Shock Tour 'New Year's Hungary'

BUS SIGHTSEEING TOUR SPO - "NEW YEAR HUNGARY" was purchased by us on 23.11.2012. What attracted him was that the tour operator guaranteed a partial transfer by train, and even in compartment cars along the route Kyiv-Chop and Chop-Kyiv. So, the tour was ordered, 26. 11. 2012 - paid. It remains only to be patient and, as the tour operator said, take a good mood with you. In anticipation of a miracle, we stayed until 18:00 on December 28, 2012. - until Anastasia Buza called and offered to change the departure time instead of 15.22 to 11.00. Since we are all working people, and we live 300 km from Kyiv, we refused to change the departure time. As it was said earlier in the information sheet, we arrived at the railway station at the indicated place and began to look out for a representative of the tour operator with a SACUMS sign. Other tourists began to gather near us. At the indicated time of 14.40, a girl appeared with lists and started talking to nearby people. After the question - Are you a representative? And where is your sign? We heard the answer - Yes. They'll bring it now. At that very moment, something alarmed me. It turned out not in vain. The girl, it turned out to be so praised by previous reviews, Katya began to distribute tickets according to some incomprehensible principle. When asked to give us tickets, she said - now, now. Well, why are you so worried, now there will be tickets! And who wouldn't worry? There are 15 minutes left before the train departs. There is only one answer - now there will be tickets. 7 minutes - tickets will be! 0 minutes - do not worry, everything will be fine now. The director of the travel agency was always next to Katya and repeated to her more than once - Katya, I said that it would be so. I warned you. But the most important thing is that we don’t have our passports - they “left” with the accompanying Yulia. There were 8 of us left at the station. No mood, it is not clear why we came and what to do next ... And suddenly - a surprise! We are offered tickets ... for the train !!! It’s not even clear what they hoped for? Since the tour was chosen precisely because of the comfortable moving, it was not clear - to rejoice or cry? The focus of the travel agency failed. Katya has already begun to cry. Double two - surprise! Tickets for reserved seats! Three hours after the departure of the main group! There is nothing to do, the holiday is spoiled, the mood is not New Year's... We agree, subject to the promises of the director to compensate for moral damage and a guarantee to spend the return trip to Chop-Kyiv in a compartment car. Everything is written down by the director personally on paper. How we arrived on the reserved seat - it's not worth remembering! Tickets were to Mukachevo. We arrived there at 8.47, and the main group was in Chop at 6.05. The adventures in Kyiv did not end, it turns out that all the problems appeared due to the fact that our group was not tourists - it was Katya's mother and some workers travel agencies. But as it turned out, this was only the beginning. Unfortunately, our escort was non-verbal and didn't know anything about Hungary. Although before the trip it was easy to read the information on the Internet, or turn on the audio guide if you don’t feel like talking yourself. Julia is incompetent in almost everything - she could not organize either currency exchange, or lunches, or the toilets promised every 2-3 hours. Or perhaps it was simply not suitable for this country, because she did not know the language, and the driver who drove us the entire route did not understand English and Russian. As mentioned in the previous review, we did not have excursions, but a sprint race. The first day, or rather the second - crossing the border and moving to Eger. Instead of bathing, we first went to the Valley of Beauties - to eat Hungarian goulash and taste wine. I don’t know how anyone, but we, tired of the move, did not understand why in 20 minutes we were forced to swallow a plate of goulash and “taste” the wine. Why is that place called the Valley of Beauties - no one says a word. After that, gallop through the unlit city - another 20 minutes, and finally the long-awaited baths! This is exactly the place for which it is worth visiting Hungary. But it was not there! At the reception, our Yulia “really” asked to be let in, but since Europeans value their time and respect themselves, they refused us ... Thank God, we got a good hotel. The second day - a tour of Budapest, in principle, interesting, but all the museums were closed. I really liked the fortress, especially the view of the Danube. Then gallop along Santedra - to the marzipan museum, while other groups leisurely enjoyed the views of the city, drank hot mulled wine, our group did not even have time to eat. But Julia managed to do everything - to eat and buy souvenirs. Another race - baths in Budapest. This is of course bliss! But, like everything else, compressed in time. After that, Yulia, instead of taking us to the bus, Ivan Susanin took us in a circle - around the baths. At 19.00, all the tourists, after checking into the hotel, were sitting on the bus, ready to celebrate the New Year. We drove up to the river and searched for a boat until 20.30. Thank you, the tourists themselves figured out where to go. It was not bad on the boat - friendly workers, relaxing atmosphere. Julia excelled, as usual. Instead of celebrating with her group, she enjoyed her time with the New Zealanders. But that didn't dampen our spirits either. The next day the promised Austria is beautiful Vienna. Departure from the hotel was at eleven o'clock. Due to the late departure, many tourists refused to go. We were EVEN put on a movie during the 4 hour drive and once had a toilet stop. We saw that Yulia was taking food for herself and realized that there would be no more food today! They also ate, but not all of them - those who were on the bus were left hungry. Somehow strange, the leader of the group should at least inform that you can eat at the bus stop, and in our case, just to fill your stomach! In Vienna, we had a wonderful guide - Olga. In a very short time, I tried to tell about everything, but it was unrealistic. As usual, we didn't have time for shopping. Yulia was not with us during the tour - she felt bad after New Year's Eve, where could she talk or go! On the last day, we stopped by Tesco, with promises that we could buy souvenirs there. It turned out that our stay in the supermarket was limited from 9-00 to 10-00, and souvenir shops opened at 10-00. Class! Although no one was surprised. The last check in the baths and Yulia's remark that everyone has patience, which comes to an end and if she hears one more word in her direction, she will call the police! Probably, Yulia thought that this would scare us, but we all started laughing at her regular incompetence - it would be necessary to call the consul, but not the police. We crossed the border and were finally able to get on the train and safely get to Kyiv already in the compartment promised to us. We must pay tribute to the director - all her promises, but only those that were written down on paper, she fulfilled. Some strange feeling remained after the trip - it would seem: we ended up in such wonderful places, but with the organization of work, where everything is through one place - everything crumpled. The negative remains. And it’s also a pity for the director - with such “professionals” as Yulia, Nastya and Katya, there will soon be no one who wants to go with this operator.

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