RSSBudapest – Linz – Frankfurt – Amsterdam
Train Tip: If traveling west from Budapest, the common approach would be to connect in Vienna to faster trains. But the new Rail Jet heads west to Munich from Budapest, without any need to change in Vienna. It runs a few times each day.
Most Austrian and German trains have printed schedules on the seats. As I get on the Austrian Rail Jet leaving Budapest, I notice a slight discrepancy with times in this schedule and the schedule I printed from DeutscheBahn.com. (The authority on European rail times.) As we are still in Hungary, the train staff is Hungarian. I ask one of the attendants about the discrepancy, and he brushes it off. “This is a new train. Schedule problems,” he says. “Ok, but which arrival time is correct?” He’s not certain. I don’t get a real answer until we cross the border into Austria, and this is a metaphor for the East-West experience in Europe.
I’ve observed that Eastern Europeans, of the former Communist bloc, don’t have the problem-solving capabilities that Westerners have. They weren’t raised to solve problems. Communism took care of everything for them. They weren’t encouraged to think their way through situations. So, while the Hungarian attendant noted the discrepancy in arrival times, he didn’t take the next step to solve the problem by figuring out which time was correct. Some see this as rudeness, others as the scars of history. Either way, I was thankful that we were crossing into Vienna within an hour.
Benjamin Thomas
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About the Eurail Blog
I'm Benjamin Thomas from the USA and I've been accepted for a fellowship in Europe. During my stay I will use Eurail Passes to explore the continent. On this weblog I will share my (train) travel experiences. Intro
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