Brasov, Romania
Friday, June 2, 2006
Ok I know I have not written in a while but it has been a busy three weeks. When I last left I was leaving for Bucarest in Romania, it was a 26 hour train ride but I figured it was not going to be to bad I had a book and it was an overnight train so I will be sleeping for part of it and it had a dinner car so I wont go hungry. Here is where I was mistaken, when i left Poland I had 30 polish dollars I figured that would get me enough food for the trip, and use up all my remaining money in one process. To my surprise the train was a Romania train and did not take polish zsloty(that is not a spelling error that is how they pronounce there currency). After about 20 hours on the train I was getting hungry so I was kinda talking to the train guy and he said there was a town coming up in about an hour. I decided to forego
Bucharest for the time being and get off at this town called
Brasov about 3 hours north of Bucharest. I got off at the town and as I was walking out of the train station this old lady grabbed my backpack I was ready for a confrontation, to my surprise she asked me if I needed a place to stay, I said maybe but right now I am starving and need a place to eat. The lady, I later found out her name but as I right this it escapes me(surprise). She then said she had a small Pension (that is a guest house ) and if I came and stayed with her she would cook me dinner, how could I refuse. The house turned out to be really nice and there were 6 other people staying there, she made me a big plate of spaghetti and bread, by this time it was bed time and off I went. The next morning I decided to walk around before I made my way south to
Bucharest. The town is a lovely old world, kinda what you picture rural Rumania to look like town. The center is a large square with a town hall clock, but this is where the western world has invaded everywhere there are cafe's and restaurants all around, all very nice and a good place to have a tea and watch the people walk by. The whole day was spent walking around the side streets and markets. The language barrier was somewhat difficult but I have become the master of charades. After speaking to a couple people at the pension they said that
Brasov is much nicer then
Bucharest, and I found out that there were some nice hiking trails around the area. The next day I went hiking to a large castle in the middle of the woods about 9km from the town, there was not another person around so I had the place to myself it was interesting and creepy all at the same time. The next day it was off to see what is commonly thought to be the famous Dracula's castle, there is some debate if it is or not, after seeing the place I have my doubts it was way to pretty to have guys impaled on the front lawn, I can't see the master of evil sitting out in the elaborate tea room pruning the flower garden, now I could be wrong but I just don't see it. I made my way back to the pension and sat around the town square again and just people watched and read for the rest of the day. The next day i wanted to go into
Bucharest so I walked to the train station about 7-8 km away and to my surprise no trains want to run on that particular day, twice a month all the trains stop, trying to save money on fuel, I make my way back to the pension and in the time it took me to walk there and back the pension had filled up with about 20 people and now there were people every where, the owner decided that if everybody put in 3 zsloty she would make dinner, it seemed like a good plan, now the amount of food that came out of the kitchen was phenomenal, she had her two daughters and about 6 other little old Rumanian ladies cooking. That was the best meal I have had since leaving the beef of Argentine. The next day after another day hike I caught the train to
Bucharest.
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