The passport thing could easily be made more convinient. I used to travel a lot by night train between Denmark and France before Schengen had been fully implemented. The process was simple: the sleeping car conductor collected all our passports along with the tickets and stored them in safe during the night. When we arrived at the borders, the safe would be handed over to the border police who inspected them in their office and stamped them. If there was anything suspecious they would only wake up the owner of a specific passport. Always got a full night's sleep.
Yeah. Shame Denmark has backtracked on this and now wake everyone up for individual passport checks on every train entering the electric mainline into Denmark from Germany and have done so nonstop since 2015. And this is despite being right in the middle of the Schengen zone! 99% of it seems to be driven by political islamophobia.
Yeah but no they have to check if the passport owner is really the person in question and have also to check for potential migrants in the train, there's still a significant amount of them trying to cross to western Europe even if they mostly do so inside trucks nowadays.
Actually, this was quite the headline in Romania. Hungarian Railways really screwed us and their railways decided not to take us (with their locomotive as they were supposed to) to Vienna. Because of the delay you mentioned. It sucks but is most definitely not a regular occurrence (you had really bad luck) - the not making it to Vienna part not the delay part (that is quite common sadly).
Yeah I think I've taken this train from Arad to Budapest like 15 times maybe and 90% of the time it went well. Currently it's a bit complicated because they're working on the track right after the Hungarian border (doubling it and renovating it) maybe that's what caused the delay....
@@thornton Was this on July 9th? Because yeah they indeed made articles about a derailled fret train in Hungary which apparently made them to cancel two trains to/from Romania.... you can search for example "Trenuri internaționale anulate de CFR Călători după deraierea din Ungaria" for romanian news on this
@@thorntonit does happen, delayed services are second in priority when it comes to staffing and the carriages/engines. They’ll cancel / merge already significantly delayed services to avoid disruptions to other trains. They just don’t have enough staff and capacity on line 1 (the one going to Vienna) because it’s already on absolute full capacity.
As a Romanian myself, I have to take some “shot outs” here: - you’re getting the 2nd class only on that paper because the other paper that you’ve received is your private room reservation which came in addition to the standard 2nd class ticket that you’ve got back before reaching Budapest - the cancelation of the train from Budapest to Vienna is based on MAV’s decision not CFR, MAV is operating the train between the RO-HU border and Vienna. - why haven’t you asked at the ticket office in Budapest Keleti to solve your tickets since you were on their main hub and they were the one responsible for running the train on that part of the journey?
A little pedantry: MAV is running the train from Lökösháza/Curtici (HU/RO) only to Hegyeshalom/Nickelsdorf (HU/AT). From that point to Wien it is operated by ÖBB.
That's happening because Romania is not part of the Schengen area. So maybe talking to your Austrian friends would smoothen our mutual paths to the Western world.😊
You might have spent $175 on that trip and thought it was a nightmare journey, but it's a journey you will never forget, and that's what makes travel so interesting. Thinking on your feet when things go wrong. I did the Bucharest-Budapest portion earlier this year, and to be honest, my journey was a little less adventurous than yours. Great video.
Thanks Scott! Good to hear from you. Hope you’re doing well. Yes, it’s a life experience that I’m glad I had, and a good story - what else is there to travel for, eh? :) 😊
Only started the video, but the intro remediately remindend me on my journey 18-hour night train journey from Istanbul to Romania. It ended up in a 24 hour journey in a semi broken train, enough alcohol, closed borders, illegal taxis and great company. A journey I will never forget and in the end the best journey I haver had. Even if it ended in a 24 hour long adventure.
As a child i would travel with father in a sleeping coaches from Warsaw Poland to Constanta Romania every summer . It took 3 days ( 2 nights ), did not have shower ( only sink ) lifting of a rail car at the USSR borders ( twice in one way ) in order to change the wheel units to different sizes , had number of delays standing in hot Romanian sun for hours in the cornfields and nasty border controlls including customs . Still , young man , i recall that time as the most wonderfull in my life .....
Wow! What an experience it must have been! I am curious though, why were you guys coming over here, and not to Crimea or the Soviet Riviera around Sochi and Abkhazia?
@@wyqtor we went there too . But my father loved Romania . The grapes , the wine , the mitchi , Mamaia . You should know that Romania was the only country we could go ( im excluding e. Germany ) that was not Slavic and this had a magnetism of its own . I still go there with my son and try to show him how you can live in a beautyfull way even when you dont have a lot of money .... I love Romania . The only thing , l miss those fruit designs in the local markets on displays looking like carpets . Do they do that somwhere still ?
Cool video! :) The timings of the border checks aren't random. Just look in the timetable. Romanian border check is from 1:44 to 2:10 (Romanian time) and Hungarian border check from 1:20 to 2:03 (Central European time). And while on the train you could - beside the timetable - just use Google Maps to see how far you are from the border. Being sensitive about sleep I actually don't take this train if I have the choice. There are 2 more night trains from Bucharest to Budapest (and Vienna is just a short jump from there) having better schedules and border check times.
In 1990 I took the night train from Budapest to Bucharest. Woken up for the border check, but it didn’t tske long. It was about 15 hour journey. Had a great time travelling around Romania. Not the fastest trains, but they took you where you wanted to go. Bucharest was quite run down then, it's improved now.
@@victoriaguerin2851it makes no sense mate. It's not like if you sleep when the border patrol comes you are skipped and you wake up abandoned on the side of the road lol. They literally have no other way than to wake you when they reach you. Ironically this is why the patrol was done quickly with him but slowly with the other passengers. People were actually sleeping like any normal person would :))
I traveled with this train, you just go to sleep. When they come, they will wake you up. Plus, you can ask the conductor at which time you reach the border. Very easy and logic. But now Romania is in the Schengen space so no need to do that anymore.
I used to travel to Romania from Budapest with the sleeping train, best sleeps i ever had. There is something romantic how the train is slowly rocking you to sleep as you listen to the monotonous noise, especially when it's raining or snowing.
The train attendant did not steal your paper ticket. At most railway companies that provide sleeping and couchette car services, it is standard procedure for the attendant to collect your ticket and reservation before you go to sleep, and return it to you upon waking up or before you leave the train. There are a few reasons for this practice. Firstly, the conductor requests all passengers' tickets from the train attendant in the sleeping car to ensure a peaceful and uninterrupted sleep for everyone onboard. This helps guarantee a comfortable journey. Secondly, the conductor's responsibility is limited to the service area of the railway company they work for. In the case of long international trains that traverse multiple countries, the conductor may change at the border station. For your journey, the conductors and railway companies were CFR (1st conductor), MÁV-START (2nd conductor), and intended to be ÖBB (3rd conductor). Another reason for collecting tickets is that the train attendant needs to handle paperwork associated with each ticket. They are required to copy certain information from the ticket as part of their administrative duties. I hope this explanation clarifies the situation. Greetings from a former Hungarian train attendant.
On DB you print the tickets on your computer so I always print 2 copies. It saved me getting kicked off the train once. the guy said it was nood good by his little scanner so I went in my bag for my back up and bingo, it worked!
The reason of the cancellation is, that this very infamous train (Dacia) is the first train of the day from Budapest to Vienna, which has quite good connections in Vienna, so the Hungarian Railways is selling a bunch of tickets for it. If the train arrives from Romania with considerable delay, they have to send a separate train to Vienna without waiting the romanian stock, not to miss the connections in Vienna. Theoretically the romanian part could be joined to later trains, but in the morning hours they are closed Railjet trains, and in the morning rush hours they could not always find a slot for an extra train. Therefore the decision that the passengers have to switch trains in Budapest is somewhat understandable - but the change should be organized better.
I took the same train last week, in a sleeper... The train only went to a Hungarian town, Békéscsaba, because there was an accident. At midnight in Békéscsaba they got everyone off the train... From there to Mezőtúr by passenger train, from there to Szolnok by bus and then to Budapest by another train... from Budapest by Railjet (8:40 am, after 8h on bus and 2 on other trains) which was full of Dacia passengers so there was no seat on the train... now I am waiting for my compensation because a purchased service was not provided. This was the worst journey I have ever had.
You won't get any compensation relating to European railway passenger rights, as the disruption was caused by a third party .A truck (or maybe a tractor) not in roadworthy condidtion smashed a ground plate at a railway crossing - this caused a derailment of a freight train passing shortly after the damage occured. And by the way - European railway passenger rights don't provide and have never provided any right for compensation because a purchased service was not provided. When buying a ticket, you only get the right to transportation. All the other nice things, a certain comfort class, a working air condition, a working toilet, a restaurant car, a direct connection without transfer, or a place in a sleeping car or couchette are non-binding. Of course, it you paid extra for the extra services, you might get a refund. But the problem here is problem, all services were provided. Sleeping car and couchette services were provided - the fact that they ended in Bekescsaba does not even create any claim for a refund. Of course, maybe the will issue a voucher - but that would be goodwill. I am quite sure, that Romanian railways will not show any goodwill. I would recommend, don't waste lifetime for trying to claim anything in this case....
I would recommend you the train from Berlin to Graz (Austria) via Vienna. We did it several times now, slept the whole time, breakfast there was very good. They gave us towels and 2 bottles of water, shower was working properly. The distance is running by ÖBB (Austrian railways). Very clean and friendly staff.
This video was like a time machine to me. Apparently, these international night trains in central/eastern Europe haven't changed at all during the last 35 years. Everything you experienced could have happened on one of my many night train rides to Poland, Romania and Croatia during the 1990s and early 2000s: The special "international" ticket counter, the ticket being kept by the staff during the night, passport controls at 2 a.m., a rather slow train, etc.. The only new thing I noticed it's the option to get an electronic ticket. And the screens in the stations in Bucharest and Budapest.
It seems that the trains are a social necessity for commuting people like pupils and employees and also for people not having a car for different reasons like simple age and health reasons.
tbf, the ticket being kept is for the passengers convenience. For example, the night train between Budapest and Koper has 3 Slovenian ticket conductors. They come at the border in Hodos (at 1:10 am), in Ljubljana (at 6 am) and the last comes around 8 am. Everyone would be woken up by the conductor to check their tickets. We, as night train stewards also have to do a lot of (seemingly pointless) paperwork, using information from the tickets. We're basically stuck in the past.
