Last day in Europe and who knows where we are or what river that is?

Ok, we made it to the airport hotel in Vienna (our jumping off spot for Newark) but not without some stress and lots and lots of boredom.  I'll try to not overdo it (okay, "try" is probably not accurate :)), but...I'll try to go in chronological (almost order).

I went to breakfast in the 5-star spa/hotel alone, letting EH rest and sleep.  As I sat waiting on my continental breakfast (see pic, the orange juice was VERY orange), I decided to double check train arrangements to Budapest.

I soon was texting EH that I couldn't find a train to Budapest but there seemed to be viable bus options.

By the time I got to the room, she'd found something.  "This advice page said, 'go to the Slovakian national railway page to find trains from Bratislava to Budapest.'"  Yes, people were giving advice as they were having my problem.  I went there. "How did you get it in English?"  "I didn't. "  We determined there was an 1153 "fast" train to Budapest and went about our business.

But first -- a why the f**k: in the midst of this, we determined it'd be easier to just take the train to Vienna and catch our plane there.  So I called Austrian Airlines first (we are flying home on their airline, but it's one of those share things with United).  She tells me she can't do that because United issued the ticket.  Of course, getting United in the States from Europe means...well, I got someone.  Told her the problem.  She said "oh, you can do that, but let me see what it'd cost."  She put me on hold for 5 minutes and comes back with this: We'll have to reissue the ticket from Vienna, so it'd be $300 for this, $50 for us talking to you, and another $300 for that." !!!!  I quickly said good-bye, not bothering to find out if that was for one or both of us.

Riddle me this, Riddler: why?  Why would they charge me more money than I paid for the whole roundtrip ticket (by triple digits!) for a seat I already had?!?!!?  I get the security worry about not getting on the plane in Budapest, but...I don't get airline pricing.  And they were going to re-sell our seats to Newark in a day?  SMH.  A lot.

Problem 2:  Bradislava Castle doesn't let you go inside.  Who knows why?  But it's a 50s reconstruction of the original, which Napoleon (that bastard) destroyed in like 1809.  Today was battle reenactment day -- thus...

on the street next to us.

We couldn't get an Uber (our original plan) from the bakery & coffee shop where EH got her morning fast break, so we walked "Google" 12 minutes and got the bus back.  We uber'd to the train station, where the 1153 was 5 minutes late.  We sat for about 45 minutes, having gotten there early.  BTW, the tickets cost all of 30E (I wish I could find that symbol on here!).

The trip from Bratislava to Budapest stays on the north side of the Danube, in Slovakia.  Slovakia was the poor side of "Czechoslovakia"; Bratislava is the largest city, 500,000.  Some of the stops weren't on Google maps.  I'm not kidding.   Look up Sturovo and see what you get.  Let along the next stop (in Hungary) which was something like "Skav."

Funny thing: they checked tickets about an hour and a half into the 3 hour ride.  In Slovakia.  Another guy came in right after we crossed the border and checked again -- twice!  I guess the Hungarians worry about the rabble from Slovakia sneaking in.

BTW, we really liked Bratislava.  Not sure there's enough there to bring us back, but it's nice enough to recommend anyone who is anywhere near there.   Like Vienna.  Or Budapest.  Prague is a ways away, but even that...

After a snack in Budapest, we went to the airport.  We got the taxi at the train station and I made a mistake and got change in Forints (you remember, the Hungarian currency) for snacks.  The driver took about the only route to the airport and said "30 euros" when we got there!  I only paid the driver on Monday, hired ahead of time, 24!  And we went farther into town.  I gave him most of the rest of my szlotnies (inside joke) and we went in to wait for the plane.

The receptionist at Austrian Air couldn't have been nicer.  Since it was a share with United, neither would let me pick seats.  She got us seats on tomorrow's flight.

And we waited for hours.  Literally.  I spent EVERY bit of currency I had, down to like 6 euros in coins and 100 drachmas.  The board said "we'll tell you what gate in X minutes."  In Brussels they did this and we got to the gate as they started boarding.  This happened again.  But we were on the flight.  Which is worth mentioning for this --

We were on the plane so efficiently (I'm not supposed to say the Austrians have "German efficiency", but...) that we took off almost on time after a 15 minute delay.  They actually served drinks during the 40 minute (no shit!) flight.  And our bags were there within like 2 minutes after we got to the luggage carousel.  Get this: in ten minutes, we were on the ground, got our bags, and were in the hotel restaurant having their buffet.  The most expensive meal of the trip.  :).

and, given things, here's the appropriate final food pic of the trip -- double dessert on the last night!

It's been a great trip.  We didn't learn a word of Hungarian or Slovakian, but really loved both countries and their capitol cities.  Vienna was impressive, in a lot of ways, but we both thought it lacks charm.  Neither of us thought it'd be high on our "gotta go back" list.  Budapest, more likely.

So, intrepid reader, here's your final picture link -- with a shout out to our next traveling companions, Bing and Dorothy (see if you can find the reference to you in the pics).

We'll be back in two weeks from...heck, somewhere up north.

Your intrepid blogger.