August 3, 2013
August 3, 2013
Today is another travel day. Our feet are sore from all the walking we did yesterday so we spend the morning resting. We have a train reservation for noon. Vienna was always considered the gateway to Eastern Europe and it is for us also. The Hungarian Plain stretches east from here and that is where we are headed.
Our train arrives right on time and we have only a minute or two to load before it begins to roll away from the station. Unfortunately when we board we find almost no empty seats, let alone two together. This is not what I remember from my Eurail adventure thirty years ago. After searching all the cars I find Aimee an empty seat and then I go backwards looking for another. I luckily convince two Munich ladies to move their bags so Aimee and I can sit together. One of the bonuses of this train is air-conditioning. It was worth riding just for some relief from the heat wave.
Three hours later we arrive in Budapest. Aimee looks at me and says, "We aren't in Vienna anymore". The Budapest station is a little bit of a disorganized madhouse with all the college-aged backpackers mobbing the ATM, Currency Changer and ticket lines. Eventually we get some local currency and take the Metro to our hotel. It turns out to be steps away from a metro stop and is a beautiful old Victorian hotel. We love it and as a special bonus we find air-conditioning in our room!
We worked up an appetite so we search out the pedestrian esplanade of Vaci street for dinner. We have a bowl of Goulash soup and the Hungarian version of Pigs in a Blanket. Both are a little spicy with Paprika, a Hungarian pepper.
Even though Hungary gets its name from the Huns who rolled through here on their way to conquer Rome, the people are not Huns but mostly Magyars who settled here ostensibly in 896 AD. Apparently some of their relatives went to Finland instead because the Hungarian language is only related to Finnish. Both are completely different than the Indo-European languages that now predominate Europe. I can attest to the language difference. You can generally get a beer almost anywhere in Eurasia (even China) by saying a version of "beer" or "pivo". Here it is "sor" (sounds like "sure").
Our train arrives right on time and we have only a minute or two to load before it begins to roll away from the station. Unfortunately when we board we find almost no empty seats, let alone two together. This is not what I remember from my Eurail adventure thirty years ago. After searching all the cars I find Aimee an empty seat and then I go backwards looking for another. I luckily convince two Munich ladies to move their bags so Aimee and I can sit together. One of the bonuses of this train is air-conditioning. It was worth riding just for some relief from the heat wave.
Three hours later we arrive in Budapest. Aimee looks at me and says, "We aren't in Vienna anymore". The Budapest station is a little bit of a disorganized madhouse with all the college-aged backpackers mobbing the ATM, Currency Changer and ticket lines. Eventually we get some local currency and take the Metro to our hotel. It turns out to be steps away from a metro stop and is a beautiful old Victorian hotel. We love it and as a special bonus we find air-conditioning in our room!
We worked up an appetite so we search out the pedestrian esplanade of Vaci street for dinner. We have a bowl of Goulash soup and the Hungarian version of Pigs in a Blanket. Both are a little spicy with Paprika, a Hungarian pepper.
Even though Hungary gets its name from the Huns who rolled through here on their way to conquer Rome, the people are not Huns but mostly Magyars who settled here ostensibly in 896 AD. Apparently some of their relatives went to Finland instead because the Hungarian language is only related to Finnish. Both are completely different than the Indo-European languages that now predominate Europe. I can attest to the language difference. You can generally get a beer almost anywhere in Eurasia (even China) by saying a version of "beer" or "pivo". Here it is "sor" (sounds like "sure").
posted by Mike and Aimee at 9:12 AM
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