I took a night train from Vienna to Berlin the summer of 2021 and expected to be woken up a few times because of the COVID regulations - in fact my phone beeped several times asking me to register on some website. But the funny thing was, noone woke me to look at my passport and my "green pass" or whatever it was called. Instead, they switched staff with every border crossing and that staff came barging into the compartment soon after to be shown the ticket again. We got maybe two hours of uninterrupted sleep after entering Poland and then the staff barged in again in the early morning to tell us that due to technical problems we were stuck somewhere in the woods indefinitely (could have slept through a bit of that as well because it took until noon to fix it). They allowed us to climb off the train onto the tracks and wander around in the woods. A nice Syrian family found some blackberries and shared them with all the kids. But the most important reason for letting us out, I think, was that the toilets didn't flush because of the lack of electricity. It was quite the adventure but I hate to say when we visited Hamburg this year and only had 3 days there, we decided to fly 😞
I've taken the Vienna-Bucharest train several times in both directions over the last ten years or so - they're wonderful old-style trains, very solid. A single compartment is a great luxury. I love running through the Romanian countryside, seeing how everything is gradually modernising. Just bring your own food and drink, allow for several hours' delay, be happy to reach Vienna or Bucharest whenever you get there. Both are great cities in their own way. But above all don't get on the train with unrealistic expectations!
You still got lucky. On Monday, a freight train derailed in Hungary, so Dacia-Corvin, the sleeper train is really messed up right now, even more than it was before. The damage is insane, it's gonna last for like 2 months. An almost identical accident happened just like 2-3 months ago, they only recently finished fixing it.
I love the way you handled all of this, such positivity and finding the best out of it, proves that you have such a strong mind. I enjoyed watching this so much, well done sir!
I used a couple night trains this summer (including Bucharest to Budapest) and on my first one I was the same as you, staying awake for the border control between Turkey and Bulgaria. But I learned my lesson after having a 3 hour delay between the Turkish control and the Bulgarian control to just go to sleep and not stay up for it, its really not worth it, they wake you up and check it. Always abit stressfull when they take your passport for like an hour but you always seem to get it back. Later in my travels on the train from Bucharest to Budapest I just slept and only got woken by the border control when they needed me and I slept great for almost the entire journey, I kinda love these trains A less fun journey was the one train from Sofia to Bucharest, this one went during the day and there where only 2 carriges that went all the way to Bucharest, the rest of the train consistet of carriges from farious railways comming and going, sadly no buffet car for the entire 12 hour journey. The train was empty during the high season so I had the hot, no AC compartment from a carrige that used to belong to the east German railways by myself! Halfway on the journey we waited for 3 hours in the sun for a coach from Istanbul that was delayed, meanwhile we where baking in full sun. Once it arrived we continued our journey, at the border crossing a 'guard' with a 'official' T-shirt that looked more like he was supporting a foorball team apeard to take my passport, the control did not take too long. Then on the Romanian side he re apeared with a Romanian T-shirt this time to take our passports again for the Romanian border control. After this only 3 hours to go! From this point I was really confused becouse on the map it seemed like we had straight tracks from Ruse to Bucharest for like 120 km or something. And the tracks where indeed straight, but apperently so poorly maintained that we only could go over them with 10 to 20 km per hour at a few points! We arrived in Bucharest with only a 2 hour delay, which was not even caused by the Bulgarian railways but the delayed Turkish carrige. One fun thing to know, a FlixBus went multiple times a day, was half the price and took half the time but I wanted to do only rail. To sum up, I love traveling by train, especially in Eastern Europe and the Balkans but you always need to be patient and just kinda go with it (cautiosly), delays are more the norm then the exception so always be flexible and I would try to never have same day connections from these trains if they are not frequent or are long journeys.
@@thornton fantastic! I lived on the Island as a kid then moved back here when Covid kicked off. I've been enjoying Bembridge for the last three years.
Well, you surely got a rotten deal. Usually, it is not as bad as this: 1) Romanian Railways get delays... alot. There is no info on the train about that. No next stop, schedule... nothing. There are websites, and I even wrote an app for that, but still. 2) Your icket is collected for your convenience. After the borders (HU and AT), the conductor changes, but your attendant does not. He presents the tickets through the night. You get your ticket back normally, and if they forget, just ask. 3) The border crossing is insane but allows for both the RO and AT bound trains to be at the Hungarian Border Station at the same time. This is very important, as people may be denied entry in HU and can return immediately to RO (otherwise, they are stuck in HU). 4) I usually sleep up to the border, get woken up, sleep again, and get woken up again. I am a light sleeper, thoug, and have my Pass ready when I go to sleep. Passport contols may take some time, as reading those Biometric Passports can take like 30s. Also, physical room inspections are a chore. 5) Those showers never work... I have no idea why... 6) The "dining" car is decoupled at Arad. There is no meal service in HU / AT, and no breakfast or drinks. Always bulk up when travelling by train in the east. 7) The train got cancel3d by MAV (the HU state operator) due to a scheduling error on their side. By allowing the train to go to Wien, it would have runined the entire day on that sector (so I heard). Still not an excuse, and the fact that no information was provided is also a horrible situation to be stuck in. At the very least, you got dropped in the main station of Budapest... 8) When buying any night train ticket, you are buying two things: the right to go on the train and the accommodation reservation. The ticket to ride the train will always be 2nd class, equivalent to a seatter. For Single Sleaper, you must buy the Full Fare Flex ticket, hence the expense. Even in a 2-sleeper, you could get the discounted "Europa" ticket, but that is academic right now. 9) Be happy you got the standad ticket... theoretically, a train- bound ticket would not have allowed you to use the RailJet! In these cases, you would have had to get a stamp from a HU Conductor, that your original connectionis not possible, due to a traindelag or cancellation, at which point you may use the ticket as if it were flexible.
No. Usually, a guard would just glance in the room. They do have a mirror-on-a-stick, with which they check the compartment above for any undeclared people. Theoretically, they can also check your bags, but I have never seen that happen.
@@cristianhanca8739 Thank you. What was confusing was that they stamped this person's passport even when he was crossing from one Schengen to another Schengen. This was confusing because both Romania and Hungary are Schengen countries.
@@victoriaguerin2851The video is from 11 months ago, so definitely. But also, it's not full Schengen, I think it's only by air and sea, so I think there might still be checks for trains.
Oh my god this is unbelievable timing! I just came with the night train to Bucharest from Vienna. I also booked the sleeper train but sadly the wagon was missing…. I guess it stopped with you in Budapest, because they said, that „there was trouble in Hungary“…😂😂😂 Always great seeing you videos Keep it up man!
@@thorntonTom one more time in Vienna in the rail station you have showers perhaps not at the quality level of France, but for a few euros I think you have showers in most of the EU bigger cities rail stations.
Tom. We love your channel! You present such interesting travels and you seem to take all the bumps with such grace and humor. Travel is a great experience but can at times be such a challenge. Also disregard the negative comments…they are just a few people who seem unable to appreciate the positivity life can bring. Best wishes from the US for many fun travels ahead! 😊
Well, at least you got a video out of it that was a heck of a lot more interesting than the similar vids from other people I've seen making this journey WITHOUT the hiccups ;)
I'm sorry you had such bad luck with this train. I did it in 2019 and it was one of my favorit night train journeys (and thats saying something as I have done ~110 of them so far). I recomend buying an Interrail Global Pass next time you want to do such a long journey, it is almost always cheaper than single tickets, even with the necessairy reservations. The late night border crossings are really annoying (worst for me was Bulgaria to Turkey), but I almost just go to bed early, if I know one is comming, so I know I'll get my sleep. But luckily in the Schengen area it's no problem on night trains. If you want to do another special night train journey I can recommend all the Italian night trains, especially the one from Milan to Sicily. It is nearly 21h long and goes on a ferry 😅
Any railroad recommendations (night train or not)? I'm going for a 5 month interrail trip in pretty much every European country next year. I have already noted a lot of them, but I could do with some suggestions!
@@Poutrel If you are going on night trains make you book ahead. I live in Berlin and am going and taking the night train from Munich to Genoa next week, and train booked out six months ahead of time. I can recommend the night train from Munich to Rome, and Rome you can go to southern Italy very fast.
@@radiantflux1432 Thanks for the tip. I indeed couldn't take the night train from Plovdiv to Istanbul last year because it was full. Had to take the bus, uh... But in Italy I booked it just a few hours before it goes and there was still plenty of room.
After graduating school some friends and I took the same night train during our Interrail trip but only from Budapest to Sibiu. Went all surprisingly well. Unfortunately we didn't know back then that Romania wasn't part of the Schengen Area. So we were somewhat surprised that we were woken up twice that night for passport controls.
I remember commenting on your Flixbus video too, but here I am again. I also took this ride from Budapest to Bucharest. After that I decided to visit all the major cities along the line, travelling from Hungary each time one stop closer than the last. It was great fun, but I knew what I was getting myself into.
Sorry you had a bad experience. I've taken that train in the other direction and we did make it the whole way, although a few hours delayed. My advice is definitely go to sleep, don't wait up for the border crossing! They'll wake you up with the knock, don't worry 😂
Mr. Never Again, try the Bucharest - Chisinau train. It is a former Soviet train operated by the railways of the Republic of Moldova. An unforgettable experience for someone who has high expectations like you.
Nah , he's doesn't have high expectations , we all Romanians know who CFR works and how this whole country works. So , it's a normality for us. For them is a struggle because in the west you don't have to deal with border with "cancelling" the ride and so on. Of course , it's an experience for anyone to ride such a train to Moldova because nowadays , that's unique.
@nadalwilson1453 what do you mean bro, he was complaying that The train didnt teach The border at the corect Time like bro în România if trains are on Time we are happy.
