The first few hours of this trip are a straight shot, through the Hungarian plains, pass small towns, farms and mills. No careening curves or accelerating down hillsides. The train lurches to a stop at the Hungarian-Romanian border crossing. The Hungarian station agent politely asks me for my passport, and he stamps it. The train pulls out of this station, and I begin to nap.
I’m awoken by a barking dog by the side of the train tracks at a stop 15 minutes later. A man wearing a blue sweater with Boy Scout-like patches enters my train cabin. Much to my surprise, I’m being asked again for my passport. This must be an example of the infamous Hungarian-Romanian animosity and mistrust I’ve heard so much about. Why stop twice within 15 minutes on each side of the border? Why not have just one check-point?
He pivots his feet and opens the train door to leave my cabin, passport in hand. I stand and question “Wait?” “I will come back with your passport,” he cheerfully says. I look again at those Boy Scout-like patches on his sweater. How official are they? He senses my apprehension, but seeks to reassure me with his beaming smile as he points to the station building through the train’s window. “This is the Romanian entry-point. I will just check your passport there,” he says in near-perfect English, with near-perfect teeth, and a near-perfect smile. The town of Episcopia Bihor surely hired the most charming man around for this job. It’s no easy feat to separate tourists from their passports. “10 minutes,” he says, “and I’ll be back.” And sure enough, 10 minutes later, I see him emerge from the station building, darting onto the train, as though not to be a moment late.
Train Tip: There were not many other travelers with me on the train this day. In fact, I saw this border agent quickly walk to the station to verify my passport after receiving it. But I thought, in hindsight, had this station agent been collecting a fistful of passports, I very well should walked off the train and stayed with him, and my passport, to ensure no mix-up. I’m not sure how well that would have been received, but it’s an idea worth pursuing if you feel at all uncomfortable with the circumstances of passport collection. I will test this in the future.
More about Cluj at romaniatourism.com.
Benjamin Thomas
Tags: border, Hungary, passport control, romania, station, train journey
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hi, I am from India. i am planning to tour Europe this September , would start from Germany ,travel through austria, Italy, greece and finally would enter France. My wife and son would accompany me. i am a painter , had been to some parts of Europe way back in 1995, but this time for the first time I would be travelling in eurail. so your experience would be of immense help for me.
Hi Sekhar –
Sounds like you’ll be making a great trip. It’s wonderful traveling by train with a Eurail Pass, as you’ll see.
As my girl firend is from Csíkszereda which is even further than Cluj I know what you are talking about. The difference is that I usually go by car due to the bad connection to csíkszereda and this way is really really bad.
I will be travelling with my girlfriend from Innsbruck to Budapest and then to Cluj. I did not know there was a train from Budapest to Cluj. Do you know more about the train situation? Did you stay somewhere reasonably cheap in Budapest? Let me know. We intend to go from Cluj with bikes towards Bucharest. It will be an adventure. I am German living in NY.
Hello Brita,
Sounds like a fun trip. Yes, indeed there is a train that goes direct from Budapest to Cluj. I believe it leaves once per day, but now that we are in the summer months, there may be more than one train? Ask in the Budapest Keleti train station. I am not that familiar with accomodations in Budapest, since I am in an apartment, but a friend stayed at the Amigos Hostel. You may want to try that. Have fun! Benjamin.
If you don’t mind changing trains one or two times on your way, there are various daily options to travel between Budapest and Cluj. You can see the details if you use an international train planner like:
http://fahrplan.oebb.at/bin/oebb.w02/query.exe/en