Day 13 - 1/07/23

 Gonna do this post a bit differently, seeing as I’m going to be doing nothing but sitting on a train for the next 18 hours I think I might live update this page as I go along so you can see my slow descent into insanity.

Started off this morning very slowly, as we all mustered up the energy to clean up the airbnb and leave by 11. Made it to the train station, which is absolutely beautiful. We came here to a different train station so I had never seen this one.

I was just walking back from the shop when I had a thought to myself that I couldn’t remember packing my passport. After nervously rummaging around my bag I couldn’t find it anyway. My brain went into panic mode - thinking of being stuck in Budapest on my own until the passport office can get me a new one. My first thought was to rush back to the hostel and see if I left it there, but I wasn’t hopeful as I checked everywhere to ensure I hadn’t left anything. Was just about to go down the escalator to the metro when I realised I had to buy a ticket. Of course, there was a huge queue, and I was stuck behind a woman who seemed to be intentionally trying to make me late by individually putting in about 20 coins. I finally got to the front of the queue when I got a call from Jagan - he had accidentally packed my passport in his bag. Crisis averted. Spent the next 10 minutes walking in circles as I had so much adrenaline.

An equally bad part of the day came when we booked our reservations. All the travelling forums had told us that we didn’t need to book our beds online, as we can just do it at the desk on the day. Our faces dropped when we asked to reserve 3 beds, and in broken English the woman responded ‘no bed’. As if an 18 hour train journey wasn’t bad enough, we now had to do it all sitting in a train seat. Got on our train which looked awful, ready to brave the next 18 hours with nothing but sandwiches and beer.

3:10pm

Just got on the train. Took about 15 minutes to understand the ticket.

Not sure if you can read that but I’m on ‘Vonat 79, Kocsi 424, Hely 055’. Air con is rubbish. Toilets are dirty and some are blocked. Sat opposite a young Eastern European man who is furiously writing in his notebook, with no spaces or paragraphs and all in capital letters. Sat next to this Hungarian-American family who made the clever choice of bringing iced water with them. I don’t think this is their first 18 hour train rodeo.

4:12pm

1/18 of the way through. Just found out there’s no shop on this train, but this lovely woman behind me said she has 6 litres of water incase I get thirsty. Turns out the man opposite me is Slovenian, and is actually really nice and speaks amazing English. I’ve gathered that the family next to me consists of a mother from Eastern Europe (exactly where is yet to be revealed), her daughter who has moved to America and speaks with an American accent now and her fully American husband. They spent 5 minutes asking for a bed in English to the ticket inspector who clearly speaks no English so I’m not sure what their goal was there. Still going strong, no wifi on this train which is unsurprising seeing as the train probably witnessed the 1956 Hungarian revolution in person.

5:04pm

Still hanging on, I presumed this train had no charging ports until the Slovenian man across from me told that they were actually on the underneath of the table (why on earth would you put them there?). Not much has happened in the last hour, the most exciting thing is that our train stopped at a station and 2 guys got on so now we have 2 more people part of the nightmare. Going through the more rural Hungarian towns, which are much less nice than Budapest, but they do have some beautiful churches. Thinking of breaking out the sandwiches soon. Hopefully by the next update I’ll be in Romania!

6:07pm

Still not in Romania, but getting very close. I think we gain an hour when we enter so it’ll be nice to gain an hour in my journey? The Eastern European mother appears to have got sick of the other two and is now playing on her phone on a separate table. Still not too bored, luckily the films I saved for the flight to Cape Verde are still on my phone so I might indulge in them soon. We stopped at a town and a lot of people got on but luckily none sat next to us.

8:19pm

Finally in Romania! Gained an hour which feels amazing. Only 12 to go. We’ve spent 45 minutes at the border now getting our passports checked - they’re very thorough and he looked at mine for about 3 minutes. According to Jagan they threw somebody off the train. Turns out the family next to me is from Ukraine, for all those excitedly waiting for an update. Got chatting to the Slovenian guy, we compared passports as he was disappointed he didn’t get a stamp and I did since he’s from the EU. He’s very interesting, he’s only 18 and I wondered how he could afford to travel for so long but it turns out he’s got an unlimited pass for 3 months, so he basically books overnight trains to sleep on instead of hostels and spends a day in each city and lives on peanut butter sandwiches and instant noodles. He’s been to most European cities already, he tells me that Sofia is very nice and that if I have the time I should visit the Black Sea as the weather is lovely and there’s nobody at the beaches. Apparently Thessaloniki is bad though, but he contributes most of that to the fact he’s not a fan of Greek people.

