Blog 2007 05 23 Wednesday 23 May 2007

Dateline: Budapest

The more travel one does, the more one realises how people are the same the world over.

After Bob’s exciting Bronze Medal finish on Sunday, you’d expect that I’d be the one jumping out of my skin and Bob would be completely whacked. Instead, while he attended an after race party for a short time, I left with Rad and Caroline after their medal presentation and crashed for a very unrewarding, disturbed nights sleep.

My sleep was painful – strong headaches and apparently extremely loud snoring that kept Bob awake, and him constantly shaking me to turn me over during the night. Although neither of us slept well, Bob was certainly in a better state than I was, and we had a long day ahead of us.

With much pushing and shoving, we consolidated most of our stuff into 4 bags – a large and a small daypack for me, and a backpack and holdall (Cancun Triathlon World Championships) for Bob. The bike was packed in a Box, and the rest of the race and cycling gear in my ‘big’ diving bag.

We crammed into a Taxi for the one and a half kilometre journey to the train station, somehow managed to man handle our stuff to the concourse to buy tickets to Vienna, and then onto the crowded platform.

Among the crowds were our friends from Adelaide about to embark on the second part of their adventure; hiring a car in Vienna and driving to Ljubijana. The train was packed, and we somehow managed to fit a couple of bikes and the bulk of the bags in a 6 seater compartment. There was no room for people however.

As usual, the train journey from Hungary to Austria was smooth, fast and uneventful. We bid our farewells and dispersed at Westbahnhof (West Railway Station); seeking tickets to our next destination, backtracking along the same line to Győr and thence to Budapest. First, we had to find the Hotel Kolbeck in Vienna, and dump our bike and the diving bag until our return in a few weeks. A professional, helpful taxi driver was able to get us there, for a fare of €9.70. I gave him 12 and we met the charming owner of the hotel, who struggled to find a place for our gear with good humour. I’m sure that we shall enjoy staying here, on Rad’s suggestion.

The next stage was to hot foot it back to Westbahnhof within 40 minutes to catch the next available train to Budapest. No taxi could respond to our entreaties to hail them as we walked down the main drag, and when we had the rail lines of Sudbahnhof (South Railway Station) in our sights, decided to catch an underground train, knowing that we were to change lines along the way. The time was ticking over.

The trains were a perfect example of Austrian cleanliness and efficiency, and we negotiated the line change without problem with barely enough time to board the intercity before its due departure time. A copy of the IHT (International Herald Tribune newspaper) and a few over priced bottles of water were all we could get on our dash to the platform.

Smoking and non-smoking carriages are mixed up, so the rench of smoke permeates all areas unless the doors are well secured. We found a non-smoking carriage with just one other woman, and sat down with seconds to spare. However we were not greeted by the immediate chuff chuff of our journey eastward. An announcement later advised that it would be delayed for technical reasons. We left before too long, and it was apparent that the technical problem was that the air-conditioning wasn’t working, however schedules required them to get underway nevertheless. It was stifling in the carriage, although the cigarette smoke was so bad that we had to keep the door of the tiny little cubical tightly secured.

We enjoyed a comfortable silent company with our fellow carriage member, until will became closer to Budapest when we struck up a great conversation. Eva spoke fluent English, as well as german, Czech, Swedish and her native Hungarian. Among other things, we found that she was also born in 1947 and was the same age as Bob, although she looked a good 2 age groups younger!