I’ve wanted to ride a Segway for a long time. I mean, for a long time I’ve wanted to ride a Segway. Since I hadn’t done it, I had no idea if I’d want to ride one for a long time.
We got our chance when I happened on a pop-up advertising things to do in Budapest. Mind you, there are a lot of things to do in Budapest, so it had to have been a stroke of cosmic luck or divine guidance that this particular one caught my eye.
We had choices. Length of time, areas covered, time of day, private tour vs group tour, etc. The first decision was easy: a private tour requires a minimum of 4 people and costs significantly more. The second decision was harder, but I decided on a 2.5-hour tour. It was a gamble, not knowing how hard it would be to stand on a Segway for that amount of time, but nothing ventured nothing gained.
We showed up promptly at 2:00 to a nearly empty room. “Nearly empty” can mean a lot of things, but in this case it meant that no one else had registered for the tour, so Nora and I were going to get a private tour, just the two of us, but the group rate. We started smiling and never stopped.
We signed the required paperwork, lying through our teeth about our travel insurance and a few other things we didn’t read. Nothing was going to stop us now except maybe lampposts and curbs.
For some reason they thought it wise to give us some instruction on an empty street. Stand just so, lean just so to go forward, or the reverse to go backward. Don’t try to treat the handlebars like a bicycle—they don’t turn. They lean left to go left and right to go right. Someone was really thinking when they made that decision.
We practiced down the block and back, first Nora and then me. Then without further ado off we went, leaning ourselves and our joystick as if we’d been doing it all of 5 minutes. Argen, our guide, said it would feel natural very quickly. Not as quickly as we encountered our first lampposts and curbs, of course but we managed our way around them.
In spite of my careful planning and constant looks at the weather forecast before I booked the tour, it started sprinkling at our first stop. Argen didn’t give the slightest hint that anyone should be concerned about this, so on we went and indeed the sprinkles stopped before we did.
We only saw a few new things, since we’ve already been exploring the city for over two weeks. But Argen was a super guide, nice as could be and equally informative. He speaks five languages (the sixth is on the way) and is from Kyrgyzstan, which of course we had to look up later, both to know how to spell it and to know how to find it. He told us some things we didn’t already know and mostly he was a joy to have as our first Segway instructor. Following him kept us out of trouble in terms of routes and traffic.
Even without the sprinkles, the air was raw and skies gray. Even dressed in all the warm clothes we had, the cold snuck in. Perfect for an unexpected stop. We were up by St Mattias church. When Argen heard that we had already been there, he suggested an alternative: Turn right over there, go down that street a bit and look for a little green building. It’s the oldest bakery in Budapest and was frequented by Queen Elizabeth. Not that Queen Elizabeth, but the beloved queen of Hungary in the 1800’s. Beloved because she learned Hungarian, spoke to the people in Hungarian, and said her last words in Hungarian. A bridge and other things are named after her.
Well. That little hint was exactly the kind of hint we love. The bakery is as charming as it is tiny. We picked out a strudel apiece, one cherry and one apple. Nora also got a hot chocolate but I didn’t want to ride a Segway with a full bladder and in Budapest, you have no idea when you might encounter a restroom.
At the end, Argen asked us to recommend them to any friends who might visit one of the 8 countries where they offer Segway tours. I’m recommending them, and if you are in Budapest, I recommend him. Ask us for a picture of the business card he gave us and you will get a 10% discount. I wished we had friends who would have done that for us, but I’m over it.
Euro Segway. You can do it. He told us his oldest clients were a couple: the husband was 90 and the wife 89. He said he was a little worried because the wife had ridden bicycles a lot and kept trying to turn the handlebars. I thought, “What a great way to go at 89, riding a Segway in Budapest!” I didn’t think it was quite as good a way to go at 72 or I would have gone a little faster.
