Budapest, Hungary

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Friday is travelling day, from the sleepy Slovak Tatras to the bustle of Budapest in Hungary. We start on the Tatras' private railway to Poprad. We then wait on a cold platform for the train which is to take us almost to the Slovak border. We know the train started 6 hours ago in Bratislava, so it is with some surprise that we see it rolling in bang on time. It is packed, so we have to stand in the corridor with our bags.

The final train to Budapest is empty when we board and we hope it is the right one. We watch Slovakia disappear and Hungary take its place but with no sign of a border, yet again. The sun slowly sets and the Tatra mountains finally disappear behind us. On we rumble into the night.

In Budapest, a taxi takes us through the city's evening bustle to another apartment. This one is old and the rooms are rather randomly connected, but we have 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen and a lounge and all for £15 /head /night. It is somehow reminiscent of a student flat, empty wine bottles under the sink and everywhere dimly lit. Did we mention it is on the third floor again and that again there is no lift? Still, it works off some of the calories eaten on the train.

Budapest is more interesting than we expected. There is a big river – the Danube complete with cruise boats; there is a big castle complex on the hill; everywhere there are statues and churches. And it is somehow friendlier than Prague, although less smart and less sophisticated On our first day we walk the city all day – old and new, high and low, baroque and art deco. On the second we take the cog railway into the Buda hills. It is Sunday and families walk, talk, eat and play together in the woods and on the grassy banks. The view of Budapest is huge.

All too soon it is time to go, and we are off to the station for a spell of people watching before we board the overnight train to Brasov in Romania. Time to change money, again. The exchange rates are testing our arithmetic – we are moving from the Hungarian forint (a generous 300 to the £) to our sixth currency, the Romanian leu (a poor 4.8 to the £). That means for every 71 forint left over we can get 1 leu!

The international train station is a busy place and we take time to make sure we are on the right overnighter – we would not want to wake up in Munich or Moscow! And the passports? As we lay in our bunks last night, there was much banging and shouting. A stern faced official is at the door – we are leaving Hungary and this is passport control. Some time later, when we had gone to bed, the whole process is repeated as we enter Romania. Proper international rail travel at last.

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