@@shadowsxd1452 nice try... The British train system and timetable is a joke already for the locals, and it's starting to be pretty much the same for most Germany rail service, even their shiny ICEs. Romania has the excuse of their whole train system being completely rebuild on most important parts (including the one that is at fault for most of the delays in this video, between Brasov and Sighisoara). Don't knock down Romania, it's definitely not worst than other countries, it's just the people knowing much better how to deal with such events, unlike westerners that are used to things that "just work" - or at least they used to...
@@shadowsxd1452 Seriously? I'm that close to block his channel in my feed.. I tried to like his content but he's truly whining in every single video.. WTF bro, it's Eastern Europe, get your history straight! Be thankful that there IS an international railroad link from Central/Western to Eastern Europe. I guess catchy negative titles do make more views.
Never say never! It's your fault that you didn't inform yourself before the trip. My 14 year old nephew did the same trip and did great! Success! Next time will be better!
Last year I went all the way from germany to Ankara and back by train and interrail. I can really recommend it! But you always have to account for the night trains to be late, which is normally no issue as you can sleep and chill and will stay in the next city for at least 1 night. Sadly no of my trains had any restaurant at all 😢. I even went from Budapest du Bucharest on the night train in a normal seat 😅. Best train is from Bucharest to Istanbul! Very scenic and nice turkish sleeper cars!
My girlfriend and I will be travelling all the way from Germany to Constanta for holiday on this very train in exactly one week 🫠 I hope the experience will be better, we also have a first class ticket. Hopefully the train runs all the way and we will definitely shower right after depature :D
I did both ways last summer and I must say that Vienna - Bucharest was really nice (you get on the train in the evening, border checks in the middle of the night, but after that you can sleep long since you arrive only in the afternoon in Bucharest) while Bucharest - Vienna was closer to this video: one hour delay to start with and "train finished" in Budapest without warning!
did Hamburg-Constanta (stop in Budapest and Bucarest) last fall, it's great, Romania especially has a beautiful landscape and arriving at the Black Sea coast was incredibly satisfying. Romanian railways has badly serviced toilets though, be prepared.
If someone is on a business trip or traveling for work showering at the rail station will lose their time. That is why especially paid for the shower on train should work. But efficacy does not matter in Europe!!! Effectiveness does not work in Europe!
I took the train in the other direction a few weeks ago and I loved it. Never had problems to sleep while awaiting the border control. If you do it again, you should try.
175 USD for a train ticket from Bucharest to Vienna? Wow, I must admit, to me as a Swiss, this sounds extremely cheap 😅 But anyway, be happy for all the things that didn't go as planned for these are exactly the kind of memories you'll never forget and you will cherish. From all my journeys I remember those the most that didn't go as smooth as planned 🥰 Thanks for bringing us along with you!
This train looks so much nicer than the austrian night jet. i once took it over night from munich ot hamburg and is was really uncomfortable. SHowers weren't working either :D Also i am very happy about the schengen area when i see you clinging to consiousness at 2:00 :D
@@drdewott9154 at least not the specific one i was in. i was on a businesstrip so could afford to book one room for me alone, which was like 200somehting €. cant remember exactly. those rooms can be used by up to three people with the upper one basically looking towards a dangerous drop if you ever fall out of the tiny beds. half the lights did not work, nor did the shower down the hall (i mean fully out of order). the matress was about 4cm thick. for someone around 100kg like me that meant lying on the bedframe. additionally everything just looked way older than in this romanian one. and oh yeah the breakfast was ok i guess, coffee especially was awful though
ive been on that train a couple of months after you posted this, I needed to make it to another train station in Budapest to catch my connection. From what I gathered from the conductor, delays exceeding an hour were frequent and the train that was supposed to attach CFR wagons on its way to Wien would depart on time, leaving travelers to look for another connection (no seat guaranteed). Thankfully I made my connection with time to spare, despite the lengthy delay. Being woken up twice at the border crossings was the most unpleasant part of that trip for me. Being a frequent CFR user, my expectations are always low. I am not suprised you had no running water to shower.
Oh that shower scene was epic. “I feel so clean now” 😅😂😅😂😅😂 love your content, and I’m sorry you arrived to BUD in a less than ideal situation. Hope and wish that your next journey here will be a much more pleasant one! Stay safe and healthy - and keep bringing us great vids 😎😉
In the 90s I traveled several times by train from Poland through Budapest to Italy. I used two night trains: Warsaw-Budapest (Express "Bathory") and Budapest-Venice ("Venezia-Express"). In both sleeping it was impossible, because each time it crossed three borders during one night, and each with full passport control (there were pre-EU times :-) ). The best were border officers glowing flashlights in the eyes :-), and another six stamps collected in my passport after each night. What state borders did I cross? For the first train: Polish-Czech (Zebrzydowice-Petrovice), Czech-Slovak (Cadca) and Slovak-Hungarian (Sturovo-Szob). For the second train: Hungarian-Croatian (Gyekenyes-Koprivnica), Croatian-Slovenian (Zagreb-Dobova) and Slovenian-Italian (Seżana-Villa Opicina). At some time, an additional attraction was a blackout on the train while traveling through Croatia (due to the civil war in former Yugoslavia). Anyway, there were very interesting routes, especially from Budapest to Venice (journey along Balaton, Slovenian mountains, very exciting "downhill ride" from Villa Opicina to Trieste).
Romanian here, took a similar 11-hour journey with my family from Bucharest to Chisinau. No cancellations for me, but the border procedures were equally slow, and we had a regular room, where there's literally barely any space to stand between the two double beds. The real kicker though was the window, which was for some reason locked shut, and lead the crowded room to become stuffy as all hell! We ended up dubbing it "The Auschwitz Train" due to just how uncomfy it was. We actually did the trip twice, going back the same way a day or two later, so that's fun! Just felt like writing this down because it was just odd seeing someone talking about the same thing in my feed. Also I don't mean literally any offence, but hearing your pronunciation of Romanian words has me keeling over.
Couple of remarks: -The carriage attendant collecting the tickets and returning them in the morning is standard procedure on international night trains. They then show them to the guard who is actually responsible for checking them. Especially when the train is run jointly by the served countries' state railways, the guard will change at the border and they would have to wake you up to check your ticket again if you got to keep it. -Nowadays, on most European night trains, all accomodation levels are classified as second class. This allows you to book any level with a 2nd class Interrail pass for example.
I took this train three times so far so I feel the urge to comment on it 😊. The stop in Budapest is of course not cool at all but as a person that lives in Germany, not the poorest country in the world I experience train cancellations all the time. I did have water in the shower, but I used it earlier. Price is definitely ok as compared to other European train tickets. Quality of of the train and restaurant is not extraordinary, somewhat on the "dusty kind of decent" side. I think the price matches the service. quality level. Regarding the border control: why, why in the world did you wait for it and didn't you go to sleep? They wake you up, you show them your passport/id (they are polite, it goes fast) and then you go back to sleep. Not ideal, but you definitely get more sleep. I actually wrote this comment because of my wonder for your decision to wait for the border control.
"Gara de Nord" is the biggest train station in the country. It wouldn't be so bad to get it better designed so that international tourists don't get confused. I've seen a lot of train stations outside Romania and, as a foreigner, I could always find my way around. Even in this clip you can see the sign for "INTERNATIONAL TRIPS" had the biggest font written in romanian and others in foreign languages underneath. Nonsense. As an architecture student in Bucharest, Gara de Nord is particularly frustrating. I can see this misunderstanding happening even if Tom found a couple of his romanian viewers (such as myself and others I see on here) and asked them for details about this route, prior to the trip. Folks here are inclined to say "that's one of the safest routes you can take!" - safe in terms of being sure you arrive there on time, having some comfort on the way there - depending on the ticket, most will suggest the highest comfort one (truthfully, the others are terrible in my opinion - and you'll end up frustrated) and that's because delays for this trip really are a rarity. What an unfortunate experience. Not to say that this isn't bound to happen every so often, so it's better to plan ahead. I'm sure you know this, but it's best to plan for the exceptions! :) Looking forward to see more of Tom's adventures though!
I went for a 12h journey from western Romania to eastern Romania last summer and it was actually quite good (just a 1h delay). I paid 80 euros for the private sleeping cabin (without shower) but there where no bar on the train.
Sorry to hear your take of woe. I’ve only been on our UK Caledonian Sleeper a handful of times going down to London. I always feel a bit “007”ish as I board. But the feeling soon vanishes. Last time I had to complain about stained and hairy bedsheets as I was about to go to bed! The best the person in charge could offer was for me to just strip them off! ‘Sleeper’ is a bit of misnomer for these berths imho.
ah yes the Romanian experience! one of my friends actually took the same train in december like 3-4 years ago, and they ran into some mechanical problems and were stuck in the middle of nowhere in -15 degrees for 20 hours. They could not leave the train because they were literally in the middle of nowhere and after 20 hours of waiting they all received half a plastic cup of hot tea. Growing up in Romania I'm not surprised about anything in this video haha
Ha ha. In Romania you get to appreciate life as it is, with good and bad, I would not give Romania for any other country in the World. 🎉. Money not being an issue...
The delay on the Romanian-Hungarian border was probably because of the Ukrainian refugees. Every day thousands of them come to Hungary via Romania, similar numbers through the Hungarian-Ukrainian border. They are taken off the trains (day and night trains) at the border and have to be processed because they enter the Schengen zone. Normally they either have to take the next train if they want to travel further west. Sometimes the Hungarian railway company runs a special train just for the refugees from the border to Budapest. The night train from Bucharest is often late, normally if the delay is more than an hour there is a replacement train between Budapest and Vienna. There are hourly trains to Vienna and the ticket is honoured on the next train, the only problem people might have is finding a seat. Often most of the seats have reservations, so people have to stand for nearly three hours.
