Feeling Seedy From Brasov to Bucuresti

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Felt a little seedy the next morning and didn’t get going until about 11am. Retraced my way back to the train station and got myself a ticket to Bucuresti (Bucharest is the English version), which is a two hour train ride south on the Wallachian plain. 42 lei for a first class seat, or 38 for second class... seemed like a no brainer and I thought better to pay a little bit more and be looked after a bit better away from the gypsies, but turns out when I got on the train it was one big carriage. First class was just divided from the others by a glass partition. But it was “express” in that there was only one stop on the way, at which a fairly attractive lady sat opposite and chatted the rest of the way.

Leaving Brasov I say a tiny amount of snow on the side of the tracks where there was shade - no wonder it had felt cold the night before! First class was pretty much just full of businessmen talking about (to the best of limited Romanian and Italian) politics and soccer. Along the way we went through Sinaia which I would really have liked to stop at and go to Peles Castle but it just wasn’t happening for me. The trip wasn’t exactly that “express” as there was numerous stops because of clowns walking flocks of sheep across the tracks.

The train didn’t get to Bucuresti until 3pm, which didn’t really help with my overly ambitious plans of hiring a car, touring Parliament and get my Moldovan visa. The lady from the train showed me where to go to catch the bus the hostel had said in their instructions, which made me feel more at ease as arriving in Bucuresti was the most nervous I had felt about arriving anywhere. I had heard plenty of bad things about the main train station and was pretty much expecting to be mugged at knife point as soon as I exited the station, so I walked as confident as I could to the bus stop, shaking my head at the 65,342 blokes that sprung up in front of me saying “Taxi? Taxi?”

Had no idea about tickets, so I jumped on at the back and pretty much had the whole bus full of people look at me. It was like a cowboy walking into a saloon wearing women’s underwear. Classic. What could I do? Just took off my backpack and put it on the parcel rack and smiled like an idiot. And in the process lost count of the number of bus stops. I was supposed to get off at stop #6 but ended up getting off at #7, not the best start.

Asked a young bloke if he spoke English and he indicated a little, so I pointed on my map to where I wanted to go and asked which way. He pointed back the way the bus had come from and said “5 minutes”. So I walked back and around the corner, checking out this dodgy market on the corner where they were selling all sorts of crappy foods, some of it smelling pretty bad. I thought I was heading the right way and saw some police walking along (a rather rare sight for Bucuresti) who I asked.

One spoke a little English and I showed her where on the map I wanted to go, but of course before they would tell me they wanted to know what was there and why I wanted to go there. They didn’t quite understand hostel at first, but after some sleeping motions and pointing to my backpack they got the idea… other side of the road, turn right at the building under construction. Sweet.

The Butterfly Villa is a great hostel. Great atmosphere, nice and friendly, free laundry done for you, free internet, free breakfast, etc. the girls that work there Andrea (and her early morning octopus hairdo), Julia (one of the hottest girls you’ll ever meet) and Diana (who I was trying to talk into going bungy jumping or skydiving) are great, really helpful, and hang around like they are just other backpackers. Lucky Kris getting his hands on Julia’s fantastic body, but that story in a minute. By the time I left I was used to someone running in the front gate saying a taxi driver was trying to rip them off and one of the girls running out to tell the taxi to get fucked or they were going to call the police.

There are a few long term guests there that if they weren’t paying to stay there I would call bums. It seems like their whole purpose in life is to make multiple trips each day to the “non-stop” around the corner. They hadn’t been to any attractions around Bucuresti such as the Parliament, just looked at a few things from the outside as they went past. Where they were going to when they went past? Who knows, I don’t think they know themselves. They don’t work, they don’t do shit except sit around talking about what food to cook for dinner, things they want to see or do, and play chess. They talk about dinner all afternoon then don’t actually cook it until 10pm, then go to bed at midnight and sleep in the next day until midday. The kids from Istanbul saw more of the city in 48 hours than this lot have seen combined in how many weeks / months they have been there.

They are fairly forgettable except for Betty, the livewire Spanish girl. She bursts into song, dances around, wiggles her bum and knocks you out of the way, takes your tea or food, always winking and blowing kisses, does a sexy little growl thing. It must be a Spanish thing I suppose. She talks loudly constantly except for when she is eating, and annoys the hell out of the hostel cat, which she says she is training to be a dog. It’s like “instant party - just add Betty”.

Andrea rang up a car hire company and organised for them to bring out a car for me, which wasn’t any hassle. Though I did ask for an automatic, they gave me a manual pretty much brand new Ford Focus. 24 hours hire was going to be 130 Euros plus whatever petrol I used. That night for dinner went with a few other people from the hostel to the MGM casino which turns out to a well kept secret.

Travel tip: in Bucuresti, go to the MGM Casino for free food. You need to dress well enough to get in, and will need to take your passport with you for identification, but then there is no one watching to see that you go and bet after you have had your fill of pretty much the classiest buffet I have.

Of course how can you go to a casino and not have a bet. So after eating about 80 lei worth of food, I stopped my betting at 10 lei, just watched a few other people having a go. After we’d had enough of that (and the annoying old American bloke and his sexy young Moldovan wife had gone), drove to the Parliament and took some night time pics before doing a big loop to get back to the hostel, didn’t go to bed too late.

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