TRAVEL TALES of ranaruby

  BRATISLAVA- HUNGARY TO SLOVAKIA BY TRAIN The idea of visiting Hungary's nearest neighbor was firmly woven into my wanderer's mind, long before stepping into Budapest. There are quite a few trains from Budapest to the Slovakian capital of Bratislava. So, while in Budapest, we opted for the early morning train from Nyugati railway station for a day trip to Bratislava. The train's scheduled departure was 7.40 am. So we started early at around 6.30 am when it was still slightly dark outside in October. It was quite cold also, and on our way sighted some homeless people huddled up on benches that line up the entire stretch of pavement along the avenue leading to the station. It took about 10/15 minutes’ to walk down to Nyugati from our apartment in District 7. Traveling by train in Europe has always been a cherishable experience for me. Almost all trains are high speed (200 to 220 km/hour on average), smooth and noiseless, very comfortable seats and inte...

Bu Buda & Pest- the charming twins on the banks of Danube The international airport was going through refurbishing when we flew into Budapest in October 2019. We had to directly walk across to the terminal after deboarding our flight - rather literally rush in the face of soft sprays of drizzles and cold wind on our way. Strange it may seem, but on our left, a long chain of passengers was moving towards their boarding gate housed in a small temporary cubicle. They were separated from us by a barricade made of wire mesh. A scene identical to images of European Jews being herded by the Nazis for deportation by holocaust trains. Outside, Mr. Gabor (one of the partners of Lichtenstein Apartments) was waiting to pick us up as our apartment was about 15 km away from the airport. Lichtenstein Apartment complex is centrally located, on a lane leading to the hub of Jewish Quarters in District 7. The apartments are cut out from century-old building interiors with very high ceilings a...