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Days 25, 26, & 27: Buses and trains and hostels, oh my! A courtesy post.

So its been three days since our last post. Sorry about that. Days 23 & 24 were pretty uneventful. Kaylea was not feeling well most of the time, so we didn't do much beyond going out to eat. We tried checking out a ruin pub (a popular style of bar in Budapest), but we couldn't find our first pick and the second was just a skeevy looking night club. We opted for another wine-night-in. Sunday we actually got a little bit accomplished. We ate a very late lunch for breakfast and then nailed down our trip to Croatia. After that it was more of Kaylea being sick. We decided to get a few groceries since our train rides to Split wouldn't have food. Unfortunately, all shops bigger than 200 square meters are closed on Sundays in Budapest. We settled for croissants from a bakery and more Pringles and Oreos from a convenience store. We also bought a loaf of bread from the convenience store, but later trashed it when we realized how bad it was.

After dinner we walked down to the river and strolled the gravel path alongside it. It had stopped raining and the evening felt lovely. We spent a good amount of time sitting on the edge of the river wall enjoying the view of the royal palace, Chain Bridge, and the church we had visited our first day. We also walked around Parliament. We headed back to the hostel early to get ready for our 6:00 am train ride. The evening was spent packing and calling/facetiming family and friends.



Our original plan was to take a train to Zagreb, spend the night, and take another train to Split the next day. Both train rides were over 6 hours each, but we didn't want to use an additional day of travel. With help from the international rail ticket office, we pieced together a trip that would only take one day. This way we would have an extra travel day in case we wanted a day trip in Greece or Italy, and an extra day to relax along the beautiful Croatian coast.

We woke up and 4:00 am this morning. 4. A. M. Neither of us had gotten much sleep, so getting up wasn't too difficult, but we were sure to feel it later. We hopped in the metro just after 5. The ticket booths were still closed so we may or may not have ridden the line without tickets. We made it to the station without question from any metro reps and settled into our seats with 20 minutes to spare. About an hour into our journey the train came to a stop and everyone heading to Zagreb was herded off the train and onto coach buses which would drive us 40 minutes to our next train. That one we would ride all the way to our connection to Split. The train ride was hell. We both fell in and out of consciousness in odd positions in our cramped 2nd class seats.



Our connection to Split was a two hour wait, so we walked downtown and had lunch. Zagreb wasn't much; we made the right decision to skip it. The next train ride was another 6 hours and just as uncomfortable. We got a little more sleep, but not much. About halfway there, the scenery turned to mountains, tunnels, and low-hanging clouds. Kaylea spent much of that time switching sides of the train to take in all the sights.



Overhearing a conversation about Paris, Aaron began conversing with a trio of young people a few seats up. We ended up chatting with them for the rest of the trip, and even exchanged emails with plans to climb together.

We made it to our Split hostel by 9:30 pm (roughly 16 hours after our departure from the Budapest hostel) with an intense desire to shower and sleep. We smelled very, VERY bad. Now that we're here, we have no idea what are going to do here beyond climb, if weather permits. Guess we'll find out tomorrow.

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