Romania

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I got back safely from Romania. Had a great time. 10 of us flew into Bucharest sunday. We took the wrong bus and finished out in the slums where there were stray dogs and broken down houses. Luckily Romanian people are generally nice and speak English so a guy told us how to get back to the city. Once we got in the city it took us about 3 hours to find our hostel because we had ten people giving 10 different directions. A guy we met walked us all the way to our hostel and we offered him some beer but he declined. Once we found the hostel we had an entire room to ourselves which was good. Also had our own balcony. We went touring around the city and found a heap of monuments regarding the revolution. The streets are dirty, cars drive all over the road and park wherever they want, and there are dogs everywhere. We saw a couple of car crashes within the first hour which was crazy. That night we went out for dinner and i spent about 10 euro on a big pizza and 4 beers.

The next day we went touring around the city again and saw a lot of broken down houses and cars. Walked around their parliament which is apparantly the worlds second largest building. Met a couple of english guys on our walk and they were looking for a hostel so we brought them back with us. That night we went out to a club with a heap of people from the hostel. We were the only people there drinking .50 euro beers and dancing all over the place. was great fun. the walk home was a big highlight that night. a few caught taxis but the boys all walked or danced our way home. our dancing was so good that the police stopped us and checked all our identifications. it scared us a bit cos they held our cards for a really long time. Michael didn't have any i.d. so he ran away but the police didn't notice. after a bit they shook all our hands and laughed with us. a few guys went to the casino and we walked home. got home and michael wasn't there and only ben came back from the casino so bryan and michael were missing in bucharest. after 40 mins we got a bit worried but they somehow came back together. turns out they found each other in a mcdonalds in the slums.

the next day we left for brasov. the train ride was crazy. had beggers and people trying to get us seats for money. saw the old style romania with people riding horse and carts. then we hit the mountains where there was snow. finally arrived at brasov where everyone was so helpful to show us the way to the hostel. we were staying right in the heart of the old town which was great. narrow streets and old buildings with a beautiful pedestrian mall. met two other australians, two canadians, and two kiwis from our hostel in bucharest, and a mexican and all went out for dinner. had a 2 course meal and some big beers for about 7 euro which was amazing. then we went on a night time bear watching tour. thought we were gonna go up into the mountains but instead we were driving a van through a residential area where there was a dump on the otherside. didn't see any bears but we had a great time drinking 2.5 litre beers.

The next day we climbed mount brasov which was exceptional. had dinner at the top overlooking the whole of brasov. was sad to leave brasov, such a great place but we got our own compartment on the train back which was so much fun, the views were amazing. finally got back to bucharest then got our flight back to vienna which we were all so happy to see home again. overall it was a great trip. i am glad i saw bucharest but i would never go back there. brasov on the other hand was great and i would love the chance to spend more time there.

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