From the tropical sea in Bali to a freshwater “See” in Hungary
Returning to Makassar and Bali 25 years later was the first leg our our journey. The second leg brings us to the Balaton in Hungary, which Martin visited 40 years ago. For a change the travel was without problems or scares. A 13 hour plane journey from Denpasar to Vienna with stopover in Singapore. We travelled with Scoot, so no complementary meals served on the plane, they had to be bought, drinks as well. Something to get used to. Since we did not know how long immigration and customs clearance would take we did not make any connecting ticket bookings. The plan was to take trains from Vienna to Mariaszötöltele. I had to run around a bit in the airport to find an ATM and the counter where train tickets are sold. My German SIM did not immediately work even after I loaded 50 Euro onto it, so I had to rely on going to places to get things done.
We finally got tickets from Vienna to Gyor in Hungary. The young person who sold me the ticket had not been outside Austria except for a trip to Germany. He said he envied me for going to Hungary. He also said that senior citizens don’t have to pay on the regional trains in Hungary, but he was not sure. We should just ask in Gyor for the connecting train. I felt beamed back to the 20th century.
The connecting train was already waiting in Gyor, but not on the platform listed in the online App. They had also dropped two digits in the train number, so I tried to get confirmation from the conductor who was standing on the platform. I tried to speak in English to him, which resulting him aggressively telling me in Hungarian language that we are in Hungary and I need to speak Hungarian and not English or German. Then he flooded me with information that I could not understand. After that I had not idea whether we need a ticket or not. We just decided to board the train anyway and in the worst case pay the fine. It turned out that the trip was in fact free for us. The very same conductor looked at our passports, returned them and just said “OK”.
Our host picked us up and we settled in the holiday apartment. We met with the other sailers for dinner and picked up Kata, who came from Amsterdam, from the strain station around midnight.
The next morning, being at a car workshop at 8:00 to get front tires changed. The service center did not accept credit cards, so I had to call for help, with cash. Leading to some more waiting at the service center. Somehow I got the feeling that not much has changed since my last trip.
