Monday, April 25, 2011
Vienna, Austria to Budapest, Hungary
Wow, where to start ....
We were up and out in plenty of time for the 9:54am launch of the Austrian RailJet service to Budapest. In the bright and lovely morning sunshine we bade farewell to Vienna and, as we passed 'Ratstrasse', to the rat we saw as well. We hold him in our memory, like it or not.
We boarded the train in the Westbahnhof, bound for Budapest, to an empty coach which soon began to fill. What filled it most was the sound and energy of an Italian-speaking family of six, mother and father and grandmother plus three boys who were absolutely unruly monsters. The three adults tried their best, shushing the kids and trying to distract them, but the reality of years of letting the little beasts have their own way could not be controlled in one morning. Once again, I reflect on what a superb mother Jan was to our girls.
The oldest boy was maybe 10, like the boy of the Swiss family we met but worlds apart in terms of behavior. His brother a completely out-of-control six year old, and the youngest about three by my reconning, but still in diapers. Wait, I just asked Jan, she said 18 months. But he was as big as a small pony, and as loud as a locomotive. So There!!! Anyway, I chose to move to another part of the carriage where the noise was less but Jan stayed put, about two rows behind the chaos. I wrote some notes, part of which appeared on yesterdays page about the train's erratic motion. But all was well, the train made it - on time as well - and the kids did not kill each other though the howling and wailing seemed to indicate differently. I am now thinking that First Class may be our next option, and I could never see the point before.
We arrived to a broken down train station in Budapest, derelict in many spots, unpainted in others, armed guards with guns at the ready (sorry, no pictures of that) and Jan and I very aware of how far from home we really are just now. We were heartened by the fact that we already have reservations at a hotel about a 20 minute walk from here. But what about the taxis lined up over there??? Sure, but we have no Forints, the Hungarian currency, and since Hungary isn't set to join the European Monetary Union until 2019, nobody wants Euros now. This is new for us, and we only have large (20, 50, 100 Euro notes) bills, we don't want to risk an issue with a taxi driver. So we walk, a pleasant and safe 15 minutes, and find our hotel, check in (we had prepaid on the web), and got to our room. A few deep breaths, patting each other on the back happy to be here, we packed our bags away and headed out into the world. We went by the bank, just around the corner, and got some Forints from the ATM.
We got 20,000 Forints, in one bill. Yes, one 20,000 bill. At the current exchange rate of 264 Forints per Euro, that bill is worth ~ 80 Euro. I know that, so does Jan, now so do you, but to look at an official piece of currency with that many zeros on it is a bit unnerving. So, if we went out for a fancy dinner tonight, we could say to our friends and neighbors, grandly, 'Oh, we spent twenty thousand for dinner tonight, it was good.' and mean it. But, taken in context, we would not be the jet-setters that we would seem to be.
We wandered loose for a while tonight, down to the river to see about returning west via Bratislava in Slovakia via a ferry boat, but those boats don't start running until this Saturday and we won't be here that long. Then we wandered some more, bought a mug, past the Elizabethan bridge, down to the Chain Bridge, crossed the Danube via the Chain Bridge, came back on the other side of the Chain Bridge, wandered back into the city, bought some crackers in a market, and came home. Oh, I forgot, we had a 'dinner' of sorts on a boat floating on the Danube, called 'The Spoon'. It was a very fancy boat, and our dinner did cost us about 16,000 for all the food and beer and wine we consumed, but well worth it. See, its easy. Everybody should go spend 16,000 for dinner and not think twice.
Along the way home we tried to go into a casino (we had to use the bathroom) but these are very high-hat casinos here, not the Reno or Laughlin type, and we were asked to provide our Passports before entry. We didn't have them with us, and we only wanted to use the bathroom anyway, so I said 'Sorry, back at the hotel' and we scampered out of there and over to the Intercontinental were the task was completed without further complications. Back on the road again, we wandered and in the gathering dusk we made it 'home' to our familiar Ibis hotel for the night. We walked up a street that Jan had picked out as interesting, and it sure was. We had found the 'Regent Street / Oxford Street' of Budapest, all the major brands were there in lovely storefront displays, as we left the street, moving back to ward the hotel, we passed through an arcade area with excellent (based on the prices, they better have been excellent) restaurants that were frequented by the glitteratti sitting at the outdoor tables in their finery. A nice looking place but Jan and I were still full from our early dinner so we just admired and passed on. Another block and the character of the area changed, with crumbling facades on the buildings and broken pieces of trim and brick lying about. All very safe I'm sure, but quite run-down and sad looking. Jan and I continued, and found our way home guided by our map. If our daughters were doing this I would be worried.
Tomorrow, we will spend the day on the hop-on-hop-off bus seeing the sights. Goodnight for now.
