Last leg of the journey

Debrecen railway station has the hallmarks of the former communist regime in Hungary. The platforms are bare and getting from one to the other with a heavy suitcase requires strength and patience. You have to go down stairs to a passageway under the tracks, coming up into the grey concrete and glass of a dull functional building - except that the waiting room also functions as a place for hopeless-looking drop-outs.

It was reassuring to clamber onto an old tram once more, cancelling my ticket in the little machine attached to the handrail inside. The ticket was one left from a previous visit, so I hoped it would still be valid.

As the tram moved off, wheels squeeling against the metal tracks as it rounded the bend, I took stock of the passengers. Nobody looked especially cheerful despite the warm sunshine. People stood or sat and stared, perhaps using this ride as a welcome break, a time to do nothing except just sit and stare. A couple of pretty girls got on, their low slung pants showing the crease in their bottoms. I wondered if they were wearing panties underneath or if the denim fabric of their pants enjoyed embracing the curve of the flesh, the place of soft warmth.

The tram accelerated along the centre of the main street, past some well planted flower beds. The tall buildings still displayed the decorative grandeur of the old Austro-Hungarian empire.

Ahead the yellow ochre walls and grey domes of the Great Reformed Church dominated the pedestrian plaza, with its splashing fountains, benches and green-leaved trees. To the side the Civis Arabanyka Hotel surveyed the scene, its blue grey stucco facade deceptively opulent-looking. Below, a disabled man limped on his crutch, while at a cafe two dark-suited businessmen talked earnestly while fingering their cellphones and coffee cups.

We rumbled on past the tall school building and a busy crossroad before stopping 50 metres beyond my guesthouse. I struggled down with my luggage onto the pavement below and the doors rattled shut behind me. The yellow tram departed. I had arrived.