Hungary I: Budapest - June 1999

In 1999 I had a project for a clinical study at two sites in Hungary using the companies EDC software. We are talking about the time when it was 'intranet' direct dial-in. It was just a point-to-point Euro-ISDN connection between the German Telecomm and the Hungarian Matav, both who made a packet in telephone bills. As we needed ISDN for the sites - it was not standard at the time - we had also to organise the installation per site ourselves. It was the fastest connection at that time with two channels 56k.
Internet was no really an option at that time and analogue was far to slow. We had a video connection on the one channel to be able to wave to the doctors and take pictures and the other for transfering data.
This meant we had to set up the computers, do all the paperwork for a non EU country and ship them to the study coordinator (CRO) in Budapest who would monitor the study. We were only providing the computers, setup and hosting.
Our contractor was in Vienna so I travelled there and we went through the logistics of the trip. I needed to travel to the CRO in Budapest and pickup the computers for the sites. Hire a car and drive to first Szombathely and then on to Pecs to install the computers and hope the ISDN lines where working. Then drive back to Budapest airport and fly back to Cologne.

I was booked me into the Kempinski in Budapest. As I was not up on hotels, the name didn't mean anything to me at that time. Before leaving Vienna I stayed overnight in a hotel near the Donau. [Ed: The Danube is called Donau in Austria.] In the evening I looked for a place to eat and ended up in a bohemian restaurant, my first encounter with regional cuisine and it was good. Looking back I’ve had only good experiences with food in Austria.

The next morning bright and early I was off to the railway station and booked a seat on the next train to Budapest. It happened to be the Orient Express! Well that was the name in brackets on the display board. Oh! I thought, I'm on the trail of Dame Agi! [Ed: Christie took the train in the 30s all the way to Baghdad on her own.] As I walked to the platform indicated on the display board, I started to envisage a Pullman with all the trimmings.
Hey! I thought, this looks good!
I found the so called 'train', it was not what I was expecting. I've seen, and had to use, some run down methods of transport in my time but this took the biscuit! I checked the platform number - correct, looked at the sign on the carriage - also correct! I reluctantly entered the train and found my compartment.
As with most of the train it was empty. I took an extended butchers around and sat down on one of the less shabby seats next to the window. Was I glad I was in jeans and t-shirt. The windows were dirty allowing a dreary daylight to half hardly enter. I was disappointed, but okay it would have been too good to be true anyway. I only was going to Budapest, a two and half hour journey (212km) not the whole way to Baghdad which these days would be a darn sight more difficult than in Agatha Christies time.

As we moved off I had time to speculate about money, had I exchanged enough? I had no idea what prices awaited me, I had Amex for hotels and renting the car, but enough for food etc.? No idea. Would just have to see or starve. The journey was uneventful and I had the compartment to myself the complete journey.
On leaving the train I noticed something I just could not quite put my finger on as I was moving towards the exit. I then realised what it was, the 'noise'. It was not only loud it had a different, shall we say 'texture' to what one expects at a railway station. Also I realised that there were not only the alighted and the too alight passengers, but also an unusual mixture of beggars and peddlers.
Soon I was on their radar and I had a hard time to shake them off (I'm just not cut out for this type of confrontation, it was most embarrassing). I made it to the front of the station and looked for a taxi to get me to the hotel. Again I was under siege. I was a little wary of whom too choose and if I was going to be charged the Earth. I opted for one whose transport device looked as if it would get us across town in one piece and then we were off.

We started sporadic small talk in broken English as one does and he mentioned with gusto that we would have to take another route to the hotel as the main road was blocked. I ask why and he went on and said it was bombed that morning by terrorists!
I did a double take, he registered my ‘what-was-that?’ face and followed with "Its okay that was only the 3rd. time this week" (it was Tuesday).
The rest of the trip was mostly in silence.
I just looked out of the window and admired the scenery, or what was left of it!
[Ed: Now that wasn’t nice…]
So this was Budapest, my first encounter with the x-east block, what a way to start...

Later I found out that the taxi drivers English wasn't all that good, because he was talking about the actual NATO Belgrade bombings not Budapest bombings. Although there was a bombing the year before in the city. This clarification didn't help that much as I would be heading towards the Yugoslavian boarder in two days time!

The hotel was in the middle of down town Pest and as I went in I realised I was not appropriately dressed. The place was full of Japanese (conservative dress, mostly in black) and Americans (anything but). Remember I was in jeans and t-shirt. It was only when it came to pay the bill that I was updated on what class of hotel I was in!

I had time to kill so I dumped my case in my room and went for a walk. First down to the Duna [Ed: The Danube is called Duna in Hungary] and then on to the parliament which I was told I should look at.
The view of the Buda skyline was impressive with the castle and cathedral (on one of my next trips, I would be staying up there with H).

So after my walkabout it was back to the room and chill out. I took a closer look around me. The room and bathroom was very posh and formal so much so I had the feeling I should go to bed with my tie on! At breakfast the same congregant of Japanese and Americans. The price for breakfast would have paided for a room anywhere else!

I had hired a car for the next stage of the trip. It was in the garage of the hotel, which was convenient. I collected the car keys from the Sixt office in the hotel entrance and took the lift down to the garage area. It was a Rover and by the look of it slightly on the small size. I hoped the computers would fit [Ed: Remember the computers were desktop Vectras and 14 inch monitors]. What I found curious was that the license plate also had 'Sixt' as part of the number (the reason I was to find out later).

I got in the car and opened up the map of Hungary I had bought the previous evening. I had worked out the route to the pickup point where the computers for the two sites where - thinking back I really don’t know how I made the round trip without a satnav [Ed: There called in Germany a “navi” and just for the info, a mobile/cell phone called a 'handy'!] and in a car with gears (I had ordered an automatic).
I was going to have enough trouble with the tour around Hungary with reading comparing a long string of letters from signposts to the unpronounceable names on the map without having to rattle the gear stick around in the petrol tank all the time!)

[Ed: Continued here in Hungary II: Szombathely].