Sunday, July 6, 2014

After a long sweaty walk through the streets of Budapest rolling our luggage (note to self-pack lighter), we made it to the train station.  It was a little bit confusing trying to figure out where we were supposed to get on the train, but we found it.  There are only about a dozen people in our car, which seats quite a few more than that. Several of the other attendees are supposed to be on this train, but we have not seen them yet. They might be in the sleeper cars. 

The train itself is pretty old and dingy.  The green velour seats and green sparkly floors have no doubt be the decor for some time. We settled in to the seats in hopes of getting some sleep. The train got underway shortly after at 23:27. They don't wait very long at each stop for people to get on and off. I struggled to find a comfortable position to sit. My legs are too long to sit sideways and it stretches them oddly to put them on the seat in front of me. Just as soon as Matt fell asleep, a rail employee showed up to check our tickets.  She looked them over, wrote something illegible and handed them back.  I tried to sleep. Everyone always describes the sound a train makes as a chug-a-chug-a-chug, but I beg to differ.  It's more like a crazed toddler with a metal bat beating on the side of an aluminum shed to a four count, with bumps on the tracks to go along. 

At least every hour, we stop at either a train station or what seems to just be a wide spot in the tracks. The train engine turns off and we sit. Sometimes when the train starts again, I swear we are headed back the way we came from.  At dusk, or around 4am, a half dozen police officers in blue uniforms with bright yellow vests boarded the train and requested our passports.  Mine and Matt's were handed over to a specific officer, while the others moved on to check the rest of the train. A group of French teenage backpackers had to open their bags to be searched. The officer with our passports made some notes and we received our second passport stamp.  The police left and we moved down the tracks a short distance before we stopped for them to do whatever it is they do at each stop.  They train people came in after every stop to check tickets. Eventually they stopped asking for mine.  

The train got hotter as the day went on. I kept trying to sleep, but that's hard to do sitting up.  We finally arrived at our station where we were greeted by a child beggar  I guess that is a common occurrence. We met up with out group and boarded a bus to drive to the hotel(s) the lab group stays in one and the field group in another. We have our first lab day in a half hour, so I will go ahead and post this and blog more later. 

I decided to use the restroom during this time.  I headed for the end of the car that had WC over the door. The bathroom was off to the left in between the cars.  Don't picture me straddling the couplings with wind whipping my hair around. The end of the cars are all enclosed.  My description of the bathroom would be 10 times worse than a port-a-potty at the fairgrounds on a hot day in July. It was super nasty.  I hesitated to use it, but you gotta do what you gotta do.  I returned to my seat and the train is still sitting, waiting. I am sweaty, and sticky and I feel like I haven't showered in a month.

Our passports were just checked by Romanian officers and we received our third passport stamps. The officer that was checking them scribbled some information down in pencil on a folded up sheet of paper that looked like it had been in his pocket for some time.  A new passenger boarded the train.  We have been sitting for almost an hour this time. 

 Train Station


On the train...

 Hungarian $
















 A lot of empty fields went by...

The Loo-Ick!!!






Passport stamps...








My room...so pink!



The hotel...

The town of Odorheui...





No comments:

Post a Comment