I can attest to the Ukrainian refuggees part. I took this train from Bucharest to Vienna and at the Romanian-Hungarian boarder we waited for almost 2 hours cause they had to be registered
I went with nightjet from Munich to Venice (wanted to go on from there to Florence) . 2 beds cabin. Waking up next morning I realised that the train had stopped short after Munich in Rosenheim and that it wasn’t to go on … Apparently we had stood there the whole night without anybody from ÖBB telling us how to go what about the tickets and so on. Just by accident we and other passengers realised that on the opposite platform a train was going to Bologna… and so our travel continued, we finally arrived in Florence in the evening …
Thanks for the video. I am taking the night train to Romania in a few weeks. Hopefully, now that Romania is in Schengen, they've fixed it, and it'll be a smooth ride. Going to make video about the trip too ;)
I did it the other way (Budapest - Bucharest) last year, doing a day train from Budapest to Arad (first town in Romania) and then the Arad to Bucharest sleeper operated by Astra Trans Carpatic. About 70 euros for a similar room, shower worked, very clean and new coaches and border already crossed. In theory a good 8 hours of sleep ahead. But.... Romania is the land of jointed track and rough pointwork. You know the old school dum-dum-dum-dum as you travel along the tracks that you don't get on mainlines in Western Europe? Yeah, that's the Romanian network. I think I got 30 minutes of 'sleep' all night....
So many lessons to learn here. 😀 If you plan to have a shower, always carry with you one or two 5-gallon solar shower bags ( black heavy-duty plastic bags with a small shower head at the bottom ). On a summer day, you can have lukewarm water - 100 to 105 degrees (or 40 Celsius) - in about 3 hours. But that's not the point here. When you board the train, you check if there's water. If the water is there, in the evening you fill up your bags and place them into the shower room. You have to reserve your water cause most of the old trains have only a central tank and you might not get any if you wait until 2 am for a passport stamp. After Turkey's snub on Sweden, the EU decided that Romania and Bulgaria must be admitted this year into the Schengen area and even be compensated for discrimination (they met the criteria in 2011). So, you might be luckier next time.
Just came back from Romania yesterday, also with the Dacia and only 40 minutes late. BUT on the way to Romania we had a delay of 10 hours due an accident near Szolnok in Hungary, it even made news on Romanian ProTV.
I did the same trip last summer with wife and two kids. Exact same thing happened. The train stopped in Budapest and we had to take an overly full one for a few hours to get to Vienna. The ride through Romania was beautiful but painfully slow and we arrived at 2 am to the border crossing. It seems like a feature rather than a bug
I use to do those trips across Europe and sometimes the sleeping car attendant would take in passports and tickets overnight to show the border guards and they wouldn't wake you up.By coincidence that happened to me on a Brasov to Vienna train which terminated short in Budapest.It was very dangerous as some of the passengers got off in the throat to Keliti Station and walked down the tracks with trains coming and going! Very disorganised with the Austrian sleeping car attendant constantly pointing out how disorganised Hungary was(he didn't lay into Romania as I recall).
It’s not your fault. I’ve take taken trains in both Hungary and Romania and they are both poorly run counties and rails. I’ve had similarly bad experiences on trains there.
I took that same train from London to Ramsgate-Ferry-Ostend to Bucharest and travelled all around Romania by train in 1994, staying a month. I was 18. Just a memory now but a great one. The reason you didn't enjoy is due to the generation you've been born into and the mindset it's given your generation. 'Salut.'
What? WHY on Earth would you wait for the border crossing? Back in the 1990s when I still travelled on overnight trains, that would never have occured to me. I just gave my passport and ticket to the conductor and went to sleep.
I took a night train from Vienna to Sibiu six years ago. It’s vital you check the timings for intermittent stations so you avoid trains that cross the border at unearthly hours. But you know that now!)
@@thornton Sibiu (or Hermannstadt in the days of the Habsburg empire) was really lovely. The old town is quite big and completely original. It seems to have been a significant centre in its time and had large interesting churches of 3 Christian denominations showing its mixed roots. But I think the night train that used to go that way no longer does. Brasov (or Kronstadt in its Habsburg days) is much closer to mountains so was good for doing hikes (there’s a cute little DMU to the foothills at Zarnesti). But Brasov city, nice as it is, was less delightful than Sibiu IMO.
Funny, I'm sitting here in my Airbnb in Bucharest right now, watching this. All through your video, up until the part when the shower didn't work, I was saying to myself, "I'll do it anyway!" Then the constant interruptions from border guards and hardly getting any sleep - THEN the clincher being dropped off in Budapest - THEN the price of $175 -- I am like, no way, ever! So, thank you!
I took this train a couple days ago From Arad to Budapest in a Seeting Carrige, The Bodercrossing From Hungary into Romania was everything Else than smooth we gathered about 70 minutes Deley in Lőkösháza. On the way back everything Went smothly the train Pulled 10 Minuten late into Arad And we arrived on time in Budapest. Eventough i had just a Seating Carrige i could sleep verry Well, the Hungarian And Romanian borderguards Just woke me Up i gave them my pass they ceckt It And then they we're Off and i could sleep again
Great video, hope you enjoyed Vienna one of my favourite cities. I took a Nightjet train last month and booked a private sleeper and got downgraded to one with just seats at least it made it to Hamburg. Obb mark all their private sleeper tickets as 2nd class tickets as well. I did Vienna - Munich on a sleeper last year also and although there were no document checks the police checked the compartments at the border crossing.
The perks of being an eastern european , hungarian, romanian whatever, is that train delays, cancellations, out-of-order showers are just part of every day life and most of us just shrug it off without being too much angry about it :)
@@manwiththeredface7821 for internal travel it's still a very popular choice, at least in Romania. But for the life of me i can't understand why anyone would subject themselves to a 16h train ride, for that same price you can get airplane tickets and you're at your destination in 6h, time spent in the airport included.
I’m sorry your ambition to join the Haut Monde didn’t work out, but I really enjoyed the video. I don’t think it’s possible to travel through three states on Coach on Amtrak for $175 (let alone 3 countries), if that’s any consolation.
Your experience actually sounds dreamy, what with the bed and everything. Not sure if it was exactly the same route, but we took a night train from Medias to Budapest with similar experience 18 years ago, with similar memories of it being amongst my worst train rides ever. - We couldn't prepurchase tickets because because we weren't starting in Bucharest. Sleeper cars were not available for purchase at the Medias ticket office. This was also before Romanian railways had internet ticketing. - Our seats were occupied when we got there, and in fact the car we were in was solidly packed. I think somewhere someone was selling standing-room-only tickets. - Roughly 2-3 hours at border control. Had exactly zero sleep that night. But ultimately got where we were going, so I guess that's just how it goes sometimes.
The passport thing could easily be made more convinient. I used to travel a lot by night train between Denmark and France before Schengen had been fully implemented. The process was simple: the sleeping car conductor collected all our passports along with the tickets and stored them in safe during the night. When we arrived at the borders, the safe would be handed over to the border police who inspected them in their office and stamped them. If there was anything suspecious they would only wake up the owner of a specific passport. Always got a full night's sleep.
Over the sea, in the US, it could get great too, if only the US-canada border went back to being practically completely open like it was in the 80s
The rail transport has been crippled here in Romania to the point everything barely functions, efficiency isn't their concern.
Yeah. Shame Denmark has backtracked on this and now wake everyone up for individual passport checks on every train entering the electric mainline into Denmark from Germany and have done so nonstop since 2015. And this is despite being right in the middle of the Schengen zone! 99% of it seems to be driven by political islamophobia.
Yeah but no they have to check if the passport owner is really the person in question and have also to check for potential migrants in the train, there's still a significant amount of them trying to cross to western Europe even if they mostly do so inside trucks nowadays.
Romania is a high risk country for migration issues though
Actually, this was quite the headline in Romania. Hungarian Railways really screwed us and their railways decided not to take us (with their locomotive as they were supposed to) to Vienna. Because of the delay you mentioned. It sucks but is most definitely not a regular occurrence (you had really bad luck) - the not making it to Vienna part not the delay part (that is quite common sadly).
Oh really?? Do you have a link?
Yeah I think I've taken this train from Arad to Budapest like 15 times maybe and 90% of the time it went well. Currently it's a bit complicated because they're working on the track right after the Hungarian border (doubling it and renovating it) maybe that's what caused the delay....
@@thornton Was this on July 9th? Because yeah they indeed made articles about a derailled fret train in Hungary which apparently made them to cancel two trains to/from Romania.... you can search for example "Trenuri internaționale anulate de CFR Călători după deraierea din Ungaria" for romanian news on this
@@thorntonit does happen, delayed services are second in priority when it comes to staffing and the carriages/engines. They’ll cancel / merge already significantly delayed services to avoid disruptions to other trains. They just don’t have enough staff and capacity on line 1 (the one going to Vienna) because it’s already on absolute full capacity.
Would you like to share this headline with us please? Thank you.
As a Romanian myself, I have to take some “shot outs” here:
- you’re getting the 2nd class only on that paper because the other paper that you’ve received is your private room reservation which came in addition to the standard 2nd class ticket that you’ve got back before reaching Budapest
- the cancelation of the train from Budapest to Vienna is based on MAV’s decision not CFR, MAV is operating the train between the RO-HU border and Vienna.
- why haven’t you asked at the ticket office in Budapest Keleti to solve your tickets since you were on their main hub and they were the one responsible for running the train on that part of the journey?
A little pedantry: MAV is running the train from Lökösháza/Curtici (HU/RO) only to Hegyeshalom/Nickelsdorf (HU/AT). From that point to Wien it is operated by ÖBB.
Yes, so basicaly there are 3 different companies running that train to Vienna
he is s tu pi d, that's why.
Train was cancelled in Budapest, so hungarian railways were at fault❤
That's happening because Romania is not part of the Schengen area. So maybe talking to your Austrian friends would smoothen our mutual paths to the Western world.😊
You might have spent $175 on that trip and thought it was a nightmare journey, but it's a journey you will never forget, and that's what makes travel so interesting. Thinking on your feet when things go wrong. I did the Bucharest-Budapest portion earlier this year, and to be honest, my journey was a little less adventurous than yours. Great video.
Thanks Scott! Good to hear from you. Hope you’re doing well. Yes, it’s a life experience that I’m glad I had, and a good story - what else is there to travel for, eh? :) 😊
Rather have an uneventful journey for this kind of money, especially when on 1st class
stupid people can not think on their feet ... because they're stupid!
The plane ticket is cheaper 😂
@@mariadominique7180 that's not the point.
