Jumping off a train

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Location: Train from Venice to Budapest

We knew what time our train was supposed to arrive in Budapest.

A few minutes before said arrival time, we got ready to disembark. We had our backpacks on and we were standing at a door. The train stopped at a big station and a lot of people got on and off. We weren't sure if it was the main station, though, because it was still a few minutes before we were supposed to arrive. We looked at the signs outside. They said "Budapest" with some Hungarian words after it, which may have meant "main train station," or something completely different.

We didn't know what to do. We asked another passenger, but he didn't speak English.

The train started moving and the doors started to close, although we could hold them open with some effort. We made a snap decision to jump off the moving train. Mike and Jacob were in front of me and jumped first. By the time I jumped off, the train was moving pretty quickly. I had to let go of the doors to jump, and I could feel them brush against my backpack as they closed behind me. The train was moving fast enough that I twisted an ankle as I landed. I looked up and saw that I had landed about 20 feet away from a wooden barrier at the end of the platform. If my backpack had been caught in the door, or if we had waited a fraction of a second longer to jump, I would have smashed into the barrier.

We agreed that jumping had been a pretty stupid idea. Then we figured out that we had gotten off at the wrong station.

Luckily, my ankle felt fine after a few minutes.

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