We foolishly did not purchase return tickets from Tokaj. I'm not sure why. It might have been because we thought we might have been able to buy tickets direct to Zagreb. There was no such luck, however, and we took the same train from Tokaj back to Budapest with about 2 hours before the next train to Zagreb. We spent about 40 minutes standing in a huge queue in the international ticket wing. We could have been out of there in 3 minutes if we'd bought the tickets on Sunday. We ended up with a person in 2 different queues hoping that one of them would be quick. After buying tickets, we decided there was time for a meal in train station restaurant.

That meal, improbably enough, ended up being one of the best of our trip. James and I got our chance here for a good bowl of the cold fruit soup, and it was excellent. I had the veal with pancakes (I forget the Hungarian name), and that was also excellent. And I was expecting overpriced, mediocre food. I spent most of the rest of the 30 minutes before our train attempting to call the hostel in Zagreb to let them know we'd be in about a half-hour after front desk closing. I'm not sure why it's so difficult to use the international phone cards in
Hungary, but I had problems the whole trip.


Random train yard approaching Budapest.



Lake Balaton from the train.