overnight train: budapest - zurich

parting, it occurs randomly - even if planned the feeling is awkward and draining; how hard must you hug someone to indicate love?
the station is massive. a large dome of skeletal steel, the top of which is glass, rectangular frames that are neither clean nor dirty. i was once told that the buildings in parts of buda and pest are dirty because of the smoke from fires during wartime. i looking up, well over a hundred feet, to the pinnacel of the dome and question the frames of glass - did they survive a bombing and are dirty from the smoke of one siege or another? or is it pollution from the buses and trucks that zig-zag this city from dawn until dusk? pigeons scurry in their endless search for food. their flapping wings echo within the steel beast giving it an organic feel. the mighty danube flows beneath me as we cross into buda, it is murky yet gentle. i see my reflection in the window as i gaze out into the foreign landscapes attempting to soak in as much as humanly possible before the rapidly accelerating train moves onward into the night. my pupils dilate and contract as we enter and exit tunnels, each time the city-scape changes, i am disoriented, my whereabouts unknown in this massive city... i simply let the train pull me along. the train coasts, shifts from side to side and picks up speed. 12 hours+ until zuich. a non-reclining seat (no sleeper for me) accepts my tired body, the weiner express charges against the ending day chasing the sun westward. i can feel hungary retreating beneath me; its people, culture, language and history... they relinquish yet another traveler and settle into their proper place, resting there not far from the west. when will i see this captivating gem again? budapest is no more. the sun cascades in radiant pillars, heaving the last of its might upon lush fields of sunflowers; the rows of which sprawl out over the small hills. neat, uniformly planted rows with magically brilliant heads, all of which have turned to watch me leave.