Cats!

Day 518
My train arrived around around 8 am and I had no problem finding the bus for my hostel. The friendly drivers then pointed me in the direction I needed. That didn't prevent me from getting lost though. As they say, if there's a will there's a way.

At the hostel I was greeted by a very friendly woman who showed me that instead of giving everyone a key they kept on in a lock box on the door. The combination was really easy to remember as it as the same as a very important date in American history.

A cab was then called for me so that I could go to the bus station. I needed to get a night bus ticket to Chisnau in Moldova that wouldn't pass thru the breakaway region of Transdniester. The boarder guards there are known for demanding large bribes and even confiscating electronics. Transdniester is not recognized by any other country so I don't think that it belongs on my to do list. Of course I had forgotten to ask the woman at the hostel to write down what I needed. I had also forgotten the name of the city I was going to. I ended up just writing down Moldova and hoping that I ended up in the right place.

I then had to get back to the hostel and all of the cab drivers tried to rip me off. I ended up really angry. I was tired, hungry, and irritated. To take care of at least one problem I decided to eat at the first cafe I found. One of the girls working there had spent a year living in the US and was able to give me a much better map. I was lost no longer.

After breakfast I popped into and i-cafe for a bit to book my next hostel.

My bit of culture for the day was the Fine Arts Museum. There were a lot of cats sleeping outside. They were really cute. Unfortunately pictures were not allowed and I had to write down the names of the paintings I liked.

I grabbed a kabab on the way back to the hostel. The shower was really weird, it was rather unbalanced large tub.

When I was clean it was time to face the music. I was horribly behind in the blog. I went to an Irish pub and wrote and wrote until I was all up to date. It felt really good.
Back at the hostel I chatted with some Russians until it was about 1 am. I was sort shocked that the light in the room was still on. I saw a girl reading and told her that I was going to turn off the light. She said that she was reading, I replied that it was 1 am and that there was a common room for that. I didn't see that there was another person in the room reading as well. When I got into bed the guy I hadn't seen said that he was reading. I repeated that there was a common room for that and it was one am. He then asked if I believed in Jesus. I replied that all I believed in at 1 am was sleeping.

When will people learn that the hostel room is for sleeping? Now I understand that someone will snore, someone will come back at 4 am and be drunk and loud, and that an alarm will go off at 5 am. This is all not fun, but it's staying in a hostel. Turning on lights in the middle of the night, talking while others are sleeping and have sex are not ok. Just because your staying in a hostel you don't get a free pass to behave like an asshole. Really, asking me about my religion because I want to sleep at 1 am is just asinine. I feel like I should pass around a sheet of rules or something.
At least I fell asleep quickly and those who should be stripped of their passports and sent to live in, I don't know, Dante's 4th circle of hell, didn't keep me up.