LONDON — A Jersey-based politician had a pretty embarrassing mix-up on Saturday after he got his countries confused.

See also: Someone really needs to have a quiet word with George Osborne about his tweets

Assistant Minister for Sport, Steve Pallett, was supposed to be heading to the Dance World Cup in Bucharest, Romania, but ended up more than 800 kilometers away after accidentally flying to Budapest, Hungary, causing him to miss the speech he was meant to be giving.

The flight booking was made by someone within the Education, Sport and Culture department, according to the BBC, and Pallett wasn't aware he was going to the wrong capital city until it was all too late.

"I'd like to think it's an easy mistake to make by somebody originally when this was booked," he told the Today Programme. "But you're right, it should never have happened. I don't think anyone could say Bucharest sounds like Budapest."

To make matters worse, Pallett didn't even get to make the most of his unexpected time in Hungary's capital.

"I did not have a good day in Budapest," he said. "I spent the whole day in the airport trying to rebook the ticket back. Fortunately there was a flight back that day, so at least I got one day of the weekend back. But that doesn't make up for the loss of either, I think, the cost or letting down the Dance World Cup."

He added: "Maybe I should be assistant minister for geography next time, rather than assistant minister for sport."

To be fair, the two cities do sound pretty similar. According to this consoling tweeter, there's even been a jokey campaign in the past to help iron out confusion.