Only started the video, but the intro remediately remindend me on my journey 18-hour night train journey from Istanbul to Romania. It ended up in a 24 hour journey in a semi broken train, enough alcohol, closed borders, illegal taxis and great company. A journey I will never forget and in the end the best journey I haver had. Even if it ended in a 24 hour long adventure.
ok that sounds like a real tale
I did it too twenty years ago! It took us 32 hours. A nightmare, with clogged toilets.
enough alcohol, great company.....a drunk girl can have an orgy anywhere, anytime and call it the best experience in the life
Tell us about the company. What was so great about it?
Have to say Tom watching your struggles is quite entertaining, keep up with the good work!
Thanks mate, that means a lot!
@@thornton Take the night train between Tbilisi and Baku as i did. Those azeri border guards are REALLY SCARY! Talk about content for youtube....
He complains about everythig
As a child i would travel with father in a sleeping coaches from Warsaw Poland to Constanta
Romania every summer . It took 3 days ( 2 nights ), did not have shower ( only sink )
lifting of a rail car at the USSR borders ( twice in one way ) in order to change the
wheel units to different sizes , had number of delays standing in hot Romanian
sun for hours in the cornfields and nasty border controlls including customs .
Still , young man , i recall that time as the most wonderfull
in my life .....
Wow! What an experience it must have been! I am curious though, why were you guys coming over here, and not to Crimea or the Soviet Riviera around Sochi and Abkhazia?
@@wyqtor we went there too . But my father loved Romania . The grapes ,
the wine , the mitchi , Mamaia . You should know that Romania
was the only country we could go ( im excluding e. Germany ) that was
not Slavic and this had a magnetism of its own . I still go there
with my son and try to show him how you can live in a beautyfull
way even when you dont have a lot of money ....
I love Romania . The only thing , l miss those fruit designs
in the local markets on displays looking like carpets .
Do they do that somwhere still ?
Cool video! :) The timings of the border checks aren't random. Just look in the timetable. Romanian border check is from 1:44 to 2:10 (Romanian time) and Hungarian border check from 1:20 to 2:03 (Central European time). And while on the train you could - beside the timetable - just use Google Maps to see how far you are from the border. Being sensitive about sleep I actually don't take this train if I have the choice. There are 2 more night trains from Bucharest to Budapest (and Vienna is just a short jump from there) having better schedules and border check times.
When we took the buda-bucharest train we were surprised how exact the border check timings were, and how friendly the guards were!
In 1990 I took the night train from Budapest to Bucharest. Woken up for the border check, but it didn’t tske long. It was about 15 hour journey. Had a great time travelling around Romania. Not the fastest trains, but they took you where you wanted to go. Bucharest was quite run down then, it's improved now.
Why you didn't simply go to sleep? It's not your duty to wait till 3am for the border guard.
Because no one came by to tell him what time they were actually going to reach the border so he kept thinking that it would happen any minute.
@@victoriaguerin2851 Well sleep until the border police show up. Not a big deal
@@victoriaguerin2851it makes no sense mate. It's not like if you sleep when the border patrol comes you are skipped and you wake up abandoned on the side of the road lol. They literally have no other way than to wake you when they reach you. Ironically this is why the patrol was done quickly with him but slowly with the other passengers. People were actually sleeping like any normal person would :))
@@victoriaguerin2851He has a phone, it literally takes you a minute to check the map.
I traveled with this train, you just go to sleep. When they come, they will wake you up. Plus, you can ask the conductor at which time you reach the border. Very easy and logic. But now Romania is in the Schengen space so no need to do that anymore.
I used to travel to Romania from Budapest with the sleeping train, best sleeps i ever had. There is something romantic how the train is slowly rocking you to sleep as you listen to the monotonous noise, especially when it's raining or snowing.
The train attendant did not steal your paper ticket. At most railway companies that provide sleeping and couchette car services, it is standard procedure for the attendant to collect your ticket and reservation before you go to sleep, and return it to you upon waking up or before you leave the train.
There are a few reasons for this practice. Firstly, the conductor requests all passengers' tickets from the train attendant in the sleeping car to ensure a peaceful and uninterrupted sleep for everyone onboard. This helps guarantee a comfortable journey.
Secondly, the conductor's responsibility is limited to the service area of the railway company they work for. In the case of long international trains that traverse multiple countries, the conductor may change at the border station. For your journey, the conductors and railway companies were CFR (1st conductor), MÁV-START (2nd conductor), and intended to be ÖBB (3rd conductor).
Another reason for collecting tickets is that the train attendant needs to handle paperwork associated with each ticket. They are required to copy certain information from the ticket as part of their administrative duties.
I hope this explanation clarifies the situation. Greetings from a former Hungarian train attendant.
On DB you print the tickets on your computer so I always print 2 copies. It saved me getting kicked off the train once. the guy said it was nood good by his little scanner so I went in my bag for my back up and bingo, it worked!
The reason of the cancellation is, that this very infamous train (Dacia) is the first train of the day from Budapest to Vienna, which has quite good connections in Vienna, so the Hungarian Railways is selling a bunch of tickets for it. If the train arrives from Romania with considerable delay, they have to send a separate train to Vienna without waiting the romanian stock, not to miss the connections in Vienna. Theoretically the romanian part could be joined to later trains, but in the morning hours they are closed Railjet trains, and in the morning rush hours they could not always find a slot for an extra train. Therefore the decision that the passengers have to switch trains in Budapest is somewhat understandable - but the change should be organized better.
I took the same train last week, in a sleeper...
The train only went to a Hungarian town, Békéscsaba, because there was an accident. At midnight in Békéscsaba they got everyone off the train... From there to Mezőtúr by passenger train, from there to Szolnok by bus and then to Budapest by another train... from Budapest by Railjet (8:40 am, after 8h on bus and 2 on other trains) which was full of Dacia passengers so there was no seat on the train... now I am waiting for my compensation because a purchased service was not provided.
This was the worst journey I have ever had.
You won't get any compensation relating to European railway passenger rights, as the disruption was caused by a third party .A truck (or maybe a tractor) not in roadworthy condidtion smashed a ground plate at a railway crossing - this caused a derailment of a freight train passing shortly after the damage occured.
And by the way - European railway passenger rights don't provide and have never provided any right for compensation because a purchased service was not provided. When buying a ticket, you only get the right to transportation. All the other nice things, a certain comfort class, a working air condition, a working toilet, a restaurant car, a direct connection without transfer, or a place in a sleeping car or couchette are non-binding. Of course, it you paid extra for the extra services, you might get a refund. But the problem here is problem, all services were provided. Sleeping car and couchette services were provided - the fact that they ended in Bekescsaba does not even create any claim for a refund. Of course, maybe the will issue a voucher - but that would be goodwill. I am quite sure, that Romanian railways will not show any goodwill. I would recommend, don't waste lifetime for trying to claim anything in this case....
I was on the same train - in was quite a ride 😅
I would recommend you the train from Berlin to Graz (Austria) via Vienna. We did it several times now, slept the whole time, breakfast there was very good. They gave us towels and 2 bottles of water, shower was working properly. The distance is running by ÖBB (Austrian railways). Very clean and friendly staff.
OBB AUSTRIA IS THE BEST RAILWAY SERVICE IN THE WORLD ! KUDOS TO OBB😅
@@RkR2001 DOUBLE down on that! OBB has the newest and most comfortable train cars in Europe.
This video was like a time machine to me. Apparently, these international night trains in central/eastern Europe haven't changed at all during the last 35 years. Everything you experienced could have happened on one of my many night train rides to Poland, Romania and Croatia during the 1990s and early 2000s: The special "international" ticket counter, the ticket being kept by the staff during the night, passport controls at 2 a.m., a rather slow train, etc.. The only new thing I noticed it's the option to get an electronic ticket. And the screens in the stations in Bucharest and Budapest.
It seems that the trains are a social necessity for commuting people like pupils and employees and also for people not having a car for different reasons like simple age and health reasons.
tbf, the ticket being kept is for the passengers convenience. For example, the night train between Budapest and Koper has 3 Slovenian ticket conductors. They come at the border in Hodos (at 1:10 am), in Ljubljana (at 6 am) and the last comes around 8 am. Everyone would be woken up by the conductor to check their tickets. We, as night train stewards also have to do a lot of (seemingly pointless) paperwork, using information from the tickets. We're basically stuck in the past.
I took a night train from Vienna to Berlin the summer of 2021 and expected to be woken up a few times because of the COVID regulations - in fact my phone beeped several times asking me to register on some website. But the funny thing was, noone woke me to look at my passport and my "green pass" or whatever it was called. Instead, they switched staff with every border crossing and that staff came barging into the compartment soon after to be shown the ticket again. We got maybe two hours of uninterrupted sleep after entering Poland and then the staff barged in again in the early morning to tell us that due to technical problems we were stuck somewhere in the woods indefinitely (could have slept through a bit of that as well because it took until noon to fix it). They allowed us to climb off the train onto the tracks and wander around in the woods. A nice Syrian family found some blackberries and shared them with all the kids. But the most important reason for letting us out, I think, was that the toilets didn't flush because of the lack of electricity. It was quite the adventure but I hate to say when we visited Hamburg this year and only had 3 days there, we decided to fly 😞
Only the Romanian railroad travelled back in time others east European rails are fine.
Seriously, that sleeping car was very obviously much newer than anything you might have used 35 years ago.
Don t complain you made a full romanian experience. 😅
I've taken the Vienna-Bucharest train several times in both directions over the last ten years or so - they're wonderful old-style trains, very solid. A single compartment is a great luxury. I love running through the Romanian countryside, seeing how everything is gradually modernising. Just bring your own food and drink, allow for several hours' delay, be happy to reach Vienna or Bucharest whenever you get there. Both are great cities in their own way. But above all don't get on the train with unrealistic expectations!
You still got lucky. On Monday, a freight train derailed in Hungary, so Dacia-Corvin, the sleeper train is really messed up right now, even more than it was before. The damage is insane, it's gonna last for like 2 months. An almost identical accident happened just like 2-3 months ago, they only recently finished fixing it.
I love the way you handled all of this, such positivity and finding the best out of it, proves that you have such a strong mind. I enjoyed watching this so much, well done sir!
