Sunday, October 02, 2005
The Great Train Caper
Normally when we go on vacation, we rent a car and just set out to see what we can see. The professor will drive anywhere -- Rome, Paris, Japan. A couple of years ago we had planned to drive from Munich to Budapest, but the rental car company threatened to tie us to a chair and play Tiny Tim's "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" 20 times if we drove the car into Eastern Europe. (I didn't mean to be so alliterative, and I apologize if any of you now have that awful song stuck in your head.) The guide book talked about Romania having pot holes big enough to swallow up a small city, and I'd always wanted to ride the train in Europe, so we decided we would take the Budapest to Bucharest train. Not the best decision of my life!
We got a 1st class sleeper. It turned out to be something about the size of a closet, with 2 bunks which took up all but a foot of the floor space. There were two bathrooms, one at either end of the car. One had a shower, which someone had used -- water all over the floor, dirty shower -- we used the bathroom at the other end. Silly me, I thought 1st class meant our own bathroom. (Am I a spoiled American or what!)
Now I know what you're all wondering, so here's the scoop... Oh, excuse me a moment ... [uh, Guppy, would you close your eyes for a couple of sentences] ... If you think water beds add a whole new dimension to things, then you would probably love the train. If you think the damn things take on their own rhythm which is not in sync with yours, then there are some things you will not enjoy on a train, expecially when you have about the size of a crib to work in and you are getting cramps in your legs because there is nowhere to put them and you're having to be very quiet and the train makes some funky turns that throw you off balance... Okay, you've been warned. [You can open your eyes now, Guppy.]
We just got to sleep when there was a knock on our door. It was the Hungarian border patrol checking passports. They were very thorough -- wrote down a bunch of stuff, went off with our passports, presumably to check us against a terrorist list. We got going again, barely back to sleep and there was another knock: "Passports!" I mumbled that they'd already been checked, and this Romanian border guard snarled "Magyars!" Now I believe that Magyars are the original tribe that became Hungarians, but obviously there is no love lost between Hungarians and Romanians. So the Romanians checked, but as I woke up more I noticed that these guys were HOT and started not to mind the intrusion so much. One border guard even expressed his sympathy for the hurricane and floods in New Orleans, which I thought was really sweet.
In the morning we looked out the window and saw the Transylvanian mists rising. We decided not to go all the way to Bucharest, but to get off at a little town called Sinia -- a simply lovely little town in a valley between two mountains. Because we were in the Bucharest car, we were far from the platform when the train stopped, and had to wade (because by now it was cold and raining hard) through mud and city-sized potholes. But that was part of the adventure.
Taking the train back to Budapest was another story. Because we did not get on in a major city, we could not make reservations for the sleeper car, but had to arrange it with the conductor when we boarded the train, at 11:30 PM. He said yes, he had 2 berths, and knocked on a compartment door a couple of times, then opened the door with a key. There was a passenger asleep in the bottom bunk! Now I was absolutely exhausted, so I just climbed into the middle bunk and let the Professor have the top one. I was so tired that I slept clutching my passport and would open one eye and hold it out to whomever asked for it. I slept through breakfast in the morning. What waked me was our fellow bunkmate coming into the compartment and saying good morning. When I opened my eyes, his face was about a foot from mine. I can honestly say that I slept with this guy and never even knew his name!
3 Comments:
Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd pop over here and see my mom talking about sex on a train.... Life is strange.....
AKKKKKKKK!!!!! OMG that was TMI ..
I just found out my MIL is a lil freaky deeky ..lmao that is hilarious .
Glad to see you are embracing your blog as well as your man ...lol
If you two had closed your eyes as asked, you wouldn't be having this problem, now would you.
Post a Comment
<< Home