We enjoyed our final night in our inner city apartment in Budapest. It made all the difference to our stay here in Budapest. It was roomy, with a bath and also two toilets. The large colour television was well used, and the separate lounge room was quite enormous with lovely views over the roof tops to the domes of the Basilika, just the same as both the main bedrooms. We felt very spoilt. As icing on the cake, the landlord seemed to adopt us as his personal project. He could not do enough for us.
The dawning day was very wet. The wind blew strongly overnight, the only value of which might have been to blow away the mist that has been lying low over this part of Europe for weeks. Overnight also, daylight saving time for Europe came to an end. We nervously wound our clocks back an hour overnight, hoping and trusting that the message also got through to the train station. Our train to Prague was to depart at 11:25am.
Snow was falling all over Germany and Eastern Europe! It was a sudden cold snap, which is not unusual for this time of year. It is not great news though for cyclists, even hard core cyclists of the Australian breed. This morning however, we had to pack our gear, and make our way in the rain the 1-2k up the busy 6 lane main road to the ‘Eastern Railway Station’, as the Budapest International station is called. Our ‘landlord’ was due at 10am. He is a very good fellow. Last night he just called in, bringing us Hungarian chocolates as a special treat. He can’t seem to do enough for us. We had also bought him some chocolates as a ‘thank you’ gesture for his extra grace and kindness to us.
Exactly at the dot of 10am, the bell rang. It was our ever trusty landlord. He is a tall, dark young guy about 35 years of age. He either owns and/or manages about 16 of these inner city apartments. We were certainly very grateful for this one. It has been a real blessing to us. Being on the 4th floor, we had all our gear plus three bikes to get down to the foyer before we could pack the bikes. The landlord happily helped us carry gear and bikes on our arrival. Now he was all prepared to help us get down. We have eight saddle bags for the bikes which combined are probably about 70-80kg in total weight. My backpack was full with food and gear for the train. We had two tents plus other bits and pieces. The tiny elevator barely fitted four people crammed. There was barely enough room for SJ and Julie and all our bags, but we managed. The landlord helped me handle two bikes down the long flights of stairs. SJ came back for the third.
We said our goodbyes and were gone, apart from the official departure photo. The toughest was yet to come. We had to ride the 1-2k up the main road in the rain. The road was busy with traffic despite being Sunday morning. We had a bus lane, which in Budapest was illegal but we had to use it. It was the ride of our life. SJ led the way, with her mother in hot pursuit. Passing traffic was splashing us. Our bikes were spewing water up our legs and at each other, all the time watching over our shoulders as best we could for approaching buses. We had to patiently wait in the rain at several sets of red lights, but eventually the great railway station building loomed into view. We had made it! It certainly increased our heart rate, and added to our experiences.
The station was ‘abuzz’ with people on the move. We located our train and at 10:55am decided to make arrangements to get everything on board. Our bikes were now fully loaded just as if we were cycling. On previous train trips we have either wheeled the bikes straight on (if the platform was level with the train) or struggled to lift/push them up the several stairs and into the train carriage. Today’s train seemed even higher off the ground. We stood there staring at it, wondering how best to perform this next miracle. Happily, two railway attendants bounced out of the train, and with no English but intense haste as if the world was about to end, told us to take all bags off. Before we knew what was happening, our bikes were up and packed away, and our bags were being manhandled into the train as well. We were pointed into our compartment, and no sooner in than our bags turned up again being thrown up and into the overhead baggage racks.
We were blown away by the service. However when all done, the one who carried and packed our bags stood in front of us with his hand out and even though he spoke in Hungarian, we knew he was expecting a tip. The first note of 500 Forint was rejected as ‘too small’. Then the 1000 Forint suffered the same result! He was not happy until we handed over 3000 Forint (about $12)! However, we were on and our bikes were packed away. At exactly 11:25am the train jumped into life and we were off to Prague. We had our own compartment to start with, but this changed the further we went with people getting on at later stations.
The train tracked back over the route that we had cycled from Bratislava, so it was interesting and exciting to see the great castle on the mountaintop above Visegrad, the beauty of the Danube and the opposite bank as we cut through the famous ‘Danube Bend’, and to see the wonderful Basilika at Esztergom standing high and unimpeded by anything else around as we made our way to Bratislava.
Once we crossed over into the Czech Republic, we started to see white patches appear firstly along the railway lines. We debated whether it was snow, but within a short time there was no debate. The fields, houses and trees were eventually a sea of white. Snow had been falling heavily, and this remained unchanged until we got to the built up area around Prague by which time it was dark and we lost the vision.
The train arrived at Prague about 7pm. We carried our own bags off, but our bikes were delivered to us but this time without the expectation of a tip. It is always challenging to negotiate our way out of the railway station, and then to orient ourselves with the crude city map we downloaded off Google. However we managed, and with a 1-2k walk with our bikes we were outside the Hostel Elf, our home for three nights.
The Hostel has been built into a cliff face, so once we entered the external access gate at street level, we had a massive flight of 50 stairs to take us up to the top level where the reception was located! As we made the many trips with gear and bikes, we reflected on how many times we have had to do this, and what a joy it is!
The Elf is however cosy, with breakfast thrown in. It has free tea/coffee all day and wireless for the computer. It is friendly but we are sharing it with a huge group of students from a school or university from France, who are all excited about being in Prague (excited = noisy!).
As we reflected on the day we felt again the gentle divine hand had been upon our arrangements. We had not planned to go to Budapest, but because we did, we were not out on the road when the snow hit Czech Republic. Had we not altered our plans, we would have been 3-4 days cycling across Czech Republic to Prague. Two of those days would have been through the snow which would have caused untold difficulty for us.
We often take it for granted, but when King David wrote “The Lord is my shepherd, I have everything I need. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters..” (Psalm 23), he was a man who knew the experience of the divine invisible guidance of the hand of Go. At times like this it is easy to take for granted the gentle, invisible hand that ‘leads me beside still waters’.
We are grateful to be in the great city of Prague tonight. We rest knowing that the God who led the shepherd boy David in his conquest of the giant Goliath, and the same David to become King and leader of his own people Israel, is the same God who watches over us all tonight.
From the banks of the Vltara River in the great city of Prague, we send our love.
Kelvin, Julie and Sarah-Jane.
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