It was 2015 when we traveled with the whole family through Europe – by bus.
We visited my family in Romania fairly often, but since every time we flew over the Atlantic we wanted to see them, we never had time to visit other countries on the continent. I grew up in Eastern Europe and up until that vacation I haven’t seen most of the countries on the continent. It was time to change that.
So, instead of flying to Budapest as usual, we flew into Prague and started our trip there.
“Let’s not rent a car”
“How will we get from Prague to Vienna, then Budapest, then Ludus (Transylvania, Romania)?”, I asked my husband when he told me he didn’t want to rent a car.
“You grew up in Europe, you tell me,” he said. “I would just prefer not to have to drive across borders on this vacation.”
He had a point. We were traveling separately for part of the trip (he had less vacation time than the kids and I), so we’d have to decide who would rent and take the car. Besides that, we didn’t want to deal with issues around borders, cars rented in one country, and returned in another.
We used public transportation in the past. In my younger days, I traveled exclusively by buses and trains, both in Romania, and on the East Coast of the US. As a family with young kids, we took a bus through Mexico and they loved it. We’ve traveled through Hungary and Romania by train with toddlers. Everyone always enjoyed these trips.
Thinking it through, I was getting excited about the idea. If we could do it with babies and toddlers, it would be a piece of cake now, when the kids were all older.
What we didn’t take into consideration though that during the years while we started using cars exclusively, so did everyone else. Public transport was not like it used to be. I knew this was true for the States, but I still expected Europe to be public-transport-friendly.
A Long Flight
We finally made it to Prague after the longest (or so it seemed) plane ride I have experienced. Not that it was any longer than we were used to. We’ve traveled to Australia before and that was way longer – in time. We usually fly to Romania which is slightly longer.
But never before did I get so sick on a plane like this time. By the time we were in London’s Heathrow airport, I could barely stand. Still, we needed to get on another plane with only about two hours layover. I wasn’t sure that would be enough for me to recover.
I got lucky though, my son noticed a pharmacy in Heathrow and convinced me to go and buy some anti-nausea pills. They worked, did kick in by the time we got on the next plane.
Four Days in Prague
Still, when I got off in Prague, all I wanted to do was go to bed and sleep. As exciting as it was for the rest of the family to be there, I just wanted to get to the room. We still needed to take a bus, then a tram, and walk a few blocks.
As it turned out, it was worth it. We rented an apartment through VRBO in a neighborhood of Prague, just across the river from the center. I loved the fact that right away it felt like we were living there.
The apartment was huge, it had more bedrooms that we needed with the three kids, two bathrooms and a nice large kitchen. The ceiling was very high as well; I felt like I was living in 18th century Europe. I knew the kind of design and architecture from the apartments in Cluj, where one of my friends used to live. Though the same-style building in Cluj is broken up into two apartments instead of the one. Here, I saw what it looked like originally.
Though the building was old, it had been renovated, it even had a tiny elevator (that I could tell was squeezed in the stairway later on), and everything inside the apartment was new. We settled in a routine from the very first day.
I could live here…
From the first day we fell into a routine there. In the mornings we walked to the neighborhood grocery store where we got enough food for the day, fresh bread and pastries for breakfast, cold cuts, milk, yogurt, and fresh fruits and vegetables.
By the time we returned to the apartment, the kids woke up, and after breakfast, we set off for the city.
Each day we started off in a slightly different place, and in the four days we spent there, we managed to experience most of the best places to visit in Prague.
We walked through the city each day, ate at a few restaurants, but mainly just marveled at the beauty of this place that stayed intact, kept all of its old architecture throughout the wars and the communist era. I could definitely live there, it is one of my favorite places I’ve ever been at.
A Bus to Vienna
When it was time to leave, we searched for the best way to get to Vienna. We didn’t realize that borders no longer existed between most of the countries of Europe.
Anyway, the bus seemed the best way to get to our next destination. At the station, we realized that they had buses leaving every two hours, and the trip by bus between the two cities lasted about five hours.
We booked tickets with Student Travel, and had a great experience with the bus featuring comfortable chairs, bathroom, wi-fi on board and even a stewardess, who offered us coffee and hot chocolate. We stopped in a town long enough to get off and buy some snacks and drinks, and overall we had a great experience getting to Vienna.
Two Days in Vienna
Vienna is a wonderful city, growing up so close yet so far from it, I always wanted to visit it. We only had two days to explore it this time, but since it is a compact city, the two days were enough to … well, to see it on the surface. We enjoyed our stay there as well, even if it felt like we were rushing through it.
I was planning to stop again on the way back, with the kids, anyway. We were traveling separately on the way back since my husband needed to get back sooner for work.
Not All Buses Are Created Equal
Our next stop was Budapest. Since we had such a great experience with the bus from Prague to Vienna, we assumed this would continue. However, the same company was not going farther into Eastern Europe, so we had to find another one.
