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Published: August 18th 2009
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Swiss train arrives
(Zurich - Budapest) 16th August - Journey from Zurich via Vienna to Budapest
I was prepared for this journey, I knew it was a biggy but I had a big bag of food supplies, a big book to read and plenty of music on my iRiver. Everything was going to plan, I had a good window seat with no one in front of me so I could stretch my legs, a kindly old lady next to me, the mountains and lakes were going by with some stunning vistas... Then about 4 hours in to the trip I noticed smoke was drifting past the window and it seemed to be coming from somewhere on the train. After a few moments the train came to a standstill. We waited, the smoke continued. Then there was a long spiel in German on the tannoy, which ended with something like "don't get off the train". I'm glad I caught that bit because I was feeling a little restless what with all the smoke.
Unlike in England where people get very foul and stressed the Swiss people on the train seemed unworried so I followed suit. I read my book and thought that everything would be fine.
After about 40 minutes we set off and I was pretty impressed at how quickly they resolved the problem. I was expecting an evacuation and a 15 mile trek to the next station. However the problem persisted. From then on we kept making unscheduled stops.
By the time we got to Salzburg it was running 2 hours late, I had no idea if there would be any connectioning trains to Budapest left by the time we got to Vienna and started to imagine sleeping rough in Vienna station and other such unpleasant thoughts. I asked the ticket inspector if he could tell me whether there would be a connection and he said he'd let me know. After that he passed by a couple of times but always in a harried fashion, clearly not wanting to be stopped. So I resigned myself to just sitting it out and hoping for the best. I'd read the best part of my book and had eaten all my food supplies by the time we got in to the station. We'd left Zurich at 9.40 and arrived in Vienna at 20.45 - three and a half hours late. Luckily the Budapest train was waiting (it was held up for an hour) so I hopped on and a few minutes later we were off.
The people on the Budapest train seemed a little grumpy (I imagine because they'd had to wait for me and about 3 other people from the Zurich train!) so I found my own compartment and had the lights switched off. I felt too harassed to sleep so I played my ukulele for a good hour or so. Then finally I felt the need to lie down and I did and slept for the next hour or so. We arrived in Budapest at midnight, no buses or tubes were running so I got a taxi and was very happy and relieved to find Aniko's flat and a comfy bed waiting for me.
It was a long day and quite draining, all the more so as I knew that the next day I'd be starting my Hungarian course. Anyway it all turned out alright - the main thing was I made it to Budapest in one piece with all my luggage and in the end was only a couple hours off schedule as I hadn't had to wait for the connection (it waited for me). I think even without the delay it would have been quite hard going.
But before you start telling me to jump on an aeroplane next time I will just say that seeing smoke coming out of a train is far less harrowing than seeing smoke come out of an aeroplane. The train stopped, got fixed and carried on, but on a plane the situation would be fairly dire. So I'm sticking with trains, in spite of everything.
Cx
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Clarification
Clare
Hello Hilke, No worries - I really don't expect everyone to read every word I write as most of it's rubbish anyway! I hope you enjoy a quiet JTC office - it can be quite pleasant, but possibly quite dull! The course is going ok - I'll do a catch up blog in the next couple of days, but not a great deal going on. It's hot and sunny that's the main thing. C x