Border Hopping

You recall my commentary from the last blog on carbon copy tickets? Well the train we road on was even older than that high tech invention. Three cars long and every bounce and rattle heard or felt. We road through some of the tiniest towns I have ever seen and past some train stations that must have welcomed those same train cars on their maiden voyage.

I realized this morning as we were walking to get our tickets that this long trip is a choice to live in a constant uncertainty for 6 weeks. Every action, want or need is surrounded by the unknown. Do we know where we are going? How much did that cost? Will we encounter someone who speaks English? Is this the right train? What did I just order? Do I leave a tip? The list goes on forever and even in known areas like our few nights in Budapest so far, we still were mostly at the mercy of the unknown. Although, it was nice to recognize roads, intersections and buildings after a while.

Is this part of why traveling helps you to grow? Unable to rely on your confidence and regular knowledge you must become more intuitive, aware and creative. Sometimes you must be all of those things just to get some water.

Which brings me to another interesting challenge: hydration. It cannot be that physical beings in Europe are not mostly made of water as us Americans, so why is it so hard to find and so expensive? In many places you pay almost as much for water as you would a beer. And, I can't ever find a place to fill my water bottle.

These were some of my wandering thoughts while on the train. In addition to documenting them, we also listened to a couple travel audio segments I downloaded and practiced mental math and the conversion to Croatian currency.

We changed trains at the border, and although we did not show a passport to get into Hungary, we did to get out and received two stamps from two agents for the exit of Hungary and entrance to Croatia.

Our train left the connecting station about 40 minutes late and had two other long unexplained stops along the way. Its incredible how a language barrier and unknown territory instill patience, nothing you can do, not even investigate. Although at our second long stop any answer would have helped. We were already arriving late to Zagreb and the delay would put us on unknown downtown streets after 10 pm.

Update as I put this post out there...arrival into Zagreb was smooth, got some cash and got to our hotel without issue. It's a pretty nice place...kind of wishing we had more than one night in these swanky new digs:)

Good night!