I´ve discovered a direct over-night train from Budapest to Warsaw that is not listed in the Eurail Timetable. It leaves Budapest Keleti at 20:00 and arrives in Warsaw Central at 7:20am.
(more…)

I make my way from Budapest to Vienna to catch the night train from Vienna to Krakow. In Vienna, taking the tram from Westbahnhof to Sudbahnhof, I meet a Brazilian woman who is traveling across Europe.

We arrive at the ticket counter in Vienna Sudbanhof around 9:30pm. We each have a Rail Pass, but we know that we will need a supplemental ticket for the night train. The ticket agent tells us that no beds can be reserved on this train after 7pm. He explains that we have to purchase a bed supplemental ticket on the train. We think he says “40 Euros,” and the Brazilian woman says “forget it, I can sleep in a seat, I don’t need a bed.”
(more…)

I hopped on the train not sure exactly how this trip would work. My train pass does not cover Czech Republic, and I wasn’t certain how ticketing would work.

On the map, Vienna is the next major city from Budapest in the direction of Prague, and Austria is covered on my Eurail Pass. So I knew I could make it that far. I asked at the International Rail Ticket Counter in Budapest, but again found that they can’t issue tickets that don’t originate or end in Hungary. I would have to inquire in Vienna. I arrived in Vienna Westbahnhof, and made my way to Vienna Sudbahnhof on the city’s tram.
(more…)

Two things caught my eye on this train trip today: The two Japanese women leafing through menus, and the bright yellow flowers they would point at outside the train window.

The younger woman teaches Japanese in Budapest. She’s taking the older woman, a visiting family, to Vienna for lunch for the afternoon. What an incredible idea, I think, to be able to cross a country’s border for lunch.
(more…)

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?
(more…)

I step into my cabin, expecting Huey, Duey and Louie to join me. How would one ever know which height head rest to reserve?

I move myself in the train car to another seat, before someone shows me how easily the seat head rests can be moved up or down.

I thought I’d be napping on this train, but the outside views are too beautiful to close my eyes to – steeples, hilltop villages, and mountain cliffs surround the train as it speeds along the tracks.

I´m beginning the longest train trip I´ve ever embarked on. Budapest to Valencia, Spain. Schedule says about 30 hours on the train, with 3 connections. Sounds daunting, but I´m excited.

Tonight I´m on a night train. I walk into my sleeping cabin, but there are 2 other people there. Seems crowded, and there are empty cabins. I re-assign myself. The steward, however, wants me in my assigned cabin. The woman has left, apparently she was in the wrong cabin. But still, I think what a waste to have these empty cabins, and this thought wakes me up in the middle of the night, along with the odor from the man´s socks sleeping across from me.
(more…)