July 2, 2015: European Rail Trip: Day 8: Budapest

Just arriving at Budapest Train Station

Tanya's Daily Scoop
CURRENTLY TRAVELING IN: BUDAPEST

CityRama = Suck-O-Rama

I sure gotta say, you really lose track of the days when you are travelin’ - well at least i do…

Today is TBT (link for story down below in a few hours), and how do I know that…
Well because I got to thinkin’ last night about what day it was and then realized that we completely skipped W2GW - oh well…guess we’re not perfect!

And speaking of perfection, I gots to say that the overnight train we took from Krakow to Budapest was far from perfect! 

The rooms got even smaller, the tiny closet that we had on the last train was massive compared to this one...I couldn't even open my suitcase! 
SEE PICTURE on Elisa's side 

Plus no wifi and get this no A/C! 

Yup, we are going into city with high humidity and forecasted temperatures in the 80’s & 90's and we get no A/C. 
I can predict some wilting in the future for the travelin’ cousins. 

To top it off the damn train was running 2 hours LATE - -

Exactly how does that work? 
How does a train run 2 hours late??? 
Did the conductor come in late? 
Was there traffic? WTH?? 
I certainly don’t understand it. 

Anyhow, back to the freakin’ train ride:
We had to keep our door locked and our window open…can you imagine the stupid noisy nonsense we had to listen to ALL night long!

So I bet ya want to know how we found out that the train was running late…
Well it certainly wasn’t because anyone informed us of what was going on. 

In fact we were all packed up, ready to go and looking out the windows wondering where the city was…wondering where the people were…wondering where the steward was… 


I was pacing the narrow hall, and getting all stressed out and pissed off. 

What the heck was going on with the damn train…

Staring at the clock as the time ticked away…we had a tour to take at 9:30am - what was originally suppose to be on day 2 (see more on this ahead), then it turned out to be on day 1 and with less than an hour to spare between arriving from Krakow and heading on tour. 
So of course you can understand my stress. 

Eventually I decided to check out some of the other cars…
Finding both A/C, travelers, and a steward, I had inquired as to how much longer… 
This is when I found out that we were running 2 hours late and wouldn’t be arriving for another hour! GASP

Coming back to our room I found Elisa on the phone with the tour company explaining our situation (which she also just found out during my absence), we both agreed to reschedule and do the afternoon tour at 2pm. What else could we do…

So after what was suppose to be a 10hr train ride, which turned into a 12 hour train ride to go 241 miles, we arrived at 10:45am. 

*Ya see we didn’t plan on doing the tour on day one, but rather on day two. But when we had the train ticket mix up - it was more of a pain in the butt to adjust hotels/tours rather than change train tickets.

And yeah by the way Greetings from none other than Budapest, Hungary!

We are in Hungary and coincidently I am more hungry than the other cities we have visited! LOL

So as you may or may not know or realize - I travel with vegan suitable food. 
I kid you not when I say that I had 1/2 my suitcase full of food when we first started this vacation. 
And good thing, because I'm able to snack along the way and nibble here and there. 
Therefore it is no problem if we go somewhere (non-vegan friendly) that Elisa would like to eat.

Upon check in Elisa had to be starving - I already ate some fruit, veggies, and had a protein bar; when all she partially consumed was a pre-packaged Croissant. 
So we had a seat in the atrium restaurant at our hotel. Elisa had ordered lunch and I had a freshly squeezed lemonade with fresh Elderberry that was superb - YUM

Wowzers I’m in Budapest! 
And it is pretty cool. Pretty cool to be here, but definitely not cool weather, for that it is plenty HOT. 
YUCK - being hot is by far not my favorite!

Checking in was an absolute breeze, we were meeting cute and quite kind individuals…but this gradually started to change.

We were picked up by the “tour” company at our hotel. 
While we were expecting a van or bus to pick us up, the bellhop had called for us as there was a taxi there to pick us up - ok kinda weird.

