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greenbagjosh · 9 months

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Sunday 2 August 1998 - yummy eggs with bell peppers - paprika market near Nyugati pu, apartment blocks near Köbánya Kispest and Yugos you never saw before - long train ride home to M-Ostbahnhof and tribute to FM4′s Julia Barnes

Sunday 2 August 1998

Hi everyone, jó reggelt and dobré ráno

In spite of the noisy roommates, I hope you slept well. Today will include a long train ride home, but first a north-south journey with an unforgettable breakfast at a cafe. We make it home about 9:30 PM.

The summary of the day for those who may not have time to read everything - around 5:45 AM wake up because the sun rises earlier in Hungary than in Germany - took shower, got dressed and checked out of hostel. See Trabants, Wartburgs and 4-door Yugos along the way - went to Ferenciek Tere, bought a napijegy for the metro, xfrd at Déak Tér for Keleti pályaudvar - left clothes bag at left luggage, mark my Eurail pass with 02 08, leaving two more spaces - took trolleybus to Nyugati Pályaudvar, strolled around the open market, lots of peppers to admire - breakfast at Mephisto Cafe, with excellent Hungarian egg scramble and best coffee in Europe - metro M3 south to Köbánya Kispest, and to Határ út with tram to Lehel utca - last tram ride along the Danube, 12:30 departure for Vienna and München - cross into Austria after Hegyeshalom and Nickelsdorf - train reverse about 3:30 PM at Vienna Westbahnhof, five more hours until München Ostbahnhof - local U-Bahn trains and bus to home via Max-Weber-Platz and Arabellapark - and hear complaints from roommates about the alarm clock in my room ?? - at least I made it back. Well that was all for a Sunday in Central Europe. Let's have some more fun in Budapest before getting on a train for about eight hours. (in comparison with the last two days, the prose is much shorter for today)

On Sunday 2nd August 1998, it was a sunny day for the most part. Due to Hungary's eastern position in the Central European +1 (+2 in summer) time zone, and being in the same zone as Paris and München, the sun rose earlier than in Germany or even France or Spain. Even with the noisy roommates, I woke up about 5:45 AM. The hostel did not offer breakfast as the cafeteria was shut for the summer. So I had to find somewhere else for breakfast. I took a shower in the men's dorm shower area, got dressed and checked out of the hostel. I needed a place to put my clothes bag as I did not want to carry it around all day.

Walking to the Ferenciek Tere metro station, I thought to myself I could properly pronounce the word "napijegy" properly. Along the way I saw a few Trabants, Wartburgs and even a 4-door Yugo. Most people in the USA would likely only know of the 3-door hatchback, but Zastava also made a 4-door sedan version as well. It is only logical that the Yugos would be present in Hungary since it shares a border with the then-Yugoslavia.

Once I entered the Ferenciek Tere station, I went to the ticket counter and bought my napijegy. This time the ticket seller understood what I needed, and gave me a napijegy for 2nd August. Then I went on to Keleti pályaudvar, changing at Déak Tér. At Keleti, the baggage handler could speak some English and asked for 600 Forint to watch my bag. He gave me a claim ticket for when I wanted to get the bag back. After Keleti, I went on a trolley bus northwards to somewhere outside of Nyugati Pályaudvar. Nyugati is only a commuter rail station. To the north is a shopping center, but what I found interesting, was to the east of Nyugati, was a farmer's market. Almost half of the produce sold was actually paprika. Some red, some green but mostly yellow. Paprika is probably the most recognizable vegetables from Hungary. Photos of the paprikas can be found in the "Rechtschreibreform" album, towards the end.

I took the M-3 to Déak Tér to find a place to eat breakfast. There was one place close to Vörösmarty Tér on the Váci utca, called the Mephisto Cafe. The place looked inviting, and I sat at an outside table. The servers offered me coffee, and it was the Segafredo coffee that I had on Friday, but with milk and sugar. I looked in the menu and chose a scrambled eggs and vegetables plate. The eggs were scrambled with ham and red peppers, and came with cucumbers and tomatoes. It was probably the best egg dish I had in a long time. I stayed about an hour, until it was time to get up. I asked, in Hungarian, to pay the bill, without reverting to either German or English, trying to make use of the phrasebook. I think breakfast cost 1,100 Forint with coffee, very reasonable.

I wanted to see the south of Budapest, namely in the Kispest. Taking the M-3 to Köbánya-Kispest, I passed by Határ út which I would transfer to the tram with. But at Köbánya-Kispest, it was a surface station where I could see the metro car in daylight. At Köbánya Kispest, it is a transfer station to the suburban railway that goes to the airport among other places southeast of Budapest. Going back to Határ út, it seemed more interesting than many of the other stations towards Klinikák and further to Déak Tér and Újpest. At Határ út, I took a tram line 42 to Hungária út, where there was a Spar grocery store, open on Sunday. In Hungary, the grocery stores are called "ABC-bolt". I bought some bread, some cheese similar to provolone, and spicy salami. And also an herbal drink similar to the Almdudler that you can get all across Austria. Going back to the tram stop, there were a few 4-door Yugos to be seen and here and there also a Trabant.

