måndag 15 november 2010

In Riga again

Yes, I am here again. After a long time on trains and buses I'm here in Riga again. Still longing for Macedonia but I feel happy any way. Travelling around is fun, but I would prefer to not spend so much time on the travelling part in it.  Now is my journey is almost over... well not jet but this will be my last place to visit before going home. I will leave Riga the 18th November, so I have around 3 days to spend here. My plan is not so clear yet but I will spend a lot of time in cafés with my head behind a book or two...

I will tell you about my trip the last days. At 5.28 I was on a train from Budapest to Břeclav where I should change my train to one that would take me to Warsaw. The problem started long before that train and was split in two different problems. The first one was that I did't have any ticket to the second train (I was going to take a train between Budapest-Břeclav and another between Břeclav-Warsaw). The ticket is to exaggerate the problem, I didn't have any seat reservation.
The second one, I did't have my ticket written out for the bus between Warsaw-Riga but I had paid for it.
The night before I was up all night and tried to solved this two problems. A lot of help from Mattias and some from my hostel I thought I had solved it. The first problem should not be so big because the ticket shop in the train station should be open, my hostel called them and asked. The second one should not be so big, I just need to pay 2 Euro in the bus. But I did't had any Euros on me so I needed to find an ATM that would give me some if them.

I went way from the hostel around 4.40. My train was leaving 5.28 so I thought I had a lot of time. It should only take 10 minutes to get there the girl in the hostel reception said. Here started the problems. I took the way to the left, not right (or maybe the other way around, I'm not so sure) and ended up in the wrong station. I ended up there the tram was but not the buses. I took the trams to the next station and walked from there to the bus station. After a lot of help I found one. To get help was not so easy in Budapest at this time a day for me. The most people out was homeless and drunk men in the 17-middle-age. To talk to them was a big NO NO. Why? Just the fact they are at least very drunk is enough. It wasn't very pleasant to be out this time at all. I jumped on the bus to the station and arrived their around 5.10. Asked a some people if they speak English, but no. Asked one guy that actually did, but he said that he was not able to help me any way because he wasn't from Budapest, but after asked him anyway he said that the ticket shop was down stair. I went down and was meet by a rude Hungarian talked old women. I could not by the ticket there but upstairs in the international ticket office. She was very rude and I was really angry. It's not my fault that she hasn't learn to speak English although her work should demand it... She was mostly angry because she did't understood what I was saying and that I did't understand her. I was tired on this behaviour that I had in this station my last trip to (and because I had meet so many people that was not so friendly in Hungary). I waved at here and let her know that I hated her to ;) Maybe not the most gowned up behaviour but it felt better right after it.
Up again, where was this international ticket shop? Ask some people, nobody talked understood. Asked some police officers and they told me it was on the other side. My time started to run out... I walked their, did't see anything... ran around a little and looking, asked four police-officers again but this time where my platform (no. 1) was, because I only saw higher numbers... On the right!? ok... but where... ran... Found my train and jumped on it...

I missed my train in Břeclav because I din't have any seat booked. On the train to Břeclav I meet the same guy that I had spoken to on the train-station and we started to a conversation. He was supposed to be on the next train to but he stayed with me at Břeclav. We walked around in the town and found a café after crossing almost the whole city. Nice but little town. We were there for maybe 3 hours and then we took the next train. First of all I tried to get a ticket of course but  the woman refused and said I already had one and that's enough (my InterRail ticket). We had no chance to get on the first train, so like I wrote, in stead we walked around in the town. Now I had one more change to to before I  could go to Warsaw. I jumped of in Ostrava with him and we went to the café in the train-station and talked while the time was passing by. I almost missed my train, and that would had been a little to much for me. In stead I got on a really full train. People everywhere. 4 Hours ride, not to recommend, but it become a little better later on and I slept for an hour or a couple.

In Warsaw I could not find the bus, not so strange because I was at the wrong station. Found a sandwich to eat and then I took the bus to the other station. I was already very tired and it was hard to find where I was going. When I arrived at the next station I had over one hour on me to find the bus, easy? No. nobody spoke English at all... or wrong, there was some, but only a few of the young people at the train-station that also just was passing by. It took me a long time to find the bus, a lot of calls to Sweden, a lot of questions to people and a lot of tears. In the end I had found it, it was 10 minutes before the departure. but no bus their jet. The bus was 40minutes late, I could not care less! I had found it in the end and I knew that I had nothing that I could miss.
The bus trip was ok, really comfortable seats (and I got 4 of them so I could lye down and sleep quite ok). This was the first time I had slept since the night/day between the 13-th-14th. So I was tired. I still am even if I got around 8 hours. Now I'm sitting on my hostel in Riga (the same one as the last time) and waiting for my dryer to be finished (I have laundry a lot of stuff again, but this time I need to do it by myself end it was more expensive any way). Soon I will be on my way out fore some food.

I give you some pictures from Budapest here, but I cant lie and say I liked the town. It was beautiful old stone houses everywhere but that's about it. I will remember the smile Chris bought to me (a postcard with what he called a "troll" on, the Swedish word that, that was smiling) so I had at least one smile to remember.

Some random pictures from Budapest

My street... 

The market








 
The market




Home for the homeless...


A churched i visited


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