before I can even begin to talk about our time in Romania, I need to discuss the train ride there. it was my first time ever taking an overnight train and it was a rather interesting experience to say the least. and since Furi Kuri and I are completely horrible about waiting until the last minute to do things, we ended up in a six person sleeper car instead of the two person that we wanted. so there we were with this old Romanian couple who didn't speak a lick of English, a girl that had just graduated high school and had been traveling for months (I commend her - I couldn't even do three weeks by myself!), and an asian kid who didn't speak to anyone the whole trip. so in order to fit six people sleeping in one of those Harry Potter like train cars this is how we had to set everything up - the very top bunks were already laid out (all comforters and pillows were up there & that's also where we had to store all the luggage), the "seats" we were sitting on were actually the bottom bunks, and then the back rests we were leaning on flipped up to become the middle bunks. it was a very tight squeeze once all of the beds were set up. not only that, but sleeping on a moving train was also an interesting experience as well.
and, as stated before, Furi Kuri and I can never have a trip without an adventure. so here is our story in Romania:
- we arrived on a Tuesday at noon. decided it would be best to buy our train ticket to Istanbul for the next evening while we were already at the station (see mom, sometimes I think ahead). go to the ticket counter only to discover that there is only ONE train that leaves from Bucharest to Istanbul - and it leaves at noon every day. awesome. that meant that we had a total of TWENTY-FOUR hours in the country.
- so we bought the tickets and headed to the bus stop to go up to the airport where we would pick up the car we rented (which turned out to be an almost expensive, epic fail). got into a fight with the guy who gets on the bus to check your ticket. tried to tell us we owed a 50LIE (their money) fine. finally after a bit of arguing the man finely did what he should have done in the first place - unlocked the machines so we could validate the tickets we had for two people (instead of the one it was accidentally validated for).
- got the rental car (with GPS) no problem - finally something went right.
- then the goal was to find the bed & breakfast place we were supposed to be staying in. according to their directions online, they should have only been about an hour, maybe hour and a half, outside the city of Bucharest. three hours later we were still driving with no sign of the B&B. and mind you the directions we were following had statements like "go over the wooden bridge" and "take a left at the second rock."
**side note: driving through this country was an obstacle course!! between the crazy drivers, the horse pulled carts sharing the highway, having to stop in the middle of the highway for the pedestrian crosswalks they had set, dodging stray dogs, and dealing with the most construction I've ever seen... let's just say I had white knuckles the entire time I was driving (Furi Kuri didn't dare get behind the wheel, as she isn't the greatest driver to begin with and probably would have had a heart attack trying to navigate this country).
- we decided to ditch the B&B plans and turn around to drive back to Bran Castle. the guide book said it closed at 7:00pm, so we figured we had plenty of time...
- arrive at 6:15pm to have this woman inform us that the castle actually closes at 6:00pm (thanks a lot guide book), but we decided to head up to the castle anyway just to see for ourselves. it did indeed close at 6:00pm, however it didn't even matter because the last entry time was 4:30pm. :( I couldn't believe it. my ENTIRE reason for even going to this country in the first place didn't happen. to say I was disappointed would be an understatement.
(Bran Castle
since our entire reason for going to this country didn't happen and we had no place to stay that night, we decided to stop for a little dinner and figure out our next moves. we ate at this little outdoor restaurant in the town of Bran (which I swear was a population of about 300 people, minus the tourists) and this group of three couples sat down at the table next to us. it was one of those situations where they ask to take your picture and then you start talking and next thing you know they were inviting us to stay at the B&B they were staying in just up the road. our obvious answer: sure!
it was the cutest little place! cheaper than where we were originally going to stay and included a nice warm, home cooked breakfast. spent the evening chatting with the couples (all from Israel and beyond totally Jewish), taking shots with them and making friends with the St. Bernard - Altos - that lived there (I was excited because I had never seen a St. Bernard in real life). we even got to meet their bike tour guide - Arnold. not necessarily a "Romanian" name in my opinion, but he did have that Draculaesque "I vant to drink your blood" accent. :)
so even though the train was almost an epic fail, I did end up having a good time. and at least now it's a story. :)
(inside our train car)
- so we bought the tickets and headed to the bus stop to go up to the airport where we would pick up the car we rented (which turned out to be an almost expensive, epic fail). got into a fight with the guy who gets on the bus to check your ticket. tried to tell us we owed a 50LIE (their money) fine. finally after a bit of arguing the man finely did what he should have done in the first place - unlocked the machines so we could validate the tickets we had for two people (instead of the one it was accidentally validated for).
- got the rental car (with GPS) no problem - finally something went right.
- then the goal was to find the bed & breakfast place we were supposed to be staying in. according to their directions online, they should have only been about an hour, maybe hour and a half, outside the city of Bucharest. three hours later we were still driving with no sign of the B&B. and mind you the directions we were following had statements like "go over the wooden bridge" and "take a left at the second rock."
**side note: driving through this country was an obstacle course!! between the crazy drivers, the horse pulled carts sharing the highway, having to stop in the middle of the highway for the pedestrian crosswalks they had set, dodging stray dogs, and dealing with the most construction I've ever seen... let's just say I had white knuckles the entire time I was driving (Furi Kuri didn't dare get behind the wheel, as she isn't the greatest driver to begin with and probably would have had a heart attack trying to navigate this country).
- we decided to ditch the B&B plans and turn around to drive back to Bran Castle. the guide book said it closed at 7:00pm, so we figured we had plenty of time...
- arrive at 6:15pm to have this woman inform us that the castle actually closes at 6:00pm (thanks a lot guide book), but we decided to head up to the castle anyway just to see for ourselves. it did indeed close at 6:00pm, however it didn't even matter because the last entry time was 4:30pm. :( I couldn't believe it. my ENTIRE reason for even going to this country in the first place didn't happen. to say I was disappointed would be an understatement.
(the entrance into the castle grounds - looking up at the castle)
("Dracula's Castle" that I didn't get to see :( )
since our entire reason for going to this country didn't happen and we had no place to stay that night, we decided to stop for a little dinner and figure out our next moves. we ate at this little outdoor restaurant in the town of Bran (which I swear was a population of about 300 people, minus the tourists) and this group of three couples sat down at the table next to us. it was one of those situations where they ask to take your picture and then you start talking and next thing you know they were inviting us to stay at the B&B they were staying in just up the road. our obvious answer: sure!
it was the cutest little place! cheaper than where we were originally going to stay and included a nice warm, home cooked breakfast. spent the evening chatting with the couples (all from Israel and beyond totally Jewish), taking shots with them and making friends with the St. Bernard - Altos - that lived there (I was excited because I had never seen a St. Bernard in real life). we even got to meet their bike tour guide - Arnold. not necessarily a "Romanian" name in my opinion, but he did have that Draculaesque "I vant to drink your blood" accent. :)
so even though the train was almost an epic fail, I did end up having a good time. and at least now it's a story. :)
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