Transylvania

The myths and legends about Transylvania enticed us to go a bit further into Romania than we initially planned. For those who know me(Shilpa) well, Im not the biggest fan of dark, scary, or vampire stuff so Dara loaded the van up with those extra few cloves of garlic and started sharpening the wooden stakes. This sealed the deal for me, and we headed into dracula land...!!

Left my Appendix in Romania.....(Dara)
As Dara cannot recall much of his first day in Transylvania I'll attempt to explain the longest 2 days of our trip. Well, we thankfully in hindsight decided not to wild/free camp and stayed in a lovely dutch owned campsite in the small villave of Sovota. In the morning we did a hike up some hills and to cool down had a long swim in some salt lakes. Daras swimming skills leave much to be desired and so he swallowed enough water that gave him his daily salt intake of 4 days in 3 hours!! At 3pm Dara mentioned he had a bit of a tummy cramp and we both put it down to a tummy bug from the water. As evening approached and a few examinations later, I suspected it was his appendix........

I spoke to the campsite owner who took us to the local GP. The GP spoke English though his communication skills were on par with your normal UK surgeon (i.e. Very little).! Dara was then whisked away in an ambulance to the nearest hospital, One and a half hours away in Targu Mures(we later discovered its one of the best hospitals in Romania). It was 1am by now and not only was Dara asleep but so was the paramedic looking after him. The ambulance was a 20 year old VW van.... the oxygen tank and defibrilator were full of rust and hanging off the hinges!! Dont at all want to be negative about Daras treatment in Romania, as on the whole it was heaps more efficient than in the UK. Dara was taken into theatre within an hour (2am) and I was told relatives are forbidden to stay in the hospital but I refused to leave, so the head surgeon turned a blind to me waiting outside theatre.

Whilst Dara was Still in theatre the surgeon walked out and shouted to me "Its stage 2 appendix!!", Well I was glad to be a medic as he had no time to explain what this menat. Visiting hours were very limited to say the least, four hours a week...unbelievable!! We discovered that the locals bribe the security guards and matrons to allow longer visiting hours. I managed to get around this by pestering the doctors, who wrote a letter to allow me to see Dara more often. I stayed in the van at night in the hospital car park for a few days. It was 32 degrees and no shade!! Dara said he was happy in the hospital drugged up and being taken care of by the nurses, his only concern was he had not been given any food for 24 hours after the op and was starving!

Being on my own for the first time was strange as when I went to the shops people thought I was a Romani Gypsy due to my dark skin. For the first time in my life I experienced suttle descrimination/racism towards me. For instance whilst doing the shopping in a supermarked the security guard followed me around. I was also looking for a dress to wear for Es and Mikes wedding. Nobody would give me the time of day, I really wanted to do the scene from Pretty Women, except there were no boutiques and hence no big bags to come back with! This was a little upseting as this was the only negative bit about Romania and on the whole it has been by far my favorite Eastern Eruopean country I travelled in so far. I feel sorry for the Romani who have to put up with the descrimination on a daily basis.

Recovery in Medieval Shigisoara
So that Dara could have a few days of rest after his operation we headed to the medieval town of Shigisoara. We treated ourselves and checked into a guesthouse in the centre called Villa Franka. It was exciting, we had a TV, it was spacious and we could actually stand up without bashing our head against the roof. We had a stroll around the lovely streets and in the evening had another treat and had dinner in the reasturant where Vlad Tepes (charactor Dracula was based on) was born. Surprisingly the restaurant had no goriness about it and then even served me a veggie meal!! We say statues of pics of Vlad Tepes. He actually looked very harmless and a bit dainty!

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