We were awake by 20 to 6 (in the Film Hotel, Bratislava) - great chance to use the internet I thought. I thought wrong, as we couldn't get it to work! So off to the station about 6.30. It was 19 degrees - a lot cooler than the last week. Because we had plenty of time, we walked to the station a different way. We passed a very interesting building, Slovak Radio - the shape of a pyramid turned upside down and built in 1983.
We were taking a punt that the 7
.53 train would be less crowded than the 9.35 and even though the Eurail trip planner said a Reservation was necessary, once again we didn't book. There were plenty of seats in First Class, although not the height of luxury. This was the EC271 - yesterday's was the EC277 and had a dining car. The EC271 was supposed to have a dining car, but didn't. Water and cherries for breakfast.
The train arrived at Budapest-Keleti on time. (Some of the other trains appeared to arrive at another station miles away.) We finally found the Business Lounge we were entitled to use, tucked down the side of platform 9, and were able to leave our bags there all day for free. Not that the luggage lockers were expensive - a large one was only 3 Euro for the day. We enjoyed a free coffee and packeted croissant, and then went to explore Budapest. Some very old buildings with turrets & pinnacles etc on Rakoczy avenue. This area must have avoided war time damage - we walked down this way and then turned right to loop around and walk over the Chain Bridge
. This took about an hour with all the stopping and looking around. Dawdled along the south bank of the Danube, narrowly avoiding being knocked over by a flying push bike about 20 times. Bike riders rule over here.
We crossed back over the Danube via the Freedom (Szabadsag) Bridge. This was marvelous - nice cool breeze, cruise ships plying up and down the river, not many people. Walked back along the other side and could appreciate the Chapel in the Rock, the Liberty Staue, Gellert statue and ruins from a bit of distance. Back a bit from the Elizabeth Bridge, there was a tree lined lane with a market at one end. As we walked past an Italian restaurant/cafe, a pretty girl tried to give us a menu. Since we hadn't had anything since the breakfast cherries and water, we decided to have a beer and peruse the menu. Well the owner was so pushy, he lost our lunch order. At least they took Visa as we had no Hungarian money. The pretty girl had a twin sister - I guess they were supposed to draw in the men, but they were a bit shy
. I think one of them understood the gist of what we were saying about the pushy boss, as we exchanged knowing smiles a few times! His other ploy was to have family members sitting at a table eating with tourist maps in their hands.
Back to the station for another coffee in the Business Lounge. I'd read that the dining car often wasn't operating on the Ister (our overnight train). The girl in the Lounge and a man who worked at Tourist Information also said to stock up on food. So we walked over to the Arena Plaza and bought wine, panini, ham, cheese, muffins, and orange juice at Tescos. Then had a meal at the restaurant in the station as they also accepted Visa. I had ground veal in a pancake with paprika sauce and Bryan had chicken kiev. Not bad but not brilliant. Finished our waiting in the Business Lounge - the platform came up on the screen in there before it did in the station proper. The girl who'd greeted us was still there. A long day for her.
Had to walk the entire length of the platform to get to our "superior" sleeper with it's own shower and toilet
. Very small compartment. We got the toilet lid fixed and the conductor bought us some towels: he said 'nobody usually used the shower'. Didn't they usually wash their hands at all? We had our own soap luckily. (And Bryan tried to have a shower in the morning and couldn't get any hot water. This made the toilet/shower floor all wet.)
Soon after we were on our way a man came along telling us about the dining car and how good it was. We found the conductor so he could lock our door - oh, forgot to say that we had to hand over our Eurail passes to said conductor at the beginning of the trip. Off to the dining car! Mmm - several men, most smoking and a couple a bit inebriated. The non-smoking section was at one end i.e. 2 tables long, and the smoking section was 2 tables long plus the bar area. Bryan had one beer and I had nothing. I was the only female until 'skinny' went and got a girl in the tightest shortest shorts and introduced her to a fat man. Say no more!
Back to our room to watch the scenery
. It was getting dark and the views were quite romantic. Bryan crawled up to his attic space about quarter to 10. It had been a long day and we would put our clocks forward an hour in Romania. I was sound asleep in no time. Awakened by a banging on the door about 45 minutes later. Luckily I'd decided to wear 'skins' to sleep in, as the man outside was very impatient. I fumbled with the door and it was the police for our passports. About 30 minutes later there was a much quieter knock - this time it was the Romanian police. The last lot were the Hungarians.
Bryan couldn't sleep up on the top bunk - it was higher up than the 4 sleepers we had last year. It was claustrophobic plus the air conditioning had lots of cigarette smoke coming through. We'd opened the window but he was above that. Meanwhile - the lower bunk was great! Comfy bed, and I loved the rocking of the train. One time it sounded like a bridge so I just opened my eyes and raised my head a tad - yes, we were crossing a river.
So we sat up and watched the day start out the windows - will go into that in tomorrow's chapter.
The Danube again
Friday, June 13, 2014
Budapest, Hungary
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