – it was my bike. That errant machine clearly managed yet again to give the dedicated baggage herders at Heathrow the slipand was hiding out out in the baggage retrieval system – somewhere between terminal 5 and terminal 3 – playing pranks and generally wreaking havoc. So much so, it persuaded about 13 other items to join it’s cause and give their owners a coronary.

Fourteen of us crowded around the lost luggage desk demanding answers. We got them. In Hungarian. Which didn’t help.

Resigned to our fate and hoping against hope that the mischievous items of checked baggage would be spotted, chased down, corralled and without further delay dispatched to Budapest we went our separate ways. I was fortunately not too stressed having been on Edvard’s couch before – which you may have read about at the time, or followed the link above now.

It all worked out and here were are in Komárom having cycled from Budapest – 117km through the Hungarian countryside. It took us about 12km to drop (cyclist speak for riding away from someone) our team leader which left six together 4h30 later at the end.

Albert in Hungary

The outskirts of Komárom

Our leader, Thorsten, at the finish. Not a good look.

And here were are at the Hotel Forras, watered and fed and looking for a bed. All that was standing between us and bed was a few beers. It’s a small place and the receptionist was also the barman (bargirl??) and it seems, all other roles. She seemed to enjoy the hustle and bustle of a busy night with all of us in residence. And she very sweetly thanked us for our come. We knew what she meant.