It Works Out in the End!

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I had everything packed the night before since I was getting up early to catch the train to Budapest, Hungary that morning. It was going to be a long train ride, with an hour layover in Zagreb, but I was prepared for it. I got up and said goodbye to Annalisa who I had hung out with the day before. (I love traveling alone since you are never really alone, you meet such great people along the way). I got to my train without any problems and on the train ride to Zagreb I was able to catch up with a lot of my blogs since I had already seen the landscape 2 days before on the train ride there (I wasn’t thrilled about backtracking, but it’s sometimes necessary). When I was in Split I tried to reserve my train ride all the way to Budapest but the ticket lady said that I didn’t need one after Zagreb. I wasn’t 100% convinced so once I got to Zagreb I tried to reserve a ticket, and the ticket lady got the ticket all drawn up and then told me it was going to be the equivalent of $50 US, and I was like whoa that’s a lot, then she saw my Eurail pass and said (kind of angrily, but I had it out the entire time!) that I already had a ticket and why was I wasting her time, I told her I thought I had to reserve one and she said no. So it was off to find my train to Budapest!

It showed up without any problems and I hopped on. I was in a compartment with a few Croatians, and I made sure this was indeed the train going to Budapest and they said yes, the sign at the train station said it was, and there was also a sign on the train itself saying it was going to Budapest as well. Ok, check! After the train pulled away from the station, the person checking the tickets came around to check everyone’s ticket. I handed him my pass and he studied it, then proceeds to speak in Croatian to me, and I just give him the blankest stare ever, he then smiles and looks at my pass again and then switches over to perfect English and joking saying “of course you don’t speak Croatian you are from America”. He then politely says “there is a problem . . .” my stomach then sinks (but at the end of the day as long as I have my bank card and my passport things will work out, maybe not as planned, but it will always be ok, you learn to roll with the punches) he then says that this train is not going all the way to Budapest (what?!) and that I will have to get off the train, catch a bus, then get on another train. (this sounds complicated, can he not see that I am blonde??) I confirmed that it was step 1). get off in 15 minutes, step 2).catch a random bus (which bus? I don’t know) step 3). catch another train (we will see how this goes!). Sure enough the train stops and it turns out everyone was getting off, so I just follow everyone and we come upon several buses, we all get on (all of us asking if this was the bus to take us to the train to take us to Budapest) then the buses are off! It was about a 20 minute bus ride to the next train station, and then I found the train to Budapest. Yay! (It turned out to be so much easier than I had thought!) I was having trouble opening the door to the compartment on the new train and had just about given up and was just staring at the door trying to figure out how to open it when an American guy joked about me opening it, “are you trying to open it with your mind?”, (it turns out I wasn’t pulling hard enough) once we were inside we both sat down, his name was Jay and we had a great chat. I was happy that he was on the train because no one else got on. People came by and checked out passports and asked us if we had anything to declare (they try to trip you up by asking “how much alcohol and cigarettes you have”, not “do you have any . . “ I just kind of stared back and him and said none) we were on this section of the train for about 40 minutes until the ticket person came by and said this was first class and we had to move (even though no one was in first class, couldn’t you bend the rules just this once?) we moved to 2nd class and found everyone else (about 12 other people) and it wasn’t that different from 1st class. I was happy I met Jay because 1). It gave me someone to talk to for the next 6 hours and 2). He used to live in Budapest and 3). Was willing to help me find my hostel since I was a little worried about being in a brand new city and trying to find my hostel at 11:00 at night! I love how everything works out.

We arrived to Budapest on time and I followed Jay as we hopped on a bus across town, and he took me to my hostel perfectly! (I couldn’t have done it alone) I thanked him and wished him well on his trip. I got to my hostel which was just a converted flat with a beautiful courtyard, the hostel staff member (Irish Dave! – more on him later) was very kind and sat me down and explained what to do and where to go on a map of Budapest. It seems like a great hostel. I got to my room and just put everything on my bed and didn’t even bother putting anything away or getting changed, I was exhausted and just passed out on my top bunk that I was sharing with my pack. The girl below me was growling in her sleep, I fell asleep thinking Budapest was going to be interesting!
B

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