We got a train to Sopron, west of Budapest on the Austrian border, and through not changing at Gyor
ended up travelling for five hours through flat, arable lands. The main crop seemed to be sunflowers, burned black and ready for harvesting; there was also maize. Hay and silage were cut as well but we saw no animals at all, nor any buildings that might contain them, though our plates had been filled with huge helpings of meat.
Charles Wheeler on Sopron, which he had visited in 1956:-
“A small market and university town apparently dying of neglect. It was as though nothing had been done to save Sopron since the collapse of the Habsburg empire.”
It’s not like that now. It’s a very pretty Gothic town with stucco buildings in bright colours, clean and agreeable, and prosperous looking. There was a wine festival on in the market square, which we hadn’t known about, but which we were pleased to join in with, drinking the local wines and eating snacks (deep fried dough with a cheese topping was especially delicious).
Bands played, a very good one that alternated between American (sung in English) and Hungarian rock. There were also folk dancers. In Budapest you are pestered to see professional folk dancers. Here the folk dancers looked like local kids, some of the lads evidently having been forced into capering by their mothers, and they were great fun. The young men and women are mostly good-looking, slim, straight-backed, with neat, regular features and olive skin. The young women walk beautifully and were lovely dancers.
According to my guide book in the hills around here partisans and Jews were executed in World War II and when you walk along the street with ancient synagogues you see this notice:-
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