Nap Time

Day 528
I was up at 4 am and soon had the rest of my stuff together. The nice girl at reception called a cab for me and soon I was at the train station with just enough time to buy a ticket and grab breakfast before my train departed.

The train wasn't comfortable at all. An elderly man with a lot of brooms sat opposite of me and proceeded to stare at me, or my ipod, I'm not sure which. It was highly annoying though. I was happy when he got off. He was replaced by two gypsy kids who were smelly and rather loud. It also turned out that they didn't have tickets. When they were caught the conductors kicked them down the steps and then stood with them at the door until the next stop when they threw them off.

Romania has a huge gypsy population. The government and the EU have been spending loads of money to try and get them to integrate. The Roma just don't want to. Don't ever bring up gypsies to a Romanian unless you want to listen to a long and uncomfortable tirade about them. Even super friendly Monica was irritated with them. I think her irritation mostly stemmed from the government money wasted on them, she felt that if they don't want it that it should be put into a different area, like education. Monica also told me a story that happened about 20 years ago. She was at her grandparents farm picking fruit. A gypsy man came and stood at the edge of their land, her grandfather offered him food in exchange for work. The man refused saying that he would be spending the day with his hands in his pockets. Several months later, during the winter, that same man came begging for food. He was refused and told that if he had worked over the summer it wouldn't have been a problem. Madonna had a concert in Budapest a few days ago during which she made a comment about the Roma's plight. The audience booed her.

As for me, I don't know, the begging and the stealing is bad. I can understand having a desire to preserve one's culture, but they have been in the area for the last 700 years, it might be time to join the party that everyone else is at. I can understand though, how those kids I saw will grow up with the memory of being kicked down the stairs and who knows what else. I sure as hell wouldn't want to grow up to be like the man who did that so why should they?

When I got to Sighsoaura I was feeling sick and hungry. I also hadn't written down my hostel info. Luckily the guy at the tourist office let me use his computer to get it and I was soon there.

Sighsoaura is where Vlad Dracul, or Dracula, was born. It is a very cute little mountain town. There was some sort of festival going on and the streets were packed. My first stop was the History Museum. It wasn't very good and it was extremely crowded. At least there was a good view from the top.

I wandered the streets for a bit longer. I found the house Vlad had lived in as well as where he was born. It was really a cute little town. I also went to the torture museum, but it was a waste of time.

I still felt really ill so I went back to the hostel for a shower and to take a nap. When I woke up I felt a lot better. After some dinner I chatted with the other people at the hostel and played some pool before calling it a night.

Pointless

Day 527
Due to the Swedish asshole from the night before I didn't sleep well and woke up late and in a foul mood. After breakfast I checked my email at the hostel. As it had been dark there was no way for me to recognize the Swedish guy. I was hoping that he would recognize me though so that I could call him some more names. That never happened though.

Instead I headed out to see Cluj's pretty main square and cathedral. On the way to the history museum I picked up a hotdog for lunch. I had really wanted to see this museum, I had heard that it was quite good. It was the only reason I had stayed here today. It was, of course, closed for refurbishment. I'm so freaking sick of those words!

I was tired, sick and very irritated. I've been gone for a very long time now and the things that used to be minor irritants are really pissing me off now. Travel is less fun than it used to be. I think my goal at this point is just to finish Europe.

I ended up at a nice tea shop writing in my journal for some time. I then went to an internet cafe to type it up. When I was done I went back to the hostel to shower and pack. I also took a nap.

A few hours later I headed out for some food and back to the internet cafe to chat with some people from home. It was my dad's birthday and I wanted to give him a call.

When I got back to the hostel I went right to bed and watched movies on my ipod until I fell asleep. At one point one of the other people in the room came over and asked if I was ok. I told him that I was fine, that I just had a cold and thanked him for his concern. Luckily asshole Swedes are a minority of the people traveling.

Get Out!

Day 526
I was up early and Monica drove me to the train station as she was picking up some more people. The train ride was rather uncomfortable. I really should have taken the night train. The scenery was quite nice though.

When I got to Cluj a nice local helped me find the bus. I found the street but had written down the wrong address. Luckily there was an internet cafe right there and I was able to get the right address quickly.

I then grabbed some food and went to the internet cafe. I typed up the blog for some time before heading back to the hostel. I showered and laid down for a bit. I still had a head cold, but I didn't want it to stop me from going on the pub crawl that night.

A few hours later I left with a group of people for not really a pub crawl, but a hang out at a place for the evening that was up a really big hill. The group was small and everyone was really friendly and chatty. It was a really nice night out.

When I got back to the hostel I threw my purse on my bed, well on the Swedish guy who was sleeping in my bed. The asshole had checked out but decided at the last minute to stay and just took the bed he had the night before. I had a lot of stuff on the bed, mostly my pj's, contact stuff and ipod charger. All the things I would want to have easy access to when I got back late. He had just put them on the floor. Who the hell does that? After some name calling and a lot of foul language I had to face the facts. I didn't want to sleep in the bed that his stinky ass had been in. I had to move all of my things in the middle of the night to another room. I had slept in that bed earlier and I coughed and snotted all over that pillow. I hope that asshole catches my cold! This all comes back to the feeling that some travelers seem to have, that staying in a hostel gives you a free pass to behave badly.