So I was in Munich for a couple days to visit my girlfriend who was there on business. I decided to take a night train back, since I still had a valid Eurail pass.
I’ve taken this same train many times before, when I was living in Germany and my girlfriend was living in Budapest. Once every two weeks or so I’d take the night train, connecting in Munich continuing to Budapest. Never once had any trouble, but often met fun people and would end up all night having a few beers with other travelers.
This time, the train was quite empty. At least the last few hours, and I had the compartment to myself. It’s already morning, and we’re close to Budapest (about an hour left to go). Suddenly a guy comes into my compartment looking a little chaken and says to me “Hey, you speak English?” - “Yeah, I’m Canadian”.
Turns out he is too, from Vancouver. He goes on to explain that he was in his compartment and must have dozed off for a few minutes. He wakes up to find a guy in his compartment. The thief motions like he’s looking for a cigarette and says “Cigarette, cigarette”. The Canadian guy says “Fuck off, there aren’t any here.” and the guy leaves.
But just to be safe, the guy opens his bag and dumps it on the seat beside him. Sure enough, his ipod and camera are missing! So he takes off running after the guy down the length of the train. He finally corners him in the last car, and there are two other guys there as well. The Canadian guy tries to tell them that this other guy took his stuff, but the others weren’t saying anything - in fact he quickly realizes that they are working together!
Finally the thief relents and gives him back his camera and ipod. But needless to say he’s a little shaken up. That’s when he comes into my cabin and asks if he can sit with me, since he’s afraid the three guys would come back and jump him if he’s on his own.
I get up and look outside the compartment and sure enough the three guys are standing at the other end of the car. They’re also pretty big guys, so a fight is definitely best avoided. So what I do is go to the other compartments in the car and ask people if they speak English (which most do). Then I point to the three guys at the end of the car and say “Those guys have been stealing things on the train, so check your stuff. If anything’s missing, talk to them”. Clearly the three theives started getting uncomfortable and left to go into another car, and then got off right away at the next stop.
Thankfully nobody else we talked to had anything stolen, but it just goes to show. The vast majority of times you travel you won’t have any problems, but it can happen. Just be aware of your surroundings, and there is safety in numbers if you’re feeling uncomfortable.
This post isn’t meant to scare anyone from traveling on a night train or in Hungary, or on their own - But just so people are aware these things do happen!