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Chapter 49: Werewolves, vampires, and... sunshine?
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Well, the rest of my stay in Bulgaria was pretty uneventful. I discovered an amazing vegetarian restaurant just downstairs from the hostel, and over-ate there both Saturday and Sunday nights. The place seriously belonged in Manhattan - not Sofia! Saturday night I drank wine & beer with two funny lesbians from Manchester (UK) who'd been waiting a few days for their luggage to make its way from the airport to the hostel. It made me happy to be carrying my world on my back. The next morning I walked to the train station, bought an overnight ticket to Bucharest, Romania, and then wandered around all day killing time until the 7pm train. Sofia is pleasant and all, but there's not a whole lot to do once you've walked around the city once. Mostly I sat online freaking myself out by reading true-ish horror stories about A) travelers being gassed and robbed on overnight trains in Eastern Europe B) travelers being assaulted and robbed on the streets of Romania.
Determined not to fall asleep that night, I boarded the train and settled into my sleeper cabin (couchette?). It was decidedly a step up from the overnight train in Thailand, as it had a door that locked, a sink and mirror, and a bed that wasn't made up of converted seats. As a bonus, it turned out I had the 3-bed cabin all to myself! My nerves were calmed quickly when I met the people in the nearby cabins. On my right were 2 older Spanish guys I'd met at the hostel, and on the left were 2 friendly English speakers: Bill, a 28yo pastor from Toronto, and Garrett from Ireland. I chatted with them for a while before curling up in bed with "The DaVinci Code" (everyone else has read it, so I figured it was worth swapping for). The train passed through some beautiful countryside before it got too dark to see... all dramatic cliffs, rushing rivers, quaint villages, and dark forests. The border crossing was a pain, because it kept us all awake between 3am and 5:30am, but then I probably wouldn't have slept much anyway.
We arrived bleary-eyed in Bucharest at 7:30am. Bill was just hanging out for the day, so we agreed to walk around the city together. Safety in numbers and all that. First I dropped off my stuff at the Funky Chicken hostel (a short walk from the Gara du Nord train station), and then we set out looking for food. Easier said than done; we probably hiked around the major streets for close to an hour before finding a place that made us some bagel breakfast sandwiches.
After breakfast we walked down one of Bucharest's big commercial streets and ended up in the Piata Universitat. Bucharest surprised me a bit... contrary to popular legend, which holds that the city is crime-ridden, dirty, and full of awful Communist architecture, it felt safe enough, and the buildings and streets were rather nice. There were lots of Parisian touches in the architecture, and the boulevards were wide and attractive. True, there were a few sketchy folk lurking around, but mostly downtown Bucharest seemed to be a rapidly modernizing city - like a bigger version of Sofia. Bill and I only had one truly weird encounter. A guy who claimed to be an Israeli student approached us and warned us not to speak English so loudly because it would attract the gypsies, who would inevitably jump us and snatch our bags. He seemed friendly enough, so we walked and talked with him for 1/2 hour. At first he gave us lots of helpful info about Bucharest & Romania, but then, in between his fear-mongering, he tried to convince us that the exchange rate was 300,000 lei to the US dollar instead of 30,000, and then he tried to get us to take a cab with him... at which point we said "see ya." We had fun later trying to figure out exactly what his plan had been for ripping us off. Bill took off in the late afternoon; I had a tasty Romanian dinner (a chicken roll thing) near the hostel and then hung out in the common room making convo with a cute Swede and watching the Olympics.
One day in Bucharest was plenty, so I woke up early on Tuesday and jumped on a train to Brasov, which is 3 hours away and is the gateway to Transylvania. The city is a popular stop for adventurous European vacationers; the new part near the train station is modern and ugly, but the old town is nestled in a valley and is undeniably beautiful. The buildings have that "medeival German village" look to them, there's a clock tower and a spooky old Gothic cathedral in the central square ("The Black Church"), there are plenty of trails leading into the forests, and a cable car runs up the mountain for some breathtaking views.
I checked into Kismet Dao Hostel at noon, booked myself onto the hostel's tour of three local castles for Wednesday, and then set out to explore the town. I had some excellent pizza on the main square, and then took the cable car up the mountain. It was a warm sunny day, which was somewhat troubling... I'd hoped for some scary atmosphere in Transylvania, but all I got was perfect summer weather! The mountain was a good time, although the cable car was kind of claustrophobic; there were great views of the Carpathian mountains, and it was cool seeing lots of local families picnicking up at the top.
