two backpacks and a diaper bag

Saturday, April 14th. Budapest-Zagreb. We got up at 4 am so that we could leave the apartment at 5:30 to catch the 6:35 train. The map indicated that it would take 15 minutes to get to the train station by taxi, but we weren’t sure how long it would take to get a taxi so we left early.

It turned out getting a taxi wasn’t that difficult. The taxify app got us a taxi within 5 minutes. When we got to the Deli station, we had to climb up two sets of stairs. No big deal. We got our system down by now. I got the car seat with Arthur in it along with my backpack and Sean got the stroller, the diaper bag and his backpack. He carried an extra plastic bag with our sandwiches and drinks for the 6-hour train journey.

We had bought the train tickets before we left Singapore but we needed to pick them up at one of the machines in the station. Picking up was easy and straightforward. All we had to do was input the booking number and the tickets were printed automatically, and at 6 in the morning, there were only a few people at the station and the machines had no queue.

After we got our tickets, we went straight to the platform. The train was already there. We were happy about that because then we wouldn’t have to wait around with Arthur who was now fully awake after we got off the cab.

We looked for our carriage number and attempted to open the door. It was locked. We decided to go to the other end of the carriage. It was also locked. I got on the next carriage with Arthur and the car seat hoping we could cross over to our carriage. Unfortunately, the door connecting the two carriages was locked. I turned around to tell Sean who was getting ready to come on board with the stroller. He looked around as I got off the train and he saw the train conductor. He left the stroller with me to ask the conductor to open the doors. Two Australian girls were ready to get on board but the stroller was in the way. I apologized and tried to move it. They said to take my time as I had the car seat in one hand.

The conductor was sooo rude. I could hear her tone with Sean. Even the AustraliaNs were surprised. The conductor hissed at Sean, “What’s the problem?” He said, “The doors are locked.” She looked at me. I pointed at the door. She gestured and said, “Then use the other door!” I replied, “The door through is also locked.”

She walked towards me, gave me a nasty look, and used her key to open the door. Then she walked away. I thanked her anyway. We shared a look of disbelief with the Australians. As we and they got on the train, they sarcastically said, “Well, we hope you have a nice journey.” We laughed it off.

I started looking for our seats. It was a compartment style with six seats in each compartment. On the glass outside our compartment, there were small notes marking which seats were reserved. We had three seats, and it seemed one other person would join us in the compartment traveling the same journey: Budapest-Zagreb.

I tried to open the door. It was locked. I turned to Sean and told him it was locked. He rolled his eyes. We both knew that meant we had to ask the conductor again. I asked him to try to open it. Maybe I wasn’t strong enough. He did. It was locked.

Sean left the stroller and the diaper bag in the hallway to the side and got off the train. He came back and said, “She said, ‘Wait. Later.’ She is busy texting happily on the phone.”

We waited for five minutes. No sign of her.

Sean left to go find her again. I reminded him to be nice to her even though she doesn’t really deserve it.

He came back with her. She first. She once again asked me in a really mean tone. “Why? What’s the problem?” I said the cabin was locked. She let out a disgusted sigh and reached the handle to open the door. Maybe she was hoping it would open to prove me wrong. The door wouldn’t budge. She let out another sigh, rolled her eyes, and reached her keys. When it was finally opened, we said thank you. She walked towards Sean to pass him. Sean had his backpack on, and she was not a small lady, so she got stuck. She tried to push her way through but the hallway was too small. Sean had earlier suggested for her to enter the cabin so that he could head to where I was standing so she could get out, but she didn’t really want to listen to anything we said. I watched as she tried to push her way through. I tried not to laugh. She let out another frustrated sigh and finally listened to Sean’s suggestion.

When she was no longer in sight, Sean and I entered the cabin, got ourselves comfortable and recounted what had just happened.

