Moving abroad to Budapest, Hungary is a huge undertaking. So many people, places and things to organize and get ready before we board our plane. Here is what we are doing in our final week in Canada.
Prepare an Important Document Folder
Perhaps obviously, you need to take important paper work with you to your new home. We are taking essential paperwork in our carry-on luggage. That means our passports, International Driver’s Licenses, my Hungarian Residency Card, our Hungarian Marriage Certificate and our credit/debit cards.
In additional to these hard copy documents, I have scanned and uploaded all of the above along with MANY others to a secure cloud-based server that both my husband and I have access to. You can use something like LassPast or even Dropbox, but I do recommend you scan important documents and keep copies somewhere in case of physical loss.
International Shipment Pick up
As mentioned in this post, we are using Move One to send our goods via sea shipping container to Budapest. Brytor is the company they partner with here in Toronto, so it was with them we met with to pack and load our goods directly from our storage locker. Unfortunately, this happened during a sunny but unexpectedly cold day. It was -10 degrees celsius and absolutely frigid during packing. However, this made for fast work and our things are now safe and secure for international transit.
Brytor picking up our belongs from our storage locker
Our worldly goods neatly stacked up and ready to be packed and loaded into a shipping container
Government Services
In this final week, we visited our local “Service Ontario” office to let them know we are leaving the country and that we need to suspend our OHIP health care services. We informed them of our intent to take a two-year absence from our services. A quick and easy process (if you don’t count the long wait time in line).
Doctor’s Appointments
Andrew and I, along with our dog, all have our final doctor’s visit during this time. For the humans, we are topping up on some prescription medication that may be harder to get in Hungary (that fact is, we don’t really know but we are hedging our bets). For our dog, Lucy, this vet visit is essential for her being allowed into the European Union. You can read all about that process here.
Sell Remaining Goods
Unbelievably, we STILL have stuff left to sell. By now, my husband and I are getting REALLY sick of Kijiji. I mean, its been fabulous, we’ve sold tons of goods over the last few months, but the amount of people that respond to ads simply to express their dislike of the item/price/colour/whatever is truly bizarre and a huge time waster. Luckily, we were able to sell most items quickly and easily. Our cars are both sold now, so its just some miscellaneous electronics left. The items we don’t sell will be donated or given to my sister to sell in our absence. Thanks sis!
Pack our Bags
We are moving with seven suitcases. Yes, you read that right. Seven. For those of you that know us well, you know that Andrew and I only ever take carry-on luggage when travelling. No matter how far – or for how long. So taking seven suitcases on a plane is completely contrary to our normal travel style.
Lucy sitting our suitcase “helping” me pack
We have three large suitcases and two medium suitcases that we will be checking in. We also have two carry-on suitcases we are taking on board the plane with us. These have our important documents, computers, cameras, medications, jewelry, etc.
While this many suitcases isn’t normal for us, it was considerably less expensive to come with us on the plane that add to our overseas shipment. These bags contain everything we need to live and work for 8 winter weeks until our shipment arrives.
Saying Goodbye
By now, we have said good bye to the majority of our friends and family. We had lunch with my husband’s brother and his wife yesterday and we will have a final dinner with the rest of our family on Saturday. I predict the definite need for Kleenex.
However, unlike when my husband moved from England in 1988… Social media, FaceTime, Skype, YouTube and more will help us stay connected each and every day.
Viszlát!