It was easy enough to find other companies, and we thought we could count on them all being just as good, so we didn’t investigate. We chose Orange Lines because their time table was convenient for us.
When we were already on the way to the bus station, I got a text message from the company that due to some unforeseen circumstances, the bus would leave from a different terminal, and they gave me the address for it. Luckily our phones worked and the GPS on them as well, so we could figure out the new address before we got on the metro.
Once there, we were lost. We saw no sign of a bus station, at least not an international one that we expected. We asked a local about the address, and he told that we were at the right place, but he knew of no bus station there.
Searching for the bus
We noticed a few buses in a parking lot, so we went over. No, we were not part of a tour, we assured the very helpful man who apparently worked with the tours. He was trying to help us, so he asked the other guides if they knew anything about our bus. Since none of them knew anything about it, they called around and decided that we were in the wrong place. They were all very helpful, and finally one of them thought he knew where our bus station was. He told us to get on a metro for a few stations, then take another one about ten minutes away and the station would be there. At this point we had about 20 minutes until the bus was leaving.
We ran down to the metro station and were ready to get on a train when I stopped everyone. Looking at the address the guide was sending us, I realized that we were about to go to the original place the bus was supposed to be leaving from, the place they sent me message about it not leaving from. We also realized that we would never make it on time.
So we went back up and started walking around in hopes of finding something else that looked like a bus station. We did find a place that looked promising, and stopped there. A fellow traveler heard us and since he spoke English, he told us he thought we were in the right place. He was waiting for the same bus, got the same message, but he’d traveled with this company before he was pretty sure that they would show up there.
Ten minutes later the bus arrived. It wasn’t orange, as we expected from its name, and it wasn’t very clean. It had a bathroom, but was locked and we couldn’t use it. No one offered us coffee, and they had no wi-fi on board.
But we were happy to be moving in the right direction. The driver spoke Hungarian, and when I asked him, he assured me that indeed they were going to Budapest. We were on the right bus. We decided that it was comfortable enough for the few hours that it took to get from Vienna to Budapest.
The Adventure Continues
I love Budapest. At least I always have. My brother lives there, and over the years I visited it often. While it doesn’t quite seem like home, it is pretty close, since at least I speak the language. Although, since I speak a version of the language used in Transylvania, and recognizable in Hungary, at times I feel that I am better off pretending I don’t speak my language, I’m only an English speaking American.
Since we only had a few hours, and my brother was working out of town, we needed to find a place to eat something and go to the bathroom. In reverse order, especially in my case.
My son told me about a book called Urinetown he read in high school, he used to think it was purely the author’s imagination, but on this trip became convinced that it was based on Europe. And actually, the idea for it came when the author traveled to Europe and encountered a paid public restroom. A lot might be broken with America, but at least we don’t have to pay to urinate. Unlike in Europe, specifically in Budapest.
I grew up basically next-door, in Romania, so paid toilets were no news to me. I even knew I had to carry change to pay. And that’s exactly why I took our Forints (Hungarian currency) with us on the trip.
The bus station where we arrived was on the outskirts of town, far from everything. Though we didn’t know how far we were from the center, we didn’t mind walking towards the city center. We had time.
But first, I really needed to find a bathroom.
After walking for what seemed like hours (about twenty minutes, really, but when you have to pee, even two minutes is too long), I spotted a subway station. They would have a restroom there, I was sure of it.
So, we walked down the stairs. We found ourselves in a large underground station, complete with food vendors and a bathroom. I had a 200 Ft bill and it cost 150 Ft to go to a public restroom at the time. I was relieved. I could finally pee. Or so I thought.
“Your money is no good”
The lady who was guarding the door, and taking the money wouldn’t let me in.
“That money is no good,” she said.
I stared at it, I thought I grabbed the wrong currency. No, the bill clearly said Forints.
“You can keep the change,” I said, thinking she meant she had no change to give me.
“No,” she repeated.”This bill is no good. They took it out of circulation.”
I couldn’t believe this. I was about to wet my pants, right in a bathroom, and this lady would not let me go.
“When did this happen? And what would this money be worth now?”
“A few months ago. It is still worth the same. but we can’t take it anymore. You can take it to a banks, they can exchange it, but we can’t.”
“Ok, I understand, but please just let me go to the bathroom, and I’ll bring you money later. I really need to go.” I was pleading with her. We were talking about something worth less than fifty cents.
“No, sorry, I can’t,” she said. “There is a cash machine in the metro station, you can get money there.”
So I left the WC or bathroom, gave my husband back the money, and when he asked what he should do with it, I just took it and tossed it in a garbage bin. My bladder was about to burst, I had no time to explain about money worth a few cents. I looked around for a cash machine. I couldn’t see one. Finally, my husband noticed something that could have been it.
“That looks like a cash machine, don’t you think?” he pointed to the large machine. It was, and I got some cash from it.
