Budapest, Hungary Day 1

Budapest, Hungary Day 1

I write this laying in the lower bunk of a 6 person room. We finally made it to Budapest after the longest train ride ever. We boarded at 1:50am and did not step off in Budapest until 3pm. It was over 3 hours late! The air kept coming on and making it comfortable and then going off for some reason. The company was quiet and the seating was horrible. First, on the night trains, we had a sleeper car. Second, we slept in a couchette with 6 people in there. Now, to finish it off, we had to do a long night train in a chair. I had a very tall Slovenian dude in front of me and we just switched leg positions all night. Luckily, we had the extra food in my bag and some water. People were getting irritable by the last few hours. I was glad to get off the train and see the new city. It would have been nice to have a fully charged set of batteries. I felt like crap.

The train station was hectic. As soon as we jumped off the train there was a commotion around the exit. We saw a person on the ground getting CPR. Not cool. Most people were not gawking and I just looked for a second as we headed by. The paramedics were there on the scene and I hope things worked out.

We had to follow some difficult directions to our hostel this time. They were vague and the metro was not cooperating. Or at least, we we're not willing to go the way the directions said. We did not have any Hungarian money, and were not sure how to get it. All we saw were money exchange places and no ATMs. It looked like the places set up in the train station were there to rip you off. This was verified when we made it to the hostel. All of a sudden it looked like a great idea to just walk to the hostel. That's what we did and we were glad to do so. As soon as we left the train station area, the banks were abundant and we did not have far to walk to our place. We turned down a quiet side street full of overhanging trees, and our place was within some huge buildings. I don't mean many stories tall, but the height of each story is giant. Ours is only 5 or 6 stories high, but each story is about 2 times the size of a normal floor. The ceilings are extremely high and the doors are giant and thick. This tends to be the building idea around here. The hostel dude was nice and once again we got a map that was created for travelers. I like to ask them where they would go to eat and what are their favorite places when we arrive.

For dinner, we headed to a local Hungarian, small mom and pop restaurant. We tried the local goulash with paprika and meats. We had goose, chicken and pork. We came back early to the room to get rested after the long horrible train ride. I just took it easy and watched a movie. We have been getting movies on iTunes to rent, which is very easy. I watched The Adjustment Bureau and did not realize that it was a chick flick. Oops. Not a total chick flick, but close enough.

Tomorrow we will tour the city and see what's out there.