A trail ride in Budapest

Cairo American College is an excellent school, pays it's teachers very well, and has excellent benefits. The teachers who work there have years of experience. It's very hard to get a job there, unless you were like me and walked into a part time gig with no benefits. I was just out of college and didn't "fit in" with the CAC crowd. However, over in Heliopolis was the American International School. Didn't pay too well. Not so great benefits. And full of teachers my age, out to party, see the world, and have a good time.

They became my social group and I was able to tag along with some of them on a trip over Christmas break. We flew to Budapest, Hungary and stayed there a while. Then took a train through Slovakia to spend New Year's in Prague, Czech Republic. Everyone in my group except for me and Brian were kicked off the train in the middle of Slovakia because they were Canadian and didn't have the right stamp in their passport. Man that was a mess.

Anyhoo while in Budapest we all got to choose one thing we REALLY wanted to do. I, of course, wanted to find horses. I think the family we were renting the house from knew somebody who knew someone's uncle's cousin's brother, and a trail ride became possible. NONE of the people I was with rode so it just showed how good of sports they were when 3 of them agreed to come with me. They didn't know enough to be nervous about riding in english saddles.

I was the one with the camera, and it was hard getting shots through all the trees. Here are Kelly and Sandy. Almost all of the trail was winding through these woods. They were giggling the whole time, and not screaming but kind of making "oooo" panicky sounds when their horse would take a big step or something. And then Sandy's horse took a really big step, or tripped, and...



Here is a portrait of a good sport. It was cold and wet. Sandy was SOAKED to the skin in mud, and she just laughed it off. It probably didn't help that Kelly and Cheryl were laughing so hard they were crying. Never mind we were traveling and didn't have easy access to a washer and dryer, and she had to ride home in this guy's clean car.

Adventure, right?


Next country: Thailand.