I used a couple night trains this summer (including Bucharest to Budapest) and on my first one I was the same as you, staying awake for the border control between Turkey and Bulgaria. But I learned my lesson after having a 3 hour delay between the Turkish control and the Bulgarian control to just go to sleep and not stay up for it, its really not worth it, they wake you up and check it. Always abit stressfull when they take your passport for like an hour but you always seem to get it back.
Later in my travels on the train from Bucharest to Budapest I just slept and only got woken by the border control when they needed me and I slept great for almost the entire journey, I kinda love these trains
A less fun journey was the one train from Sofia to Bucharest, this one went during the day and there where only 2 carriges that went all the way to Bucharest, the rest of the train consistet of carriges from farious railways comming and going, sadly no buffet car for the entire 12 hour journey. The train was empty during the high season so I had the hot, no AC compartment from a carrige that used to belong to the east German railways by myself!
Halfway on the journey we waited for 3 hours in the sun for a coach from Istanbul that was delayed, meanwhile we where baking in full sun. Once it arrived we continued our journey, at the border crossing a 'guard' with a 'official' T-shirt that looked more like he was supporting a foorball team apeard to take my passport, the control did not take too long. Then on the Romanian side he re apeared with a Romanian T-shirt this time to take our passports again for the Romanian border control.
After this only 3 hours to go! From this point I was really confused becouse on the map it seemed like we had straight tracks from Ruse to Bucharest for like 120 km or something. And the tracks where indeed straight, but apperently so poorly maintained that we only could go over them with 10 to 20 km per hour at a few points! We arrived in Bucharest with only a 2 hour delay, which was not even caused by the Bulgarian railways but the delayed Turkish carrige. One fun thing to know, a FlixBus went multiple times a day, was half the price and took half the time but I wanted to do only rail.
To sum up, I love traveling by train, especially in Eastern Europe and the Balkans but you always need to be patient and just kinda go with it (cautiosly), delays are more the norm then the exception so always be flexible and I would try to never have same day connections from these trains if they are not frequent or are long journeys.
Really enjoyed this vid! Are you from the Island mate?
guilty haha, my next video will potentially be from there ;) are you?
@@thornton fantastic! I lived on the Island as a kid then moved back here when Covid kicked off. I've been enjoying Bembridge for the last three years.
Well, you surely got a rotten deal. Usually, it is not as bad as this:
1) Romanian Railways get delays... alot. There is no info on the train about that. No next stop, schedule... nothing. There are websites, and I even wrote an app for that, but still.
2) Your icket is collected for your convenience. After the borders (HU and AT), the conductor changes, but your attendant does not. He presents the tickets through the night. You get your ticket back normally, and if they forget, just ask.
3) The border crossing is insane but allows for both the RO and AT bound trains to be at the Hungarian Border Station at the same time. This is very important, as people may be denied entry in HU and can return immediately to RO (otherwise, they are stuck in HU).
4) I usually sleep up to the border, get woken up, sleep again, and get woken up again. I am a light sleeper, thoug, and have my Pass ready when I go to sleep. Passport contols may take some time, as reading those Biometric Passports can take like 30s. Also, physical room inspections are a chore.
5) Those showers never work... I have no idea why...
6) The "dining" car is decoupled at Arad. There is no meal service in HU / AT, and no breakfast or drinks. Always bulk up when travelling by train in the east.
7) The train got cancel3d by MAV (the HU state operator) due to a scheduling error on their side. By allowing the train to go to Wien, it would have runined the entire day on that sector (so I heard). Still not an excuse, and the fact that no information was provided is also a horrible situation to be stuck in. At the very least, you got dropped in the main station of Budapest...
8) When buying any night train ticket, you are buying two things: the right to go on the train and the accommodation reservation. The ticket to ride the train will always be 2nd class, equivalent to a seatter. For Single Sleaper, you must buy the Full Fare Flex ticket, hence the expense. Even in a 2-sleeper, you could get the discounted "Europa" ticket, but that is academic right now.
9) Be happy you got the standad ticket... theoretically, a train- bound ticket would not have allowed you to use the RailJet! In these cases, you would have had to get a stamp from a HU Conductor, that your original connectionis not possible, due to a traindelag or cancellation, at which point you may use the ticket as if it were flexible.
What do you mean by physical room inspections? They take people off the train for room inspection?
No. Usually, a guard would just glance in the room. They do have a mirror-on-a-stick, with which they check the compartment above for any undeclared people. Theoretically, they can also check your bags, but I have never seen that happen.
@@cristianhanca8739 Thank you. What was confusing was that they stamped this person's passport even when he was crossing from one Schengen to another Schengen. This was confusing because both Romania and Hungary are Schengen countries.
@@FarooqF-g2x Romania has only been in the Schengen area since the end of March 2024, so maybe his actual travel was before that date.
@@victoriaguerin2851The video is from 11 months ago, so definitely. But also, it's not full Schengen, I think it's only by air and sea, so I think there might still be checks for trains.
Oh my god this is unbelievable timing!
I just came with the night train to Bucharest from Vienna. I also booked the sleeper train but sadly the wagon was missing…. I guess it stopped with you in Budapest, because they said, that „there was trouble in Hungary“…😂😂😂
Always great seeing you videos
Keep it up man!
Hahaaa sorry to hear that it never made it to you! Thanks :)
It accrued a huge delay. Passengers were put on the next RJX train and Romanian carriages are transported empty by a later Budapest-Vienna train
@@thorntonTom one more time in Vienna in the rail station you have showers perhaps not at the quality level of France, but for a few euros I think you have showers in most of the EU bigger cities rail stations.
Why would they stamp your passport when Romania is also Schengen and you are crossing from one Schengen to another Schengen?
@@FarooqF-g2xRomania is not in Schengen...only by air since a few months ago. By road and rail there is no schengen😅
Tom. We love your channel! You present such interesting travels and you seem to take all the bumps with such grace and humor. Travel is a great experience but can at times be such a challenge. Also disregard the negative comments…they are just a few people who seem unable to appreciate the positivity life can bring. Best wishes from the US for many fun travels ahead! 😊
Well, at least you got a video out of it that was a heck of a lot more interesting than the similar vids from other people I've seen making this journey WITHOUT the hiccups ;)
I'm sorry you had such bad luck with this train. I did it in 2019 and it was one of my favorit night train journeys (and thats saying something as I have done ~110 of them so far). I recomend buying an Interrail Global Pass next time you want to do such a long journey, it is almost always cheaper than single tickets, even with the necessairy reservations.
The late night border crossings are really annoying (worst for me was Bulgaria to Turkey), but I almost just go to bed early, if I know one is comming, so I know I'll get my sleep. But luckily in the Schengen area it's no problem on night trains.
If you want to do another special night train journey I can recommend all the Italian night trains, especially the one from Milan to Sicily. It is nearly 21h long and goes on a ferry 😅
Any railroad recommendations (night train or not)?
I'm going for a 5 month interrail trip in pretty much every European country next year. I have already noted a lot of them, but I could do with some suggestions!
@@Poutrel If you are going on night trains make you book ahead. I live in Berlin and am going and taking the night train from Munich to Genoa next week, and train booked out six months ahead of time. I can recommend the night train from Munich to Rome, and Rome you can go to southern Italy very fast.
I was thinking of doing the Rome to Sicily night train sometime. Is this the same train?
@@radiantflux1432 Well its definitely the same Route, so i think the experience should be similar
@@radiantflux1432 Thanks for the tip. I indeed couldn't take the night train from Plovdiv to Istanbul last year because it was full. Had to take the bus, uh... But in Italy I booked it just a few hours before it goes and there was still plenty of room.
After graduating school some friends and I took the same night train during our Interrail trip but only from Budapest to Sibiu. Went all surprisingly well. Unfortunately we didn't know back then that Romania wasn't part of the Schengen Area. So we were somewhat surprised that we were woken up twice that night for passport controls.
Still not part of Schengen area.
@@vladimirmihnev9702 Unfortunately :(
I remember commenting on your Flixbus video too, but here I am again. I also took this ride from Budapest to Bucharest. After that I decided to visit all the major cities along the line, travelling from Hungary each time one stop closer than the last. It was great fun, but I knew what I was getting myself into.
Oh well, I spent 3 days on a coach with no toilet non -stop Athens to London in the early 80's so your train journey sounds like luxury to me!!! Lol
Tom, I love your videos, but I especially love how you take on all the bumps in the road with the utmost grace. Keep on keeping on!
Yep. I guess this is the English way. We Germans tend to freak out....😂
Love these videos so much!
Sorry you had a bad experience. I've taken that train in the other direction and we did make it the whole way, although a few hours delayed. My advice is definitely go to sleep, don't wait up for the border crossing! They'll wake you up with the knock, don't worry 😂
Mr. Never Again, try the Bucharest - Chisinau train. It is a former Soviet train operated by the railways of the Republic of Moldova. An unforgettable experience for someone who has high expectations like you.
Nah , he's doesn't have high expectations , we all Romanians know who CFR works and how this whole country works. So , it's a normality for us. For them is a struggle because in the west you don't have to deal with border with "cancelling" the ride and so on. Of course , it's an experience for anyone to ride such a train to Moldova because nowadays , that's unique.
As a Romanian I can say that romania sucks
@nadalwilson1453 what do you mean bro, he was complaying that The train didnt teach The border at the corect Time like bro în România if trains are on Time we are happy.
@@shadowsxd1452 nice try... The British train system and timetable is a joke already for the locals, and it's starting to be pretty much the same for most Germany rail service, even their shiny ICEs. Romania has the excuse of their whole train system being completely rebuild on most important parts (including the one that is at fault for most of the delays in this video, between Brasov and Sighisoara). Don't knock down Romania, it's definitely not worst than other countries, it's just the people knowing much better how to deal with such events, unlike westerners that are used to things that "just work" - or at least they used to...
@@shadowsxd1452 Seriously? I'm that close to block his channel in my feed.. I tried to like his content but he's truly whining in every single video.. WTF bro, it's Eastern Europe, get your history straight! Be thankful that there IS an international railroad link from Central/Western to Eastern Europe. I guess catchy negative titles do make more views.
