Our third night in Romania was the first night we had to set up camp for the night. At Sofia and Bucharest we stayed in hotels...albeit slightly dodgy hotels!!
I was amazed at how much crap is stored on that bus and how quickly the campsite is put together. You have to remember that there's 50 people on the bus. Thats: 25 tents; Nearly 100 mattresses (you get through them quickly); The Cook tent; All the food and drink for the next few days; all the cooking gear (stoves, water containers etc); All the food; plus all the shit owned by 50 people.
I have no idea how it all fits in but they seem to do it with room to spare!! When we arrived at the first campsite the bus pulls up, the guys get the cook tent set up straight away so Rachel (the on-road chef) can start cooking, a water boy fills up the water tanks, the designated electrician connects the power and the bags and tents get offloaded. Tents go up, mattresses get pumped up and bags packed into tents. All of this takes around 10 minutes, so the beer you were drinking when the
bus pulled up is not much colder than it was!!
The cook-tent dinners (as they were called) are the bomb. Rachel is an awesome cook and the grub is top-notch. Everyone looks forward to camping nights as the food is better than what you'd get in a hotel or restaurant.
50 people on the bus and everyone's pretty cruisy. You can go out any night if you want, but some nights you just stay at the camp an get on the juice. Top Deck even let you drink on the bus, although after one hard afternoon travelling through Romania, it became apparent that getting trolleyed is not such a great idea. A few quieties after the last rest stop was more the go!! We've only been going seven days and we've had probably 20 different types of beer. At about 40c for a 500ml can we're doing pretty well.
The mornings of drive days can be a bit of an effort. A 7am breakfast means up at 6:30, pack up, tents down and on the bus, bags on the bus, breakfast followed by a 15 minute cook tent dismantling, pack it up and on the road by
7:45. This is generally followed by seats back and sleep for the next 2-3 hours until the first rest stop.
Romania's Flag
Map of Romania