a "wild" train ride

"The hours grow shorter as the days go by."

But I did have the chance to stop and open my eyes. On my well traveled route from Debrecen to Vecsés by train, I'm asking myself how this adventure can possibly get any more like a fairytale. A strange winter mist is hanging over the Hungarian plains as the sun glows low and red between clouds, struggling through the mist to reach the frozen fields.

Small groups of dwarf deer laze around as if conscious that no natural predators remain. Oversized rabbits flee the racket of the train.  Stout raptors pose statuesque, keeping watch with feathers ruffled against the cold. I've always considered this intercity train expensive at $20 for the two hour ride. But how much would I pay to see the silhouette of a lone fox with a huge bushy tail, leap up and dive into the snow after a rodent?

Then, with my mouth still agape, I watch a pheasant with two dangling tail feathers that must be almost a metre long, swoop down to land in the snow outside my train window.

With some remnant of homesickness for my older home, I listen to the Bare Naked Ladies as I type this blog on my iPod. With only a few days left in Hungary, my adventure will soon enter a new era.

"Try to see the world beyond your front door..."

In a few days I'm off to Romania, then Bulgaria, then Turkey where I meet up with Dharlene at long last. Then together we adventure into the middle east.