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Published: March 5th 2006
Isn't Budapest beautiful?
This is what I could see of the city when I looked down from Buda Castle. Not very exciting, I know.The last three days have been very long. On Wednesday morning, I got up and caught the 8:38am train to Budapest. No problems doing that. Made it to Budapest and was able to leave my bag at the train station for only 630 Forints. (By rough calucations I think that is about 1.80 pounds or $3.50.) I headed out to explore the city and the whole thing was completely covered in slush. Did not make for the best walking tour. I came into town at the Keleti Station and from there I wanted to go to the Heroes' Square (cause my sister said I shoud)--but there is no Metro line that goes there. Oh well. I just decided to walk it since it was not tooooo far away. On my way there, I wandered though the city park and saw ice skaters and a castle-y thing. The castle now houses three museums, I think, and I did not go into a single one. No culture for me. :-( I headed over to Heroes' Square and it is this huge expanse with two arcs and statues and a huge statue in the middle. Very cool especially for being in the middle of
Walking through City Park
The walk was very slushy and cold. a glorified roundabout.
From there, I took the Metro into the center of Pest (Yes, they are actually "separate. Buda is on the western side of the Danube and is hilly, and Pest is on the Eastern side of the river and is flat for the most part.). By the time I sort of got my bearings and looked around a few shops, I wanted to go look at the bridges, of which there are four major ones linking Buda and Pest and then head up to Buda Castle on the funicular railway. As I got closer and closer to the river, the lower visibility became. I crossed the Elisabeth Bridge, which is a newer bridge and is the tallest of the bridges even though it is plain. It's a very ordinary suspension bridge that is white. By the time I crossed, I could barely see Pest--the river is not
THAT wide! I went ahead to the funicular railway and paid the 100 Forints to get to the top and back down. Now, one of the reasons that the books and stuff say to go to the Castle is for the great views of the city below. Mostly it
George Washington
I really need to research what the connection is between George Washington and Budapest so I understand why the statue is here. just looked like fog. At least it wasn't raining...or snowing...yet.
I sort of wandered around the outside of the castle and through the medieval streets that were part of the complex. The buildings used to be where a lot of the government buildings were for BUda. Up until a few years ago, the Ministry of Defense was still housed there. I didn't go into the castle--just another museum in there on the Magyars--and tried to go back to the train station.
Now, Amy (my sister) warned me that I would have to have a ticket anytime I rode the Metro. This is not usually a problem for me because I just know I wouldn't be the type of person to fare well in a German/Hungarian/Romanian/Turkish/ Greek/Russian prison. Actually, I take that back. I would probably be the one the let out because I was annoying and kept saying random trivia. Same goes with kidnapping. I'm pretty confidant they'd return me
and pay a fee to be done with me, nevermind them getting ransom money.
Sorry, back to the original story. Now, the only place to buy tickets for the metro is a machine. I never saw a
person at any of the info booths, but I did routinely see people randomly checking to make sure tickets were had by all. I tried to use every machine I came across--at this point, a total of four--and none of them worked. It was nice that the machines could be used in English, but two of them wouldn't take any money and the other two just said out of order (but in Hungarian, of course!) So, I kept looking for a machine. I made sure I had 170 Forints out and ready and as I go down the escalator, this woman asks to see my ticket--which of course I don't have. At this point though, I haven't done anything that I can get in trouble for because I haven't actually travelled without a ticket. She tried to tell me that there was a person upstairs that would sell me a ticket--she still wasn't correct because I did go back up and look. I finally found a machine that worked on the other side of the street. The Metro system there only comprises three lines and you can't get from one platform to the platform going the opposite direction without going
back above ground, crossing the street, and descending again. So, I had to do this and then come back down to the platform I needed. I was so fed up--especially cause no one was there to check when I got on nor when I got off the Metro. Argh! I'm just too honest and rule abiding to even try to cheat the system--mostly I just know my luck and know I'd be caught every single time I tried it.
After I made it to the train station, I still had to go shopping for food for the 36-hour train ride. And now it's starting to rain/sleet. The travel book I had (outdated as it was) correctly said that there was a free bus that went to the Polus Center mall where there was a giant Tesco (think Kroger or Lowe's crossed with Walmart but British). After asking a few people where to find this bus, I did, and I got on. Now. This is a Hungarian bus. If you think public transport, in general, is bad (which you probably do just from reading my stories) then you're probably not going to be impressed with Hungarian buses. They have wooden
Hosok Tere
Me in the huge Heroes' Square. seats, aren't overly crowded with seats, and shake, rattle, and barely roll themselves down the road. But still, I made it to Tesco and got food and even managed to be on the bus back to the station with plenty of time to spare before catching my train to Thessaloniki--not really plenty, but enough in which to have dinner, get my pack from the baggage keeping people and get to the platform while my train was still there.
