Meaghan: My body is very happy to be leaving Budapest behind today. It has been amazing and absolutely exhausting. We’re so tired that we were actually looking forward to our 15 hour train trip to Split where we could just sit, sleep and drink copious amounts of water.

Savanna: My body is also very happy to be leaving Budapest, however my mind is not. I felt ill saying goodbye to Sally, Craig and Minion today – knowing that even if I manage to return, they won’t be there. This little world, this little bubble, we had at Carpe Noctem Vitae hostel has made me just so deliriously happy.

M: This morning I got up and took one last little stroll around the area and went for breakfast. As I was drinking my smoothie, I realized that I haven’t had fruits or vegetables in more than a week now. I have, however, had more than my fair share of 3:30 am shawarma. Sorry about that, body!

We said our goodbyes to people at the hostel and trekked over to the train station with Maddie for what would turn into a very stressful 60 seconds. When we got to the ticket counter, the lady said that our train had left…uh oh. There are only two options to get to Zagreb, 6 am and 3pm. So we looked at each other, kinda stunned, like what are we going to do now? We hmmd and hawed for a couple minutes at the ticket counter. Then the lady says, like she has all the time in the world, that actually our train leaves in one minute from platform 6 and that we can buy tickets on board. This is when the stress get going. In a split second (S: haha) we nodded our heads and booked it out of the ticket office, all of us madly looking for platform 6. We found the train and hopped on the last carriage. It was packed with tons people squeezing down the narrow corridors. Then Savanna goes “wait, guys, do we know if we actually got on the right train?” just before the train starts moving. After getting my backpack and myself stuck between carriages and finally figuring out that yes, we are indeed on the right train, we sat down and took a deep breath.

Savanna: We have not really had moments like this on the trip yet and it all happened so quickly that I think I was in shock afterwards! We sat on the train totally stunned for the first few minutes, kind of looking at each other here and there and bursting out into incredulous laughter.

After the first 6 hour train, some very aggressive border guards and some ticket confusion, we made it to Zagreb. We hopped out, happy to have the first leg of the journey done and stopped into a Chinese food place for dinner. It’s been awesome having Maddie with us because we joke and laugh constantly, which is exactly how dinner was.

Now we are sitting on the overnight train to Split and it’s like a shitty Hogwarts Express that looks like it drove straight out of the 80’s. We have been on the train all of twenty minutes and already have been told to hold on to our wallets, we’ve been FULL ON leered at by a creepy old dude, and just now a man tried for over a minute to communicate with us about something in Croatian. Turns out he just wanted to know if we were warm enough. Um yes… Thank you?

Our first foray into Croatia has been an adventure… We are excited for what’s to come.

S&M