May 23 (my son Ben's 40th birthday!!) page 80 |
2005 BALKANS TOURBen Oostdam |
arrival in Budapest |
| The train arrived at Budapest station about 05:30, just after I had finally fallen asleep. The Canadian girl dragged her Australian friend along and got off without saying a word. I was too slow to get off ,and the train started moving again, making me wonder whether I would end up in Vienna or in Moscow. The two conductors who looked like brothers told me not to worry, that we would get back into the station as soom as another train arrived. They were talking English together, because one was Austrian, the other Polish. They proved right, but I still had to walk the length of the "perron" to get into the station where everything was closed except the toilets. |
| I sat down in a small plaza on a cold stone seat, close to a half dozen homeless people sleeping on the cold benches, and sympathized with them. Rather than wait for the tourist info to open, I left the station and tried my luck at the closest hotel, Park. The receptionist told me they were full up, and that a single room cost over 100 Euro. She referred me to a small hotel across the square, close to a Pizza place. I crossed "on the level" rather than underground, and found that the Hotel Baross was on the fifth floor, accessible by a small elevator. They were also almost full but I could book a room after 1 p.m. for about 70 Euro per night; how long did I want to stay? I said possibly two nights, upon which she (a pleasant girl named Timea) told me that she would hold a reservation for 2 nights till 6 pm that evening when I would have to confirm. I was allowed to leave my luggage in a locked room, which was a great relief, as was a quick visit to their clean bathroom. |
| Back on the street I had to spend all morning roaming around rather than sleeping - which was what I would have preferred. First, I stopped at a nearby McDonald's - against my principles - and had a 180 forint coffee and 240 forint Bacon McMuffin. I saw some arrows on the sidewalk "Internet" and followed them till I arrived at a small shop where the owner happened to be 2 hours before officially opening at 10:00 AM, and let me use Hotmail for an hour at 400 forints. |