Inter Rail 1987 Day 5 and Day 6
Wednesday 3rd June
Jon's birthday. We were up and out within 15 minutes of the alarm ringing. Made our way to the river boat
departure point. The whole operation was a little amateur. The only guy with a uniform was the general dogs body, who ended up the journey
pissed out of his tiny, and fast asleep behind the bar. We took the opportunity to have a complimentary beer.
The weather was not too good ie raining for most of the journey, but the scenery was quite spectacular at times, especially the fortress at
the top of Visegard. The journey took 4 hours (it's 5 up stream against the river flow) and cost us each the equivalent of 61p. One good part
was, before he got totally pissed, the little guy in uniform gave us a delicious piece of free cake. We tied up and disembarked right by the
parliament building. Great views of both Buda and Pest.
We decided to give Yugoslavia a miss and go straight through to Greece. Tried to book couchettes at Nyugati Pu. Turns out we could reserve a
seat overnght on the Pushkin train to Beograd (Belgrade) and then possibly get a couchette from there down to Athens. Left our rucksacks at
the left luggage office at the station and went to visit the National Museum. What a crappy place; at least it only cost 5ft to get in. The
"people" on duty in each room were old enough to be exhibits. The cross on top of the royal crown is crooked. The Hungarians seem to have been
feudal until 1848 and fighting Huns, Bulgars and Turks up until then.
Got ourselves a hamburger then made our way to Margit Island where we found a nice piece of grass on which to have a half hour kip before
retrieving our bags at the station. Tried to buy a few postcards to send home but failed miserably. Went to the railway buffet and had beer in
pint glases instead at 26ft a throw and felt a lot better. We then spent our last Hungarian money on another hamburger and chips. Had a quick
doze in the station waiting room. The police did look in on us but didn't frogmarch us away or give us the Spanish Inquisition.
The train to Beograd was at least 30 minutes late leaving Budapest. Our compartment had 1 local, 1 Japanese, 2 Swedes and us in it. Got rid of
1.5 litres of really cheap red wine whilst chatting to the Swedes. It's really good for us that it is compulsory for them to learn to speak
English. Went to sleep on the floor of the compartment. We were only disturbed 3 times during the trip. Once to check the tickets, once for
Hungarian vogons and once for Yugoslav vogons. Must have been quite sleepy or maybe drunk because at one stage I gave them my driving licence,
which confused the hell out of them.
Thursday 4th June
We arrived in Beograd an hour late. We asked again about couchettes and/or seat reservation for the journey down
to Athens. We were told a) try and get one on the train and b) reservations were unnecessary.
When the train arrived we wandered its length looking for couchettes only to discover there wern't any. So we settled for a very comfy
Austrian compartment which had come down to Beograd from Wien. Our fellow travellers were a 66 yr old Greek guy, a 20 yr old German lass and a
30 yr old weird "English" guy who spoke Welsh and had a great Welsh accent having been living in Ammanford. A very drunken journey ensued as
we made the loal pivo palatable by adding 12 yr old Ballantines whiskey and Napolean cognac.
Had to pay a supplement on this very popular train. Paid in Greek drachmas. Only just missed a £5 fine for putting my shoes on the seat.
Bloody jobsworth. Dumb British "Don't understand what you're talking about you silly foreigner" trick did the trick.
We left Beograd at 9.25am and continued to get later and later throughout the trip. Stopping to push back a "kaput" oncoming train didn't help
matters. The scenery was great though. Demanded and got a greek passport stamp when we crossed the border at about midnight. This was
complimented by the weird guy doing his Tai Chi exercises and asking us did we believe in harnessing our energy?!
He and the German lass then got a bit biblical and disappeared so we were left with 3 people in a full pulldown compartment. The
result was a very good undisturbed nights sleep probably helped along with our final bottle of Egri Bikaver.
 Budapest |
The weather was not too good ie raining for most of the journey, but the scenery was quite spectacular at times, especially the fortress at
the top of Visegard. The journey took 4 hours (it's 5 up stream against the river flow) and cost us each the equivalent of 61p. One good part
was, before he got totally pissed, the little guy in uniform gave us a delicious piece of free cake. We tied up and disembarked right by the
parliament building. Great views of both Buda and Pest. 
The train to Beograd was at least 30 minutes late leaving Budapest. Our compartment had 1 local, 1 Japanese, 2 Swedes and us in it. Got rid of
1.5 litres of really cheap red wine whilst chatting to the Swedes. It's really good for us that it is compulsory for them to learn to speak
English. Went to sleep on the floor of the compartment. We were only disturbed 3 times during the trip. Once to check the tickets, once for
Hungarian vogons and once for Yugoslav vogons. Must have been quite sleepy or maybe drunk because at one stage I gave them my driving licence,
which confused the hell out of them.
