Day 7 - Budapest & Back

We got up at 5:15AM with early anticipation of heading over to Budapest for a day trip from Vienna. We were unable to procure a ticket the day before cause it was Saturday and the OBB ticket offices were closed and we could not print them on-line per their system. We were assured by the hotel front desk that it would be "no problem" to get one at the station and there would be people there to help us early Sunday AM. So we arrived at the Wien Meidling train station by about 6AM and then tried to purchase one at the automated machine. We, along with some people trying to go to Russia, played around with the machines and could not get one to our destination, despite using the English language icon on the machine. The train was to leave at 7:03AM and by 6:55AM we had no ticket and there was no one available to help or assist. It was looking bad, so I began to lobby for us just jumping on the train and hoping we could buy one onboard. Carol's eyes began to tear up as she thought the worst, that she would spend Mother's Day in an Austrian jail for unlawful train hopping. Just before the train was to pull away I ran up to a conductor at the very end of the train and asked if onboard purchase was a possibility and he said, "sure, no problem". So we hopped on, not knowing our eventual fate or how we were going to get back later in the day. All I knew was that we were on the train heading in the right direction. Sure enough the Train Auditor came along and we used our credit card to purchase two tickets only to the Hungarian border. At the border, we had to buy two more tickets for the rest of the way upon entering Hungary. No passports were check at the Hungarian border.  

We arrived at the Budapest Keleti train station right on time (9:50AM). It was a scenic ride across the countryside and we saw lots of farmland, villages, small cars and wind turbines. The weather was so much nicer in Budapest than Vienna that day so we were so glad we went for that reason alone. Budapest was like entering a whole new world. Much less developed infrastructure and it was pretty worn down around the train station, but a building and growing city in many respects. We had difficulty locating any maps, or currency exchange initially, but kind of followed the crowd and soon found ourselves in the subway and purchased a day ticket that would enable hop on / hop off all around town.

We initially jumped on a subway taking us across the river where we walked around and saw a cave church, some famous Budapest baths (picture above), and took scenic pics across the Duna (Danube River).  We were getting hungry in Hungary and had no money so walked across the bridge and found a currency exchange and a tourist area with lots of restaurants and souvenir shops, so we were in our element at that point. After lunch we went to the Harley Davidson shop and then went back across the river on a tram and ended up at the castle area where a huge Palinka Festival (some kind of fruity alcoholic drink) was taking place. We rode the Funicular (tram that goes up the side of a hill) up to the castle and there was lots of food, sweets, pastries, traditional Hungarian dancers in costume, some Hungarian pastries just like my grandmother, mother and sister make, and much to see and do, along with plenty of souvenirs.

We then went back across the Duna River and rode the #2 tram up and down a few times and felt like we had seem all we wanted to see so made plans to head back to Vienna on the 5:10 train. Again we had no ticket and purchased one onboard. There was less certainty this time though as the train was very crowded and we didn't know how much the return trip might cost. Sure enough, we had to pay a premium on the Hungary side, but the Austrian side was the same fare as in the AM.  We talked a lot of the way with a young Hungarian gal that was an Anesthesiologist that worked in Germany and was going back to work.

We got back to our Vienna hotel before dark and asked at the front desk what was good going on in Vienna that night. A gal from Prague asked if we'd been to Schweitzerhouse and we got directions. It apparently is a Vienna standard and had authentic Austrian food. The restaurant was cash only and sells the world's biggest pork hock. I ordered one.  It has a weight of 1 kilogram or 2.2 pounds and was so much more that I could eat.  The marinated coleslaw was delicious also. Carol ordered some sausage which came to her as white sausage floating in water. She could not eat it so requested something more pleasant to look at. She did sample my pork hock and agreed it was tasty. The pork hock is deep fried and is like eating the bet pork rinds you've ever tasted.  Also, it's the size of about three of my fists (see photo). 

Monday AM we have plans to go to one open air market we haven't seen yet in Vienna and then catch the 12:10 train to Prague (Praha). This time we have first class tickets, but no seat assignment. Hope things work out.