Temple Trip

We had quite the adventure getting to the Temple in Freiberg, Germany from Tatabánya, Hungary.

We left Feri's house at 5:30am on Monday to drive up to the temple in Freiberg.  He said he would get there at about 4pm.  We learned on this trip that Hungarians have a very different perspective when it comes to travel than we do as Americans.  The trip was a little bit over 400 miles (about 700 km) and according to Google maps, you can get there in about six and a half hours.  Obviously, Google maps was created by Americans, because we look at that and say "Okay, everybody.  Six and a half hours.  We can do that without any bathroom breaks and we hope we don't even have to stop for gas.  If we stop for gas then you can go to the bathroom."  

 

Us, roaring and ready to go between 5:30 and 6:00am

Hungarians definitely don't take that approach.  We had already stopped for bathroom breaks twice by the time we got to Brno (about 300 km in).  And a bathroom break doesn't mean that you run to the bathroom as fast as you can, go, and then hurry back into the car.  It means we all get out and walk for a while, then the women get out all the food that they packed for the road and everyone eats a sandwich or two.  (It doesn't matter that we stopped to eat sandwiches for breakfast an hour and a half ago.)  There were multiple times on the trip where Sarah and I hurried back to the van after going to the bathroom and buckled our seat-belts only to have them ask "What are you guys doing?  We've got to eat first."

With that being said, it would have taken us long enough to get there without any problems.  But what's an adventure to the temple without any transportation problems?

Last April, when I went back to be Feri's escort in the Temple, we took a train from Tatabánya to Freiberg, which took from 7:00am until 7:30pm to get there.  The train didn't have air conditioning and you couldn't open the windows.  Needless to say, it was a pretty miserable traveling experience.  After what happened this year, Feri's daughter Anna told me that she's not sure she wants to come next time, because she's sure there's going to be some sort of problem with getting there.  (She's the one on the front right in the picture.)

What transportation problem did we encounter this year?  Well, there's quite a story behind that question, so allow me to share.

As we were driving through the city of Velké Meziříčí (almost halfway if you look at the map) on the freeway, a belt flew out of the motor of the other van.  They pulled over and we followed suit.  The three other men walked back along the freeway and they actually found the belt, but more damage had been done that they anticipated.  Lali (top middle of the picture), who was driving, didn't know the belt had flown off, and he had tried to continue driving, which ended up grinding something that isn't meant to be ground.

Fortunately for us, there was a mechanic within a couple hundred yards whose shop was near the freeway.  Unfortunately, none of us speak Czech and only one girl at the mechanic spoke any English.  I'm sure the translation was great as it went from the Hungarians to me to this girl to the mechanics.  She told us that they would tow the van to their shop for free then take a look at it for us.  She said that someone needed to go with the mechanic so he could see where on the freeway the van was, so Sarah and I got volunteered.

So we hopped into a car that I would describe as somewhere between a Smart Car and a Prius, and we had no idea what we were in for.  I guess we both thought that since the shop was so close to the freeway, that it would be real easy to get on and tow the car.  My, did we think wrong.  This guy was racing through the streets, whipping around corners at probably close to 40 mph, while Sarah and I were holding our breath (plus I was holding back laughter because I thought the whole thing was hilarious - here we are on the other side of the world, with a guy that we can't communicate with in any way besides charades and he's just zooming through this city.)  At one point, he almost hit an old lady that was crossing the street.  Lucky for her, he's a pro as swerving and doing it fast, so he missed her.

Eventually, we make it to the van on the freeway.  Then the thought returns to my mind that came to it when we got in the car with this guy: Is this guy really going to tow a van with that thing?!?  The guy opened the truck, pulled out a rope and tied the van to the hitch on his car.  I guess he is...

Sarah and I hopped into the other van (I was one of the drivers for this trip because most Hungarians don't have licenses) and I was supposed to follow this guy back to the mechanic shop.  You would think that towing a van behind his little car would slow him down.  Nope.  I was having a hard time keeping up with them, and I wasn't towing anything.  There was even a point when Lali, who was steering the van being towed, put on his breaks because he didn't feel safe.  The result?  The little car popped a wheelie.  

After towing the van up and down a couple hills and winding through more roads, we finally arrived at the mechanic.

If you don't believe me, here is the proof.

The mechanics took a look at it there and told them it would be at least 500 euros (~$700) and they didn't know if they could have it done by Saturday when we were coming back.  That was a little too steep for Lali (it is his van), as the average monthly salary of a Hungarian is about $600.  He and his wife Livia (right in front of him in the picture, face kind of covered by her son, Márk) went to go see if they could rent a car.  Similarly, it was about 500 euros for the week to rent a car, which was more than they could afford.

