May 2, 2010
Adventure #14
It wasn’t until a pair of thimble-sized bumblebees started buzzing around me that I really started to get nervous. If I swatted or tried to scoot away from them, I was certain to fatally plummet to the stumpy ground of the Buda Hills.
After a lovely hike to Budapest’s highest lookout point, my parents and I decided to ride the city’s slow, scenic chairlift back to lower ground. My parents got on the lift first, and I rode solo behind them. Unlike many ski lifts in the states, the safety bar did not automatically come down to rest over my lap and no ski bum pulled it down for me either. Hence, it wasn’t until I was off the boarding platform that I realized I was on the ride without my seat belt securely fastened.
Being of the height-challenged variety, my arms couldn’t reach the bar and pull it over me without some major stretching in my seat, so I just sat still and held on tightly to the arm handle as we rode fifty feet above ground. Up ahead of me, my parents were suffering from the same lack of safeguards, and my mom spent the whole cruise in a white-knuckled state.
Fortunately, when the bees arrived in the middle of the 12-minute journey, I was able to sit without fidgeting as they conducted a thorough physical and rested on my pant legs. Once we were back on solid ground and I rid myself of my yellow and black companions, my mom said she’d finally take me up on the suggestion I’d been offering all week - drinking a shot of palinka.
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