The disadvantage of being 27 years old is that I no longer qualify for the Eurail second class pass. I'm required to buy a first class pass for much more money. The advantage is that I ride first class the entire way.
Ljubljana to Budapest is a 10 hour ride, normally a horrific ordeal, particularly because there are two transfers and one of them only has a seven minute window of opportunity. However, not only would I be riding first class, but I would be riding Austrian Railjet trains, which are like those floating bubble cars the Jetsons drove. I wish I would have taken some pictures, but I was too in awe of the space age on rails.
Aside from being Batmobile sleek, first class is equipped with computer monitors that show my speed, planned time of arrival at all the stops, and current expected time of arrival at all the stops. The best part is that once the train started to be late, IT SPED UP in order to gain time. And once it was expected to arrive too early, IT SPED DOWN to meet the schedule. That's ridiculous. Somewhere the governator just flexed his pecs. Compare that to my Belgrade to Bar train, an expected 9 hour ride that took 13. And we averaged something like 35 km/h. The Railjet maxed out at 160 km/h.
Upon arriving in Budapest, I marveled at the view over the Danube and marched into the hostel where I was promptly greeted by very energetic Japanese tourists. They convinced me to go clubbing, and we did.l There was a bumping place right across the Danube in Buda (I was staying in Pest) which became a bit crowded towards the end.
I did, however, probably hear the best comment of my life related to Asian eyes. Heck, it was the only comment that wasn't mockery. As we were dancing with some Hungarian locals, one woman said to the Japanese and me (I gave up trying to tell people we were different), "I like your eyes, because when you smile, they smile, too."
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