We hop in the taxi and he confirms that he is taking us to the tour company office. 
Then drives like a bat out of hell in order to get us there. The man’s driving reminded me of my brother’s, and that of a NYC cabbie = very impatient and causing white knuckled passengers!

We arrive at the office and are told that the tour that was scheduled to begin at 2pm is starting at 2:30pm - the beginning of the very poor communicative skills at this tour company - CityRama.

So Elisa and I take a walk around the neighborhood, not really seeing anything that sets this city apart from any other - we could’ve been walking around parts of Manhattan and it would’ve felt and looked the same. 

We went back to the tour office and the tour began. There were 7 passengers and the driver/tour guide ‘George’. We loaded up and were off. 

Immediately George began telling us that we might not get to see everything that was promised because it depends on traffic and is up to the guide…WTH?

Next thing ya know my eye lids are getting VERY heavy, and I’m incredibly warm (we all were). 
It felt as though the heat was on and blowing on me, I was baking. George didn’t know how to work the A/C and was killing us!
I was fighting to keep my eyes open and was very uncomfortable. 

Our first stop was the Citadel, where we were able to get out and look around. George came along and we travelled in a group as he thoroughly explained what he knew. 

The views were beautiful, but the time there was short, and we were rushed back into the van. 

At this point Elisa had offered to demonstrate how to use the A/C since she has a similar vehicle back at home. Thank GOD it worked and there was actually cool air flowing through the interior. 
George continued our tour, making u-turns, and seeming to not really have a planned route. 

Next stop was the Màtyàs Church and the Castle District of Buda. It appeared LOVELY, and oh how I would’ve enjoyed to spend some time wandering about. 

AND if it weren’t for one of the other passengers insisting that we go into the church - the tour would’ve been a drive by! UGH

So we bought tickets to the church (nope they weren’t included in the tour), and we went in on our own to discover and explore…
This was the coronation church of Hungarian Kings, and is topped with a splendid multi-colored tile roof!

Then rushed once again to get back into the van, and just drive around! 
There were no additional stops - not even for photographs - all I could get were some drive-byes!
 
I was quite unhappy with this tour already.

BUT THEN…we find out that the rest of the group were on a 3 hour tour versus our 4 hour tour, and that it was time to drop them off…

Well, we had enough - it was already almost 4 hours into the “tour” and yet we had only seen 3 hours worth, and now we had to waste our time dropping off the other tourists! 

We have an editorial deadline and just couldn’t do it. So we asked to be dropped back at the tour offices so that we could get a refund of the difference between the 3 hour tour and the 4 hour tour. 


THIS IS WHEN THE FUN HAD REALLY BEGUN…

The customer service SUCKS at this company and the customer is certainly not always right.

The counter agent had to ask her colleague and came back telling us that they could offer us one more hour of touring, but no refund. 

We had explained to her that we had a deadline to meet and that we have already spent the 4 hours doing a 3 hour tour and needed to get back to work. 
She again very rudely went to go inquire as to what they could do. 

Next thing that happened was that the “colleague” had come out and started arguing with Elisa’s nice cop tactics - I couldn’t keep my mouth shut any longer and told him like it was. 

Eventually handing him a business card and informing him that it’s his choice to make the right decision otherwise we would BLAST him on our Travel Blog (which we hardly ever do, but this exception is well worth it). 

This guy was absolutely awful and had zero comprehension of the fact that we need to return to meet our deadline. 

My tone got louder and louder as this guy continued to piss me off. 

I explained to him that we tour around the world and have never had an experience to compare this to. 
We went back and forth as you can imagine. 

Elisa was biting her lip, so not to giggle at me yelling at this moron. 

Eventually we did get our money back, but when our driver had asked the beauty if he could drive us back to the hotel the idiot had replied “nine!” Elisa and I had wanted to sock him at this point and I had very calmly stated that he was a very difficult man as to which he continued to repeat himself that it was our choice to end early.  

"Hey stupid" it was 6pm and a 4 hour tour that starts at 2pm goes until 6pm that is what we scheduled for you and your company full of imbeciles. 