9:07

Spent the last hour chatting with the Slovenian man (I saw his passport and I think his name is Bit but I’m not sure if that’s his first name or second name!). He comes from a small village of 1000 people in Slovenia, which I think explains his love for travelling. He detailed his route, turns out he’s going to basically every country in Europe, from Albania to Finland to Ireland to Portugal, all of them. He’s even been to San Marino somehow. The Ukrainian-Americans keep trying to butt into our conversation, I try to be polite but he’s completely ignoring them. They happily showed us their Paddington Bear teddy which they’ve been taking everywhere. Nearly out of beers, might be bedtime soon!

10:09

Still going. Forgotten what it’s like to not be on a train at this point. Train is nearly full but me and Bit are still valiantly defending the table that we have. He’s sat by the window with his bag on the aisle seat and I’m sat on the aisle with the entire contents of my pockets and rubbish on the window seat. Recently found out he hasn’t showered in 2 weeks, and even that wasn’t really a shower, he just swam in the sea. Not sure what I was expecting from a man who lives on trains but I think I’ll opt for the handshake over the hug when I say goodbye. Cabin is starting to get cold now, apparently they don’t bother turning off the air con at night. Not tired yet, starting to get the sneaking suspicion this will be a 2 hour sleep kind of night. Think it might be time to watch When Harry met Sally to ease me through the next few hours.

11:05

Running out of things to say at this point, still on a train I guess. Spent most of the last hour watching When Harry met Sally. 9 hours to go, so I’m about halfway. Was watching the film on my phone when Dan came to say hello. When he went the Ukrainian-American couple offered me a beer that they had, which (to everybody’s surprise) I accepted. The wife is from Ukraine, and told me that in Ukraine the tables on trains have bottle openers on the bottom! This train journey is tiring but I think I’ve been blessed with a nice crew of people to help me through it. Can’t even read twitter anymore because Elon Musk decided it was a good business decision to limit the amount of tweets that non-payers can see. Can’t wait to see Twitter’s share price drop by 30% and he’ll be exposed as the fraud businessman he is.

1:35am

Sorry to all that have been up all night patiently awaiting my next exciting update. I’ve been in a conversation with the Ukrainian-American couple next to more for the last 2 or so hours. Had some nice conversations, the American (Chris) is a quantitative trader and the Ukrainian (Nita) does something I don’t know yet. They met online when Chris decided to move to Ukraine. The war occurred shortly after so they fled to Romania where they live now, and are considering moving back to the States. Me and Nita mentioned how if we were in danger, we would call the police, to which Chris burst out laughing. Turns out the police situation in America is as bad as it seems. I learnt about Ukrainian superstitions too - apparently whistling indoors means you will lose all your money, a superstition that Chris has adopted and no longer whistles indoors. They’re both big James Bond fans, and were disappointed at my lack of knowledge of the franchise as a British person. Bit is fast asleep on the seats ahead of me. Feeling a bit tired now, might go to bed soon. Want to finish my film but not sure how to politely end the conversation.

2:40am

There are few times in my life that I hate being tall. Now is one. Had my first decent sleep all night before a ticket inspector kicked my legs away to walk down the aisle. Physically cannot contort my body to find a comfortable position. Romanian twat playing Balkan folk music out of his phone. 

This is Bit for all those intrigued. Very envious of the 4 hours of sleep he’s already achieved.

3:03am

Couldn’t get back to sleep. Didn’t occur to the train company that at 3am people might not like the lights to be as bright as a surgical suite. Only 5 hours to go. The 10 hour journey from Bucharest to Sofia seems like light work now. Having dreams about flopping into bed as soon as we reach the AirBnb. Even an experienced train sleeper like Bit is struggling now. Got When Harry met Sally on but can only pay half attention to the film in the trance that I’m in.

3:49am

Was enjoying my film when all of a sudden the Ukrainian woman next to me got in a screaming match with some people down the carriage. Not quite sure about the nature of the argument but I heard her yelling ‘DELETE THAT VIDEO’. Woke up everybody on the train so now we’re all a bit sleep deprived and grumpy. Except Bit, who is still sleeping peacefully.

6:02am

Solid amount of sleeping done. Realised that a face down and neck pillow on table combo can work wonders. 2 hours to go now, cannot wait. Humid, hot and sticky on this train, every time I wake up I have to wipe the sweat off my face.

7:38am

Nearly there! Just said goodbye to Bit. Really really thirsty, can’t wait for a cold bottle of water.

8:24

Actually nearly there now. The Ukrainian mother who doesn’t speak any English wrote ‘thank you for the company’ to me on google translate which was lovely. Still dreaming of this bottle of water.