After what looked like a Croatian terrorist nervously figdgeting with his fingers, hair and a duffle bag below his informed us he was also going to Zagreb (Great), we finally arrived at the train station at daybreak. Only to encounter an incredibly rude welcome from a nasty Zagreb woman who wouldn´t give us coin change for the baggage locker then a guy next to the lockers who kept pointing to his t-shirt which read ´´I climbed the Great Wall,´´ and grunting ´´mmphh. Mmphh.´´
A kind woman finally gave us change for the lockers (changing Croatian paper currency for coins which is all the lockers accepted.) and it was an inspiring walk across the eerily kempt/unkempt park with massive communist-esque statues rolling by. Had coffees next to a market setting up and watching men and women down shots of brandy before the workday (a Croatian custom). 6am.
Walked all the way past the soccer stadium to find a place to stay that was in our book. Hated it. Walked all the way back towards another place and a kind man helped us find it (as the streets are confusing as hell), and actually walked with us to it! Note to self: only go to Zagreb if you´re willing to deal with little tourist infrastructure. There are very few hotels here.
Did a self-guided walking tour and ate Croatian hot dogs (questionable but utilitarian)
Next day (Saturday), tried to send a package back. Should never have waffled on the return address because they sent us to ´the back room´ to start filling out forms and ´going to windows...´hmmm. ´back rooms´and ´more windows´ never sound good. So, we just went to another post office with a firm return address. They took it no problem and it was received.
Note to self: the problem with traveling in any foreign country is that they speak an entirely different language (except in Sweden).
Went to a Croatian soccer game, Zagreb´s ´´Domino´´ team was playing in the professional league with another Croatian city. It was 90 minutes of chanting, songs, and flagwaving, punctuated by red flares thrown on the field that little firemen ran around and put out. ´´Domino`` won and thanked the fans by drinking champagne from a vending-machine-sized champagne glass and throwing red flares back into the stands. Crazy. The signs in English touted them as the ´Big Blue Boys,´ and they had blue jerseys/logo and everything, so we wondered a little why they didn´t throw blue flares.
Walked to the amazing cemetary on the outside of town (Modigloij?) and back to the train station.
At 4:45pm, we were on our way to Hungary (more specifically Budapest -- the city that has always held mystery and gripped our imaginations.) It would turn out to be right on both counts, but not before a bumpy arrival.
We got to Budapest Keleti station at about 10pm and stepped into a small nightmare. Due to some confusion about the city and country (Andy´s fault), It turns out the friend we were supposed to stay with was actually not in Budapest but another part of the country! We had to scramble to find a place. A nice Hungarian girl who spoke fluent English helped us by figuring out stuff and even calling a friend on her cell phone for us to doublecheck the contact´s address-phone number on the Internet. We finally found a place, but not before hotel hawkers kept interrupting our phone calls and trying to figure everything out, etc.. One of them said, ´´I see you rumbling around for two hours and I don´t care if you want to waste your time looking for a place to stay.´´ So, Andy said, ´´Then please, could you not care to yourself?´´
The next day, we submitted our Chinese Visas at the embassy. It will take a week and about 150 USD for double entry for both of us. The next week saw us touring the mysterious city of Budapest, and staying with Paul MacDonald who was very kind and generous to us and also gave us his time to give us a taste of the city.
A great way to see Budapest is just to walk, so that´s what we did. In Buda, to the palace, St. Matthius Church, and other requisite, or as we like to call them, ´greatest hits´sights. As well as the more random (read best) ones. Like the Hungarian bath in the public park with mulitple temperature and mineral thermal pools (from the hot spring nearby) some which shoot jets of water (and thus Hungarians) around in a circle. Here, the agenda is more soaking and healing than excersing, with some older men playing chess at the same time.
Friday night, Paul took us to a rave. People put 100 forintz into a turnstyle to enter and danced and listened to music. A nice mix of bizzare genres from the Beasty Boys Ýou Gotta Fight´ to even Billy Joel numbers.
The weekend saw a much needed retreat to the countryside. More specifically, Eger, a cute Hungarian tourist destination 2 hours train ride (15 USD roundtrip) from Budapest. There, we had what´s known as ´restaurant meals´ as well as local wines for which the region is known. More for the quantity than the quality. Although they are drinkable, the charm lies more in taking away a 1.5 liter plastic bottle of Eger Bikalaver (´Bull´s Blood´) for, like, 1 dollar.
We had the luxury to stay an extra day, thinking, ``What would it matter to pick up our visa on Tuesday instead of Monday´? Apparently, a lot. It turns out the Chinese consulate is closed on Tuesdays, which we only found out as we were walking up to it (after having bought non-refundable night train tickets for Krakow, Poland that night). A kind Chinese official, after much harried and frantic and desperate insisting by Andy, finally agreed to let us in. In a glorious moment, he pulled out our passports from the back with the Visas inside. the only problem was we didn`t have enough forintz and he wouldn`t take euros or dollars. We went to the atm and all was well.
We did some last minute house-cleaning (and shopping) but didn´t really plan our Forint use very well and, we´re not really sure how, but ended up boarding this overnight train with no money or time left to get water. Let´s just say it wasn´t our most pleasant night. It was cold, we were dreaming (when we did sleep) of taking big swigs of water and since the train was empty, we had to take sleeping shifts to make sure we kept an eye on our stuff.
Sunsets seem later and day breaks seem earlier the further north we go. Poland appeared (after passing through Slovakia in the middle of the night -- not as weird as it sounds) at about 4:30 am. Krakow would appear at 6am.
Thanks to Paul MacDonald for introducing us properly to Budapest and for Anne and Steve Miller´s continued help as base of operations as well as receivers of packages, etc and givers of moral support.
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