# Budapest and Belgrade: "What Edwin did next..."



## caravanman (Mar 1, 2015)

This is a short report on my Feb 2015 trip to Budapest and Belgrade.




Since my big 10 week jaunt to America late in 2014, I have had to content myself with vicarious travel experiences, reading about my friend Ian's train rides to Thailand, from his home in Lincolnshire, UK.

I was inspired by some of his rides, and looked again at European train options with fresh eyes.

I had been to Budapest previously, enjoying a sea ferry across to Holland, and train rides from Amsterdam down to Berlin, Prague, and so on to Budapest.

Flying from my local airport to Budapest was something I could do at the last minute, so on the Monday I booked for that Friday's flight.

I was undecided where to go after Budapest, and had thoughts of either following in Ian's tracks to Istanbul, or maybe head down to Athens, so I booked 3 nights in Budapest, and just the single one way flight out.

It is very easy to get from Budapest airport into town, bus number 200 connects to the metro. You require a "transfer fare", bought from the travel info desk, currently costs 530 Forints, which is around $2.

My hotel was near the Keleti train station, very handy for metro and trams, and close enough to walk to in case I chose an early morning onward train ride. I was pleased to see that the building works at Keleti for the new metro, line 4, were now finished.

I had a nice few days in Budapest, just riding the trams, watching the world go by, and I enjoyed another ride up the nearby mountain on the "children's railway". This narrow gauge line has a mix of steam and diesel engines, and snakes up the mountain for 11KM.

http://www.gyermekvasut.hu/english/page.php?2

I was astonished by the large number of trees which had been damaged by the winter snows, some vestiges of which remained at the higher levels. I don't know if snow fall was exceptionally severe earlier this winter, but hard to imagine that amount of damage to the vegetation being survivable every winter. (pics here

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153114980784120.1073741857.682004119&type=1&l=8d7ac33b34

Sunday afternoon, time to decide my next move:

Snow falls in Turkey, together with track repair bus substitutions... Financial scaremongering and cold weather in Athens... I found I could instead easily just buy a return ticket to Serbia, visit Belgrade for a few days, then get a cheap flight back to Nottingham from Budapest again. Clincher was the 30 Euro fare for the return train ride!

My train from Keleti was due to leave next morning at 10.10am, so I had plenty of time at the hotel to eat breakfast and then buy a few snacks for the journey. This train is made up of two sections, only two coaches going through to Serbia. These two were at the front of the train, and were the nicest looking, the rear section looking a bit rough. I was very impressed by the standard of my coach, until I was later informed that I was in 1st class, and needed to shift my butt to the next coach. Not quite so spacious, but pretty decent.

This is a full day's travel, and there is no restaurant or buffet car on the train. I was glad of knowing that in advance, and was happy to lunch on my snacks.

The border crossing saw a change of engines, train staff, and police and customs boarding the train for passport inspections.

Serbia is immediately more rural in appearance, small hamlets and villages, many houses look quite poorly built, and many have small plots of land with chickens running around. One thing that caught my eye was that many houses had a storage shed which looked to contain corn cobs... maybe these are used for fuel?

Sadly, this section of track is limited to a very slow speed, maybe 20-30 mph, and together with the massive featureless flat fields either side, makes for a rather uninteresting few hours. I am sure on a sunny summers day it would look better!

Daylight is fading by the time we reach Belgrade itself. Once again I have chosen a hotel near the station, and am booked in without fuss.

Tuesday is a very nice sunny day, and after a good breakfast, I spend time exploring. Interesting fortified castle overlooking the Danube, and I later wander aimlessly around the city streets with camera in hand. (Pics here

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153114940049120.1073741856.682004119&type=1&l=040a419f4e

Wednesday is by contrast grey and wet, so I buy an all day tram ticket, cost about $4.50 from memory.

Tram route 2 is a full circular line and takes one all around the city and back to the starting point. Tram line 7 has a mix of both older and very modern trams. This line crosses the river, and passes through a large area of rather grim looking concrete tower block housing.

A visit to the small train museum keeps me dry too!

Next time, possibly en route to Athens, I promise myself, I will spend at least one night in the rather swish Belgrade Moscow Hotel, as recommended by the man in seat 61.

Thursday another damp and grey day, back on the train from Belgrade to Budapest. Same type of coach, I go straight to 2nd class this time. No smoking signs on the train, but the toilets seem to be an unofficial smoke room, not too pleasant for non smokers.

Rather more police vigilance at the border in this direction, two people removed from my coach for reasons unknown.

I have a different hotel for the last night in Budapest, and after a good sleep and a nice breakfast on Friday morning, it is time to head out to the airport again.

In the past, I have always tried to make a trip away last as long as possible... now I am beginning to see that shorter breaks within Europe itself can be very worthwhile too. I still hope to re visit India in the Autumn 2015, and that will be a longer trip of a month or 6 weeks, I imagine. Turkey has immense appeal, as does a springtime trip to Athens and the Greek Isles... I do like these last minute impulses which make me just get up and go tomorrow, but I can see that planning ahead has many advantages too.

Cheers,

Ed


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## oregon pioneer (Mar 1, 2015)

Great trip report, and I really enjoyed the photos. I am also still loving Ian's blog. Lots of wonderful vicarious travel! Thanks, Ed!


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## Bob Dylan (Mar 1, 2015)

Excellent Eddie! The only thing missing is Sunshine, but that's balanced by the surprisingly Low Prices for travel in Eastern Europe as compared to Western Europe!

The return to India sounds great, jis has informed us that it is still very affordable if one can just get a cheap flight!


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## bobnjulie (Mar 6, 2015)

Great report and as always, love, love , love your pictures..... Looking forward to seeing more of your jaunts!


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## PeeweeTM (Mar 9, 2015)

Hi Ed,

Nice trip report! We met in the the train towards Belgrade, my son and I were in the same row. And we had the same hotels in Budapest and Belgrade.

I'll try to make a trip report in a couple of days. Perhaps this link to some of our pictures in Dropbox works: http://tinyurl.com/mdbdtcz

(I didn't make time to figure out the way entering pictures and/or links work here.)

Best regards from Rotterdam,

Peter


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## caravanman (Mar 10, 2015)

Hi Peter,

I noticed you had a book entitledt "Locomotives", but never imagined you were an AU member !

I look forward to reading your trip report. Your pics link works fine... many locos !

Funny to think that so many train fans must take the same "unique" pics of the Keleti station from the same

hotel!

I thought at the time how happy and well behaved your son was on such a long journey, he is a credit to you.

Best Wiishes,

Ed


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