But the machine only had very large bills, which I knew the bathroom lady would have a problem with. We also had no clue at this point what was worth how much. So we got some pastries at a food stand, and I got enough change back to finally go to the bathroom. By now both my girls needed to go and we had enough money for all.
Yes, this time the lady did let me go, and I was finally, after what seemed like ages, able to pee. Yep, don’t go to Budapest without the proper change for a bathroom.
Waiting for the Bus
Finally, able to walk like a human, we tried to find a place to eat at but haven’t seen anything within walking distance from the bus station. But we did notice a neighborhood grocery store. So, we went in and bought a few things to eat and snack on. We made it just minutes away from closing time, which made the clerks annoyed and rude with us. I am not sure it was because we were American or I was speaking Transylvanian Hungarian, but it just wasn’t my night in the city. But it was getting close to the time our bus would leave, so we returned to the station.
Waiting for the bus in Budapest
Once there, we waited. And waited. And waited some more. The scheduled leaving time came and went and we still waited. They had a representative at a small ticket counter we asked if we were in the right place. Yes, we were. The bus would be here soon. Or so she said.
So we waited some more. And kept waiting. At least we weren’t alone, a lot of travelers were waiting with us. Most were Hungarians from Transylvania, trying to get back home. We met a Canadian, traveling alone. We also met two ladies from South America, excited to visit Tusnad in Transylvania, a place I knew well, so we talked about it.
And still kept waiting. It was pitch dark by now, a few hours past the time we were supposed to be on the bus. No bus was anywhere in sight. Finally, the girl at the counter, after closing it down, came out and told us the bus broke down and they didn’t have another one. So they were fixing it. How long would it still take, she had no idea.
Getting dark while we were waiting for the bus… in Budapest
So we kept waiting, but by now we were talking about getting a hotel room somewhere nearby. We knew we wouldn’t get our money back from the bus company (and five tickets weren’t cheap), but we were willing to let it go.
Finally, a bus arrived. A tiny bus, one normally used as an airport shuttle. We didn’t think it was our bus, but they started reading off passengers names. As hard as it was to believe, it was the bus we were waiting for.
This tiny bus would drive twelve hours over two countries, carrying more passengers than it was safe or legal for its size. But it was the one we had our tickets for, and was loading up the passengers for Transylvania.
Well, it would be another adventure, we thought, and got on.
Riding the bus – overnight through Hungary and Transylvania
The whole reason we chose this bus was to travel overnight and get to my parents’ house in the morning. We were twelve hours away from Ludus. We were traveling on a tiny bus, filled with people, with no room to move, barely enough room for our luggage. But at least we weren’t waiting for the bus any longer.
The seats were small, and while the girls and I could fit in them, my husband and my son could barely sit there. We didn’t have room to move, though we sat at the very back of the bus, taking up the whole space, all five seats. We had no leg room, so my husband, the tallest of us, sat in the middle, with no seats in front of him.
Finally my youngest daughter got somewhat comfortable with her head on my shoulder and she was able to go to sleep. Our other daughter can sleep anywhere, so she was able to get some sleep too. The rest of us were watching as the bus was swirving through the narrow roads, barely missing other cars coming from the opposite direction. We were so slow, at times it seemed we could walk faster. It was the middle of the night and there was still a lot of traffic on the roads.
But we made it. Instead of five in the morning, we arrived at ten, but we made it to my home town, Ludus.
Finally Made it to Our Farthest Destination. Ludas, my Childhood Home
We walked through town, didn’t call my parents, I wanted to surprise them when we just rang the doorbell. They knew we were coming but didn’t know when and how. So it was a nice surprise, and we spent a wonderful ten days in the area. We visited the Salt Mine in Turda, and the Turda Gorge, but spent most of our time in my old home town.
Back to Prague and Flying Home
The trip back was relatively easy, at least as far as transportation went. Although we took the same bus line, and we even had the same driver, this time they did have a decent bus. We got to spend a day in Budapest, saw my brother who lives there and finally enjoyed the city.
We learned more about bathrooms in town. You can’t get away without paying to use one. Even in fast food restaurants you need to buy something before you can use a restroom, they are locked and you need the code from your receipt to open them. But I also learned from locals the if you kept your receipt you could go back and use their restroom as many times as you wanted.
I also noticed that locals gave their receipts to others in the area, so they did figure out a way to pee for free. We did the same, when we left one of the restaurants and knew we wouldn’t be back in the area, we gave our receipt to someone about to enter.
The little things we take for granted…
While there, we did some of the tourist things, though we’ve done them all before. It was still enjoyable. We had lunch at a very nice restaurant where my brother took as, and visited some of the World Heritage sites in the city.
In Vienna we spent another night and a full day, when we revisited the Schönbrunn Palace.
We spent two more days in Prague before boarding the plane to Heathrow and from there the one that took us home. It was a different vacation than our regular visits to Europe, but it was an adventure that we all enjoyed in the end. Even the tiny bus that seemed to be from the twilight zone just seems part of the package now, part of the adventure.
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