Berlin to Budapest And Back By Night Train

The first step of any journey is planning.

What do I want to do with this trip?

Well, I want a cheap trip where I get to explore Europe and see LOTS of public transportation.

From what I had seen a good way to save money while traveling is by using night trains instead of paying for hotels and traveling in the day (A bonus of doing that is that I get to spend time on trains!). The natural continuation of that idea was to try going on a trip while only sleeping on night trains.

-Berlin-

At Berlin Hauptbahnhof I explored the station and it surroundings, notably visiting Mc. Paper a nearby Cafe and a tram stop, but it was quickly approaching the time of our train’s departure so we went down the escalators to reach our platform.

Now it’s time for a train review!

Sadly my camera almost ran out of power so I couldn’t take many photos in Budapest and of the Private room on the train.

I took the EuroNight Metropol between Berlin and Budapest, taking 14 hours, but this ride wasn’t going to turn out the way you may expect. I booked a 6 person couchette from Berlin to Budapest, and a seat on the way back.

I was waiting at the platform for about 30 minutes before it was revealed the platform changed about the same time which coaches where going to each destination in correspondence to the platform letters (for me d-e was going to Budapest Nyugati). I didn’t have much time to get to the location necessary for boarding the train, but I COULD NOT ENTER MY COACH, THE DOORS DID NOT OPEN! So I entered the seating car and asked why I could’t enter the couchette coach, it turned out the couchette car didn’t have power and we would stay in the seating car (for now). The loss of power in the couchette car turned out to be a blessing in disguise, the worker was so nice that they upgraded me to a private sleeper!!! They even gave me a free breakfast and where really nice in general.

It was the best experience I’ve had on a night train!

Elliot’s personal opinion

-Budapest-

I had an amazing experience in Budapest looking at the historic cogwheel railway and the historic tram, I originally planed to look at the children’s railway in Budapest but it turned out I didn’t have time.

I went to Budapest on New Year’s Day so a lot of stores, cafes and restaurants where closed, but the public transportation was still running with the trams and subway running, sadly the Millennium Underground railway museum was closed like most shops.

Overall I had an amazing time just wandering around the city seeing amazing architecture and nature!

Now it’s time for two train reviews!

First I would like to review the modern tram I took in Budapest and then the seating arrangements for the Metropol. The tram ride was amazing, taking the tram over the classic chain bridge from Pest to Buda was an amazing experience I would suggest to anyone visiting Budapest! The one thing I would like to note is that you should probably get your tickets a bit in advance because it is a bit of a confusing process if you haven’t done it before.

Now it’s time to review the Metropol, I’ve already talked a bit about the Metropol, so I’m going to skip to the information about the compartment and boarding. This time there was less of a rush to board the train but it was about as confusing as the last time there where multiple different signs on each coach and it took me about 8 minutes to find our coach. The seats were nice and comfortable (they didn’t recline) and I ended up sharing the small room with 2 other people. It was nice sharing a room with them and the views out of the window was amazing!!!

The tram ride had some of the most beautiful scenery I’ve ever seen!

Elliot’s opinion

-Berlin again-

On my second time visiting in this trip I decided to visit the German Museum of technology, which had area dedicated to trains, planes, boats and computers… I had an amazing especially in the train area where I saw models, photos of trains and even REAL full-size trains.

With the experience at the museum my amazing journey had ended and I took the train to the airport and then flew home.