Joe Fits in Mitteleuropa
It turned out I had a bit more time in Venice than I thought when I sent in my last update, since the overnight train to Budapest was delayed an hour. So I went out for a walk, and ended up seeing almost nothing of Venice, instead of absolutely nothing.
Just before the train left (April 20), I found out the Italian railway authorities had thrown up one last difficulty: I had no valid ticket for either Slovenia or Croatia, both of which countries the night train would pass through on its was to Hungary. My Eurail pass is valid in both Italy and Hungary, and I had assumed the train would go through Austria, where it is also valid. But apparently I was wrong. The Hungarian sleeping-car conductor explained that I would have to leave him 60 Euros (along with my railpass) so he could buy the tickets during the night at the border crossings. The Venice train station was pretty much closed, with nobody on duty at any ticket office, but the train crew I managed to talk to (with my phrasebook) agreed that there was a problem with my ticket. I handed over the 60 Euros with what I hoped was not ill grace.
I shared a two-person cabin with an Italian, who spoke some English and seemed nice. We were awakened twice during the night, approximately at the Slovenian and Croatian borders I suppose, although I was too groggy to do much more than hand over my passport.
The Croatian customs official was the first of the trip to look through my entire passport including all the Central Asian visas, but he said nothing and merely gave me an entry stamp.
I woke up around 6:30 (April 21) as we were passing through Zagreb, a town I had not expected to visit at all. It was obvious we were now in eastern Europe, with different-looking buildings, cars, and so forth. The conductor came by soon after and told me that I had been lucky, and that neither the Slovenians nor the Croatians had checked for tickets. He then handed my money back, although I certainly would have been none the wiser if he'd kept it. I tipped him 5 Euros.
We entered Hungary soon after that, and it was obviously a wealthier place than Croatia. The sun was out, and there was a lot of activity in the fields, often with what seemed to be new tractors and other machines. The Hungarians did check tickets along with passports, but now my railpass was good. I busied myself with some sewing on my jacket--the velcro for closing one of the pockets had torn off.
By midmorning we reached Lake Balaton, according to mx guidebook the largest lake in Europe south of Scandinavia. It's about 70 km long, and the southern side, where the tracks ran, was almost entirely covered with vacation homes and resorts. Some of them were new and some clearly dated back to the communist period, although most of the old ones had been renovated with satellite dishes and new roofs. After the lake the terrain stayed flat until we pulled in Pest and could see the hills of Buda across the river.
I had reserved a room, which I found without too much of a problem, but nobody answered the door. I went out and had a late lunch and when I returned the door was answered by a Scottish guitar player, whose band I later found out was called the Dead Guzs, and Iwas able to check in to what turned out to be a very newly founded hostel. I never saw the Scot again, nor did I see much of anyone who worked there, but since I had a key and could come and go as I pleased it didn't matter. After meeting my roommates, a Frenchwoman and a German, I took the subway across the Danube to Buda and climbed Castle Hill, with great views of the city.
The next day I visited two museums, both several miles out of Budapest. First I went north along the Danube by commuter rail to a town called Szentendre, where they have an open-air musem of traditional villages from all parts of Hungary. The houses had walls up to 18 inches thick, and they seemed to stay cool very well. All of them were fully furnished, with the periods ranging from the mid-1800s to the early 1950s, and there were also well preserved windmills, winepresses, and blacksmith shops. One of the principal duties of the many attendants was to warn people of the low ceilings and doorways, although this was not a problem for me. I was impressed by the extremely solid construction and roofing of the pigsties next to most of the houses. Apparently in traditional Hungarian society people liked their pigs and had significant problems with bears and wolves. As I walked around I was repeatedly addressed in Hungarian, which was nice. I almost bought the guidebook, but after all the problems I had previously with sending a package back I decided against it.
I got back into Budapest in late afternoon and headed for Szobor Park (Statue Park), south of town (I think the park has a website, but I haven't seen it). After the overthrow of the Hungarian communists, many of the communist monuments in Budapest were moved to one location, where they can be stared at and photographed by capitalist tourists. I thought this was a great idea when I heard of it, but the execution leaves something to be desired. The park is well into the suburbs and it takes a long time to reach if you don't have a car. Nor does it take long to see all the exhibits, impressive as they are. And after that there's nothing to do but wait for the bus back into town--I walked around the vicinity for 15 minutes without finding a bar, a store, or anything else worth visiting. Our group consisted of 8 or 9 Italians (one of whem fortunately spoke French), myself, and another American, a retiree who was flying around the world in 30 days visiting all the continents. Even with the boring waits, I liked the park and was glad I visited. My favorite item was a statue of some Hungarian communist hack who had got his monument put up in 1988, which meant it couldn't have been on display more than a year or so. Most of the statues were in good shape, although the Soviet-Hungarian Friendship monument showed sledgehammer marks.
On Sunday (April 23) I stayed in Budapest and visited the National Museum, which had good displays of Roman ruins and then covered Hunarian history intensively after 1600 or so, but without much in between. After that I had a heavy Hungarian meal (a bit more sour cream was involved than I had anticipated), and I went to a thermal spa as an aid to digestion. I was there about an hour, and from the signs in the entrance hall I probably cured every medical problem I could have had. Even discounting the miraculous properties of hot mineral water, it was very relaxing. I passed on some offered treatments that sounded like infernal East Bloc tortures (Gingival shower? Ultrasonic massage?). When I got back to the hostel I was surprised to find that the other guests had prepared a dinner, which they kindly invited me to share. The chicken stir-fry was probably healthier than whatever I would have found on my own.
