Day 3: Enter Hungary
The Hungarian checkpoint was by far the most serious I encountered on the whole trip. It was the only place where they actually made me pull over and open my trunk. Not that they checked the luggage or anything but at least they cared enough to establish the fact that the dark shape in the back of my car was, indeed, a suitcase and not a nuclear device or an Albanian refugee. In addition, the Hungarians checked the same papers THREE times as opposed to the usual two; bless their paranoid little hearts.
I had no idea where I was going and randomly took off at an exit for the city Györ. I drove around in narrow streets on the outskirts of town when I suddenly saw a sign for "Hotel Relax". Ever an easy prey for smart advertising I obediently followed the signs down winding passageways until I finally reached the hotel, a two story building in what seemed to be a residential neighborhood of middle class standard. The parking lot was in a courtyard, protected by an iron gate. To my surprise, the man behind the desk spoke English quite well and I got a reasonably priced room on the 2nd floor. The standard wasn't much compared to western hotels, but it was clean and comfortable.
Feeling tired after walking around Brno I decided to have a quiet night in. The TV had close to forty channels, four of which were in English. I could choose between the cartoon network, the fashion channel, MTV and CNN. I stuck with the latter for the remainder of the evening. Feeling peckish, I went downstairs to see if there was any food around. The hotel didn't serve dinner, but they had a wide selection of menus for local restaurants that brought food. I settled for pizza and Buffalo wings from a local Pizza Hut, but when the food arrived, it was something of a disappointment. Not up to the usual standards one would expect in the west, the pizza was bland and rubbery in content and the wings were plain horrible.
I still managed to consume enough to tuck in without feeling hungry and I was just drifting off to sleep when I felt the bed shaking and the windows rattling as a big freight train whooshed by right outside my window. "Relax, my ass", I thought and suddenly understood why the room had been so cheap. I eventually managed to fall asleep, but I was awoken several times during the night by the thundering wheels and the piercing whistle of the night trains.
I had no idea where I was going and randomly took off at an exit for the city Györ. I drove around in narrow streets on the outskirts of town when I suddenly saw a sign for "Hotel Relax". Ever an easy prey for smart advertising I obediently followed the signs down winding passageways until I finally reached the hotel, a two story building in what seemed to be a residential neighborhood of middle class standard. The parking lot was in a courtyard, protected by an iron gate. To my surprise, the man behind the desk spoke English quite well and I got a reasonably priced room on the 2nd floor. The standard wasn't much compared to western hotels, but it was clean and comfortable.
Feeling tired after walking around Brno I decided to have a quiet night in. The TV had close to forty channels, four of which were in English. I could choose between the cartoon network, the fashion channel, MTV and CNN. I stuck with the latter for the remainder of the evening. Feeling peckish, I went downstairs to see if there was any food around. The hotel didn't serve dinner, but they had a wide selection of menus for local restaurants that brought food. I settled for pizza and Buffalo wings from a local Pizza Hut, but when the food arrived, it was something of a disappointment. Not up to the usual standards one would expect in the west, the pizza was bland and rubbery in content and the wings were plain horrible.
I still managed to consume enough to tuck in without feeling hungry and I was just drifting off to sleep when I felt the bed shaking and the windows rattling as a big freight train whooshed by right outside my window. "Relax, my ass", I thought and suddenly understood why the room had been so cheap. I eventually managed to fall asleep, but I was awoken several times during the night by the thundering wheels and the piercing whistle of the night trains.
posted by Ghost of Goldwater at 9:51 PM
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