An Epic Journey

Today we endured an epic journey. Not the one from Vienna to Budapest - that was a fairly smooth and uneventful 2 1/2 hours on the train. No, our epic journey began the moment we stepped off the train;

Problem #1; before we did anything else, we had to get train tickets for our overnight (couchette - sleeping cabin) train to Krakow four days later. We could not buy these from home. Apparently they aren't yet in the 21st century when it comes to train tickets. So to ensure we had a place both to ride and to sleep, we had to buy them ASAP.

Normally, this would be a simple matter of walking up to the international sales ticket window in the train station to buy the tickets. But I had done my research and heard from multiple sources that it was easier to buy them at the central ticket office where they are less busy and more likely to speak English. So that was our aim. We Googled the address of the main ticket office and headed there on foot because it was less than a mile away. When we found it, it was not just closed, but abandoned. With no other option, we walked on toward our B&B, still 2 miles away and carrying all our backpacks & bags with us. Why not hop a tram or bus? Well, we still hoped to find the ticket office closer to the city center and also, there is a certain hassle and learning curve to a new city's transit system. It's not always the brightest option when you are in a hurry and you don't know exactly where you want to be next. So, to make a long story less long, suffice it to say that we did find the ticket office and bought the tickets (written out by hand!), and eventually finished the walk to the B&B, 90 minutes after we told them we would arrive.

Problem #2; our B&B hosts, while intending to be helpful, were rather belligerently helpful. They were clearly irritated with us for being late, but more for not following their clear (and obsessive) instructions on how to use public transport to get here. They had everything planned for how we should do things and seemed unimpressed that we should have our own plan (however poorly it worked out). We told them we had to buy train tickets first. But they clearly expected us to accomplish that with their help, not on our own. After settling us into our room, giving us expansive instructions on how best to use the windows, AC, TV, and the intricacies of keys and locks, they rather formally sat us down and gave us 30 minutes of what felt like a lecture on where best to eat, what attractions to see, and how to get from place to place. Did they think we hadn't thought about this a bit ahead of time? But they were so clearly trying to be helpful, that there was no tactful way to break off and say "thank you - good night". We just had to sit there until they ran out of things to tell us about.

Eventually, we recovered from the hard work of lugging our things across the city and our B&B seminar, and were able to go out and have a nice dinner on the Buda side of the Danube river, where we reside. Our train ride was only 2 1/2 hours, but between the hike getting to the train in Vienna (preceded, of course by the 90-minute herding-sheep-like task of getting everyone up and fed and packed) and the 2+ hour journey to our B&B in Budapest, and the lecture, it took the entire day until 6:00 PM. Good thing we didn't have specific plans for the rest of the day...