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Brenton Kovacs's Travels
It is so good to have Alan with me. It has been a year since we last saw each other, and he has not changed at all. Man am i lucky.
We take the train to Budapest and arrive at 2.30pm. Its a short walk to our accommodation, and we quite literally throw our bags in the apartment and head straight back out.
First stop is the Book Cafe. A cafe with a stunning interior and average but not overpriced coffee. Next we walk to the river to lay eyes on the Chain Bridge and Castle, followed by a walk to Parliament building. It is a cold misty night, but still nice to be out walking. The Markets here are packed with people, in fact we cannot believe just how many people are out on a Monday night.
Unfortunately we have a few very foggy days, so no good for photos. We are lucky as we do get one blue sky day, so we make the most be heading to the Castle and Fishermans Bastion for some great views of Budapest.
For some reason when i booked train tickets from Budapest to Zagreb, the system sold me 3 tickets. So we went to the train station to get a refund on the ticket, only to be told that the train is not going to Zagreb as Hungary has closed the border with Croatia. Well that really stuffs up our plans. The girl at the station said the system should not have sold us the tickets, so she takes them all back for a refund, which will only take 1 month to get, if i am lucky.
Now we have to work out how to get to Zagreb. If we go back to Vienna then to Zagreb, it will be nearly 12 hours on a train, so we loose a whole day. So annoying as Zagreb is only just over 300ks away by road.
So we spend many hours working out different scenarios to get to Zagreb, and its a headache.
We finally decide on a car share called blablacar. Finally managed to find someone going to Zagreb, but a day earlier. After making sure we can check in early at our Zagreb accommodation we book the car. We are told the driver will be at our address at 1pm. I can tell you it was an anxious wait, if he doest show its another problem. Its nearly 2pm before he arrives, and we are quite literately frozen.
Anyway we are not the only passengers, there are 2 other guys going to Zagreb. Well it all starts off ok. The car is a Renault Scenic, so it is not too cramped. The driver is a sensible person, who just happens to be a taxi driver in Zagreb. Its when we get to the Hungary Croatia border the problems begin. We all must show our passports, which for Alan and myself and the driver is not a problem. But one of the guys is only travelling on a EU identity card. The border guards will not let him leave Hungary without a passport. The border guards did not like the fact that we had Hungarian passports, but did not speak the language. So suspicious that we have fake passports.
So we have to do a big detour to Slovenia and drop them off in a little town. Lucky for them there was a hotel open. We then continue our journey without any problems. So instead of arriving at 5.30pm we arrive at 8pm. I am just happy to be in Zagreb.
We take the train to Budapest and arrive at 2.30pm. Its a short walk to our accommodation, and we quite literally throw our bags in the apartment and head straight back out.
First stop is the Book Cafe. A cafe with a stunning interior and average but not overpriced coffee. Next we walk to the river to lay eyes on the Chain Bridge and Castle, followed by a walk to Parliament building. It is a cold misty night, but still nice to be out walking. The Markets here are packed with people, in fact we cannot believe just how many people are out on a Monday night.
Unfortunately we have a few very foggy days, so no good for photos. We are lucky as we do get one blue sky day, so we make the most be heading to the Castle and Fishermans Bastion for some great views of Budapest.
For some reason when i booked train tickets from Budapest to Zagreb, the system sold me 3 tickets. So we went to the train station to get a refund on the ticket, only to be told that the train is not going to Zagreb as Hungary has closed the border with Croatia. Well that really stuffs up our plans. The girl at the station said the system should not have sold us the tickets, so she takes them all back for a refund, which will only take 1 month to get, if i am lucky.
Now we have to work out how to get to Zagreb. If we go back to Vienna then to Zagreb, it will be nearly 12 hours on a train, so we loose a whole day. So annoying as Zagreb is only just over 300ks away by road.
So we spend many hours working out different scenarios to get to Zagreb, and its a headache.
We finally decide on a car share called blablacar. Finally managed to find someone going to Zagreb, but a day earlier. After making sure we can check in early at our Zagreb accommodation we book the car. We are told the driver will be at our address at 1pm. I can tell you it was an anxious wait, if he doest show its another problem. Its nearly 2pm before he arrives, and we are quite literately frozen.
Anyway we are not the only passengers, there are 2 other guys going to Zagreb. Well it all starts off ok. The car is a Renault Scenic, so it is not too cramped. The driver is a sensible person, who just happens to be a taxi driver in Zagreb. Its when we get to the Hungary Croatia border the problems begin. We all must show our passports, which for Alan and myself and the driver is not a problem. But one of the guys is only travelling on a EU identity card. The border guards will not let him leave Hungary without a passport. The border guards did not like the fact that we had Hungarian passports, but did not speak the language. So suspicious that we have fake passports.
So we have to do a big detour to Slovenia and drop them off in a little town. Lucky for them there was a hotel open. We then continue our journey without any problems. So instead of arriving at 5.30pm we arrive at 8pm. I am just happy to be in Zagreb.
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