The driver of the taxi that came to take us to the hotel, was a sleepy guy who didn’t speak much. We would not have understood him anyway. We didn’t speak German, just a little English at the time. Arpad sat in the front passenger seat, Krisztina and I sat in the back.
We rolled out of the camp and drove through town and then out of town. We were not told where the hotel was but since we were driven by taxi, we thought it was nearby.
30 minutes passed and we were riding very fast on the autobahn (highway) like there was no speed limit. I was very frightened by the high speed. A wooded, mountainous area surrounded us and I was imagining the worst. Scary thoughts of being taken in the woods and shot came to my mind. We heard about people being taken by the Securitate, the Romanian secret police who were disappeared. Even in Austria, I was afraid of them because they were everywhere. While all these thoughts were racing through my mind, the taxi was moving at high speed and the driver was falling asleep. Now I was afraid of getting into an accident. Arpad was trying to keep the driver awake by offering him a cigarette. That worked until he smoked it. A few minutes later Arpad dosed off being tired after a sleepless night and Krisztina was sleeping with her head on my lap. In the rearview mirror, from the back, I could see the drivers eyes slowly closing. I started starring at him in the mirror to keep him awake. I was convinced that the second I take my eyes off him he’ll fall asleep. I think it worked because he didn’t fall asleep and after a long hour of driving we arrived to our destination. Finally I could relax, we were at the hotel and we were still alive.