Even seasoned train travelers can occasionally find a surprise during a trip!

We boarded the 1^st class train compartment of our service from Serbia into Hungary expecting a pleasant but unexciting journey of some 9 hours between one capital city and the next.

We had believed that the days of mystery and excitement in train travel were now behind us and remained in the era of Agatha Christie and Hercule Poirot. How wrong we were!

The first half of the journey went pretty smoothly.

En route we were interested in the sudden transitions between examples of real slum development poverty and prosperous commercial developments and residential neighborhoods, often just on opposite sides of the train track.

We then moved on to the flat agricultural lands beyond the cities in northern Serbia, and often could see nothing but fields, some freshly ploughed and others with crops breaking through the surface.

We also noted a high number of eagle nests in trees, many pheasants enjoying the delights of spring in the ground below and hares the size of dogs doing their thing as well.

However, once we arrived at the border with Hungary, things became more interesting.

The train stopped at the border station so that the Serbian authorities could do a final passport check before passing the train and its passengers on to the Hungarians.

The other passengers had left the train at this time, and we were alone in the carriage (or so we thought).

Suddenly our musings were interrupted by a gentleman who came up to us and asked whether we were travelling into Hungary. Although he didn’t look like a train company or government official, we nevertheless agreed that this was what we were doing.

Shortly afterward, two well dressed ladies boarded the train carriage, moved forward to the electrical control panel at the end of the carriage, and to our surprise opened the panel and manipulated some switchgear.

Ceiling panels in first class carriage

Next, the original man and another were in the rear section of the 1^st class train compartment working with electric screwdrivers to remove a number of ceiling panels. Once these were off, something was stuffed into the spaces revealed, and the panels were then replaced.

Finally another woman of the sort you wouldn’t like to come across on a dark night walked up to the from of our carriage and opened another panel to place an item wrapped in newspaper into the compartment revealed.

The original gentleman then came back, indicating to us that we should remain silent about anything we had seen.

The well dressed women then took some seats well apart from us and from each other, whilst the others moved down the train into 2^nd class.

Eventually the train moved forward across the Hungarian border and stopped again. A number of Hungarian officials boarded the train, checking passports, whilst another railway person completed a final ticket check.

Following a further extended delay (about 90 minutes) the train continued its journey.

Whilst en route, we discovered that the group in 2^nd class had returned back into our train carriage. We then saw one of the men climb onto the luggage racks and lie along them. The electric screwdriver was again put into action, so that the goods could be removed from their hiding place. Once this task was completed, the goods were transferred into bags, and the electrical compartment was once again accessed.

The scary woman returned to the front compartment to remove her package (which to our fevered imagination had about the shape and weight of a handgun), and return to the others.

At the next stop of our train, the scary woman left the train carrying (or maybe dragging) the two bags across the tracks to a parked car where another lady was waiting. When last seen, the parked car together with 2 women on board left the area, and the train continued on its way towards Budapest.

Whilst we have no idea just what we were witnessing, the scenes brought back memories of some of the episodes of a television show set in France during the time of Nazi occupation called “ ‘Allo ‘Allo”.

The blatancy of what was most probably some form of smuggling was to us quite astonishing (but maybe this sort of thing is quite common at least in this part of the world).

Needless to say, our attention to the countryside through which we were traveling was less acute than on the earlier parts of the train journey.

If you’re ever faced with something like this on a train journey, just stay calm and chill out!