When I came back in the late afternoon, I ran into Scott (the 20yo Canadian friend I'd met in Turkey and had been e-mailing) at the hostel. He'd just arrived with a Californian named Brad; we grabbed a couple of Aussie girls and a South African guy and went out to dinner. The restaurant on the main square was called Bella Musica, and it was superb. The English menu had gone missing, so we had our waiter explain some of the Romanian dishes, and then just took our chances. I had alish, which was mushrooms and cheese wrapped in ham and chicken and smothered in sour cream sauce. After dinner we bought some cheap local vodka (REALLY cheap - like $2/bottle!) and some Coke, went back to the hostel, and got about 12 people involved in drinking games in the basement. After several rounds of "Kings" and "Never Have I Ever," we all knew far too much about each other, but we were thankfully too drunk to remember much of the info. I think I got to bed around 3.
The next morning Scott and I joined about 20 others on the 3-castle tour. Rasnov castle/fort was the first stop, and it was kind of underwhelming (i.e. - sorely lacking in Transylvanian mystique). It offered nice views over the plains, though. Our guide Julian was young, fun, energetic, and informative, so all the castles were more interesting than they would have been had we just shown up on our own. Next up was Bran Castle, which is known in tourism circles as "Dracula's Castle," even though if Vlad the Impaler stayed there at all, it was only briefly as a prisoner late in life. Nonetheless the castle was pretty scenic as it sat perched on a small cliff, and it came complete with a hidden staircase. Julian's guided tour included a gruesome description of how Vlad got his name: he impaled his enemies by driving long wooden stakes up their rear ends (the stakes poked out somewhere around the neck). The worst part was that the wounds weren't immediately fatal, so the victims would often hang there on their poles suffering for two days!
With those images fresh in our minds, we poked around the ridiculously touristy market at the castle's base, and then went to lunch at a restaurant in the hills. The final castle was Peles Palace in Sinaia. The Palace was the summer home of Romania's first king, and as such it is full of exquisite stone- and wood-work, expensive gifts from other countries, and impressive weapon and armor collections. Photography was prohibited, and we even had to wear fuzzy slippers over our shoes to protect the floors. I spent half the tour gawking at the palace (which reminded me of a Newport Mansion on steroids) and the other half gawking at a guy in our group who looked like Josh Hartnett's younger British twin. On the way back to the hostel our van driver got pulled over for speeding, which was amusing for us... probably less so for him. After the previous night of heavy drinking, we took it easy Wednesday night. Some insane French guests provided some entertainment; I have frightening memories of two of the guys dancing around me under the black light in the basement chanting "vote John Kerry," and of one of the girls getting down on her knees and begging me repeatedly to give her my Dandy Warhols "banana" T-shirt (I said "no"). Even the next morning she squealed "Yooor Teeee Sheart!"
Yesterday Scott, Rebecca (a sweetheart from Sydney), and I decided to take a 3:30 train to Sighisoara (a smaller town further in the heart of Transylvania), so we spent the time until then packing and walking through the woods (seeing a huge owl was a high point). When we arrived at the Sighisoara train station, we were immediately followed by a young gypsy girl who wanted money or chocolate. We had neither, but Rebecca offered her the gum she was chewing (not really seriously); the girl happily grabbed it and popped it into her mouth.
We stowed our bags at Gia Hostel and then went to the center of Sighisoara for dinner. Like Brasov, the area near the train station ain't much to look at, but the city center is cute and old. It would have helped the ambience if they hadn't been tearing up the sidewalks all over town for repaving. On our search for food we passed by a pretty white church and a funny old man fishing in his Speedo. I'll never understand the European affinity for Speedos... every guy (no exceptions) looks better in board shorts. Dinner was good but odd: chicken strips coated in corn flakes and then fried. We also had cheap and tasty wine; I'm quickly realizing that the local wine is one of the high points of this region of Eastern Europe. Scott had a crazy night out with some Finnish girls from the hostel, but Reecca and I were tired, so we stayed in and watched "Camp," which was good fun.
Today we went to the travel agency and bought tickets on the overnight train to Budapest for tonight. Then we explored the old city, which includes Dracula's birth house, cheesy tourist market stalls, some spooky graveyards, some cool old Trasylvanian buildings, and this internet cafe. Next up: Hungary and possibly Croatia! Talk to you soon,
Tim
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| 49. | Chapter 49: Werewolves, vampires, and... sunshine? - Sighisoara, Romania Aug 20, 2004 |
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