Traveling Trauma
Since my energy had been low from sickness and not eating, etc., I didn't work hard enough to fully understand the non-English speaking lady who issued me the train ticket in Budapest. Imagine my shock when I found out the train I was taking was to leave at 1910 hours, not 1310 hours, and that it was an overnight train, expected to arrive in Krakow at 0500 hours the next morning - 10 hours. I accepted that and decided to check out more Budapest sites. Once I got to the train station, 20 minutes of confusion ensued before I realized that I had been watching the wrong clock for the past three days. Fortunately (or not so foruntate), I was ahead an hour so I didn't miss the train.
Overcoming these obstacles could not have prepared me for site of that train I was about to embark (I mean Poland is only a pinky finger away on the map).
At first the train was slightly crowded - I thought this was positive since many of these passengers must have been on it in the past and they are still alive.
The young Hungarians I rode with were quite nice and helped translate when the bossy conductor came and said I was supposed to be sitting in 2nd Class, not 1st Class. You mean there's a worse car than this?!? I happily paid him an extra 10 Euro (after much confusion about rates and change, etc) to stay put.
Then the nice Hungarians got off and left me alone in the car. I decided to try the recline... not so bad. .. maybe I can actually get a little shut eye. Before I knew it, Passport control from Slovakia came by... and then another Slovak conductor. (I went through same process as before with the class issue - he let me off the hook even though I didn't have a receipt from Hungarian conductor). Then more conductors and then Poland passport control and more conductors (again.. same scenario).
Who needs sleep anyway! What I really needed was a toilet. But one distant look (not to mention smell.. okay I'll mention it) at what the train had to offer and I decided to hold it. Sadly this slow-moving beast took an extra two hours to arrive. I thought of the Jews being transported to concentration camps and told myself to suck it up.
The best part of the trip was seeing the misty sunrise while riding through the Tatra mountains on the Slovak/Poland border. This was my first look outside - the little towns with tall church steeples were even more spectacular. I had been missing nature and that's when I decided I want to work in this area.
I was solicited on the train shortly before arriving in Krakow to stay at a hostel. I had planned on hosteling anyway, since my budget is pretty much blown. I accepted and they drove me to their place.
I wanted to snooze a couple hours before taking a shower and starting my day. The stench of last night's booze, stinky guys in the dorm and the horrible bed was the last straw for me. I waited for a turn in the shower then left and found a too-expensive-for-the-quality hotel. Turns out I'm not much into hosteling, even if it's more sociable and cheap.
My lesson? I'm a princess. I'll just have to make sure I always have enough dough in my bank account to do what I want. If not, well I'll always have something to write about.
posted by Ilsa @ Sunday, August 13, 2006
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