After spending this morning trying to squeeze in our last bits of Budapest, we boarded a train to Vienna and arrived in about three hours. I know it’s a terrible comparison, but in the States, in three hours, I couldn’t even get from New York to Boston. My train ticket would cost over double the approximately $40 USD it cost to get from Budapest to Vienna. This trip further accentuates how terrible train travel is back in the States.

Vienna is a modern city — shinier, glitzier, and richer than Budapest, and unfortunately, much more expensive. When we got on the train, I knew I had about 550 Hungarian Forint left to spend that I wanted to use up. I also had some leftover Euros from our Germany trip last year in my wallet. When I went up to the counter to ask for what I could potentially buy, I could barely get an apple juice and a Toblerone and needed three extra Euros to get me there. Five hundred Hungarian Forint just at the train station in Budapest got me two large, good-quality pastries and a coffee. It’s quite a contrast, but I’m excited for the Christmas markets and the Viennese cakes and desserts we will be seeing and eating for the next two days.