We finally made it to Zagreb, Croatia, after the longest travel day we have had so far. In fact, it took longer to get from Budapest to Zagreb than it did from Detroit to Amsterdam. The distance from Detroit to Amsterdam: Almost 4,000 miles, or 7.5 hours on a plane. The distance from Budapest to Zagreb: About 200 miles, or about 8.5 hours via our train!
We arrived at the train station in Budapest around 12:30 p.m., about an hour before the train was supposed to leave. We tried to make a reservation but the agent said we didn't need one, as it was open seating.
Since there is only one train a day from Budapest to Zagreb, we decided to get on board as early as possible to get a seat. It turned out to be our best decision of the day. Some of the train cars in first class have six-seat cabins, so we found a cabin that had a couple of open seats and began waiting for the train to leave.
At about 1:10 p.m. a couple from Norway and their two children arrived at the cabin and said they had reservations for four of the six seats. It just happened that Chris and I were not sitting in the seats they had reserved, as everyone else had to leave the cabin to find other seats on what was already a full train.
As we left the station, the aisles in our train's car were full and several passengers were standing. It was hot, steamy and uncomfortable for the next six hours. We also had the bad luck of having three loud Hungarian guys standing right outside our cabin drinking, yelling and being pretty obnoxious. They got off the train about two hours into the trip, which caused smiles and several rounds of applause from all of us sitting close to them.
The train seemed to stop about every 20 minutes or so and it didn't cool down until after the sun started to sit around 8:30 p.m. We were supposed to arrive in Zagreb around 7:40 p.m. but it was closer to 10 p.m. A few interesting stories from along the way:
+ Once we arrived in Croatia, we had to present our passport for the first time since we arrived in Amsterdam. A police office came on board, looked at our passports and then stamped them. Finally, a stamp! About five minutes later, another officer came on board and asked to see our passports again. This time he also wanted to see another form of identification. I gave him my driver's license. Then, he wanted to see a credit card that had my name. Finally, he stamped our passports again. Two stamps in five minutes in the same country! Chris had to present his passport and driver's license, and the official asked him what his middle name was. Good thing we both had the correct documents and answers!
+ Around 8:30 p.m. we stopped again for what seemed like the 30th time since we left. We started moving and noticed that the first part of the train had separated and that those cars were sitting on the tracks as we were leaving ... and those passengers were Zagreb bound, too! A few minutes later, however, we returned and the cars reattached. They were now the tail cars instead of the lead cars. Strange.
On a positive note, we enjoyed sharing a cabin with the Norwegians. The adults spoke English very well and shared some snacks with us along the way. Despite the fact that we were all hot, sweaty and uncomfortable, we were with good company. We have met so many kind people along the way, especially the workers at the hostel in which we stayed in Budapest. They were very accommodating when we arrived and again today when we checked out.
Once we arrived in Zagreb, we walked about 800 meters to the bus station to buy tickets to travel to Plitvice Lakes National Park first thing in the morning. It is the oldest national park in southeast Europe and the largest one in Croatia. It is home to waterfalls, lakes, mountains, flora and fauna and more. I can't wait to get there tomorrow to hike ... and write about it afterward.
We made our way to our hostel and arrived around 10:30 p.m. We were planning to stay in a four-bed shared dorm but were moved to a six-bed shared room because of a booking error. Oh well.
We found a slice of pizza for dinner ... here was dinner (sorry, I didn't get many pictures today since we were traveling.)
Dinner ... ham and mushroom pizza in a sack.
We also made some hostel reservations for the coming week. We have all of our hostels booked now except for our last two nights in Lisbon. It feels good not to have to worry about that part of the trip from here on out.
Thanks for following along!
Justin
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