It's funny the things you notice when you're learning a new transportation system. It's not something one really thinks about until...well, until they think about it. For instance, I've never actually used mass transport on a daily basis until now. I've always been one of those "daily pass" people in a foreign city or maintaining a semi-low balance on a SMART metro card while living in DC. Budapest's transportation system requires one pass for the metro, buses, trams, and their ferry boats (not all boats on the Danube, just some). You can buy a pack of ten tickets for like $11 or an all-in-one monthly pass for about $30. There is a value added tax (VAT) of about 27% on all goods and services from what I understand. Diplomats, thank goodness, can get that money back if we get the proper receipts. That's, of course, really good news. That said, we keep forgetting to give them our VAT card; so that will take some getting used to.
When you get your pack of ten tickets or your monthly pass, you're ready to use the bus. Most of them are not air conditioned; and if they are, they're not air conditioned enough for this southern girl. The bus is really modern, complete with screens that tell you the upcoming stop and the next two after that. We've learned where to get on and off, depending on whether we want to punish ourselves by climbing the 257 steps up to the side of our house or climbing the hill via the roadway that runs in front of it. We've also learned the hard way how to signal that we want to get off the bus. Get this; there's a "stop" button!
When you get off the bus and enter the metro system, you feed your ticket into this little machine and get it validated. There is almost always a very scary looking man checking if people actually have tickets or monthly passes because there are no turnstiles. People just walk in. Nobody really checks on the buses. The drivers just assume most people have the monthly pass, I guess. Or maybe it's an honor system.
The next thing you're faced with in the metro is this:
Apparently, Budapest has the steepest escalators in Europe. As a person who suffers from a severe case of fear of heights (with vertigo!), this is the most terrifying part of my day. The fact that these escalators are three times as fast as an other escalator I've ever been on does not help matters much. You practically have to get a running start to get on or off. The funniest thing about the stand-to-the-right, walk-to-the-left, multi-storey descent into the guts of the city is the way the handrails and steps move at different speeds. I didn't notice at first why everyone seemed to be slanted when going up or down the escalators. Literally everyone is positioned at what looks like a 45-degree angle as they ride along. That's when I figured out about the handrails. As you're going up, the handrail is faster than the stairs; so you're always leaning forward, trying to keep up while sliding your hand back down to your side. Since I'm not getting on that thing without holding on for dear life, it's kind of a never-ending cycle. It's the opposite as you're going down; so you're always leaning forward and then sliding your arm back to the front while trying not to fall down. Since I'm completely neurotic about my fear of falling down, I usually over-compensate and spastically grasp around for the rail while trying not to appear as panicked as I feel. I'm sure I fail miserably at it, haha; but it can only get better. Right??
All in all, the M2 metro train is clean and prompt; so as long as I don't fall down the speedy Gonzales, ill-timed handrail escalator, getting around the city can only get easier!
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