Translation of Markise

Last year, many parties did not receive votes anymore and had to go to the opposition. The entire area is governed today by leftist parties and the center block is weakenng constantly during the last year.
The bus was supposed to leave at around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, so that I still had two to three hours to organize. I went for lunch at some strange place and hardly ate as it was too ugly.
Luckily the town was small and the hotel manager could call all taxi stations. They checked it through their radios and an hour later the driver was back with our bags. He did not want to be paid extra, but I insisted.