Moving on to Budapest

8/09/2008

Today we are on the move again. We made our lunch from the breakfast rations and have plenty of fruit.

We arrived at the Krakow Glowny (railway station) early and waited for our train platform to be displayed on the board. We shared the waiting room with other transient travellers and a flock of pigeons who hung around us like they knew we had lunch.

We had a few zelotis left and managed to use these up on a few postcards, by pointing to the postcards and showing our coins to the kiosk lady who helpfully came out of her booth and with a big grin took the coins while we chose our postcards.

We boarded the train and have a carriage all to ourselves which is comfortable. The toilet is the worst we have seen - it doesn't look like it has been cleaned in weeks.

Slovakia has some interesting contrasts - beautiful countryside then pockets of heavy industry and high rise buildings. A lot in very poor shape. During the communist rule the was changed from agriculture to industry and was the nation that produced Russian tanks. Now it is one of the biggest producers of cars and car parts.

On arrival in Budapest our B&B hosts Judit, had arranged for a taxi driver to meet us at the train. We had a few worrying minutes when we thought the taxi was no show. We had lots of other taxi drivers trying to hassle us take us for a ride and we had been pre warned about this. Taxi drivers are renowned for rip offs when hiring from the station and will give you a price for a fare, and then charge the same for each person and for each piece of luggage as well - so 4 times the going rate in our case.

So I just ignored this guy who kept saying ˝excuse please˝ - he finally wrote on a piece of cardboard ˝Watt˝. So we were so relieved to see our name. He was a jovial chap and gave us asight seeing tour in his broken english on the way to the B&B.

We got the grand greeting from Judit s husband ˝Sit down and I will make you a cup of tea˝. (Definitely deserves a gold kangaroo) The room was just ˝Wow!˝and we both had the best nights sleep.