did you say swaziland?
Krakow, Poland
There’s only one bus a week from Krakow that connects directly with the bus to Brasov. We tried to book it today, only to discover it’s full. So’s the one that leaves a week earlier and the one that goes a week later.
Plan B. Take the bus two days earlier to Budapest, then get on the original one to Brasov. This requires finding a hostel in Budapest, two late late nights instead of one (the first bus arrives at 11pm…..the next one leaves at 11:30pm – two days later – so the kids will be up til midnight twice in one week…not to mention then trying to sleep on the bus that leaves at 11:30 and doesn’t arrive until noon), having to change money coz Hungary still uses their own currency. Nah, Plan B is not an option.
Check out the trains online. Oh, that’s right. They cost five times as much – that’s why we had decided to go by bus.
Look for other routes to Brasov – through the Ukraine instead. But maybe we need visas, and no busses go that way anyway.
Try another bus line. After half an hour give up – can’t find any.
In Krakow the main bus depot and main train station sit side by side. I breathe a sigh of relief as Rob goes to make in-person investigations; maybe we’ll have more luck talking to a person instead of typing at a computer screen. Plus, other train tickets have turned out to be much cheaper when bought on location.
As Rob walks out I mutter, “You’ll be back soon saying we’re going to Budapest.”
For the first time I have had enough. A year ago adrenaline pumped as we negotiated timetables and hostel bookings. Now it’s just a nuisance when things don’t go according to plan (and why should things start falling into place now? nothing has been simple up to now!)
The thought crosses my mind that I might be ready to go home. But no, not yet. I still want to be in new places, hearing other languages, eating different food, discovering, seeing, experiencing, learning this way. I consider that it would be much easier with fewer children. But we would not have had *this* particular trip without them. And we can’t get a babysitter for six months while we-adults continue unencumbered.
As I sit knitting, my mind starts wandering to another trip….Swaziland to Scotland! Starting in South Africa and Swaziland, we’d skip up to Somalia, maybe Sudan, on to Spain and Switzerland, stopping by Scandinavia on our way to Scotland. That week we missed in London on this trip could be tacked on the end…and maybe Sorrento at some stage, too. Or would we add South America instead? Or the Solomon Islands on the way home? And guess what! This time we’d be on bikes. With tents.
“We’re going to Budapest!” Rob bursts into the room. He’s done his best, considered all the options and there’s really only one way forward from here. Plan B.
Back to the computer. There’s a couchsurfer, who has a yurt – yes, a yurt right there in Budapest. We’ve stayed in three of them, and liked them considerably….but he lives forty minutes on public transport from the centre of town and the bus depot where we’ll be dropped is another half hour from the centre and we’re arriving close enough to midnight anyway. We’ve turned up at this hour in enough cities to know that public transport can be anything from erratic to non-existent at this time of night, so we keep looking for hostels. Are we perhaps a little less crazy now?
I don’t think you could call us sensible yet. Spare hours are spent hunched over kiwi real estate sites…..we’ve found the ideal block of land. No, not five acres, not even ten; it’s 155 acres.
“What do we know about farming 150 acres?” Grandpa asks.
Nothing. But we’d learn.
The boys jump around with excitement when they see the pictures of deer and wild pigs caught in the thirty acres of bush. One presses hands together begging Dadda to catch the vision. There are stock yards and fencing and good grazing and firewood and four dams. It’s more than our dreams. There’s no house on it, but we are good at living in confined spaces – we could rig up a shed in no time, we could dig a longdrop before sunset. And we could start making mud bricks to build our house with. We already have the plans!
“I’ll come and visit in the holidays,” Rob generously offers. There’s a reason this piece of land costs almost nothing. It’s in the middle of nowhere. A six and a half hour commute from Auckland.
Another email arrives in our inbox. A real estate agent is letting us (and probably 732 other people on her mailing list) know that 16 acres is soon coming on the market – on the very street where we tried to buy a block once before. At that point we had to choose: trip or farm. The fact that the lady decided not to sell was irrelevant; we had resolved to put the trip on the timeline before a farm.
So that’s why we are trying to get to Brasov. We’ll even get a couple of bonus days in Budapest – days we’ll be able to wander on foot instead of driving around and around and around and out again! The prospect is tantalising. We’re enjoying the journey, but we’re a little tired of the work involved in making it happen. That must be a sign that we are preparing to settle down. Surely.
Till Swaziland anyway.
Tags: 2008/09, children, postcard: Poland, postcard: Romania, price
rayres
That WOULD get wearing. Good luck on all the decisions to be made.
We stayed at a hostel in Budapest called Unity Hostel, in case you still need ideas/recommendations. It was VERY good. Clean, pleasant, really helpful staff, breakfast included. Great location. AND reasonably priced! (Although to be fair I’m still thinking in terms of two people, not ten!)
YAY for Budapest! Be sure to wander up to the Fishermen’s lookout where the castle is for a great view of the Danube, and if the weather agrees for a park check out St. Margaret’s Island in the middle of the river. That was my favorite spot in the city as a kid… oh, and when it comes to Hungarian street food it’s all good but if I were there I’d get something called “langos” in a heartbeat- fried dough topped with sour cream and cheese and garlic powder. And the best cake is “Dobos torta,” “drum cake,” several alternating layers of cake and chocolate with a caramel layer on top.
(And as a word of advice, if any locals ask you you are going to Transylvania next, NOT Romania! That bit of land is still a definite source of dispute between the two countries.)
nah not crazy at all.. and 155 acres.. hmm minus 1 for house & grounds, -1 for vege garden, -1 for orchard, minus 30 of bush, another -50 for leased grazing, another acre for each of the kids to do-as-they-will (educational! 😉 ) then that doesn’t leave to much left to worry about does it? 😀
the grazing would pay for your swaziland trip 😉 rob might have to upgrade the bicycle though….