Another week on the train

First, let me say that buying an Eastern Europe Rail Pass can be a good value, despite what Rick Steves thinks. He says that it doesn't save much money...I disagree. I spent $195 for 6 days of rail travel through the following countries: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Austria. True, the 6 days had to be in one month, but we're not going to be here forever (maybe).
Anyway, after Andie came, I still had 4 days left on my pass. So, I had to use up the rest of the days. My plan was to go somewhere in Austria because that is where the train tickets would be the most expensive and therefore I would get the most value. I talked Andrea and Connor into coming with me to Salzburg. That was awesome! So there were two train days spent. And then I talked Geo (and Emrys and Sara) into coming with me to Poland again. I really wanted to go back to Krakow since Andie and I didn't have much time there on our quick trip. Again, it was way worth it.
Now, I will say that it is challenging to manage all these train schedules and connections. I decided it would be wise to have reservations on trains here because for some reason I am often on the busiest train at the busiest time and I have been kicked out of my seat by someone who has the reservation. Sneaky, because they don't always post the little tickets that say the seat is reserved. So for a few dollars, you can make a reservation and not have to worry about being kicked out. It took me more than a half hour to make reservations for the trains I would be taking in a 10-day period. But even that was okay, because I had planned out the schedules ahead of time. I only wonder how long it would have taken if I showed up without the schedules planned...
The sad part of this story is what happens when you miss your originally planned and reserved train. For various reasons, on both of my trips, I managed to miss trains that I had paid extra for reserved seats. Ouch! Fortunately, the trains that we ended up taking had seats for us that were not already reserved. But when you take the time to make reservations, it's because you have quick connections in some far-away station that you want to catch. And if you miss the connection, sometimes you are stuck a long time. On the way to Krakow, we had a train delayed because of flooding in Austria. That made us late getting to the next stop, so we were about 2 hours late. Going to Salzburg, we were running late and I wasn't sure what platform we were departing from, so we missed the train there and had to change our plans a lot. That only cost us four hours. So, the moral of this story is be thankful for your car. Just kidding. I've relied on the trains exclusively here (except a few times with a taxi after IKEA runs) and they've been great. But once in a while, there are some glitches in a very organized system and I wonder how everyone else manages. I'm sure the fact that I don't speak any of the local languages doesn't help me much. Anyway, I'm off on another train adventure with my mom and dad over Easter weekend to go to Budapest. We've got tickets and reserved seats and the train is direct. Nothing to worry about (I hope!).