budapest
Another sleeper train and this time bingo. I booked a two sleeper cabin and the nice ticket inspector came around to warn me about the possibility of theft from Hungarians. I was expecting the Roma to be in the firing line. The cabin has a door that seperates it from the cabin next door. When opened it becomes a larger space (obviously) with four berths. So, I found myself having paid for one bed now having the choice of four. Most satisfying.
The journey from Belgrade to Budapest takes around 8 hours. The train left at 10pm. I reckon I got about 2 hours sleep. Why? Because I rediscovered a childhood joy - sticking my head out the window. It was so good. Never mind that I have had my nose and ears destroyed by frostbite! This pastime was something I picked up when I was about 8 or 9 while travelling to Limerick to visit my relatives in Kilkee. I just loved it and evidently, still do. God help me on the Trans-Siberian express.
So, Budapest at 6am and it's freezing. I made the stupid error of assuming that there was only one international train station. There are are two. So, tired and cold, I made numerous errors in trying to get to the other train station where nearby my hostel is located. I negotiated the underground trains with magificient stupidity. Examples - going the wrong direction, getting off at the wrong station on three ocassions. Anyway, eventually I got there and it was cool that the hostel people allowed me to sleep until 10am. Usually, I would have had to wait for check in which is noon. Some bloke in my dorm was snoring heavily. I wanted to kill him.
Budapest itself is a very beautiful city. The architecture is wonderful and ornate. It's easy to see it's former glory in most places having been spared the ravages of war. But the jury is still out on whether I like the people. They have a strange tendancy to be a certain character one minute and then bang, they completely change to another character. A generalisation, I know. Still I found many examples and to be truthful, I find them somewhat unfathomable. Also, they walk too f*cking slow. I like to pace a little and if they hear me coming, they turn around expecting me to be a weilding an axe. No, you just walk too f*cking slow! Speed up, get a move on, God damn it.
One good thing was getting to see Steroe MC's. But I had to sh*t myself a few times to get to the venue. The hostel owner warned me it is a dangerous area. The reason is it is located in the middle of the city park and it's very poorly lit. There are hardly any people about. The clues are there. If you had to leggit from some murderer then you'd have a long old run to get to civilisation again. Moreover, it had been raining heavily so the continuous patter of drops on the leaves was a little unnerving. Like the sound of a someone standing on a twig in a forest. At one point I was approached by, what appeared to me, to be a gluesniffer as I had been checking him out as I walked past. He said something incomprehensible, I raised my hand to dismiss him and carried on. Oh sh*t. I needn't have worried though as he seemed to have some kind of disability as he walked very unevenly. Like one leg was shorter than the other. Thank God for that, I thought. I made my getaway and it turned into an excellent night. Being a chicken I got a taxi back to the hostel as an another 25 minute walk through a dark park was beyond the tolerance of my nerves.
The following day, I decided to check on Pest. No, that's not a insect but the other part of the city. I was living in Buda which is more lively and Pest is on the other side of the Danube. It is the historical part. Nice things to see. I meandered around until I decided a plate of goulash soup wouldn't go amiss. I love that stuff. Have become quite a soup fan. Obviously it makes sense for the weather. Winter food. Anyway, off to the ATM, insert card, thing closes down. F*ck. I try to explain my problem to the folk inside the bank but it was no use (please see comments regarding Hungarians).
I contacted my bank to ask them to cancel the card but please, please don't cancel my back up card. Second card, what? That's already cancelled. For f*ck sake. I had to quit my sightseeing and make my way back to the hostel.
There began 24 hours of ill-luck and misfortune.
The journey from Belgrade to Budapest takes around 8 hours. The train left at 10pm. I reckon I got about 2 hours sleep. Why? Because I rediscovered a childhood joy - sticking my head out the window. It was so good. Never mind that I have had my nose and ears destroyed by frostbite! This pastime was something I picked up when I was about 8 or 9 while travelling to Limerick to visit my relatives in Kilkee. I just loved it and evidently, still do. God help me on the Trans-Siberian express.
So, Budapest at 6am and it's freezing. I made the stupid error of assuming that there was only one international train station. There are are two. So, tired and cold, I made numerous errors in trying to get to the other train station where nearby my hostel is located. I negotiated the underground trains with magificient stupidity. Examples - going the wrong direction, getting off at the wrong station on three ocassions. Anyway, eventually I got there and it was cool that the hostel people allowed me to sleep until 10am. Usually, I would have had to wait for check in which is noon. Some bloke in my dorm was snoring heavily. I wanted to kill him.
Budapest itself is a very beautiful city. The architecture is wonderful and ornate. It's easy to see it's former glory in most places having been spared the ravages of war. But the jury is still out on whether I like the people. They have a strange tendancy to be a certain character one minute and then bang, they completely change to another character. A generalisation, I know. Still I found many examples and to be truthful, I find them somewhat unfathomable. Also, they walk too f*cking slow. I like to pace a little and if they hear me coming, they turn around expecting me to be a weilding an axe. No, you just walk too f*cking slow! Speed up, get a move on, God damn it.
One good thing was getting to see Steroe MC's. But I had to sh*t myself a few times to get to the venue. The hostel owner warned me it is a dangerous area. The reason is it is located in the middle of the city park and it's very poorly lit. There are hardly any people about. The clues are there. If you had to leggit from some murderer then you'd have a long old run to get to civilisation again. Moreover, it had been raining heavily so the continuous patter of drops on the leaves was a little unnerving. Like the sound of a someone standing on a twig in a forest. At one point I was approached by, what appeared to me, to be a gluesniffer as I had been checking him out as I walked past. He said something incomprehensible, I raised my hand to dismiss him and carried on. Oh sh*t. I needn't have worried though as he seemed to have some kind of disability as he walked very unevenly. Like one leg was shorter than the other. Thank God for that, I thought. I made my getaway and it turned into an excellent night. Being a chicken I got a taxi back to the hostel as an another 25 minute walk through a dark park was beyond the tolerance of my nerves.
The following day, I decided to check on Pest. No, that's not a insect but the other part of the city. I was living in Buda which is more lively and Pest is on the other side of the Danube. It is the historical part. Nice things to see. I meandered around until I decided a plate of goulash soup wouldn't go amiss. I love that stuff. Have become quite a soup fan. Obviously it makes sense for the weather. Winter food. Anyway, off to the ATM, insert card, thing closes down. F*ck. I try to explain my problem to the folk inside the bank but it was no use (please see comments regarding Hungarians).
I contacted my bank to ask them to cancel the card but please, please don't cancel my back up card. Second card, what? That's already cancelled. For f*ck sake. I had to quit my sightseeing and make my way back to the hostel.
There began 24 hours of ill-luck and misfortune.
posted by Ciarán at 1:53 p.m.
1 Comments:
So far so good but what about your doughcard and mobile ?
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