Wow, I am such a slacker on blogging. Mea culpa! My issue is that so many things are happening, but then I think about all of the things that I'm going to have to write about and blogging becomes an arduous game of catch-up. So, I am resolving to do better with this.
In my last post I alluded to the horrifying train ride to Bucharest from Budapest. It was awful. I had to take a decent train to the Hungarian-Romanian border that stopped at Arad, Romania and then a 'sleeper' train to Bucharest. The first train ride was manageable, but the night train left from Arad at 9pm and I was in one of those Hogwarts Express-like compartments with a bunch of really old creepy looking Romanians, none of whom spoke a word of English.
I was completely exhausted, but also scared out of my wits. On both trains the ticket inspectors were terrifying. I felt as if I were in an old Bond movie about communist Russia with how brusquely they would ask for tickets. I was constantly worrying that I was going to be thrown off the train in the middle of nowhere and left to freeze to death at night. So needless to say, when I finally reached Bucharest I was a very relieved, albeit stressed and exhausted smelly traveller.
I stayed at the Cozyness Downtown Hostel, which was fabulous! It is run out of an apartment in the city center, right outside of old town, by Marius, who is hilarious and so kind. I got there at about 6 am and Marius welcomed me, showed me around and then I showered and passed out. I spent that day exploring the city a bit, but the best part was when I came back to the hostel. Since it is a transformed apartment it only sleeps 12 guests. A group of us gathered in the very modern and zen family room area to just chat. I made friends with a Russian girl, Tanya, who had grown up in Siberia but now lives in Moscow, and we went on a wine run. I really clicked with Tanya. She is so amazing! She just travels all the time; she decided to up and move to Thailand for half a year and then spend some time in Indonesia just for fun. Tanya inspired me to go out and have my Eat, Pray, Love moment in Bali.
When we got back to the Cozyness a bunch of the guests were all sitting on the floor of the family room in duvets from their beds. Tanya and I fetched our own and joined in the doona party (I was corrected by the Aussies that a duvet is called a doona). After a few hours of amazing conversation about experiences that we had had or would recommend and discussions about cultural differences Marius fired up the wii and challenged various brave souls to a match of tennis. Marius is the reigning champ of wii tennis, so most of us were shamefully thrashed. Finally, we all settled down with our wine to watch Alien 2. This was probably one of my favorite nights in Bucharest.
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| Welcome to the Cozyness Downtown Hostel |
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| The zen family room |
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| Me, looking ragged in Romania |
The next day, Halloween, Tanya and I set out on a day trip to Transylvania. We took a train to Brasov and then 2 buses to Bran. The trees in the Carpathian mountains that we traversed were so beautiful. They had all of the colors found in a New England autumn and the trees were perfectly spaced so that they were welcoming. I wanted to just run off into the forest and get a little lost. Amongst those trees one could believe in fairy tales and ghost stories. Anything was possible. But once it darkened I could see why Bram Stoker chose this location as the home of Count Dracula. During the night train ride back I could almost see Jonathan Harker peering wild eyed out the window of an onyx carriage driven by the devil himself. This place held something old and untamed.
Tanya and I ended up at Bran Castle, which is also known as Dracula's castle. Although Vlad the Impaler, Prince of Wallachia, never actually inhabited the castle, Bram Stoker was inspired by its complex construction of mismatched levels, secret passageways, and placement on the height of an outcropping in the Carpathians. Of course, I loved it. It was actually well preserved for a castle of its age; even all of the wooden stairs and flooring were intact and usable.
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| Bran Castle exterior |
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Cross on the way up to the castle.
Guard your mortal soul! |
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| A secret passageway! |
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| Beautiful traditional Wallachian/Romanian daggers. |
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| I'm pretty sure I walked into a story book. |
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| Jack-o-lanterns at Bran Castle |
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| Bran Castle from the interior courtyard. |
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| Tanya and I made friends with a couple of strays by feeding them pastries. |
Tanya and I decided to go out that night when we returned to Bucharest. It was Halloween after all. So we ended up in old town, which is this beautiful section of streets with buildings built in the baroque style that have all been turned into bars, restaurants, and more bars. It's actually kind of insane how many bars can be in the same area. We went into a few places, but they really weren't our scene... apparently it's not a party in Romania if someone isn't dancing on the bar. We eventually found a really cool place called the Bordello Pub that had live music (that wasn't trance or dubstep) and got some drinks and danced the night away. It was a complete girl's night and all Tanya and I wanted to do was listen to some good music. I had a complete blast!
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| Just a bit of old town at night. |
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| Inside Bordello. |
Romania was actually wonderful... until I had to leave. This is why economy airlines are awful. I booked an 'evening' flight for 6:20. But apparently they were on 24h time, so evening 6:20 meant 6:20 am the next day.
I arrived at the airport at 2 in the afternoon, waited around until 4:30 pm, discovered my misfortune, had a quick cry in the ladies room, and steeled myself to wait for 12 more hours in the most uncomfortable chairs known to man. I was never so happy to finally get back to Roma.
When I did get back I got a wonderful birthday card from my family. It's Vincent Van Gogh, which is perfect because: 1) I absolutely love the impressionist movement, 2) Van Gogh's life really resonates with me, and 3) The episode of Doctor Who called Vincent and the Doctor was the first episode that I showed my mom that eventually led to her and the rest of my family getting hooked on it!
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| I got my own mini Vinny! |
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