Eastern Europe - Sopron. Hungary

No 30 Email – Sopron. Hungary

Going from Bratislava in the Slovak Republic to Sopron in Hungary, about 80 km away, turned out to be far from a trivial affair.

I first went to the tourist office where they downloaded a bunch of options involving from three to four trains ( or two to three train changes). I picked a suitable time involving three time changes and went to the train station where, after looking at my list, they downloaded their own option (different from mine, of course),with my chosen time.

The ride involved three train changes, one of them a very tight 3 minutes between trains.

I boarded the first train and got off for the first transfer. I am in a very small station. I am completely surrounded by open fields. There are two parallel tracks and on that curves off in a different direction. There are two other people on that platform. I show my next destination to a man who confirms that I am on the right platform. Twenty minutes later the train arrives and I am on my way to the second destination (I think!). We stop at a station, and we stay there for a longer time than I anticipated. We finally go and then a woman comes in to check the tickets. She looks at my ticket and kindly let me know that the train is not going to where I must be for the next transfer. She explains to me that the train was separated in two sections at the last station, and that I am in the wrong half!

Not all is lost, she told me where to get off to take another train to Sopron. The problem is I will have to wait one hour for the transfer. I have no idea how I could have anticipated this?

I feel that the woman who checked the tickets could have done this before the split. She really would have had to check only three people. The man I asked about the train could have told me that I was getting into the wrong section. How well, I got to Sopron anyway.

After all these efforts, Sopron turned out to be a disappointing place. They have discovered Romans ruins under the Old Town’s main square and some of the streets around it. The area is barely accessible. The main attraction, the Fire Tower, which contains several exhibits and can normally be climbed for good views of the city, is closed. That did not leave many interesting options.

So, I went to a concert of mostly modern music, such as “Singing in the rain”, “Fiddler on the roof” etc.. The composition of the group playing changed a few times and the best one was featuring a pianist, a saxophone player, a drummer, and a bass, all great musicians. The singers where, in my opinion, so so.

I attached a picture of Franz Litz bust because I thought that the expression on his face was pretty much a reflection of my mood at that time.

Next, back to Croatia , in Zagreb.