I've learned a lot of "street smarts" during my trip- how to meander across a 4 lane highway, haggle, be more assertive, live out of a suitcase, ect. One thing I've yet to learn is how to politely correct someone over email when they assume I'm the opposite gender. This has happened to me at least 10 times. Only once (here in the Netherlands) did they figure it out, explaining, "in the old world Theobald is a very masculine sounding name." The best I can do is write something like, "I'll be wearing a purple dress" and leave people to figure it out or be shocked that I'm not a cross dresser.
On the Hungarian train to Kraków I checked the appropriate box "female" on my ticket but was assigned to a male cabin. Arriving 2 hours early I waited until my track was called and waited with about 10 other people on the platform. I found an excuse to talk to all of them and unsurprisingly, we were all American. Being the first in my room I snagged the best luggage spot (I had worried about that all day), made my bed and settled down with a book set in 1940s Hungary (it's so much fun when your characters go to places you've recently seen.)
Source: www.seat61.com (a truly excellent website for all your train needs)
As the train started to pull away I still didn't have any roomies. One by one my five Hungarian male cabinmates all in their late 30s/early 40s came in and gave me questioning expressions. They had previously come in, seen me there and thought they were in the wrong place. One of them introduced himself and all the others saying, "don't worry we are good, nice men." They proceeded to bring out a truly impressive amount of alcohol, roughly equal to everything I've ever drunk in my life. Our cabin soon turned into a sort of tavern, that I just happened to be above, reading in bed. They brought an equally impressive amount of food which they generously offered me. About every 15 minutes a hand with a new container of goodies would emerge from under my bed. I even left with a doggy bag. The three english speakers would rotate sitting on the top bunk opposite me making conversation, until about three hours into the trip when "alcohol make lose english."
I made you a little chart (I kept track), and this is made all the more impressive when I specify that the "bottles of wine" were actually 2 liter soda bottles... Silly me thinking it was juice. However, I honestly have no clue what the "other" was, so maybe that was the juice.
I read until 1, but didn't fall asleep until 3 am. Even though I can generally fall asleep while listening to a foreign language (I found french relaxing) Hungarian and sleep are not conducive. Since our train arrived at 7, I hoped to sleep until we arrived. Haha.
About an hour in, I woke up bizarrely to someone holding my foot. Half asleep, I shook him off, and turned over. About 20 minutes later I woke up to it again, and vowed to kick him if he did it a third time. My foot made contact roughly 30 minutes later. When all the Hungarians woke up bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and loudly speaking at 5, I posed the question, "why was one of you holding my feet last night?" One of them sort of glared, rubbed his cheek and said, "I thought it was my bunk and I was trying to get in bed."
I had 9 hours to kill before I could check in. I had looked after a crying girl the night before my train ride (she arrived very early in the morning after being completely lost for hours and was just at the beginning of a year-long backpacking journey.) So, I had 6 hours of sleep in the previous 48. I checked my bag at the station and wandered around Kraków for all of 30 minutes before realizing I was just too tired. I spent the rest of the time sitting in a food court in a mall, where I wrote this blog (before managing to delete it) and planning my time in Poland.
