My first experience on an overnight was pretty good, to be honest. The ride from Zurich, Switzerland to Budapest, Hungary is just shy of 13 hours. So we departed Zurich at about 10:45pm and will get to Budapest in a couple hours, before noon.
There were only three people in my six berth couchette, so that helped make it a little more comfortable, as we each had our own level. The setup is that it is a little cabin that converts from a sitting setup to a sleeping setup. In the sitting setup, there are two rows of 3 seats, facing each other. There is a narrow aisle between them, so with 6 people sitting, it would be a bit crowded. The upper level of beds seems to stay folded down but is over 6 feet off the ground, so they’re barely noticable when sitting. The seat level then folds down into the lower level of beds, and finally there’s a middle level that’s can be folded down out of the wall.
When the beds are all out, there is only about a foot and a half between them. So it did feel a little bit private to have only one of us on each tier. They supply sheets, a small pillow and a blanket, and it’s all pretty clean for the most part.
I have two Hungarians in my car, but the third one had family next couchette over so only came in to sleep. The other guy is Andrash (sp), a really nice chap who was in Germany interviewing for a position with a hospital. He’s just wrapping up his PhD, studying to be a physicist. He felt pretty confident that he had the job, so we split a bottle of wine to celebrate and had a great conversation. Like many of the guys I’ve encountered while travelling, he knows a bit about American sports and enjoys talking about it. He even knew all about Michael Jordan’s professional baseball days. He also was happy to hear I was a Queens Park Rangers supporter, as one of their top players, Akos Buzsaky, is a Hungarian.
Anyway, we have about 3 hours until Budapest, and since many of the passengers got off the train at Vienna and other stops, there are a few open couchettes. This has allowed us to be able to spread out and most of us have our own cabins at this point. The ride is a very nice one as we make our way through the Hungarian countryside. Cornfields and prairies are predominant, with the ocassional small town.
I debated how much I would utilize overnight trains. There are definitely pros and cons. The pros are that they are pretty cheap and you don’t burn a day travelling. The options to get from Zurich to Budapest are an all day train or an all night train. While I would’ve really enjoyed seeing the Alps after leaving Zurich, it was pitch black during that leg of the trip. So that’s the one downside.
Zurich itself was an amazing place to see. After spending time in tourist havens like London, Paris, Roma, Amsterdam, and Barcelona, it was nice to go to a more relaxed destination. There are tourists, but not as many, and most of them are outdoorsy types. The city itself is exceptionally clean and scenic, it’s easy to tell why it gets the #1 ranking for best quality of life. The people are very happy and very active.
My friend Tilman hosted me. Tilman’s a great character, he was actually born in Chicago but raised in Germany. He’s quite the musician, having played drums in a couple of moderately successful bands. But now he works for GM and was sent to Zurich on assignment. His flat was pretty incredible and he quickly admitted that it only was so posh because his company was picking up the tab. It was right in the city, so it only took 5 minutes on the tram to get there.
Immediately after I arrived, he took me on a biking tour of the city. The city center is at the north end of Lake Zurich, a very scenic lake surrounded by mountains. On the horizon you could see the snowy tops of the Alps. Then a river runs into the city, making for some very scenic walks.
The most interesting part about the river is that it’s so clean that they have “swimming pools” built into the river. They are wooded structures that are built into the river and provide a deck around a rectangular swimming pool made up of the river water. It looks just as clean as a man made swimming pool and at nighttime, they double as a very nice and relaxed bar.
After the bike ride and a walk around the city, I took off to grab some dinner. Tilman is in the middle of a week of fasting, being done to test himself and his limits, not at all for any religious reason. The interesting thing is that outside of German, there is a lot of Spanish, Italian, French, and English spoken in Zurich. So I found a Spanish tapas place and was able to easily converse with the waiter.
That evening, another one of Tilman’s friends arrived, Daniel from Venezuela. Like Tilman, Daniel is a pretty phenomenal character and having a day and a half with three people of very different backgrounds made for great conversations. Part of Daniel’s vacation around Europe is to study the various European governments because he wants to use that to help improve his nation’s system. He already lived in Minnesota for a year and observed the US government.
The next day the three of us went for a hike up into the mountains. There will eventually be a number of pictures on my Flickr account that show the absolutely incredible views that the trip lent us. Then later that evening we decided to go swim in the lake. Being that it was a beautiful August day, the parks around the lake were packed. There are lots of stairwells that just lead right into the lake, making it easy to just jump in for a refreshing dip.
I found Zurich to be fascinating. For a couple reasons that I won’t go into here, I had to cut the Swiss leg of my trip a bit short, as to not get too attached. I was able to resolve my train ticket situation by purchasing the original overnight itinerary that I tried to get in the first place. I don’t understand why they prevented me, but it saved a messy situation with being penalized an extra day on my rail pass for the route that took me through Munich.
I have the next three days in Budapest and will be staying with one of my two Hungarian friends I met months ago in London. I know they have a bit planned, including a birthday party of one of their friends, an evening boat ride down the Danube and a bit of hiking around the city. Since they have to work today and tomorrow, I will have some time on my own. On inspection of the Hungarian language, it may be a bit of a struggle, but it’s that kind of experience that I’ve valued the most. So I look forward to fending for myself, having people stare at me blankly if I speak English or make a poor attempt at speaking the local language, and using the advanced form of conversation I’ve had to resort to a few times, pointing at what I want.
Sunday morning, we will be making the 2 hour drive up to Vienna, the Austrian capital. That starts the most travel intensive part of my trip, one evening in Vienna, a 10am train to Prague the next day, arriving at 2pm, less than a day in Prague, then a rough 3-train 7 hour trip to Munich, a day and a half in Munich, then an overnight train to Venice, a day in Venice, then to Verona and Milan before flying to Athens with a couple hours to see the city before the overnight boat to Chania. Then I can relax for a while.
I’ve been teased a bit about the plethora of pictures on my flickr account. Sorry about that, I know it makes it tough to navigate. I just haven’t had the time to clear out pictures, so I just take a bunch, load them up, then plan to get it sorted later. I do realize that 210 pictures of Paris, especially about 100 of the Eiffel Tower, is excessive.
Anyway, we’re about 15 minutes from Budapest, so I’m going to get packed up and enjoy the view of the ride into the city. I hope to be able to check back in Monday or Tuesday.
Phil