As we were about to leave and as frustrated as I was, I left off by telling him that he obviously didn’t understand the english language very well. 

Ok that was enough for today - I’ve gotta go rant on Trip Advisor and Yelp now.

BTW - we highly DO NOT RECOMMEND using CityRama by Gray Line tours while traveling in Budapest. It was the WORST tour experience EVER


Catch today's TBT 'Prudish in Mexico' by clicking HERE

Catch ya tomorrow,
-T

Elisa's Daily Scoop
CURRENTLY TRAVELING IN: BUDAPEST

A long, long way to Budapest

GREETINGS FROM BUDAPEST!!!

Looking out over Budapest from atop Castle Hill

Keep the Faith Baby! Yup - that sums up what Tanya and I were feeling last night and this morning.  That’s right - we took another overnight train, this time from Krakow to Budapest and boy was it tough.

Here comes a rant folks — first of all, the quarters were tighter than the sleeping car that we had going from Prague to Krakow- which, in itself was hard to believe.  The closet area was smaller, but alas, the beds were a tad bigger.

Our Sleep Cabin on the Train

no room to open her suitcase

Catching up on some reading about Budapest during our 2 hour arrival delay into Budapest

Secondly, there was NO Air Conditioning!!  I thought Tanya and I were going to die.  When we got on the train, we saw that every single window was open both in the hallway and in the sleeping car.  

Initially, we thought they opened them just to keep the air circulating until they turned on the engines.  But we knew something wasn’t right when we started moving and the windows were still open.  

At this point, we had the cabin door open with the cross breeze from the hall window and our room, but we couldn’t keep the door open all night.  

So, I went up to the steward for our train car (PICTURED WITH US ON TANYA’S BLOG) and asked him if there was air conditioning and as he began to shake his head and utter the words, “no” my heart sank.  

I will say, however, in the end, with the exception of having to keep the shade up to allow the air to come through the window, it was rather pleasantly cool all night.  

Even with the door shut, we had an amazing breeze. And for what it’s worth, I hate to admit, I think the fresh air was much better for my cold, which seem to be a bit better this morning. Could also be that I slept with nothing else to keep me occupied.

Here’s the best part…Tanya and I are all dressed, packed and ready to go as per the scheduled arrival time, 8:30AM, when it seems that time is passing and we are still not stopping.  

We look for the steward, but he is no where in sight  Finally at 9:15 - and mind you, we are scheduled to meet our tour guide at the hotel at 9:30 - Tanya decides to go on a journey throughout the train to find someone, anyone, to see when we would be arriving. All of sudden I spot our train car attendant who appears out of no where in the hallway.

I ask him when we will be in Budapest, to which, he replies, “two hour delay.”

Hungarian countryside from the train

What was really interesting is what he said next - “Not in this car.”  Those words resonated — “Not in this car.”  So, we paid top dollar for a sleeping car, but if you are “sitting up” in another car, you get air conditioning, is what raced through my head.

So, I proceeded to inquire as to why the “other cars” have air conditioning and this one didn’t.  

I was then told that those cars would be detatching at the next station and going elsewhere and our car and the ones in front of it would be continuing on to Budapest. 

It struck me kinda strange that as we were traveling south, towards the hottest city we’d be visting thus far, on our trip, that we would NOT have air conditioning.  Hmmmm.

Ok, so my next question (which I subconsciously knew the answer to) was whether there was wifi.  C’mon folks, really.  Our attendant once more, shook his head with a resounding "No.”  

I had to be the bearer of bad news to Tanya.  We both had a major case of annoyance.  
What were we going to do for the next 10 hours!!!  Well, after a brief rant while freshening up for the night, I settled in my lower bunk and dosed off.  What else was there to do??

I don’t know about you, but I would have thought that was an important bit of information to impart on the passengers prior to the scheduled arrival time.  

I immediately called our tour guide in Budapest and we reschedule for a late afternoon tour.  It’s at this point I see Tanya coming down the hall seething because she obviously got two bits of news on her little jaunt throughout the train - the first, the delayed arrival time; and secondly, that the sleeper cars in the other cars are more roomy; have beds AND seats AND have air conditioning!!!  

