Eastern Europe is a whole other world... My life in Budapest and Bucharest

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Day One

So by the time I got to Budapest I was exhausted, albeit a little cranky from my lack of sleep. As soon as I got off the train, there were tons of people ready to scam me. Ie. Exchanging money at a "better" rate than the bank when he had counterfeit money. People were offering me rooms for "cheap" in a "good" part of town. The funny thing is that with my sunglasses people get confused about my nationality. So I get people yelling at me Hey Senorita! or they show me a piece of paper with Japanese on it... most of the time I get english but I ignore them.

So I was supposed to couchsurf in Budapest but that fell through last minute. So my first order of business was to find a place to stay. I met these guys from Ireland and decided to see if their place had any room. We got on the metro only to discover that they had shut down two stops on our line for renovation and that we had to take a bus. Oh F! we thought because we had no clue what we were doing. Found the hostel, and they didn't have room so the guy referred me to August Hostel.

I walk into the SKETCHIEST looking neighborhood. Still very much under construction from the end of the communist revolution. I walk into a sketchy apartment building to meet this hostel owner who turns out to be really cool. I find out later that all hostels are pretty much in apartment buildings and all buildings are pretty much "rustic." I unloaded my stuff and paid him 10 Euro a night (heck yeah!) I went straight to the Szechenyi Baths which is a popular bathing house for Hungarians. It's housed in a marble looking palace with mineral baths and pools of varying tempetures that are indoors and outdoors. After this morning, it was a luxurious 4 hours to just lay out in the sun and sit in the pools! I later met some people in my hostel and we watched a soccer match (France V. Portugal) at this great little bar inside this cave!

Day Two
Chris, a guy from Oklahoma that I met at the hostel and I decided to see the town. Budapest is divided into the Buda and Pest side. So we explored the castles and old sites of Buda. Lots of walking was done that day in sweltering heat.... We decied to treat ourselves to rich Hungarian food later that night. We went to a cafe and ordered to huge servings of dinner, a side dish and 3 beers and altogether it was $15 USD...sooo cheap and we were about to fall over after we finished out meal.

Day Three
Just saw the sights on my own this time. They call Budapest the "little Paris" and it is absolutely beautiful. I went to the Chinese market where in fact the people were actually Vietnamese. The market owners had fun with me as we tried to converse in Vietnamese (mine is still rusty) All in all I had a marriage proposal lol. At the outdoor market, they sell fake Nike and puma and etc...I didn't think it was a big deal. All of a sudden I hear all these doors slam at once and people are running! I was like OMG! the police are here to raid the shopowners. I got scared because I'm also vietnamese and didn't want to get caught up in the mess and I really didn't feel like being arrested or deported for handling counterfeit goods. Turns out it was a false alarm, but that was enough for me to walk out of the place in one peice. I had a blast here, but unfortunately my time was up and I needed to catch a train to Romania.


ROMANIA

Day One

I caught an overnight train with a bed to Brasov, Romania right in the heart of Transylvania and Dracula!! The lady tried to charge me 5,000 forints for my ticket but I said no, wrote 3,900 forints (appx $17 USD) on my paper and said I would pay that for my ticket. Luckily she obliged (good thing I got quoted earlier.) You have to put up a fight to get what you want. I get to Brasov and again I have the hawkers who want to give me rooms. I meet an American hawker who takes me under his wing and helps me with my stuff. It is so scary in Romania, he said watch your stuff as soon as you walk out...all these people have seen you arrive here with your bag, they're waiting to steal from you. So I'm thouroughly scared and keep my stuff next to me like it's my first born child. I went into town, which was beautiful...a quaint little town untouched for centuries it seems. It started to rain and I was stuck outside which sucked but I didn't want to chill at the station to get robbed....

I finally hopped on the train to get to my final destination of Bucharest. I got my ticket and discovered I was stuck in a compartment all alone. My only weapon with me was my orange, so I peeled it in hopes that I can sting an attacker in the eyes before I pulled a groin shot. So I sat there nervous and sleepy but too afraid to shut my eyes. 20 minutes later we enter a dark tunnel and everything goes black. We get outside a tunnel and a scary man is pressed against my compartment window leaving me nowhere to run, he gives me the scariest look. I'm about to cry at this point with my orange in hand. We hit another tunnel and I start praying that this man won't enter my compartment then all of a sudden these kids step outside their compartment and use their cellphone light, the guy gets scared and scampers off. Then we get to another stop this well dressed guy in slacks and button up enters my cabin...phew I think. He says hi to me, I try not to say much to him, only in French... The conducter sees this guy in my compartment and realizes that this guy is not supposed to be in there with me (of course i had no idea)...thank god the conducter saved my life...so far Romania is not looking so good.

I get to the station, my CS host Vera is supposed to pick me up but later I find out that she couldn't make it. I desperately try to call her phone for the next hour. I enlist a policeman to help me while young children who want to steal from me leer close by. He tries to call her with fail. I finally found a guy who spoke english...turns out I was calling the country code and her number and didn't need the country code. Dumb policeman should have figured that out when dialing the number...

I get a hold of Vera...she says meet me at this train stop. I hop on the metro which is full of graffitti and sketchballs. I meet her and she takes me to the beergarden to meet her friends. At last...some safety and solace! They helped me try to figure out the currency (Romania just switched from the Lei to the Ron which is 2.75 to our dollar) but both are still in circulation making it very confusing.

Day Two

I went to the Village Museum with houses imported from various towns in Romania on this huge lot. It was really facisinating to see these different places...but unfortunately for me...it was about 100 degrees so I was melting out there. I make it back to Vera's place because she's having a BBQ with all her friends. I ate so much Romanian food and even tried the famous romanian alcohol "palinka" I down the shot and her friends cheered and said I was an honorary Romanian! YESS!!!

Day Three

Feeling very unsafe in Bucharest I just chilled most of the day by walking around and staying at cafes. It's weird for me here. I've always been asian and a "minority" but it was more apparent here in Bucharest. I would get stares and gawkers at me constantly which made me feel very self concious and perhaps a target since they knew I was a foreigner. The pink hair was very trendy in the Western part of Europe but here it was abnormal. I don't like feeling this way whatsover, especially when people from the stores follow me around.

Later in the night, there was a Couchsurfing Meeting in Bucharest at this trendy outdoor bar. All CS'ers from Bucharest are invited to join, so I met a bunch of people from the program as we enjoyed drinks and conversation...very fun!

Overall I loved Budapest...and did not like Romania. Thankfully I had Vera, who made my trip that much better... but I'll never come to Romania again...sad to say...

Well it's off to Istanbul, Turkey for my 15 hour busride!!

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Photos

Bucharest with Vera
Vera and I enjoying the rooftop bar

Buda Side with Chris
Chris and I decided to explore the Buda Castle in Budapest

Budapest Szechenyi Baths
Yeah I bathed in this Palace

Comments

[Trevin]

Craziness
Wow Jeans! That sounds like quite the amazing trip.. I had to laugh out loud at the thought of you squirting someone in the eye then pulling a groin shot. Honestly the creepy guy in the train should have been the one fearing for his life.. haha! Miss you and hope you are having a wonderful time in Turkey. Stay Safe!!!