Eastern Adventures

Jack Johnson once told me, "While abroad, do one stupid thing everyday." In general I tend to be quite logical so no stupid things have really happened to me while in Vienna, until this past Saturday.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I went to Budapest this last weekend! The plan was to train from Vienna to Budapest Saturday morning (7:56) in a big group, hit the city for two days, then train back Sunday night. I had packed most of my belonging together on Friday night and made sure to grab my ticket because I was sure that I would forget it while rushing the next morning. Saturday morning rolled around and I got myself together and left to West Bahnhof with my friends Yuki and Cindy.

7:02
Three quarters of the way to the station I realized that while I had managed to remember my ticket, I had forgotten my passport. [Enter moment where I should have just gone back to my flat to get my passport]. So with much concern in my voice, I asked Yuki and Cindy if we needed our passport to get to Hungary even though it is still in the EU. Cindy had actually forgotten hers as well and none of us were sure if we needed it so we continued to the station. Condensed next part: We get to the station and realized we do need it.

[Enter mad sprint back to the dorm a la Amazing Race style]

7:21
Cindy and I are rushing through the transit tunnels to get our measly documentation. We have 2 transfers, 18 stops total just to get from Station>>Dorm>>Station and only 35 minutes. Have you ever noticed that when you need to get somewhere incredibly fast everyone else is going slow as snails and there is nothing you can do about it? BINGO! That was the scenario.

7:39
We finally get to Messe-Prater our stop and we run the few blocks to our dorm. I was ahead so I went up to my room to grab my passport assuming Cindy would meet me in the lobby, our typical meeting point.

7:42
I am downstairs waiting for Cindy.

7:46
I am still waiting...

7:50
Waiting...

7:51
My patience is gone and I am really frustrated because our train was coming at 7:56 and I was going to miss is because of someone else. I ran up to Cindy's room and rang the bell. I ended up waking up Cindy's roommate and there was actually no Cindy there. She had left. Without me.

Angry, frustrated Stacie runs back through the U-Bahn system and makes it back to West Bahnhof at 8:10. Her train had left at 8:08 and Cindy had made it on the train without her and with the rest of the group.

BUT! This is not the end of the story! Silver lining Stacie decided she was going to Budapest because she had a place to stay and a ticket home, and it is Budapest, duh! So. Thanks to the handy-dandy Voteil's car (traveling discount card-- think Entertainment Card) Stacie was able to buy a new ticket for 26.50 Euro only 2 hours behind the original group.

Okay, I am going to leave 3rd person now. For about an hour and a half I sat in the station and wrote while looking at the view of a beautiful Catholic church-- not a bad set up actually. At 9:25 I went to board my train which left promptly at 9:48 and I was finally on my way.

The ride was pleasant and I had a seat to myself. Soon enough my stop had arrived. Thanks to technology, Yuki had facebooked me directions to the Hostel when she realized I had not made the train so I figured I would be fine once I arrived in Budapest.

WRONG. I stepped off the train and could not understand anything. I have had my fair share of travel and pretty much everywhere I could understand signage and what to do. Hungarian or Magyar is a Slavic language and I knew nothing. I wandered around the station for about fifteen minutes trying to figure out how to buy bus tickets. I eventually wandered into an information center where the woman only spoke Magyar or German. I successfully spoke to her in German, however her advice was not actually useful so I decided to explore some more.

I eventually figured out that I needed to buy my transit tickets in the metro, but I needed to change out my money first. I had a sketchy man with a calculator trade with me because why not? 40 Euro for 10000 Forints-- an unfortunate monetary system by the way. Anywho, I continued to the metro, bought my tickets, hoped on a subway, hoped on a tram, walked like 5 blocks, and made it to Retox, my hostel. Please be impressed seeing as I had only written directions. No phone, no map, no language. Nada.

I checked in and found my group who were all worried for me. Apparently they were about to send a search party for me out on the streets of Budapest. So sweet. We are each other's families out here so we have to stick together.

Well the rest of the weekend was awesome and I am so glad I still made it. The sites were beautiful, the weather was gorgeous, and the Goulash was amazing. Another recipe I will make when I am back!

My lack of travel stories was bumming me out a bit the last few weeks, but now I have my first real one. In the moment, it honestly sucked. Looking back though it was just a little bump in the road that I was able to get over. Those things happen in life. You can either let them ruin everything, or take them in stride and move on. I moved on and had not only one of the best weekends of my life, but I have become more confident in my ability to thrive in difficult situations.

Prost to the next adventure and stupid moment.