I felt there was one last thing to do, it was 11:15 AM and I still wanted to go up and down the Danube one last time. So I went to Kálvin Tér on the M-3 and boarded a line 2 tram at the nearby Fovám tér stop, and made it as far south as Boráros tér where the H-7 train departs from. It was a sunny day so the view across the Danube was excellent, though it was hot in the tram. I had to be sure that I would have enough time to get to Keleti, to catch the train, so I went back and alighted at Vigadó tér, walked to Vörösmarty tér, transferred to the M-2 at Déak tér, and went the three stops over. I had fifteen minutes to get the clothes bag and board the train. I made good time, was on the train about 12:10 AM before it left. Turning on the radio I heard a Cliff Richard song from the early 1960s, I think "Summer Holiday", then the train conductor made an announcement in Hungarian, German and English. I understood his German and English well enough. When he came around to check my ticket, I showed him my passport with the ticket and he said Thank-You in English. I had for about three hours, the entire six-person compartment in first class, all to myself. So I could just sit back, watch the scenery and listen to the radio.

The train made a counterclockwise turn before heading left towards Tatabánya and Gyor. It would be about a half hour before being able to pretend that I was also in ???? Slovakia, as Tata up to Hegyeshalom is within five miles of the Slovak border. It's like being in a bilingual corridor. About 2:15 PM the train arrived at Hegyeshalom. ???????????? ????The Hungarian border guards checked passports and gave me an exit stamp. Also the MÁV locomotive was swapped for an ÖBB locomotive. About 2:30 PM the train pulled into Nickelsdorf and entered Austria. I received an entry stamp. I think about this area, between here and Bruck an der Leitha, it is the limit of the Hungarian and to some degree, also the Slovak radio reception area. But it was also the beginning of Blue Danube Radio's range, as at 2:55 PM I was able to receive that station, and hear "Fantasy Love" by Stanley Clark. I switched to an Austrian station, namely Radio Niederösterreich, and they were playing the last two minutes of Juliane Wehrding's "Sehnsucht ist unheilbar" before the news. Still the Lassing Mine Disaster was newsworthy, but not much progress from two days ago had happened. After the news I switched the radio to Hit Radio Ö3, heard the latest Top 40 countdown, I heard "I'm still waiting" by Sasha, "No tengo dinero" by Los Umbrellos, "Laura non c'è" by Nek, "High" by the Lighthouse Family, "Lucky for you" by Espen Lind, and "Dream Lover" by Mariah Carey. Yes that was considered proper music in 1998. They were also doing a contest to win a million ATS, which is hardly more than $80k US at those exchange rates.

They did a cute Grimm fairy tale sketch that went like "Oh schreck, eine ganze Million ist 'weck'" "Gille-gille, am Montag gibts nochma a Mille" "eine Million, das wäre die Sommersensation!" and all these years later I still have it on tape.

At 3:25 PM the train reached Vienna Westbahnhof, where it would switch directions. And all good things had to come to an end, no more compartment to myself. A young man in his mid 20s also entered my compartment with his backpack on a similar adventure to my own. We did not speak much. I turned the radio from "Stranded" by Lutricia McNeal on Hit Radio Ö3 to Blue Danube, and it was playing more jazz, for example "Don't say it's over" by Randy Crawford, and then the news was read in English, read by Julia Barnes (sadly she passed away in May 2017, as per https://fm4.orf.at/stories/2845462/). There was not much news to mention about the mine disaster that was not already said in other similar Austrian media. She mentioned there was a war going on in the Kosovo. She mentioned that Hakkinen finished first in the Formel 1 with a McLaren. I think she did the news very well. Hopefully this is a nice tribute to Ms Barnes who I remember reading the news in English at 3:30 PM on Sunday 2nd August 1998.

About 3:40 the train left Vienna for St Pölten, Linz, Salzburg and München. About 4 PM I listened to one more news report, pretty much the same so it got a bit boring, so music was more of a highlight. One classic song I heard was "Dedicated follower of fashion" by The Kinks. About 4:05 PM I thought it would be a good time to take a nap, the compartment air conditioning was cooling much better by then and I did not drink much of the herbal drink compared to the time before I crossed from Hungary to Austria. ?????????????????????? (no meaningful customs formalities carried out b/w AT and DE) The crossing from Salzburg to Freilassing about 6:30 PM went uneventfully other than the conductor checking that the 02 and 08 in my ticket were still as they were. The train arrived in München Ostbahnhof about 8:10 PM, and I could alight there, transfer to the U-5, then to a U-4 at Max Weber Platz, bus 37 for home at Arabellapark. Well I thought I was safe and sound, at 8:45 PM when I got home, but .....

The roommates were not particularly happy. They let me know, that my radio went off both Saturday and Sunday at the usual time when they wanted to sleep in. And the next time I leave for the weekend, to be very sure, and I mean, very sure, that I turn off the alarm, before I leave. It was a moment of humility. I would go to sleep and make it to work the next morning and have stories to tell. And soon enough I would be on good terms with the roommates once again.

So what happened after this? The following week of this story? What world event(s) would occur, that would be on every newspaper by Friday the 7th August 1998? ???????? ?????? How would it even affect the USA? And what were the names of scorn for years to come, after that? And what did I do a few days later, to get away from it all? (I needed to). Well, you will just have to tune in by Friday the 7th August 1998 to Sunday the 9th August 1998.

Hope you had fun on the weekend of 31 July to 2nd August 1998. Alles Gute und schönen Abend noch!

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