Our flight to Spain
It was quite stressful packing everything as you can read here but we made it and a few days ago we arrived in Spain, finally! We flew from Budapest to Malaga and we were not really looking forward to the security process at Budapest airport thanks to previous experiences. None of our previous departures at Budapest airport have been smooth, the security process has been a pain every single time and the officers working there were super rude and caused stress which is not preferred traveling with a young child.
This time we had quite a few electronic devices with us as well as a ton of IT cables that my boyfriend uses for work as well as things we just could not throw away because they add up to the costs when buying them new. Of course, we made sure that a lot of these items were shipped with the 2 boxes we send over by courier service but as we had to carry "the office setting" with us completely this also meant having some spare cables with us etc. I can now say that it has already proven to be useful by the time I sat down to write this post.
Bag drop & security
The bag drop was a bit confusing as I thought that we had to stand in line first, and then I decided to think that we could do the quick drop-off part as we were already checked in online, but I was confusing the wizzair desks, lol. So we had to go back in line after all. Even though we had some suitcases overweight, we had one less than I paid for to check-in so eventually, it was all good and the guy that checked in our luggage didn't even mention it. So far so good!
Off to security
This is the part that we were looking up to most, especially my boyfriend because he had a full backpack with all our electronic devices as well as cables and related items. It was super heavy and all packed in bags carefully so he had some sort of order in the full backpack. I booked the family tariff meaning we didn't have to stand in line at security (even though they once told us everyone with small children can go there, these tickets were the best value for us when booking) but when we walked to the security part, we forgot about the fast lane part and went straight into the long lanes of regular security. Halfway there I was like, shit, I screwed us overpaying for a service we didn't use, dumbass! Meanwhile, we didn't even have to stand in line so why even worry about it, right?
We were pointed in a direction to drop our stuff, which was actually the most friendly way of pointing us in any direction at the airport here, usually, you are summoned with a super rude comment to emphasize you should hurry the f up. So far, I was impressed by the smoothness of the whole process because looking at how fast these queues were vanishing and moving on, we'd be out of security in a heartbeat. And so we were, we were only asked to remove the liquids from our bags, and place all items in the grey boxes as well as me having to take out my shoes (always the case). Our daughter was being approached friendly for a change and not treated rudely making her upset. Before we knew it we landed at the final part of the security process and my boyfriend's bag needed to be opened so they could check a few things, scan them, and off we went. No need to unload the full bag (thankfully!) so his stress about this process was totally unnecessary.
GREAT! If this sets the tone for the rest of the trip, we're good!
Waiting for boarding
Before we went to the boarding area we had some time to sit and eat something as the breakfast was not too impressive so my boyfriend ate a salad at the airport and my daughter and I had a slice of banana bread, which was so good btw! I forgot to take pictures lol, which is so not me, probably I was hyped about the smoothest process through security ever. Anyway, we sat down for a while and walked to the gates for boarding which was opening when we arrived. We didn't have to wear a mask yet, thankfully as I was so not looking forward to that part!
A random Ryanair plane, not ours, as it turned out later, haha. Ours arrived needing some medics as we saw an ambulance attached to the plane just 20 minutes before departure. I assumed we would have a delay because of it but none of it was true, everything went super smooth and right on time. We all walked in with masks on but the flight attendant explained we didn't have to but we had to wear them upon arrival because in Spain it was mandatory.
Ready for take-off
Upon departure it was explained we'd land 10 minutes later as the wind was quite bad apparently, ok so here's where our luck is turning I thought. Although it was a bit rocky when taking off, it was nothing bad, and then waiting until we were in Spain started. I never like flying, I actually hate it after an hour but it is what it is, so deal with it. I was a bit afraid about my back injury acting up but the extra night in a hotel before departure seemed to have done the trick for me to be able to relax enough as well as taking one painkiller before departure. It started to hurt in the last hour only and it was not too bad. The thing I did not like was the lack of oxygen at some point and people standing next to us constantly because they wanted to stretch their legs, the temperature was rising by the minute so it seemed.
Bye-bye Hungary!
View from the plane.
Please stay seated
I thought we were about to land but nothing was less true, it was because of the wind, and I had some moments where I was like 'DJEEZ' that was a big windfall lol. Thankfully, the pilot maneuvered us through perfectly and we had a smooth landing as well as one right in time! This was it, we were here! YES! We were super excited and happy to get off the plane.
We expected a lot of hassle due to Covid restrictions
I was unsure if I had to wear the mask so I just put it on, we walked inside and they were checking everyone with body cams for their temperature, the first thing I heard was the lady say: el sombrero, and I knew she meant my boyfriend. He was summoned to take off his hat and he instantly got a thermometer pointed at his forehead, I saw he didn't like it and I hoped it would not cause a scene lol. I heard him say "come on dude" so I was a bit afraid for a second that this guy would respond to it somehow, but we could just continue and pick up our bags. It almost felt like our Covid tests were 100 euros thrown in the bin, but probably because of the digital processing of the QR codes by the Spanish health department, we would have never walked through if we didn't have these codes created. So it wasn't worth the risk.
Bienvenidos a Málaga!
Hello Spain, we missed you! And we are so happy to be back, where we started a very exciting journey some years ago upon arrival in Spain, we are now going to start an even bigger one. I will continue to document this journey.
Previous parts of The Expat Diaries
- Our final day in Budapest
- The final countdown - It will never fit!
- The sound of an almost empty home
- Narrowing down our life to 5 suitcases
- When the universe aligns everything perfectly
- Catching up and saying goodbyes
- We're closing the kindergarten chapter sooner than expected
- Finding a place to live in Spain
- The countdown is real - The last times in Budapest
- Our life in 6 suitcases - sorting, selling & giving away our belongings
- Moving back to Spain very soon!
Credits
- All images used are my own.
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