Actually it was such a screwed up day because I ran into many problems. I had one more day of German rail pass left, so I thought I could use it to go to Budapest without paying much, but alas the pass is only valid for the German section so I have to top up for the rest of the journey which includes Czech, Slovakia and Hungary. It was too expensive so I just topped up for the Czech section and alighted at Praha.

The weather wasn’t good. I was hitchhiking for one and a half hours in the rain. I met a Czech girl who’s working in NZ but back in her country to visit her family and we finally got a ride. I took a ride for 80km and was dropped off at a petrol station. There I found another guy who brought me to the Czech Slovak border. Then I had a long wait because no one was going to Slovakia or unwilling to take me. There were 2 cars going to Budapest but they were unable to take any more passengers. Finally I found someone to take me to Bratislava, capital of Slovakia. By then it was getting dark and raining heavily again.

At Bratislava, I bought my train ticket to Budapest leaving the same night. It was much cheaper now. I had about an hour to walk around the main square and I also saw the beautiful castle along the danau river.

Unfortunately I think due to a lack of sleep, I boarded the train and got off at the wrong stop (Nové Zámky), so I ended up still in Slovakia and not Hungary. I saw many people getting off including everyone in my cabin and thought we had reached Budapest. But it was too late when I found out it was not and my train had departed the station. So now I have to wait 9h for the next train in the morning, thus a whole day of traveling was spent like that and I haven’t even reached my destination!

About 2h later, a local approached me while I was lying down at the train station and asked if I wanted to stay at his place for the night. I said why not and followed him and his mum back. He had just came from Budapest and his mum overheard the train station staff talking about my situation (getting off the wrong station and missing the train) while waiting for her son, so she was kind enough to offer me her place. At her home, she even cooked a simple meal for me and I had a nice bed to sleep in for the night. Thank you for your kindness! Thus I spent one night in Nové Zámky, Slovakia. The next morning, I took the first train out to Budapest and bid my host goodbye and thanked them for their kindness.