Budapest & Sopron

On Friday, May 15, I left right after school and headed for Budapest where I met Penny & Peggy - two CETP teachers for dinner. I had found a very cheap hostel near the Keleti train station, where I needed to leave from in the morning to Sopron. As it turned out, the restaurant we were meeting at was a straight shot down the street by bus also.

As I entered the hostel, I had a sinking feeling: the area outside was pretty grungy, two drunks walked by as I was entering, and the entry way smelled of urine and there was pesticide powder all along the edges of the walls up the first flight of stairs! Yikes! So, I thought I would still check it out, but could easily leave and find someplace else -- I would just have to pay more. But when I got up the 2 flights of stairs, the place was actually quite nice and cute - and clean - the biggy for me. The guy working was real nice and said I might be the only one there that night, and he showed me around. He also gave me instructions to get to the restaurant. BUT, most importantly, he glued my train ticket back together for me! I ripped it in half along with the seat reservation ticket I had just used, thinking it was trash. Then it hit me that it was also my return ticket! (You would think after 10 months of traveling on the Hungarian trains, I would remember.) Anyway, he worked real hard on it with a glue stick and an extra piece of paper, and when I returned from Budapest to Kisvarda there was no problem.

Sopron is the farthest west city in Hungary and is a few hours train ride from Budapest. The countryside was beautiful, once we got past the industrial development on the outskirts of Budapest. The draw of Sopron is the Inner City, which was originally occupied by the Romans, and then many others since then. Parts of the old Roman wall remain today. Most of the buildings in the Inner City are very old, and the Inner City is a World Heritage site. Sopron was heavily damaged during WWII, but fortunately, not the Inner City area!

I splurged on a pension here, and it turned out to be worse than the cheap hostel. I swear, the ants are following me! There were ants in the bathroom and I had to get them to spray because there were so many --- I would have preferred changing rooms, but there were none others available. I even called around, but no luck.

While there I also visited Ferdo where the Esterhazy Estate is and Nagycenk where the Szechenyi Mansion is. I have pics of both of these posted.

I traveled alone again, and kind of wished I was with someone while looking around Sopron, as there were a number of wine cellars and I just didn't feel comfortable sampling by myself. Actually, I didn't really have a problem with going into the places by myself, but as a single traveler I didn't think I should let down my guard by drinking!

The train ride back was long and miserable. First, from Sopron to Budapest, I was on a Gyor, a fast local train, but it was totally packed -- people had to stand! And it was HOT. I had my bag on my lap, and when I moved it, my pants were wet with sweat! I had a quick stopover in Budapest, and then a much better train ride the rest of the way back, but I didn't get to Kisvarda and my flat until around 11pm!