October 1, 2025, Zagreb- The two young men standing on the dark street corner were not at all menacing. Just two guys having come off work at a nearby nightclub. Seeing me trying to access a door code, they offered to call the building’s owner and find both the door code and the code for the key box that would get me into my room. (Start-ups like this in central Europe frequently have a building entry code and a key box. I found that out, too late, at the original venue in Vienna. Tonight was happily different.)

In the end, I had no luck finding a small memorial that was recommended to me by friends in Vienna. I have a Plan B to remedy that, next week. Vacating Radisson Red and getting to Vienna Hauptbanhof was not hard, though I had to book another train, as my quest for the memorial took longer than I thought it might. It was not hard to get on the second train, which was going through Budapest, instead of Graz. I had a nice seat, initially with one other person, a Hungarian man in his 40s. We exchanged views on a few matters of common import, before he was berated by a conductor for not having a proper ticket. At Gyor Station, a family of three and a woman in her 30s entered, and he exited, for Standage.

Fun part #2 took place at the station at which I planned to disembark. The conductor glanced quickly at my ticket and said that I should stay onboard, until the next station. Once we were underway again, something told him to look at my ticket again. To both of our chagrins, he had told me the wrong information! We got off at the second station, and he brought me to the Information Center. The lady in the info Center offered to put me on the same train, tomorrow evening. As that would have had a serious domino effect on my plans for visiting my friend in Split, Croatia and for the time I have scheduled to spend in Sarajevo and Srebrenica, Bosnia-Hercegovina, I asked her for information on getting to the International Bus Terminal. Budapest has an excellent tram system, so with the note in hand, I went to that terminal and got on a bus bound for Zagreb.

A few notes are in order: I have a Eurail Pass, good for a few more weeks, so the train snafus were minimal in cost. As for the Budapest train stations, there is Kelenfold, on the west side of town and Keleti, in the center. It was at Kelenfold, that my ticket said to switch to the Zagreb train. The conductor had me wait until Keleti. So, if you are ever taking a train and are going through Budapest, en route to somewhere south, mind the spelling of the station. Had I not already have made plans that were eight years in the making, it would have been a pleasure to spend a few days in Budapest. The lovely city will wait, until God knows when, but I am sure I will be back, at some point.

Here are a few scenes of my wanderings about Vienna.

In the evening, once truly underway from Budapest, the sight of the mighty Danube came into view.

There would not be a train trip, without an attempt at a sunset photo. Here is a mysterious glow to the west of south Budapest.

As the evening winds down, I am in a comfortable little apartment, having not been put off by the “work in progress” as I entered, downstairs. This sort of thing is meant for those who can excuse a bit of dust and debris, before getting to a fine bit of silver upstairs: Alora Heart of Zagreb.