Advertisement
Published: June 30th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Across Europe, from West to East
Edgar Barguiarena Alright that was kindy cheesy but I did visit 3 cities in 3 days. Well okay it was really only 2 cities and a small village but all the same, there
was alot of roaming about. Romania is a land of contrasts, Bucharest is...well its Bucharest (more on that later) and the Transylvanian countryside is absolutely gorgeous. Yes this is the land of Dracula but only in fiction, the real Dracula was actually much more treacherous and creative with his assasinations, so much so that I would really rather spare you the details here. Many villages and small cities have some sort of claim to Vlad Tepes, of whom Dracula is based, but I was only able to visit one of them. This is going to be a bit of a shorter update as I was only in Romania for about 3 days, but oh what a 3 days they were. To put it mildly, transportation in Eastern Europe is
much more interesting than in the western part. I faced a near plane crash, fires, the gypsy express, and a very complicated subway system.
So the plane wasnt really in any real danger of crashing, but at 5 o'clock
in the morning with almost no sleep it sure felt like it. Let me explain, I took the flight at about 1:30 and naturally it was delayed for whatever reason. The plane was crowded and babies were crying left and right, I think I was the only non-romanian on the flight too. I probably got about an hour of sleep on the flight as there was alot of turbelence. I have not done much flying at night but turbulence in the dark is a whole nother ballgame. Just as the plane touched down I happened to be dozing off at the time, it was a rough landing too. So you can imagine the rude wake-up I got as the plane started to touch down and people were bouncing up and down. My first instinct was to grab the guys arm next to me for whatever reason, and I must have had a look of terror in my face as the guy couldnt help but laugh a bit. All I remember was waking up suddenly, seeing the foggy window next to me, complete darkness outside, and the plane rocking back and forth violently. It was pretty startling to say the least.
Once I got in to the airport I was immediately hassled by the taxi drivers, as I was expecting this it wasnt a big deal and I ignored them as I made my way down to the bus stop. Bucharest was interesting, although it was my least favorite of all the cities I have visited so far. The place was dirty, rundown, smelly, and excruciatingly hot. I'm glad I visited though. Its one thing to study communism in school but really something else to see first hand the effects it has had. The entire city is in a state of disrepair. The downtown area has those bland dark gray concrete buildings that were built during the communist era. The most interesting thing to see, and what made the whole trip to Bucharest worthwhile, was the Palace of the Parliament. This was the building I mentioned in a previous blog that was the second largest building in the world. It was definitely huge, but one thing I noticed once inside was that it was just alot of empty space. There are huge halls made of marble but they are very sparsely decorated. It's a nice building to say the least
but it doesnt seem to be put to good use, its just an old relic from a communist era that is no more. There really wasnt much else of value to see in Bucharest, I walked around the various squares and had lunch at a place called Sheriff Bob's. The metro was the hardest I have had to navigate yet, mainly because the language was completely different than anything else I have experienced and I couldnt really decipher a single word. I found a couchsurfer for one night and he was a very gracious host. He gave me a few pointers on what I should do for the next couple of days in Romania and helped me get a bus ticket to Istanbul.
The following day I took a train to Sighiasora right in the heart of Transylvania. Once again the trip here was quite memorable. The first train I boarded turned out to be the gypsy express, aptly named because it is the cheapest train that stops in the smallest of train stations and is completely occupied by, you guessed it, gypsies. The train reeked, and it was completely packed with gypsies and everything they owned on them.
I was glad to find out this wasnt my train and quickly deboarded. The rest of the trip was pretty smooth and gave me my first glimpse of the transylvanian countryside, which was just beautiful. Sighiasora was a small village but it had a nice olde town square. I was going to eat in Vlad Tepes birthplace/restaurant but it didnt look too appetizing so I just made my way to the town square and had a beer and pizza there. There happened to be a german concert band playing there so it was pretty nice. Although I gotta admit it was pretty weird to see a
German band playing
American music in
Romania of all places.
Brasov was a bit more interesting and had alot more to do. As I got into town I met two blokes from London who happened to be staying in the same hostel as myself so we ended up hanging out for the rest of the day. The first thing you notice about Brasov is the sign, very hollywood-esque only it doesnt quite have the same impact as the name is much shorter. We took a cablecar to the top of the hill and
got a spectacular view of Old Brasov. The square in the center of the old town was pretty nice, but the cafe's were a bit overpriced. When we got back to the hostel we found the staff watching of all movies, Hostel. I hadnt seen it in awhile but it was pretty funny watching this movie in Eastern Europe of all places, where the movie was based. We hit up the town later that evening but got back round midnight, after having the best KFC chicken twister of my life. Yup, I broke down and got fast food while in Romania. But only because they were the only options availiable at the time. I had McDonalds at 7am in Bucharest and KFC at 11:30pm in Brasov because they were the only ones open.
The next day I got ready for what ended up being about 24 hours of travel to finally get me to Istanbul. The bus I took from Bucharest ended up being delayed about 3 hours because a large truck carrying packing materials caught on fire. It took the Bulgarian fire department 3 trucks to finally put the fire out. Luckily I happened to have a Romanian
female student sitting next to me and the time on the bus flew pretty quickly as we swapped stories from our respective lands. She was the only person to date that I had met who was extremely patriotic for Romania.
I'll have to update on Turkey at a later time, the 8 days I spent with my brother there are something I wont soon be forgetting. I am now in Amman, Jordan of all places and will be visiting Petra, one of the newly crowned Modern Wonders of the World (although I didnt find this out until I was in the plane reading a jordanian newspaper). Cant wait to hear from you guys, hope everyone is doing well.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.102s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 11; qc: 60; dbt: 0.0538s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.2mb
FAVORITE LIL SISTER
non-member comment
WOW WHAT A TRIP
AWWW BIG SO I MIGHT HAVE BEEN JUST A LITTLE EXCITED TO HEAR HOW THINGS ARE GOIN FOR YA AND YEAH WAS INTERESTING I MUST SAY. EVERYTHING IS GOOD OVER HERE SO JUST KEEP HAVIN FUN. I LOVE YOU AND I MISS YOU BUNCHES. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. MUAH! :)