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Salvation!
The train into Romania, finally! The journey into Romania kind of set the tone for the entire stay in this fabulous little backwater of Europe. That is to say its was an absolute nightmare. Ill spare the full story as i dont want to relive it anymore than absolutely necessary, but the highlights included torrential rainfall (as always) getting robbed of cigarettes by Romanian pikeys, hanging around in train stations for hours on end and meeting a french speaking Romanian tramp who complained that the coffee we bought him wasnt a cappucino! I blame Starbucks for that last incident!
24hrs after we left Egger we arrive in Sigisoara in Transylvania and check into Nathan's Villa. Apparently Nathan's used to be called Elivis Villa, but the Elvis character got mixed up in steroid dealing and had to leave the country for South America. So we were told on arrival anyway. We spend one day here trying to get our heads around the money ( 1 GBP is 50,000 leu, or 5 new leu depending on what currency the cash machine gives you!) The place itself is like a shanty town, horse and carts being the preferred means of transport. We have to constantly remind ourselves that
we are still in Europe but every now and then it slips and we are sure that we are in the arse-end of the world or hell itself. We do find somewhere that serves a nice pint of Guiness though, so i guess, if that proves anything, it proves that Guiness is the tipple of Satan himself. In the hostel we chill out, play tunes on the cd player and drink til we forget where we are. The guys in the hostel, Nick and Andre, are a good laugh and Nick shows us a card game that he wins everytime. At the end he tells us that there is a way to win everytime but refuses to tell us what it is.
The next day we get the train to Brasov, but not before the bad Dutch accent comes back to haunt me. I do it for about an hour and a half until i cant stop doing it anymore, and the worrying part was that eventually my internal monologue was in the same accent. On arrival in Brasov we discover that the only hostel is full for the entire weekend so we accept the invitation of Mr Radu
to stay at his house. If you are ever in Brasov and you meet this man DO NOT stay at his house. You can see your own footsteps the day after you made them as the dust in there makes it look like a Canadian snowstorm has happened inside. When we got there there was a plate of food on the kitchen table, and it stayed there for the entire duration of our stay. 4 days! It wasnt even that cheap, to boot, and was a good twenty minute walk from the centre. Still tired form the train, we get some dinner then go to bed, watching the Easter parade from the window. The parade was lots of people with flowers and candles walking around, which was a verry pretty sight. The next day in Brasov we realise that everything is closed as Romania follows orthodox easter rather than traditional easter, so we have our second easter in as many weeks, though still no chocolate bunnies or eggs. Due to this the only thing that is open for us to do is the cable car ride to the top of the mountain. This we take and then spend a few
hours walking back down to town and spend the evening playing Blackjack. The same is true of the next day, nothing is open sowe do nothing but walk about. On Tuesday, the 25th, however the country is alive and we take a day trip to see the castles. Bran Castle, alledgedly the home of Vlad Tepes, better known as Dracula, is cool. Its small yet somewhat imposing as its built into the side of a hill peak, and walking around it is interesting. The second castle we visit is Rasnov Castle, and although this was much bigger, it was right in the middle of major repair work that turned it, basically, into a building site. No different to the rest of Romania then! From the top of the castle's ramparts there was an astounding view of the Transylvanian countryside, however, and this nearly made up for the lack of exhibits within the castle itself. After we had seen everything, including the well that had taken 17 years to dig out by Turkish prisoners, we headed back down to meet our driver, Mr Radu, owner of the dirty house. The trip back to Brasov duly became the most exiting/terrifying aspect of
the day. Despite his being 65 years old, the man drove like a lunatic. Weaving in and out of three lane traffic, corssing to the wrong side of the stree to avoid the momentous potholes in the roads and dodging oncoming trams when driving down the tramtracks ("its quicker ths way!") abrubtly brought us from the peaceful idyll of the castle vibe back into the raving lunacy of Romanian life. relieved to have made it back to Brasov without needing medical attention we hop on the minibus to Bucharest, telling ourselves that as it's the capital there must be much more to see and do.
On arriving we wander around trying to find the Elvis Villa Hostel, which we know is down the road from the Slovenian Embassy. It turns out that the Romanians must not like the Slovenians very much as theree embassy is tiny and tucked away behind a kids playground. Eventually we find it, check in and then go for the first meal we've had in 27 hours (not that we were counting of course.) Afterwards we go down the road to buy beer (lots of) and crisps (a fair few) as the 2nd leg of
the Champions League is on tv in the hostel and I decide to either celebrate or commiserate in much the same stlye. We watch it along with a couple of Dutch guys, an Aussie, a Romanian who worked in the hostel and, depite moaning about guys never doing anything but drink beer and watch football, Farah, a Brit. Although none of you really care, we won after Jens Lehmann saved a penalty in the dying minutes. So the celebrations begin! A lot more beer later and Farah and I get into a discussion about the responsiblity of televison media in programmes like Big Brother, and I lose. Joel finds this very funny as he knows how argumentative I can be, but i would like to point out the unfair advantage that Farah had. She was Muslim (therefore sober) and a law graduate (therefore a pain in the ass.) (Sorry Farah but you know its true!) By the end of the night I am told I stumbled off to bed and passed out without saying goodnight to anyone.
Despite a pretty bad hangover, Joel and I resolve to see the sights that Bucharest has to offer so after breakfast we
The 2nd Biggest Building in Europe!
(possibly the first ugliest palace?) look at the guide book and realise that it has nothing. Except the 2nd lasrgest building in Europe. We skip (not really) along to the People's Palace (aforementioned big building) and, wow, it certainly is big. On seeing it you do realise that it is up there with the biggest buildings in Europe, and, if there was a list, one of the ugliest ones in Europe also. For a Palace it was pretty unspectacular save for its big-ness (oh how that degree in English Lit comes in use when the only word i can think of is 'big-ness'.) Deflated we go back to the hostel and play Blackjack with Farah and an ever-amusing American guy Josh, who is probably in Albania right now as he thought it was "exotic sounding". I hope your not disappointed chief. In the evening we go along for some food with people from the hostel and take the piss out of Americans for hours. Josh joined in and by the end was the worst one for it. Later a few of us watched Team America at the hostel and i annoyed pretty much everyone in the room by saying the funniest lines before they happened and singing along to most of the songs as well. In bed by the somewhat respectable hour of 2am, with a heavy heart as i know that tommorrow will bring an end to the amazing time we have had in Romania. Yeah right!
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Farah
non-member comment
It's Farquar! Firstly your introduction isn't AS pretentious as I first thought.... and just for the record I still would have beaten you in the 'discussion' even if you were sober! Also you forgot to mention our friend, Leon, the "it's all about the music" American- sorry from "the ghetto" otherwise known as Africa who didn't want to partake in any crazy British card game (Black Jack). Jealous as ever from all your travelling while I'm back in England. Take care chuck!