Love this video Tom. And yes, you always make having bad luck so entertaining. Thanks for making us all smile 😄
Never say never! It's your fault that you didn't inform yourself before the trip. My 14 year old nephew did the same trip and did great!
Success! Next time will be better!
Love your sense of humor!
Well that’s dampened my enthusiasm for sleeper trains, I think I’ll take that one off my bucket list, nice post
Last year I went all the way from germany to Ankara and back by train and interrail. I can really recommend it! But you always have to account for the night trains to be late, which is normally no issue as you can sleep and chill and will stay in the next city for at least 1 night. Sadly no of my trains had any restaurant at all 😢.
I even went from Budapest du Bucharest on the night train in a normal seat 😅.
Best train is from Bucharest to Istanbul! Very scenic and nice turkish sleeper cars!
As an English Germophile, I bloody love your videos.
My girlfriend and I will be travelling all the way from Germany to Constanta for holiday on this very train in exactly one week 🫠 I hope the experience will be better, we also have a first class ticket. Hopefully the train runs all the way and we will definitely shower right after depature :D
Hey I am taking this train in two weeks, let me know how it goes 😅 good luck on your travels!
I’m sure it will be fine really :)
I did both ways last summer and I must say that Vienna - Bucharest was really nice (you get on the train in the evening, border checks in the middle of the night, but after that you can sleep long since you arrive only in the afternoon in Bucharest) while Bucharest - Vienna was closer to this video: one hour delay to start with and "train finished" in Budapest without warning!
did Hamburg-Constanta (stop in Budapest and Bucarest) last fall, it's great, Romania especially has a beautiful landscape and arriving at the Black Sea coast was incredibly satisfying. Romanian railways has badly serviced toilets though, be prepared.
If someone is on a business trip or traveling for work showering at the rail station will lose their time. That is why especially paid for the shower on train should work. But efficacy does not matter in Europe!!! Effectiveness does not work in Europe!
I took the train in the other direction a few weeks ago and I loved it. Never had problems to sleep while awaiting the border control. If you do it again, you should try.
175 USD for a train ticket from Bucharest to Vienna? Wow, I must admit, to me as a Swiss, this sounds extremely cheap 😅 But anyway, be happy for all the things that didn't go as planned for these are exactly the kind of memories you'll never forget and you will cherish. From all my journeys I remember those the most that didn't go as smooth as planned 🥰 Thanks for bringing us along with you!
Good post! Just subscribed. Your vids are humorous and enjoyable. It is definitely hard to sleep knowing you will soon be awakened.
Despite the hassles it still resonated as a somewhat romantic journey. 😌
Yes the Romanian scenery is amazing!
Always a good day when you upload, another highly enjoyable video 😊
This train looks so much nicer than the austrian night jet. i once took it over night from munich ot hamburg and is was really uncomfortable. SHowers weren't working either :D
Also i am very happy about the schengen area when i see you clinging to consiousness at 2:00 :D
Really? I'd usually expect the Nightjet to be some of the best on the European railways.
@@drdewott9154 at least not the specific one i was in. i was on a businesstrip so could afford to book one room for me alone, which was like 200somehting €. cant remember exactly. those rooms can be used by up to three people with the upper one basically looking towards a dangerous drop if you ever fall out of the tiny beds. half the lights did not work, nor did the shower down the hall (i mean fully out of order). the matress was about 4cm thick. for someone around 100kg like me that meant lying on the bedframe. additionally everything just looked way older than in this romanian one. and oh yeah the breakfast was ok i guess, coffee especially was awful though
Only good news
ive been on that train a couple of months after you posted this, I needed to make it to another train station in Budapest to catch my connection. From what I gathered from the conductor, delays exceeding an hour were frequent and the train that was supposed to attach CFR wagons on its way to Wien would depart on time, leaving travelers to look for another connection (no seat guaranteed). Thankfully I made my connection with time to spare, despite the lengthy delay. Being woken up twice at the border crossings was the most unpleasant part of that trip for me. Being a frequent CFR user, my expectations are always low. I am not suprised you had no running water to shower.
is this train still ends at budapest right now as in this video?
Oh that shower scene was epic. “I feel so clean now” 😅😂😅😂😅😂 love your content, and I’m sorry you arrived to BUD in a less than ideal situation. Hope and wish that your next journey here will be a much more pleasant one! Stay safe and healthy - and keep bringing us great vids 😎😉
I done Budapest to Timisoara and glad I done day trip for it rather than a night train as it sounds a grim trip.
Near the Grim reaper
In the 90s I traveled several times by train from Poland through Budapest to Italy. I used two night trains: Warsaw-Budapest (Express "Bathory") and Budapest-Venice ("Venezia-Express"). In both sleeping it was impossible, because each time it crossed three borders during one night, and each with full passport control (there were pre-EU times :-) ). The best were border officers glowing flashlights in the eyes :-), and another six stamps collected in my passport after each night.
What state borders did I cross? For the first train: Polish-Czech (Zebrzydowice-Petrovice), Czech-Slovak (Cadca) and Slovak-Hungarian (Sturovo-Szob). For the second train: Hungarian-Croatian (Gyekenyes-Koprivnica), Croatian-Slovenian (Zagreb-Dobova) and Slovenian-Italian (Seżana-Villa Opicina). At some time, an additional attraction was a blackout on the train while traveling through Croatia (due to the civil war in former Yugoslavia).
Anyway, there were very interesting routes, especially from Budapest to Venice (journey along Balaton, Slovenian mountains, very exciting "downhill ride" from Villa Opicina to Trieste).
I use to love taking train rides in the 80's and 90's from Bucharest to Cluj or Budapest
I was WONDERING how you got back from the FlixBus trip! And you ANSWERED!
Romanian here, took a similar 11-hour journey with my family from Bucharest to Chisinau. No cancellations for me, but the border procedures were equally slow, and we had a regular room, where there's literally barely any space to stand between the two double beds. The real kicker though was the window, which was for some reason locked shut, and lead the crowded room to become stuffy as all hell! We ended up dubbing it "The Auschwitz Train" due to just how uncomfy it was. We actually did the trip twice, going back the same way a day or two later, so that's fun! Just felt like writing this down because it was just odd seeing someone talking about the same thing in my feed. Also I don't mean literally any offence, but hearing your pronunciation of Romanian words has me keeling over.
Couple of remarks:
-The carriage attendant collecting the tickets and returning them in the morning is standard procedure on international night trains. They then show them to the guard who is actually responsible for checking them. Especially when the train is run jointly by the served countries' state railways, the guard will change at the border and they would have to wake you up to check your ticket again if you got to keep it.
-Nowadays, on most European night trains, all accomodation levels are classified as second class. This allows you to book any level with a 2nd class Interrail pass for example.
I took this train three times so far so I feel the urge to comment on it 😊.
The stop in Budapest is of course not cool at all but as a person that lives in Germany, not the poorest country in the world I experience train cancellations all the time.
I did have water in the shower, but I used it earlier.
Price is definitely ok as compared to other European train tickets.
Quality of of the train and restaurant is not extraordinary, somewhat on the "dusty kind of decent" side. I think the price matches the service. quality level.
Regarding the border control: why, why in the world did you wait for it and didn't you go to sleep? They wake you up, you show them your passport/id (they are polite, it goes fast) and then you go back to sleep. Not ideal, but you definitely get more sleep. I actually wrote this comment because of my wonder for your decision to wait for the border control.
Imagine this happens on a daily basis for any Romanian railway operated train. But after 30+ years of this, you kind of get accustomed to it I guess 😉
Reading that, I'm more thankful for Deutsche Bahn
so true 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
It was even worse back then. At least the cars are modernized nowadays. Struggling to keep up with the standards instead of being sub-par.
@@AnaRibeiro Deutsch bahn seems like the Japanese trainsystem (they are almost never more than 20 second late compared to romania lol)
@@blackmercury956 Oh my, you mean they are never on time. DB is always late haha
Hey Tom, wonderful video! All the best from Switzerland :)
"Gara de Nord" is the biggest train station in the country. It wouldn't be so bad to get it better designed so that international tourists don't get confused. I've seen a lot of train stations outside Romania and, as a foreigner, I could always find my way around.
Even in this clip you can see the sign for "INTERNATIONAL TRIPS" had the biggest font written in romanian and others in foreign languages underneath. Nonsense. As an architecture student in Bucharest, Gara de Nord is particularly frustrating.
I can see this misunderstanding happening even if Tom found a couple of his romanian viewers (such as myself and others I see on here) and asked them for details about this route, prior to the trip. Folks here are inclined to say "that's one of the safest routes you can take!" - safe in terms of being sure you arrive there on time, having some comfort on the way there - depending on the ticket, most will suggest the highest comfort one (truthfully, the others are terrible in my opinion - and you'll end up frustrated) and that's because delays for this trip really are a rarity. What an unfortunate experience. Not to say that this isn't bound to happen every so often, so it's better to plan ahead.
I'm sure you know this, but it's best to plan for the exceptions! :) Looking forward to see more of Tom's adventures though!
Hey, thanks for the comment! That's really nice :)
I went for a 12h journey from western Romania to eastern Romania last summer and it was actually quite good (just a 1h delay). I paid 80 euros for the private sleeping cabin (without shower) but there where no bar on the train.
The section just in Romania would be great to ride again, and enjoy the scenery 😍
Romania and Bulgaria will likely join the Schengen zone soon, so that will solve many of the problems you experienced. I would rethink "never again".
Sorry to hear your take of woe. I’ve only been on our UK Caledonian Sleeper a handful of times going down to London. I always feel a bit “007”ish as I board. But the feeling soon vanishes. Last time I had to complain about stained and hairy bedsheets as I was about to go to bed! The best the person in charge could offer was for me to just strip them off! ‘Sleeper’ is a bit of misnomer for these berths imho.
ah yes the Romanian experience! one of my friends actually took the same train in december like 3-4 years ago, and they ran into some mechanical problems and were stuck in the middle of nowhere in -15 degrees for 20 hours. They could not leave the train because they were literally in the middle of nowhere and after 20 hours of waiting they all received half a plastic cup of hot tea. Growing up in Romania I'm not surprised about anything in this video haha
Ha ha. In Romania you get to appreciate life as it is, with good and bad, I would not give Romania for any other country in the World. 🎉. Money not being an issue...