Everyone looked to Feri, the "Godfather of Tatabánya" as the mission president had put it when we met with him our first day in Hungary.  He said that Lali, Livia and their kids (Márk, Lila and Lóra), Anna, Róz (Feri's wife, to the right of Sarah), Sarah and I would drive up to Freiberg while the rest of them stayed there in Velké Meziříčí.  Then Lali, Sarah and I would come back to pick up the rest of them.

This was about 2:30pm and the GPS was predicting that we would arrive at the temple at 6:30pm, so we had four hours to go.  I think everyone understood without saying that there would be no more bathroom and meal breaks.  As we crossed the border into Germany, we had the idea to see if we could find a shortcut to Freiberg, rather than going through Dresden.  (You can kind of see on the map that you have to loop around at the end.)  We saw that there were smaller roads that looked like more of a direct path on the map, so we decided we would go that way.  I remembered when I had driven to the Freiberg Temple with my parents and Gitta Néni back in 2008 and we had a similar idea, only to get lost and lose more time that it would have taken to go through Dresden on the freeway.

Despite what I remembered, I told myself that this time it would be different.  This time we wouldn't get lost and we would make up for lost time, especially because we still needed to get back to Velké Meziříčí to pick up the rest of our group.  I should have paid more attention to my memory.  We got off the freeway and within five minutes we felt like we had taken a wrong turn.  So when I saw a guy in a field, I pulled over and decided to ask him how to get to Freiberg.  It would be one thing if I spoke German, but I don't.  The guy just keep talking and talking and then pointing one way.  I could smell alcohol on his breath, so I just hoped that he was pointing us in the right direction.  

We headed the way he pointed and eventually the GPS seemed to agree with us (rather than saying "recalculating" anytime I took a turn).  Then came a point where it said to turn left, but I turned too soon.  As we went along that road, I decided we should probably stop to ask for directions again.  Then we saw some police officers and I thought great, these guys can probably help us.  They proceeded to pull us over, which in Europe means that they point to the side of the road and you pull over.  They asked for my license, mine and Sarah's passports and ID cards from everyone in the van.  We handed them over, he went back to the cop car with a couple other cops where they were for a few minutes, probably putting our information into a computer or something.  Then he told me where we needed to go in order to get to Freiberg.

We enjoyed the "scenic route" to Freiberg along the country roads and enjoyed incredible views of the German countryside, but the price of the scenic route was one hour, as we arrived at 7:30pm instead of at 6:30pm like we would have, had we followed the GPS.  Lesson learned?  I hope so, but I think that's what my parents and I said when we took the "scenic route" back in 2008.  I guess we'll only know if we drive to Freiberg again and see if I take the quicker route that loops around on the freeway rather than the back country roads.

We unloaded everything there at the temple.  Lali and Livia checked into the temple housing with their kids as well as Róz.  Anna and Zsofi were staying in a little hotel like place on the street next to the temple because Anna isn't a member and Zsofi wasn't a member when they made the reservation.  (She got baptized since then as her dad gave his permission.  Her mom, Edina is a member, and was the one taking the picture in the morning.)  We helped Anna check in since Zsofi was coming later and we also checked into the place we were staying.  (We stayed in this lady's house, as the temple housing was full and she rents out her upstairs, often to temple visitors when the temple housing is full.)

By the time we were on the road again with Lali, it was 8:30pm.  We put some gas in the van (we only filled it about halfway and it cost $120) and then Sarah and I dozed in and out as Lali drove to Velké Meziříčí (we were mostly awake because it was hard to sleep in the van).  We made it to Velké Meziříčí at about 12:30am and this is how we found the rest of the group:

They had walked around the city during the afternoon, finding a park and river that they played in for a while.  Then when it got dark, they went to the grocery store that they told us to pick them up at.  Once the sun went down, it got pretty cold so the pulled a bunch of cardboard boxes out of the grocery store dumpster and laid them down on the grass, so they wouldn't get wet from the dew.  They also found a big piece of butcher paper, which they used as a blanket.  We all had a good laugh together, then hopped in the van and took off back to Freiberg.

I'm sure you wouldn't guess it, but we got pulled over at like 4am in Germany and had to go through the whole ID cards and passports thing again.  (We didn't get pulled over to get a ticket or anything like that, just an ID check.  Our only guess is that they were looking for someone in the area or because we had Hungarian license plates.)

By the time we got back to the temple it was 5am.  Sarah and I had both been asked to be escorts for members going through for the first time and we needed to be there at 7:30am for that.  We were both starving, so we went back to this lady's house, showered, put on our church clothes then walked until we found an ATM and a grocery store, bought breakfast and then went back to the temple.  And I thought the twelve and a half hour trip last year was bad.  When all was said and done, this year's trip was twenty-four hours.

Who knows how long the next trip to the temple will take...