Romania, Romania, Romania

I woke up and decided to pass on the tour.  I was seeing Budapest, but I wasn't doing Budapest.  Subway to get my ticket for the train that night, then headed up to the bath house.  These are not the small and personal Turkish and Moroccan bathhouses I have come to know and love, no, these are grand (and coed) with thousands of people in at one time.  There are things like 50 degrees saunas (it's so hot, it hurts to walk inside), aromatic saunas, different aroma saunas, carbon acid baths (not sure what this one is), large swimming pools, baths that increase in temperature, and then icy baths to give you a mini heart attack.

While waiting in line, I was surprised by a question, you were in Israel right?

I look up, and realize that in front of me is a girl who was in the Tel Aviv program.  We chat a bit, and then agree to meet up inside.

While hopping between the hot and cold, I like the tingling feeling which can't be healthy, I begin chatting with two women on a tour.  They work in Hong Kong.  After a while, we decide to get a late lunch.  I think I was in for about three hours at the bathhouse, not long enough at all, but food sounded good.  We went to a local place.

Then they took me to a communist museum, which was amazing.  Very well done.  It's called the house of terror and I highly recommend it.  I wasn't aware of some of the atrocities that happened in the last century, frightening what human's are capable of.

I mentioned some wine tasting I had read about.  I was thinking maybe an hour of tasting, but the somelier took his time in presenting the wines, and a few hours later we stumbled into the night, they had to get back, and I had to catch my train (which ended up almost an hour late).

I woke up in the birthplace of Dracula.  No issues on this train, and I got a real stamp finally in my passport!

The town was touristy, and rather uninspiring.  Picture in the previous post.

Continued to Brasov.  On the way, I met up with a group of Mormons.  They seemed to speak some Romanian, and have an idea of where they were staying.  They offered for me to tag along.  The conversations were interesting, but we didn't see eye to eye on many issues.  The one girl was very extreme, the other one a little less so.  She seemed more into the ideology, and the ideas, but not in a crazy way.  She also seemed inquisitive and questioning, while the first took everything as clear and utter truth.  There was no discussion on matters.

Our hostel owner picked us up from the from train station, and after dropping our bags, we went to Bran Castle - which has nothing to do with Dracula except that it inspired Bram Stoker in his imagination.  Though, he never visited.  It was the favorite castle of the princess of Romania, burn in the early 20th Century.  Nice courtyard, but otherwise unimpressive.

I wanted to go to Iasi, after realizing we were close, but apparently flooding meant no trains were running.  I stayed the night, left early, and met two archeology students at the train station.  They were studying in Leiden, in the Netherlands.  They were laughing, and full of life, which helped me wake up - I was delayed.  I wish I had got their names.  I pointed out that it meant suffering and passion, they laughed and told me how when they learned that, they understood everything.  They were escaping a Dutch dig for a shorter project in the mountains.

Train ride was uneventful, I was able to secure a hostel via my blackberry, and am writing from it now.  Bucarest is not thrilling, though being Sunday might have something to do with it.  I had to correct my check for lunch where they tried to just tack on extra items, caused a bit of an argument.  Then, when I found a nice place to read, and had a drink, they had trouble with the credit card machine.  The woman got really nasty, but suddenly it worked.  I guess she gave up trying to get cash from me.  Everyone seems to be ripping you off here.  The bus driver this morning from the hostel tried to tell me I had to give him extra money.  I ignored him, and when other people got on the bus, he stopped pestering me.  I know that with a backpack, I look like a foreigner - but this is unprecedented in my experience of treatment of foreigners.  In the email from the hostel I did receive the following notes though, which maybe explains it all:

> > Romania. Golden rules:
> >
> > NO-ONE FROM THIS HOSTEL IS STATIONED AT THE TRAIN STATION! If anyone
> > says otherwise, they are lying,
> > and trying to rip you off.
> >
> > DO NOT ACCEPT A TAXI OR ANY OTHER SERVICE OFFERED TO YOU BY ANYONE IN OR
> > AROUND THE TRAIN STATION! The taxis there are parasites, and people have
> > paid up to 50 times as much as they should have by taking them from
> there!> > Romania. Golden rules:
> >
> > NO-ONE FROM THIS HOSTEL IS STATIONED AT THE TRAIN STATION! If anyone
> > says otherwise, they are lying,
> > and trying to rip you off.
> >
> > DO NOT ACCEPT A TAXI OR ANY OTHER SERVICE OFFERED TO YOU BY ANYONE IN OR
> > AROUND THE TRAIN STATION! The taxis there are parasites, and people have
> > paid up to 50 times as much as they should have by taking them from
> there!

It was easy to find, and the directions were very thorough for getting here - including how to validate my ticket:

> > You may
> > get a fine if you ride the bus with no ticket, or if you don't validate
> > it properly (by sliding it into one of the little boxes placed
> > throughout the buses, and pulling the top towards you, it should stamp
> > holes in the ticket).