Sorry to hear this, mate. Our railway system sucks. My las ride was 25 years ago. Never ever ...
The delay on the Romanian-Hungarian border was probably because of the Ukrainian refugees. Every day thousands of them come to Hungary via Romania, similar numbers through the Hungarian-Ukrainian border. They are taken off the trains (day and night trains) at the border and have to be processed because they enter the Schengen zone. Normally they either have to take the next train if they want to travel further west. Sometimes the Hungarian railway company runs a special train just for the refugees from the border to Budapest. The night train from Bucharest is often late, normally if the delay is more than an hour there is a replacement train between Budapest and Vienna. There are hourly trains to Vienna and the ticket is honoured on the next train, the only problem people might have is finding a seat. Often most of the seats have reservations, so people have to stand for nearly three hours.
I can attest to the Ukrainian refuggees part. I took this train from Bucharest to Vienna and at the Romanian-Hungarian boarder we waited for almost 2 hours cause they had to be registered
I really hope that Austria is not protesting against the extension of the Schengenzone because of these refugees. Even if it's a neutral country.
nice video the sleep train room look cool
I went with nightjet from Munich to Venice (wanted to go on from there to Florence) . 2 beds cabin. Waking up next morning I realised that the train had stopped short after Munich in Rosenheim and that it wasn’t to go on … Apparently we had stood there the whole night without anybody from ÖBB telling us how to go what about the tickets and so on. Just by accident we and other passengers realised that on the opposite platform a train was going to Bologna… and so our travel continued, we finally arrived in Florence in the evening …
Thanks for the video. I am taking the night train to Romania in a few weeks. Hopefully, now that Romania is in Schengen, they've fixed it, and it'll be a smooth ride.
Going to make video about the trip too ;)
I did it the other way (Budapest - Bucharest) last year, doing a day train from Budapest to Arad (first town in Romania) and then the Arad to Bucharest sleeper operated by Astra Trans Carpatic. About 70 euros for a similar room, shower worked, very clean and new coaches and border already crossed. In theory a good 8 hours of sleep ahead.
But.... Romania is the land of jointed track and rough pointwork. You know the old school dum-dum-dum-dum as you travel along the tracks that you don't get on mainlines in Western Europe? Yeah, that's the Romanian network. I think I got 30 minutes of 'sleep' all night....
This reminded me of why my travels on romanian trains always involved a considerable amount of wine
Oh you so crazy Tom. What a trip!
when will I learn 😅 thanks!
All trains that go from Romania to Budapest and so on are second class, it says so on the website when you look for the route. Why is he so surprised?
So many lessons to learn here. 😀
If you plan to have a shower, always carry with you one or two 5-gallon solar shower bags ( black heavy-duty plastic bags with a small shower head at the bottom ). On a summer day, you can have lukewarm water - 100 to 105 degrees (or 40 Celsius) - in about 3 hours. But that's not the point here.
When you board the train, you check if there's water. If the water is there, in the evening you fill up your bags and place them into the shower room. You have to reserve your water cause most of the old trains have only a central tank and you might not get any if you wait until 2 am for a passport stamp.
After Turkey's snub on Sweden, the EU decided that Romania and Bulgaria must be admitted this year into the Schengen area and even be compensated for discrimination (they met the criteria in 2011).
So, you might be luckier next time.
Let s see if they re admitted, Austria is still against...
@@didivicky they be racist cucks
Just came back from Romania yesterday, also with the Dacia and only 40 minutes late.
BUT on the way to Romania we had a delay of 10 hours due an accident near Szolnok in Hungary, it even made news on Romanian ProTV.
Glad you made it safely! What an adventure
i also take a sleeper train von Bucarest to Budapest - it takes 16 hours
Doing that while actually wanting to doesn’t sound too bad 😭
I did the same trip last summer with wife and two kids. Exact same thing happened. The train stopped in Budapest and we had to take an overly full one for a few hours to get to Vienna. The ride through Romania was beautiful but painfully slow and we arrived at 2 am to the border crossing. It seems like a feature rather than a bug
I use to do those trips across Europe and sometimes the sleeping car attendant would take in passports and tickets overnight to show the border guards and they wouldn't wake you up.By coincidence that happened to me on a Brasov to Vienna train which terminated short in Budapest.It was very dangerous as some of the passengers got off in the throat to Keliti Station and walked down the tracks with trains coming and going! Very disorganised with the Austrian sleeping car attendant constantly pointing out how disorganised Hungary was(he didn't lay into Romania as I recall).
Having just completed a 9 day trip in Romania, I can relate to this; Romania has some vintage 3rd world features that are both maddening and costly!
It’s not your fault. I’ve take taken trains in both Hungary and Romania and they are both poorly run counties and rails. I’ve had similarly bad experiences on trains there.
Lets go!! Love your Storytelling good one
And here I sat thinking "oh but at least it was probably cheap, right?"
175 bucks, fuck me.
"We're out of Coach class boys" to "back where we belong" took me out 😂😂😂. I feel bad for laughing.
You have no GPS on your phone? Then you see exactly where the border will be passed..
I took that same train from London to Ramsgate-Ferry-Ostend to Bucharest and travelled all around Romania by train in 1994, staying a month. I was 18. Just a memory now but a great one. The reason you didn't enjoy is due to the generation you've been born into and the mindset it's given your generation. 'Salut.'
What? WHY on Earth would you wait for the border crossing? Back in the 1990s when I still travelled on overnight trains, that would never have occured to me. I just gave my passport and ticket to the conductor and went to sleep.
I reckon that might have been before illegal mass migration 🤔
🤩 Wow.... We enjoy Traveling by night Train... Well Done, very nice video 🍒🍒🍒
Was the other English guy u met from Hayling. I am 😃
This is an exception what you experienced. Do this trip again and the chances are it'll be much more comfortable and worth the time and money
You should definetely go from Salzburg to Sylt next time!
I took a night train from Vienna to Sibiu six years ago. It’s vital you check the timings for intermittent stations so you avoid trains that cross the border at unearthly hours. But you know that now!)
Good tip! Also how was Sibiu? It seems lovely from what I’ve seen
@@thornton Sibiu (or Hermannstadt in the days of the Habsburg empire) was really lovely. The old town is quite big and completely original. It seems to have been a significant centre in its time and had large interesting churches of 3 Christian denominations showing its mixed roots. But I think the night train that used to go that way no longer does. Brasov (or Kronstadt in its Habsburg days) is much closer to mountains so was good for doing hikes (there’s a cute little DMU to the foothills at Zarnesti). But Brasov city, nice as it is, was less delightful than Sibiu IMO.
Man, 175 euro for that? Yeah, no hope for trains to compete in the near future unfortunately
Funny, I'm sitting here in my Airbnb in Bucharest right now, watching this. All through your video, up until the part when the shower didn't work, I was saying to myself, "I'll do it anyway!" Then the constant interruptions from border guards and hardly getting any sleep - THEN the clincher being dropped off in Budapest - THEN the price of $175 -- I am like, no way, ever! So, thank you!
I took this train a couple days ago From Arad to Budapest in a Seeting Carrige, The Bodercrossing From Hungary into Romania was everything Else than smooth we gathered about 70 minutes Deley in Lőkösháza. On the way back everything Went smothly the train Pulled 10 Minuten late into Arad And we arrived on time in Budapest. Eventough i had just a Seating Carrige i could sleep verry Well, the Hungarian And Romanian borderguards Just woke me Up i gave them my pass they ceckt It And then they we're Off and i could sleep again
Great video, hope you enjoyed Vienna one of my favourite cities. I took a Nightjet train last month and booked a private sleeper and got downgraded to one with just seats at least it made it to Hamburg.
Obb mark all their private sleeper tickets as 2nd class tickets as well. I did Vienna - Munich on a sleeper last year also and although there were no document checks the police checked the compartments at the border crossing.
You should be able to get 50% of the ticket back if you arrived more than 2 hours late. I would also just demand a refund on the sleeper.
The perks of being an eastern european , hungarian, romanian whatever, is that train delays, cancellations, out-of-order showers are just part of every day life and most of us just shrug it off without being too much angry about it :)
And then we choose an alternative to get to where we want. Passenger train transportation is dying a slow death in this region.
@@manwiththeredface7821 for internal travel it's still a very popular choice, at least in Romania. But for the life of me i can't understand why anyone would subject themselves to a 16h train ride, for that same price you can get airplane tickets and you're at your destination in 6h, time spent in the airport included.
I’m sorry your ambition to join the Haut Monde didn’t work out, but I really enjoyed the video. I don’t think it’s possible to travel through three states on Coach on Amtrak for $175 (let alone 3 countries), if that’s any consolation.
Haut Monde he will find on the high speed trains of course more expensive where they exist and on luxury touristic trains.
Your experience actually sounds dreamy, what with the bed and everything. Not sure if it was exactly the same route, but we took a night train from Medias to Budapest with similar experience 18 years ago, with similar memories of it being amongst my worst train rides ever.
- We couldn't prepurchase tickets because because we weren't starting in Bucharest. Sleeper cars were not available for purchase at the Medias ticket office. This was also before Romanian railways had internet ticketing.
- Our seats were occupied when we got there, and in fact the car we were in was solidly packed. I think somewhere someone was selling standing-room-only tickets.
- Roughly 2-3 hours at border control.
Had exactly zero sleep that night. But ultimately got where we were going, so I guess that's just how it goes sometimes.
I love how you‘re staying so calm?? I would have cried the whole time tbh
As a romanian, I applaud you for your patience. Our railroads and trains are the worst.
You may be exaggerating, I've seen videos from India where you had to travel on top of the train. Romania is no where on that level.
@@patrickvdh8606 It's possible, maybe those arrive on time though :))
@@patrickvdh8606 There's always that one dude that personifies "whataboutism". Always fun to read.