Historical Event: I witnessed Lee B. in a rush!

So, the past few days have been kind of crazy. Since everything has been going so swimmingly on the trip thus far, we decided to push ourselves a little more. For our first act, we bought tickets for the 9:30 train to Bratislava... at 9:27. We thought we had allowed ourselves plenty of time to get to the train station, but one more cup of coffee, etc. We still had time when we showed up to the train station in Budapest.

First we ran downstairs to the ticket office. No, we wanted upstairs for the international ticket office, on the left of platform 6. We ran upstairs. We ran to the left, but we had to enter the ticket control area, and we had no tickets. We ran to the right, but signs directed us back left to the international office. (Also, several hundred people were milling about waiting for their own trains, and we cut through them expertly, half ton backpacks and all. I attribute this feat to our navigation of the hallways where we work, and gaggles of girls are shrieking and hitting each other every whichway.) We ran back to the left, and realized we COULD go through the ticket control area to the international ticket office. Whew!

We thought we were home free, but once inside the office we had to take a number and wait for it to be called. About ten slow, leisurely travelers were in front of us in line. We watched the minutes tick by and resolved to take the next train about an hour later, though it was a less direct route.

Once our number was called, Lee asked the cashier, "Is it at all possible to buy tickets for the 9:30 train to Bratislava?"

She looked at us like we asked her if we could take a poop right there in the international ticket office.

"Maybe it is late?" Lee prompted. She sighed. Stupid Americans, she was probably thinking.

"Four minutes," and she gave us two tickets.

We ran out the door. Back outside, we looked for platform numbers, for a time table, for anything. (This is a good time to mention that the Budapest train station could really be better organized.)

"Bratislava?" some construction workers shouted.

"Yes!"

"Go!"

They pointed several tracks over and motioned for us to run.

So there we were, running pell-mell across the railroad tracks toward a train. I don´t think there were trains on the tracks we were running across, but I couldn´t say for sure. We jumped up into the car and looked around for some indication that we were in the right place. It was 9:31. Lee ran to ask some people sitting on the bus. I saw him wipe his forehead in relief, and we celebrated our success with a high five.

Then the train sat there for 15 more minutes.

***

I am writing this from a luxury hotel in Salzburg, a city that was not on our original itinerary. Yesterday we spent seven hours in Vienna, where the last semi-final game of the Euro Cup Football tournament was taking place. But that´s a story for another day. It´s time to wake Lee up and figure out which Sound of Music tour we´re going to take, and how we´re going to make it to Ljubljana, Slovenia next. (Me: Lee, how do you spell "Ljubljana?" Lee: "L-j-u-b-l-j-a-n-a." Me: Oh! I just missed a couple of j´s.