Train Time

Day 532
I was up early and quickly packed my bags before getting a cab to the train station. My plan was to get a night train to Sofia. I got a ticket, but not a couchette.

During the ride to Bucharest (a places I've been before and am skipping on this trip) I chatted with some of the other passenger and ended up grabbing lunch with a guy getting to take Romania's equivalent to the Bar exam. I then headed to an internet cafe to was the rest of the time. I could have cut it closer with the train time, but after the debacle in Budapest I decided not to.

Not have a bed was pretty terrible and I didn't get much sleep. At least I wasn't seated near the toilet because it smelled really rank on that side!

Will the real Dracula please stand up?

Day 531
I was up early but still had to rush to get my act together. I shouldn't have bothered though, the tour left late.

The first leg of the journey brought us to Rasnov Castle. Unfortunately due to a dispute of ownership the museum and a few other exhibits were closed. There was, however, the remains of what was once an exceedingly deep well. Legend has it that it was dug by 2 Turkish prisoners over 17 years. By the remains of the church several skeletons were found. For unknown reasons they put one of them on display in the dungeon. That seems sort of mean to me.

After some lunch we stopped at Bran Castle. This is where everyone thinks Dracula lived. It's not. Bran is in Transylvania, Vlad ruled Walacia. His castle is much more difficult to get to and in ruins. Bran is in great shape. The castle was occupied the Romanian rulers until they were forced out of the country by the communists. The castle is decorated in the style that they had left it in.

Our last stop was Peles Palace, finished just in time for WWI and the dissolution of the ruling family. It was totally over the top. The place had neon Murano glass chandeliers for heavens sake! Every room had ornate carvings. It was still impressive, but somehow cheap looking. I think that the attempt to copy older palaces made it that way. It was like a Disney castle. Plus, the tour guide spoke very quietly and with a funny accent. He mispronounced words in really odd ways like knob-els for nobles and terkquaz for turquoise. The tour was worth it but the outside was definitely the most interesting part.

I spent the ride back chatting with a really nice Swiss girl. Later on I went with her and her boyfriend and a very odd Belgium guy out for dinner. The Belgian guy spent most of dinner talking about when he worked as a nude model in Japan. Not dinner conversation. Then at the end of the meal none of us had change. Just because of where he was standing the Belgian guy ended up with all the tip money that he then used to pay for his own meal! How annoying!

When we got back to the hostel I was pretty wiped out so I went quickly to sleep.

League of their Own

Day 530
I slept in because there wasn't much for me to do and I was still feeling a bit sick. It was Monday and everything was closed. I would have moved on, but I wanted to do a castle tour the following day.

Instead I planned on wandering aimlessly and check out the Black Church. The church was built between 1385 and 1477 by German merchants. It would have been finished earlier but there were some Turkish invasions. It was strange to see everything in German in Romania. I really wish that I could have taken pictures, it was really quite beautiful.

Brasov is definitely a cute little city, but I don't think that it's spectacular. During my few hours of wandering I felt like I was taking pictures that I already had. So many of the places that I have been recently look just the same. I remember Olomouc's in the CR, with all of the crazy things on the buildings, or the gnomes in Wroclaw, Poland. I haven't seen a city with something different in a long time. They just seem like collections of nicely redone streets.

When I was done I went back to the internet cafe and did I don't know what. At least it wasn't raining when I left this time.

After making myself some dinner I watched a few movies before calling it an early night.

Blinded

Day 529
I was feeling a bit better when I woke up. After breakfast I packed my bags and headed straight to the train station. I had to pass by the same gypsy kids that I hadn't given money to the day before and they were extra annoying.

The ride wasn't long and soon I was at Brasov. A short cab ride later I as at the hostel. The sign on the bedroom read "keep noise down after 10 pm so that everyone can have vampire dreams." I think mine will be full of Edward Cullen!

I was hungry for lunch and headed straight to the downtown area. Brasov is a very beautiful city that was just recently restored. It looks all spiffy and new.

After lunch I checked out the history museum but it wasn't very good. I think that I need to just stop going to these. When I was done I spent some time at the internet cafe. I may have done some blogging, I don't know though. I'm so far behind at this point that if I didn't take a picture of it I'm having problems remembering. At least I take a lot of pictures.

When I left the internet cafe it was pouring down rain. I was wearing my glasses and had the choice of rain drop covered glasses or blurry vision. Everything looked different in the dark and I was soaked thru. I couldn't find the hostel for anything. Finally I just asked the first person who walked by for help. It turned out to be one of the guys who was at the hostel in Suceava. He knew where we were and could read the street signs, I could not. He was very nice and walked me back to my hostel.

After putting on some dry clothes I made myself dinner and then spent the rest of the night watching movies in the common room with other guests.

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.