Ciglad

Ruby had a very hard time finding the most direct way to Eztergom and one with the least transfers. She was met with Hungarian websites, no translations, train runs that are there one minute and the gone the next. This was further complicated by track works happening in the area.
She finally found the most direct from Vienna through Breclav in Czech Republic to Sturovo in Slovakia, then a taxi to Esztergom in Hungary; we will be in 4 countries during this journey. Sturovo is just across the Danube River from Esztergom, about 8.5km from our accommodation.
Got in our train in Vienna to Breclav without a hitch. Found extra Czech money in Ruby's wallet which was handy, so we had quite a feed in Breclav cafe of sandwiches, cakes and ice-cream. Even got takeaway cakes as there was money left over.
Caught the connecting train at 1213pm which took a detour as there were works done on the tracks. So a slight delay was announced. 2hrs into our train ride, the train came to an abrupt halt in the forest, in the middle of nowhere because a tree fell on our train. All announcements we're in Czech and the lovely young lady sitting behind us translated. We have been stopped here for an hour, twenty three mins and counting....

When stuck on a train, one needs to eat cake.....

After 2½hrs, rescue train is here....

After 3½hrs, we're still here. Fortunately we not in need of emergency rescue.

3 hours and 50 mins and we are GO!

We finally arrived at train station destination at 7.30pm. Next challenge was getting off the platform to the station side and onto the road to catch a taxi. The was no lift to go down the stairs. So we heaved the suitcases down the stairs only to find it went to platforms. Heaved suitcases back up the stairs as we saw an overhead bridge. Dragged suitcases to the overhead bridge which on closer inspection led to further darkness. Fortunately a guy came down the bridge and we gesticulated getting to the office. He gesticulated back to go downstairs and around the corner. More heaving and puffing later, we were out of the station.

Our walking tour guide in Prague warned us to not catch taxis from train stations but to call one from Uber or Bolt. He gave us graphic details from bad experiences of people on his tours that scored into our memory. Scary. However, those services are not available in this area. With that severe warning in mind, we were rather worried about shonky taxi drivers or even finding one in the small town of Sturovo, Slovakia to take us across the bridge to Esztergom, Hungary although it was only a 10 minutes drive. There were 2 taxis outside the station. The first taxi driver didn't want to know us and our English. In a feeble effort to look like we knew what we were doing, Grace has the address and route on Google map to show the driver. The second driver looked like a Mafia muscleman and had a very old taxi. He looked up our apartment address on Google map ( exactly what was in Grace's phone), showed us the route and time it'd take, helped us with our luggage, and most importantly, put the meter on before driving away. We were so relieved that he was so honest we gave him a big tip and thanked him profusely. It was instant noodles for dinner.

An observation in Breclav, there must be lots of cyclists in Breclav because they have a multistorey parking for bicycles here.

Walked only 4.2km, but sat for hours and hours and hours....Read more