I had a bit of confusion about where to go next once I was in the busy Munich Hauptbahnhof; careful observation of signage for trains got me to the right general area. My train, RJX 63, was scheduled to leave at 9:29 am on my printed ticket, but the departure board listed the time as 8:58 am. I found the right platform and boarded the train with 10 minutes to spare. The lesson is to arrive early for the train, if you don’t have a website to check for updates. 

I was in the wrong reserved window seat for most of my train trip to Budapest. An elderly woman was in my reserved seat when I boarded the train and I did not move her. I sat in the wrong seat because I was looking at the wrong train ticket – the Amsterdam to Berlin ticket was also for car 24 but seat 52 (instead of seat 61 as on my Budapest ticket. I was almost the man in seat 61! https://www.seat61.com/) By the time the people who’d reserved the seat I’d used arrived, she’d been sitting in my seat for over 6 hours and she was not inclined to move. Fortunately, I was able to find a seat across the aisle. 

The wifi signal and speed were excellent on the train. After running a quick Internet search for Budapest taxis, I was able to hire and pay for taxi rides from and to the train station while on the train. As in Prague, my idea was to pay electronically by debit or credit card in the local currency as much as possible to avoid having paper and coin in a one-country currency like the Czech koruna or the Hungarian forint. My driver, Viktor, and I had a little trouble meeting up at the station but we managed with WhatsApp. Viktor was young fellow who spoke English pretty well. He said that he’d lived in the Mountain View area of California, working with a construction company doing bathrooms in 2019. He’d returned to Hungary with his wife and son because his father had been seriously ill with COVID in 2020. His father recovered, thankfully, and Viktor hopes to get back to work in the US soon. He was fun to speak with and drove like a Boston taxi driver! I approved!

I checked in to my hotel room and asked about nearby food since I’d had nothing to eat since breakfast in Munich. The desk recommended a place, Bisztro Europa, but I ended up walking in the opposite direction and eating at a Greek restaurant. After my meal, I went back to the hotel, had a nondescript “Blue Lagoon cocktail” in their bar and called it an evening. Note to self: Hotel bars where the desk staff doubles as bartenders are NOT to be used for cocktails unless you are truly and seriously desperate!