Riding the Train With My Old Friend

When you move often, it becomes difficult to keep lasting friendships alive. In middle school, I lived in Brazil and had three really good friends -- a real sisterhood of the traveling pants type thing. We used to run around the hallways of school wreaking havoc, and spent many hours roller-blading at each others houses.

I only lived there for two years, but a few years later, when I moved to Sweden, I was able to reconnect with one of these friends, Eli. At the time, she lived in Austria, and after we both graduated from high school, we embarked on a classic backpacking-around-Europe trip. We spent the better part of a month exploring different cities and countries, racking up plenty of shenanigans to tell stories about later.

It was a great trip, but of course it ended, and life continued. We went off to colleges on different continents, and stopped talking as often. Before I knew it, ten years had gone by without seeing each other.

Right: Awkward middle schoolers. Left: Awkward high school graduates.

Until now!

As coincidence would have it, Eli recently returned to Austria, and her home town of Vienna is only two and a half hours away from Budapest. Last weekend, she came to visit me, and it was like we had never been apart at all.

Eli had been to Budapest before, so she had seen most of the main sights already, and we were free to explore one of Budapest's hidden gems -- the Children's Railway. This is a railway almost entirely operated by children -- a remnant of communist times where children were encouraged to train for practical professions that would add value to the society. The railway's popularity meant that, after the fall of communism, it stayed open and just changed names from the Frontier Railway to the Children's Railway.

I thought it might be a mini-train, but it's full size!

Unfortunately, the Children's Railway is stuck in the past in the sense that there is very little useful information about it online, so we decided to just go and see what's what. We found the station easily, but arrived just as a train was leaving. A woman hastily ushered us onto the train, telling us "You buy ticket on train. Go!" The ticket operators were, of course, children, and for some inexplicable reason seemed unwilling to sell us tickets. We heard them speaking English to others, so language wasn't the problem... and yet every time we asked to buy a ticket, they would mumble "Just a second..." and disappear. We arrived at our desired stop having never paid for a ticket...

Sell me a ticket! I want to give you money!

The railway winds its way through the picturesque hills of Buda, and stops quite close to the tallest point in Budapest, Elizabeth Lookout Tower on Janos hill. We decided to head up there, especially since I read online that there's a chairlift you can use to get there. Well, we found the chairlift, but it went the wrong way -- down the hill, not up. So we trudged through the snow the rest of the way to the tower and enjoyed the view (Jasmine, who decided to join us at the last minute, was wearing Converse in the snow and did not enjoy herself quite as much -- but the view was worth it!)

Beautiful view from the top!

After taking in the view, we availed ourselves of the chairlift we had previously found and used that to get back down instead of taking the railway again. At the end of the chairlift, there was a sign that said "Smile!" When I saw it, I turned to Jasmine and said "Look! I sign that says 'Smile'!" and of course, the moment my mouth was awkwardly mid-sentence was when the picture was taken.

As usual, I'm yapping away and Jasmine looks afraid to be with me.

We both decided to buy this photo, because it cracks us up. Elisabeth, who was behind us, also had an amusing photo where she looked like there was nothing more she wanted to do in the world than ride the chairlift. One might say she looked chuffed to bits.

On the way home, we managed to overshoot our bus stop by several stops, and had to retrace our steps to get to where we wanted to go. Hey, just because I live here doesn't mean I don't get lost!

It occurred to me as I watched the child-conductors do their thing that it seemed fitting to explore the Children's Railway with Eli -- after all, when we met, we would have been at exactly the right age to work on the train ourselves. Eighteen years later, and we had become the awkward adults trying (unsuccessfully) to buy a ticket.

Here's to nearly two decades of friendship!