Advertisement
Published: July 30th 2006
Edit Blog Post
I originally planned to stay in Budapest for three days, but on the way there, I read an article in my inflight magazine about a quaint little city on the Hungarian/Austrian border called Sopron (pronounced “Sho-pron”) that was worth a visit. Since I had an extra day on my train pass, I decided to go to Sopron for one day and cut short my visit to Budapest.
After getting yelled at by a Hungarian train official, I found the right train heading to Sopron. However, I was a little confused when I saw a different destination on the train, but decided to believe the passengers who shook their heads "yes" when I asked if the train was going to Sopron. First mistake. Always, always, double check the route with the train officials before boarding the train (however, that was slightly difficult when the train officials don’t know English and think yelling in Hungarian is considered good customer service). Now, it’s not that I got on the wrong train, it’s that I didn’t know that the train split in the middle of the journey with ½ of the train heading west and the other ½ heading north. Seriously, I’m convinced they
do this just to confuse tourists who have enough trouble trying to find the right platform for their train. Once I became privy to this information (oh, about 5 minutes before the train split), I had no idea which ½ of the train I was seated in and, therefore, had no idea where my destination was going to be. Second mistake. Never, never assume that you’re in the right ½ of the train. Rather than clarify with another passenger, I decided to risk it, as it appeared that the other town it was going to was quite small on my trusty map and the train car I was in was quite full, so, logically, the car must be going to the bigger city, right? Yup, you guessed it, not right. Bad, bad logic. When we arrived at our destination (which took an hour longer to get to than if I went on the right ½ of the train to Sopron), I quickly discovered I had stayed on the wrong side of the train and I needed to find a way to Sopron quickly (as I had splurged and reserved a hotel room, which was all paid for). Well, the next
train to Sopron didn’t leave for 2 ½ hours, so I was left to explore this tiny town.
I have a theory about this train split. I actually think this little town (the name escapes me) is in cahoots with the Hungarian train company because it’s a small little town with not much to it except for a nice little town square that is in the process of being built or redone. My theory is that they don’t notify tourists of the train split so they end up in this little town and are forced to explore and spend money to keep busy for the few hours they have to wait until they can catch the right train! Okay, it's a slight conspiracy theory, but rationalizing my stupidity this way made me feel better about my wasted day.
When I finally arrived in Sopron, I went straight to the hotel to check-in. The hotel was actually outside of the city in the middle of the forest and, although not the most modern place I've stayed at, it was the nicest place I would stay at on my journey so I made the most of it. It actually had
a swimming pool, a gym, a restaurant and a café. Now, that’s living in style for a backpacker. I also had a gorgeous view of the hilly forest from my room.
By the time I got settled in, I was starving and went down to the restaurant to get some protein that my body was craving after days and days of carbohydrates. Well, just a note, Hungarian food (and, really, most Eastern European food) is quite heavy and not the most appetizing. I was able to find something on the menu that evening, but decided that my grocery store carbohydrate diet was probably the best for someone like me. However, the hotel stay included free breakfast, so I was able to get my fill of protein from the chicken the night before and the eggs in the morning. I was also able to get my fill of eating alone (another reason the grocery store carbohydrate diet worked well). That’s right, for the first time ever, I went to dinner by myself and requested a table for one. I conquered my fear of going to movies alone years ago in Scotland, but I had yet to go to a restaurant
alone and Hungary was the place I finally did it. It wasn’t so bad. In hindsight, though, I wish I would have brought a book. Rather, I found a little piece of paper and a pen and started jotting down notes for the blog. My rationale for keeping busy was that less people would stare at me. It’s funny how you think that the world cares so much about you when, really, they don’t. As if these Hungarian and Austrian tourists (as most of them appeared to be families from other parts of Hungary and Austria) care about a little backpacker eating alone!
Anyway, my time in Sopron was lovely. It’s quite a small town and I easily covered the basics in a few hours. I even had time to go for a very fancy (but freakin’ cheap!) tea at the Liszt Café (Franz Liszt, the famous composer, was from Sopron) and go for a steal-of-a-deal $7 pedicure at a beauty salon. Yes, yes, the backpacker indulged again. Hey, if you were covering 10 km + a day in the same shoes each and every day, I think you would also consider sacrificing lunch in favour of a pedicure!
Sidebar: A few days after leaving Sopron, I received an e-mail from my cousin Susan letting me know that Sopron is the city her mother-in-law lived in for a few years during the Hungarian uprising in the mid 1950s, which they eventually escaped from by walking across the border to Austria. Small world!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.179s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 23; qc: 88; dbt: 0.1335s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb