In Transit

Keleti was where I first arrived in Budapest more than 10 years ago and it still remains somehow the end of the umbilical cord tying me to my origins- as long as Keleti is there, home is not far away. Budapest has three main stations- Nyugati (Western),Déli (Southern) and Keleti (Eastern) It has always fascinated me that it does not have a Northern Station, based on Paris having Gare du Nord I assumed all big cities must have one. Nyugati, designed by none else than Gustave Eiffel, is considered the prettier building and for this ill conceived reason has the Orient Express visiting it now and then, but Keleti is the real deal. Hosting most of the international train traffic, it is teeming with life and excitement. People come and go pulling their bags, local taxi drivers and hostel owners try to zero in on innocent prey, the Arab gyros stand owners sip their hot teas in sleepy reverie,  disorientated foreigners desperately look for an elusive train, experienced commuters grab a tabloid and some snacks, latecomers curse fate for having their trains exiled onto lane one (by Keleti logic, lane one is the farthest away from the entrance...) Keleti is the spectacle of life. Which comes in very handy when MÁV kindly delays your train. They do that quite often, I'm afraid.