Throughout this trip I have kept running into and making new friends in the most unlikely of places. It began in Krakow, Poland where, during the “unofficial” pub visit, Alaina and I sat down to talk with a few other travellers. She made friends with a group of Americans at the left end of the table while I struck up a conversation with a few Mexicans directly across from us. After a heated discussion on the authenticity of Taco Bell’s Mexican food, we began to exchange travel information. A smile leapt onto my face when they told me Budapest was next on their itinerary. I tapped Alaina on the shoulder, told her what I had heard, and she exclaimed to my new friends, “We’re going there too!” We exchanged numbers and decided to give each other a call when we arrived in our new country.
The next day, after spending an hour and a half searching for our train station, Alaina and I sat down and prepared ourselves for a two hour wait before our departure. No more than thirty minutes later, we noticed our Mexican friends searching for some seats. We invited them to sit with us, and they explained how they were unable to get bus tickets so they were taking the train instead. At this point, Alaina and I decided to spend the rest of our Polish currency so as to avoid the currency exchange fee. When I heard the distinctive sound of American tourists discussing how they would manage acquiring another Zloty so they could afford some water, I offered them some of our money. They were trying to get rid of their money too, but they ran into the opposite problem as us – they had just a bit too little left. I invited them to sit with the four of us, and we soon discovered that they were also going to Budapest. One of the girls spoke Spanish, and in no time she was having a discussion with Bobi – the Mexican girl – in her native tongue. I’m sure she was relieved to find a fellow Spanish speaker.
One of many bridges in Budapest. I've heard this one is great for unexpected renunions.
My world shrank even further in Budapest. After snapping a few pictures of Budapest’s famous chain bridge, I decided to search for a better angle. I turned around to find a student from the Valpo Reutlingen program running across the street, likely also in search of a better camera angle. “Julia Trowbridge?” I asked her. With a look of shock, she replied, “David Cyze?!” and our unintended reunion was complete. She and the two friends she was traveling with gave Alaina and me the greatest advice I have ever received on where to go for dinner.
Just a "tipical" Hungarian restuarant.
The next day, on a train ride, Alaina and I learned the Reutlingen students were also traveling to Croatia after the surprising discovery that they were in the same sleeper cabinet as us. We arrived in Zagreb, an eerily clean town which should be a top travel destination for anyone who wishes to come across unexpected beauty, and three hours later ran into two more students from the Reutlingen program. At this point, the reunions were uncanny. We could never have planned this.
