Elenka and I had to take three trains in Slovakia before we could climb aboard the final one that would take us direct to Budapest. But it was in the town, Sturovo, less than 2 kilometres from the Hungarian border where our worries began. The amount of time we would have to spare for our train change in Budapest for our final destination, Sighisoara Romania, was 45 minutes. But the train from Sturovo to Budapest was going to be 50 minutes late. We'd miss our night train to Romania by five minutes.

When we arrived in Budapest we went directly to the ticket office, to explain our situation, and to find out when we could pick up the next east-bounder. The man at the ticket office said that there had been a 10 minute delay on the Budapest to Sighisoara night-train and there was still three minutes to departure. He came running from around his counter and out onto the platform to explain to us which way we had to run if we wanted to make our train. 

He'd told us that our train was leaving from platform 1, about 250 metres beyond the end of his outstretched pointing arm. We started to run. Elenka had a suitcase on wheels that allowed her fairly swift movement, but I was carrying a heavy backpack. Damn near dead from exhaustion, we both made it with about thirty seconds to spare.  
 
In the morning we'll be in the town where Vlad Tepes, aka Count Dracula was born.