With this experience, I plan to write more about railing it through Europe for you to avoid what we just experienced. In any case, we decided to just relax and enjoy the outdoor scenery.
 
When we had given up all hope, our attendant appeared and asked us if we wanted tea or coffee.  Desiring honey for my tea, it was a funny sight trying to have this man, who barely spoke English watch me play charades to describe honey. 

I was buzzing like a bee and pointing to the yellow dot on his uniform.  In the end NO HONEY - but I managed some lemon.  Hey, nothing is perfect. 

our train

Budapest Train Station

Our sweet taxi driver

BUDAPEST…FINALLY!!
We pulled into Budapest at 10:45AM - and were so happy to be here! We had the nicest taxi driver - so helpful and friendly.  He was telling us about everywhere we passed.  What a nice way to be greeted. 

The same was true when we arrived at our hotel.  Friendly and welcoming were the staff at the front desk as well as in the restaurant!

Well, I guess that was it with our luck because  our experience with Cityrama Tours left much to be desired in the way of customer service. 

Allow me to back track for a minute...after a quick bite in the hotel restaurant, we were collected by a taxi to take us to our 2pm group tour of Budapest.

I'll start by saying that the communication was not good from the start with the reservationists, because they explained that the tour was from 2pm to 6pm (a four hour tour).  

We didn't actually leave until 2:30 and while we were booked on a 4 hour tour, we were sent as part of a group with another five people who were only on a 3 hour tour. (doesn't really make sense).

Anyway, the afternoon unfolded fine, seeing many of the sites we had hoped to, and although our tour guide George was very nice and knowledgable, we did feel a bit rushed. 

That being said, I will focus on the sites we saw and I'll leave it to my dear old "pissed off" cuz to tell you the rest of the story regarding our experience with Cityrama.

Citadel
This was our first stop and boy was it hot!!!  This the city fortification wall, which provides one of the best views of both sides of Budapest.

The Citadel

At the Citadel

St. George Slaying the dragon

Chain Bridge in the foreground over the Danube

Castle Hill 
Castle Hill, a Unesco World Heritage site, is located 170 meters above the Danube and is the home of Budapest's most important medieval monuments and museums.   

This 1 kilometer long plateau, with its walled area consists of two distinct parts: the Old Town to the north, where commoners lived in the Middle Ages (which is a very coveted area to live today); and the Royal Palace, the original site of the castle built in the 13th century, now housing two important museums.
 

Mátyás Church is located on Castle Hill. The  Parish Church of Our Lady Mary was built between the 13th and 15th Centuries and named after King Mátyás Corvinus, one of the greatest Hungarian rulers.

The church is magnificent!!! Every where I turned, provided an awesome photo.  The interior of the church was breathtaking, as was the outside with its multicolored glazed tile roof. 

One area of the ceiling that caught my eye was the ceiling above the main altar which features the allegoric figures of the four evangelists painted by Bertalan Székely, each symbolized in a different way:  St. Matthew as the angel, St. Mark as the lion, St. Luke as the bull and St. John as the eagle.  The eight-petalled rose of the arch-stone is a symbol of the Virgin Mary.

Mátyás Church on Castle Hill

Ceiling above the main altar depicting St. Matthew as the angel, St. Mark as the lion, St. Luke as the bull and St. John as the eagle. The eight-petalled rose of the arch-stone is a symbol of the Virgin Mary.

Buda's Old Town Hall, crowned with an onion-shaped dome on Holy Trinity Square

Last but not least, I got a couple of great shots of Buda's Old Town Hall up on Castle Hill on Holy Trinity Square.  It is crowned with an onion-shpaed dome, which I happily posed beneath!!

That's a wrap for today my peeps!!!

Do not miss Tanya's blog!!!  Catch ya back here tomorrow!!

---

-E
xoxo

"We can enjoy the beauty of the butterfly 
without putting a pin through its head."
- anonymous