Today I will be heading into Romania, out of the EU. I don't think there's anything in my luggage to cause a problem, but I suppose I'll find out if there is.
Just before the train left (April 20), I found out the Italian railway authorities had thrown up one last difficulty: I had no valid ticket for either Slovenia or Croatia, both of which countries the night train would pass through on its was to Hungary. My Eurail pass is valid in both Italy and Hungary, and I had assumed the train would go through Austria, where it is also valid. But apparently I was wrong. The Hungarian sleeping-car conductor explained that I would have to leave him 60 Euros (along with my railpass) so he could buy the tickets during the night at the border crossings. The Venice train station was pretty much closed, with nobody on duty at any ticket office, but the train crew I managed to talk to (with my phrasebook) agreed that there was a problem with my ticket. I handed over the 60 Euros with what I hoped was not ill grace.
I shared a two-person cabin with an Italian, who spoke some English and seemed nice. We were awakened twice during the night, approximately at the Slovenian and Croatian borders I suppose, although I was too groggy to do much more than hand over my passport.
The Croatian customs official was the first of the trip to look through my entire passport including all the Central Asian visas, but he said nothing and merely gave me an entry stamp.
I woke up around 6:30 (April 21) as we were passing through Zagreb, a town I had not expected to visit at all. It was obvious we were now in eastern Europe, with different-looking buildings, cars, and so forth. The conductor came by soon after and told me that I had been lucky, and that neither the Slovenians nor the Croatians had checked for tickets. He then handed my money back, although I certainly would have been none the wiser if he'd kept it. I tipped him 5 Euros.
We entered Hungary soon after that, and it was obviously a wealthier place than Croatia. The sun was out, and there was a lot of activity in the fields, often with what seemed to be new tractors and other machines. The Hungarians did check tickets along with passports, but now my railpass was good. I busied myself with some sewing on my jacket--the velcro for closing one of the pockets had torn off.
By midmorning we reached Lake Balaton, according to mx guidebook the largest lake in Europe south of Scandinavia. It's about 70 km long, and the southern side, where the tracks ran, was almost entirely covered with vacation homes and resorts. Some of them were new and some clearly dated back to the communist period, although most of the old ones had been renovated with satellite dishes and new roofs. After the lake the terrain stayed flat until we pulled in Pest and could see the hills of Buda across the river.
I had reserved a room, which I found without too much of a problem, but nobody answered the door. I went out and had a late lunch and when I returned the door was answered by a Scottish guitar player, whose band I later found out was called the Dead Guzs, and Iwas able to check in to what turned out to be a very newly founded hostel. I never saw the Scot again, nor did I see much of anyone who worked there, but since I had a key and could come and go as I pleased it didn't matter. After meeting my roommates, a Frenchwoman and a German, I took the subway across the Danube to Buda and climbed Castle Hill, with great views of the city.
The next day I visited two museums, both several miles out of Budapest. First I went north along the Danube by commuter rail to a town called Szentendre, where they have an open-air musem of traditional villages from all parts of Hungary. The houses had walls up to 18 inches thick, and they seemed to stay cool very well. All of them were fully furnished, with the periods ranging from the mid-1800s to the early 1950s, and there were also well preserved windmills, winepresses, and blacksmith shops. One of the principal duties of the many attendants was to warn people of the low ceilings and doorways, although this was not a problem for me. I was impressed by the extremely solid construction and roofing of the pigsties next to most of the houses. Apparently in traditional Hungarian society people liked their pigs and had significant problems with bears and wolves. As I walked around I was repeatedly addressed in Hungarian, which was nice. I almost bought the guidebook, but after all the problems I had previously with sending a package back I decided against it.
I got back into Budapest in late afternoon and headed for Szobor Park (Statue Park), south of town (I think the park has a website, but I haven't seen it). After the overthrow of the Hungarian communists, many of the communist monuments in Budapest were moved to one location, where they can be stared at and photographed by capitalist tourists. I thought this was a great idea when I heard of it, but the execution leaves something to be desired. The park is well into the suburbs and it takes a long time to reach if you don't have a car. Nor does it take long to see all the exhibits, impressive as they are. And after that there's nothing to do but wait for the bus back into town--I walked around the vicinity for 15 minutes without finding a bar, a store, or anything else worth visiting. Our group consisted of 8 or 9 Italians (one of whem fortunately spoke French), myself, and another American, a retiree who was flying around the world in 30 days visiting all the continents. Even with the boring waits, I liked the park and was glad I visited. My favorite item was a statue of some Hungarian communist hack who had got his monument put up in 1988, which meant it couldn't have been on display more than a year or so. Most of the statues were in good shape, although the Soviet-Hungarian Friendship monument showed sledgehammer marks.
On Sunday (April 23) I stayed in Budapest and visited the National Museum, which had good displays of Roman ruins and then covered Hunarian history intensively after 1600 or so, but without much in between. After that I had a heavy Hungarian meal (a bit more sour cream was involved than I had anticipated), and I went to a thermal spa as an aid to digestion. I was there about an hour, and from the signs in the entrance hall I probably cured every medical problem I could have had. Even discounting the miraculous properties of hot mineral water, it was very relaxing. I passed on some offered treatments that sounded like infernal East Bloc tortures (Gingival shower? Ultrasonic massage?). When I got back to the hostel I was surprised to find that the other guests had prepared a dinner, which they kindly invited me to share. The chicken stir-fry was probably healthier than whatever I would have found on my own.
Today I will be heading into Romania, out of the EU. I don't think there's anything in my luggage to cause a problem, but I suppose I'll find out if there is.
posted by jeros | 5:58 PM
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