Day 9: Arrival at Prague (Apr 2017)

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Friday, 21st April 2017

We started our day with a 7-hour railway journey to the city of Prague, about 525km from Budapest. The journey started well and there were helpful porters who showed us to our seats. Halfway into our journey, we understood why. Apparently, the train car and seats we had reserved on the Hungarian Railways were simply non-existent. Soon after our lunch, we had to give up our seats to another passenger who apparently had bought valid tickets on the seats that we occupied. We learnt that this happened to a few other passengers as well including the 2 Korean ladies we met on-board. Towards the last hour of our journey into Prague, we managed to occupy some empty seats vacated by alighting passengers though.

In all my years of rail travels, this was my first encounter of having to jump seats like a fugitive even though we were holding on to valid "reserved seat tickets" that we purchased from the official Hungarian Railways website! The saving grace was the understanding passengers that we met along the way including the family of 4 who volunteered to make some space for us.

So, be warned and good luck when using Hungarian Railways website!

We arrived at the Hotel Sovereign Prague in the early part of the evening. This is a classy hotel at the heart of New Town about 10 minutes walk from the Railway Station. What I really loved about our room was the high ceiling which made our stay a very welcoming experience. The bathroom was huge even though it was a bit dark. We rested for a while in our room before venturing out for dinner at Fridays and ending the evening by the Vltava River where the Dancing House was located.

We haven't had an itinerary for Prague. There would be no museums' visits for sure. After looking up the visitors' map that evening, we had some ideas where we would be heading to the following day. We just needed a good rest for now to recover from the long train journey we had earlier.

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