Now, a bit of background about this train. It is the TransBalkan. It is not an express, fast, TGV, or highspeed train of any variety. It does not have any "amenities" such as toilet paper or soap in the WCs, but on the plus side, it has
three ways to lock the compartment door when you're just in it or asleep in it. The good news is this: it only cost me 21 Euro (and 30 minutes of my life while booking the ticket--they don't use computers so that lady had to do all the computations and reservations and checking by hand and by flipping through a binder full of info) for my couchette for a 36-hour journey through Hungary, Romania,
Architecture
I loved the look of this building. Bulgaria, and part of Greece. And, I only had to share the compartment the second night. The first night I was all by my lonesome--it was fabulous!!! I'm so glad I decided to wait to buy the ticket. I could have purchased it though www.raileurope.com and paid $188 for it! This way, I get to do some "Christmas" shopping when I get back to London during the January sales. (Thanks Mom and Dad!)
The train ride wasn't awful, but it definitely wasn't great either. On either side of a border crossing, the train stopped for passport control and customs police to board the train. This very rarely occured during the daylight hours. My couchette was reserved and it was the top of three within the compartment. So, everytime they woke me up, I had to climb down the precariously placed ladder and open the door...by the way, passport control and customs police don't tend to be patient people. When they knock, they seem to want the door opened immediately--not gonna happen when I'm on the top bunk, dead asleep.
On Thursday when we arrived in Bucharest, Romania, the other person boarded. Her name was Maria and she, thankfully,
Buda
Looking across the river, I could almost get a good look at Buda. spoke English...and Russian, and French, in addition to Romanian. She is an economic and political journalist in Romania and her husband, now passed, was a Romanian diplomat of some sort and they lived in Arlington, VA for about six years. Her son, John, works for Oracle in Romania doing computer stuff. Good fun we had on the train. She was headed to Thessaloniki for a story, I think.
So, I arrived at 5:27am and would you like to guess what there is to do at that hour of the morning in Thessaloniki? I know, you're thinking that there must be lots to do, but you're wrong. There's absolutely nothing to do. The luggage place didn't open until about 6:15am so I couldn't really set off exploring--not that I should have done so by myself at 5:30 in the morning, but still. I checked the train schedule and tried to decipher it as best I could since it was written in Greek only. Most every other sign is in Greek, French, German, and sometimes English as well. Even if the train timetable had been in French I would have had a better idea. Knowing that I wanted to go explore
Pest
Looking from the Elisabeth Bridge, Pest is becoming covered in fog. Fog is one of the only words in Hungarian that sounds like an English word, but it doesn't mean fog...don't know what it means, but it doesn't mean fog. Thessaloniki--if only briefly and before full on daylight--so I found a train that left at 11:45am and got to Athens by about 4pm. I did not buy a ticket because I didn't want to rush myself or worry about getting back in time/miss the train so I figured I'd just buy a ticket for the upcoming train whenever it was that I happened to return to the station.
Having an early start (McD's wasn't even open yet!) means that I made it back to the station to get a ticket about 10:15am. Wanna know what the ticket lady said? "No tickets to Athens today." None? No, none. All are full. Me being resourceful tried to see if I could get closer to Athens than Thessaloniki, thinking that I could then catch a bus or rent a car or something to get to Athens. "No," was the lady's answer again. Argh! What to do now?
It took me three tries, but I finally found the office that sells bus tickets for within Greece--I easily found the city bus ticket place and the "buses to Bulgaria, Romania, and Albania" place since they were at the station, but the Grecian bus
0 km mark
All distances in Budapest are measured from this point. place was
obviously not in the complex...it was across the street. D'oh! How could I have not automatically looked there! I walked in and asked how much a ticket would cost (22 Euro), when the next bus left (12pm), and if there were seats remaining (only a few). I also asked, since they were displaying a Hertz sign, what the cost, etc. would be for a car. The don't rent cars. Silly me for thinking they did. Actually the rental place is two doors down. So I go down there to check it out. The only lady that can handle renting cars is out on leave. Back to the bus office I go. I get out my debit card, walk up to the guy that I talked to previously, and said I'll take a ticket and went to hand over my card--cash only. Of course. Why should this be easy?!? So, I have to go find a bank with an ATM so that I can get cash. I forget to mention that part of the reason why I stopped exploring Thessaloniki was because it started to rain. A lot.
I finally found a bank and got completely drenched--out of
The Chain Bridge
This was the first bridge to link Buda and Pest, built between 1836 and 1949 by the builders of London's Thames Bridge. all the stuff I brought, I forgot an umbrella. I got my ticket (finally!) and headed back across the street to get my bag from the luggage place. The lady said that it would be 3 Euro so I gave her a 2 Euro coin and a 1 Euro coin. And got 10 euro cents back. How weird! I also met this girl named Julia and her brother, Dan, who are Americans from San Diego trying to get to Athens as well. I told them how to get bus tickets and they got tickets to sit just behind me on the double-decker coach and we were on our way. It only took about 7 hours by bus to get here and now I can only guess what the rest of the trip will be like.... XXX, Mary
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shelley phillips
non-member comment
traveling mercies..
We are praying for traveling mercies for you. I laugh when I am reading them, but I can only imagine the agravation you are facing. Remember you are building character...hahaa.