27hr Train Ride

Okay so lets go back to Tuesday 29th of September...

After blogging about Bran I then went out with the Kiwi guy for a couple of drinks and a chat; it was really cool as human interaction has been rather limited within this trip ... however I knew I had a long day ahead of me. After an hour or so we parted and I had my final meal in Brasov (I went to the same restaurant as the previous two nights ... I had something different though; grilled chicken with salad, a mineral water ... which was sparkling and 2 pancakes with ice cream ... all for eight pounds, bargain!).

MP3 track of the day: The Killers - Are we human or are we dancer

Waking up a 7am I got ready and headed to the train station ... buying breakfast on the way (umm ... spicy pizza) I found my platform ... however (and for some reason I understood the announcement) there was a platform change which resulted in a Chinese bloke asking me what was going on.

Anyway I was aboard the 12hr journey to Budapest. Now this has always been a bit of a mystery to me why it takes around 12hrs to get from Brasov to Budapest but something like 6 hours from Vienna to Berlin. However this mystery has been solved ... the Romanian trains go so slowly. I was discussing this in the hostel with the Spanish guys a couple of nights ago and they agreed; travelling by Romanian public transport takes hours to get anywhere ... they had hired a car because they said it was faster and sure enough, along my trip back to Budapest, I saw a car over take me ... a lorry ... a bus .... a horse and cart ... a 'yoof' on a skateboard and a little girl on roller-blades. In the end I did wonder if the train engine was powered by AA batteries ... at a platform I thought 'any minute now some Romanian train official dude will be running past with a packet of Duracell AA batteries'.

However I sat down, enjoyed the view, and began charging all my electrical equipment (which took the entire journey). We arrived at Budapest an hour late ... it was okay though as I had plenty of time to grab a McDonald's and head back for my connecting train.

My next train left Budapest at 9:45 and got to Munich at 6:15 ... I decided I would purchase a bed and get some sleep ... however you had to book these way in advance (which I didn't as I wasn't sure my AA powered train would make it on time). So I went into a 2nd class carriage and tried to get some sleep ...


... of course I got very little; sharing with four other people didn't help and one took his shoes off and a cheesy smell filled the cabin (foreigners). Anyway I arrived (late) to Munich and I bought some breakfast and got on my third and final train. This was an ICE train which was fantastic. This part of the journey I hadn't done before so I got a window seat and stared out into the foggy morning ... it was beautiful.

Alas I could stare for ever as 'cheese boy' had robbed me of some sleep ... I decided to get a power nap of 20 mins or so and then I was fine for the rest of the journey.

I couldn't wait to arrive in Cologne and it seemed weird being back at a station I was at on the 3rd day of my voyage (I had to swap trains at Cologne on my way to Berlin). I purchased my reservation for Brussels in 2 days time and headed to the underground.

I found my hostel no problem however I was very early and I couldn't go to my room to sleep. I decided to leave my luggage in the luggage room (pack-safed of course) and take my netbook up to do abit of surfing and book my Brussels Hostel and my train tickets home.

After two hours of trying to use there poxy, good for nothing, slow speed WI-FI I headed out and found this Internet cafe ... It's okay and at €2 for 80 mins quite cheap ... however the 'z' and the 'y' are mixed up on this keyboard leading to no end of problems. I went to book my hostel in Brussels but disaster ... it was all mostly booked up; in the end I had to resign to the fact that I could not stay the three nights I wanted and I could only stay two.

Therefore I booked my Euro Star as late as possible on Monday (around 8pm) for the small sum of 59 pounds (there is no pound sign on this keyboard either) and then a train ticket back to Derby, for 11 pounds, getting home just after midnight ... so in a way my tour is lasting until Tuesday.

However at the moment I am looking forwards to the end ... yes I am tired, and I've got megga 'train movement syndrome', and I'm hungry, and annoyed (probably read that thought this post) so I do feel like I want to go home ... however, after a good nights sleep I reckon I'll feel much better tomorrow!

The plan now I suppose is to check in, have a early dinner and then go to sleep ... tomorrow the Dom and hopefully a chocolate factory; I choose this over the many art museums as they give you free tasters from a chocolate fountain ... or so I read in my guide book.

Toodle Pip!