Day 11 - Train Travel

We left the stunning city of Vienna yesterday for Budapest.  We purchased our train tickets upon our arrival into Vienna and the agent assurred us that seat reservation was completely unneccessary; also, we would also save 14 Euro by going with an open ticket which the kids thought was fantastic. Something inside told me this was a terrible idea and I became a bit OCD about it; asking anyone who I thought may know their opinion on the subject.  When I asked the man at the front desk of our hotel the night before his eyes kind of bulged and he said in a heavy accent, 'Yes, if it were me, I think I may reserve seats'.  Apparently the trains to Budapest did not originate in Vienna and they could get full. I of course set my alarm early for the next morning and crept out to the train station to take care of it.  

I have never been happier when we boarded our train later in the day--every seat was taken (including ours so I had to be the bearer of bad news to a couple of young men) and there were dozens of people without seats sitting on the floor, between cars, in the bathrooms, it was crazy!  We could barely move through the crowd it was so full; in all of my travel through Europe I have never seen a situation like this. On top of that the train stopped ~20 minutes to pick up more people. We were fairly comfortable until we spotted an elderly woman get on and with no place to sit was left standing on the stairs that led up to the car.  We of course talked about what the right thing was to do, and alhough Michael felt she looked fit enough for her situation he did the right thing and gave up his seat to her, squeezing in next to his sisters.  The woman did not speak a word of English but called her daughter to have her translate to me her appreciation of the gesture.  Her daughter told me that she makes the trip often and no-one has ever given up their seat for her.