Ten minutes later, Sean got out the cabin to see if he could take a picture of her. We thought we could write in to the train office later on to file a complaint about her. In the hallway, he bumped into a man and a woman. They asked if he knew where their seat numbers were located. They were in a compartment next to us. Sean also asked if they had asked the train conductor. The man responded, “She was freaking rude.”

The only other encounter we had with her was when she checked our tickets an hour into the train ride. She was still in a bad mood then as well.

When the train left the station, we had the whole cabin to ourselves.

We were able to put Arthur to sleep in his car seat, changed his diaper, and let him stretch out on top of the portable bassinet. All in a privacy of our own compartment. The view along the way was very nice, too.

Four hours later, we reached the border. The Hungarian police came through to check our passports and stamped us out of the Schengen States. Then the Croatian police gave us an entry stamp. Then the Croatian train conductor asked us for our tickets.

The conductor also said that there was a change in our journey. Due to some railway works, we would now have to get off at the next stop, get on another train, and then at some point, we would have to take a bus, and then another train into Zagreb.

Indeed, the Budapest-Zagreb journey was going to be two trains, a bus, and another train, instead of the direct 6-hour train we were promised.

We didn’t have a choice.

Arthur had just gone to sleep when the immigration police came through, but 20 minutes later, the move to another train woke him up. He was in a good mood on that second train. We were even able to change his diaper. But then he started to become sleepy. We got off the second train, walked down a set of stairs, walked up another set of stairs to head to the transfer bus. Then we got on the bus and Arthur was not having it anymore. The Australian girls from this morning tried to help distract Arthur but he was too tired. I successfully put him to sleep on my shoulders, only to be woken up again 10 minutes later when I had to put him in the car seat so that I could get him off the bus, put on my backpack, and get him onto the last train. He was, of course, screaming in protest throughout the move. I would, too, if my sleep kept getting interrupted.

On the last train leg, he was still sleepy. I tried to feed him but he refused. Sean tried to put him to sleep but as he was falling asleep, we reached our destination.

The unfortunate thing about this whole thing was that we didn’t know how long each leg was going to take so we didn’t know how to time Arthur’s nap. We knew what to expect in the original 6-hour train ride. But this time, there was little information given.

The upside to this journey was the people that we met. They even offered help through the different leg changes.

Diya and Amy, the couple Sean bumped into in the morning, came up to us on the second train leg to ask about our story. They saw our backpacks and our baby and wondered if we were backpacking through Europe for a long time. We told them we were doing this for 96 days.

They, too, were traveling around Europe for 30 days. She is a dentist. He is a surgeon. They live in Austin, Texas. They met in Jordan when she was visiting her grandmother. He was her grandmother’s doctor. He just got his American passport. He joked that his Jordanian passport couldn’t get him anywhere. I knew the feeling. My Indonesian passport couldn’t get me anywhere freely either. The American passport was the best trade ever.

When we got to Zagreb, we made sure to buy the Zagreb-Ljubljana ticket first. Then we used uber to get to our apartment. It was easy.

After we looked through the apartment, we went out to grab groceries. On the way back to the apartment, we stopped by a bakery. We wanted to get some pizzas for lunch but they only accepted Kuna and we hadn’t exchanged our money. We went to a two more fast-food type place around the area but they all only accepted cash.

So we went home. Arthur was now very sleepy. Rightfully so. I decided to stay home to put Arthur to sleep while Sean went out to exchange some money and get lunch.

After the money exchange, Sean went back to the first bakery we visited. It was now closed. Just our luck.

He ended up getting some cheeseburgers at another place.

After this quick lunch, we waited for Arthur to wake up and we headed out to Vincek, a dessert shop two blocks away from the apartment, to get some cakes and what-not. We got some ice cream and cakes.

We then went home and settled in for the night. We thought of meeting up with Diya and Amy but they were in Zagreb only for a night and with the lack of sleep Arthur had today, we couldn’t really go out.

So today was weird and the transportation drama was unwanted, but we finally got to Zagreb and, most importantly, we got here safely.