Belmond Venice-Simplon Orient Express
From Budapest to Bucharest
June 3rd to June 6th, 2023
Day 1
We drove from Bratislava Slovakia to Budapest Hungary.
We arrived at the hotel Four Seasons Gresham Palace, checked into our hotel room and met the train at the train station in Budapest. There we were greeted by a 16-piece horned band just outside the train, greeting the train and train-riders to the city of Budapest. Most likely they were playing a traditional Hungarian tune.
From the train station we took a van tour through the city until we got back to the hotel to prepare for a boat tour around the Danube river around the city. In the meantime, we had to rent a tuxedo for Max for an event that evening’s gala.
We took a 45-minute boat tour around the city and met the fellow YPO passengers on the train, from places all around the globe, from Pakistan, to Palestine, to Australia, to Tulsa Oklahoma. After the boat tour we went back to the hotel to get dressed for our black tie event that evening at the Museum of Fine Arts in the Hero’s Square. Max’s tux rental fit!
We walked through the museum and admired the work of the Hungarian artist, Csontváry, and were later greeted by an even bigger big band of about 20+ different musicians.
After the event we had a few drinks with the other passengers of the train at the hotel bar. We shut it down.
Day 2
Next morning we took a tour of Parliament and packed our bags to board the train to make our way to Bucharest.
We found our ‘room’ and nothing can prepare you for how small the cabins actually are, especially with all our luggage.
Our cabin had a custom made Veuve Cliquot bottle of champagne made especially for the train. The interior of the train was decorated to the nines, all wooden molding and velvet furniture, drapery and pillows. The hallways were narrow and we were accidentally knocking our backpacks on the sides of the walls as we walked.
We walked through each cart to get a look at the different restaurants on the train as well as the different styles of decoration on the carts. There was even a cart dedicated to souvenirs for purchase.
The train departed for Budapest and as we rolled out of the station we were also given a warm goodbye with a lineup of the tour team waving and a stringed duet playing classical music during our sendoff.
We had lunch aboard the train in the cart with green velour interior and wooden walls. After lunch we went down for a nap in our cabin, our cart butler prepared our room for bedtime and somehow magically turned our couch into a two twin bed suite.
This night we had a ladies’ dinner in 1 cart and the men had a separate dinner in another cart. It was a great way to connect with others and learn about their journeys
Spent the night on the train while it crossed the border, had cocktails in the cocktail cart at the front of the train while it made it’s way east to Romania
Day 3
Breakfast was at 9am and our first excursion off the train was in Sinaia (named after Mount Sinai in Egypt). Again we were met with a band of about 20 standing outside, all in uniform playing for us as we departed the train for our first excursion in Sinaia at Peles Castle.
We toured Peles Castle and learned about Romanian royalty during that time. The castle felt like Transylvania and also like a castle that Dracula might have lived in. There was an entire hall of armor, knives, and weapons that reminded us of the movie Knives Out. Also impressive was the glasswork chandeliers and mirrors by the Italian brand Murano. It was sprinkling that day, but it set the scene for what things are normally like in this part of Romania, surrounded by the woods. Our second visit in Sinaia was at the monastery there Romanian monks practice their rituals. A prayer room of crackling candles had us awestruck.
We boarded the train again and had lobster for lunch. It was a short ride to Bucharest, so we relaxed in the room and took pictures of the scenery.
We made it to Bucharest and were in one of the more interesting looking train stations than before. We checked into the Intercontinental hotel. We walked to dinner from the hotel and had a walking/guided tour around the city on our walking to dinner. Dinner that night hosted by the YPO Romania chapter at a restaurant Caru’ cu bere that’s the second oldest restaurant in Bucharest and they had live traditional folkloric dancing during the dinner. It almost looked like a beer hall inside. We had all kinds of food at the restaurant: started with a kind of charcuterie plate filled with nuts, cheese and meats, then we were served another entire board filled with different meat types. And then lastly, we were served a third entire board of their specialty meat: pork. We managed to try everything we could and it was all quite good. We were even able to join in their dancing circles and sing a little too.
We walked 15 minutes back to the hotel and in our hotel lobby we came across a hotel party that was Dracula themed. Funny to look in a room and see almost 100 adults, all dressed as Dracula with full white face paint, Dracula teeth in their mouths, and ‘blood’ coming from their mouths.
Day 4
Woke up this morning to prepare and take our Lufthansa flight from Bucharest to Frankfurt to then continue onto Nairobi the next day for our month long tour in Africa.