•BLOG #2 Uniworld River Cruise: To Budapest, Hungary
•BLOG #2 Uniworld River Cruise: To Budapest, Hungary
Well our Austrian Airlines flight from Frankfurt to Vienna landed safely, a short flight during which complimentary soft drinks, coffee, tea and sandwich were served. The sandwich was made with black bread (ham, cheese & lettuce with dressing) and I must say it was one of the most delicious I have tasted. The female cabin attendants were all blonde and looked like they had stepped from the pages of the Austrian Airline’s magazine advertisements.
Getting from Vienna to Budapest was now the problem. We either had to wait several hours for the next flight or we had learnt of an alternate option to go by bus which was a fraction of the cost and would get us to our destination much earlier. The Vienna Airport’s Information Service Desk was less than helpful and not knowledgeable on how we could reach our destination. More by good luck than good management I managed to find a Nigerian gentleman outside the terminal building headed for Budapest. He said that there was a bus due in about forty-five minutes so we waited at the appointed spot. After a long wait – no bus and we finally found out that the very small signage glued on the terminal wall was out of date and listed summer times only and that the next bus would not be for another hour and a half. At this stage we were getting fairly tired and I must admit I was a little worried.
Eventually a modern Mercedes bus arrived and the driver collected our 29 Euro fare (a fraction of the air fare) and we were headed to Budapest, about three hours away. The journey was flawless and we eventually arrived at the bus terminal in Budapest. We had paid the bus driver in Euros and here we were at a large bus terminal in Budapest where the national currency is Florints (a most confusing currency). Fortunately we had purchased Euros and Florints at the Currency Exchange of our ANZ bank in Sydney, a wise move, as it is very awkward to change money at various airports and the rates offered are less than attractive.
We were about to experience a major rip off. We searched for a taxi to no avail and eventually wheeled our luggage outside the terminal and headed across the road where we saw what looked like a taxi. I asked the driver if he could take us to our hotel which I had written down on a card, something I highly recommend when language can be a problem. He nodded and indicated he knew the way. The taxi was a very very old dirty Mercedes. It had a taxi sign on the roof and as we were headed for our destination, the InterContinental Hotel, I searched for the taxi meter, but could find none. The taxi driver spoke with someone continuously on his iPhone, (probably saying to his partner “I’ve got a couple of suckers here that I can overcharge”). Eventually after about 20 minutes ride we arrived at our hotel (The InterContinental Hotel Budapest) where we had organised a five day stay prior to the start of our Uniworld River Cruise. We paid our taxi driver what turned out to be an enormous amount of money (make sure you don’t get into a taxi that does not have a meter). Don’t do as we did.
At this stage I should add that Australians may book direct flights with Uniworld that will take them to their closest city departure point where they will be picked up by a Uniworld representative and transported to their hotel/ship. But that was all too easy and we decided to do it the hard way!!!!! Silly us.
John Pond, Editor at Sea – Cruise Passenger Magazine
Cruises Australia