Brasov, Sinaia, train troubles, and a winter proposal.

Hey friends, I’m really close to getting you all up to speed on my trip through Romania. Hitting up a new city every couple of days made it difficult to stay on track and continuously update the blog, but now that I’ve settled on a farm in Bulgaria for a couple of weeks I have some more down time.

Let’s see, where was I...

I arrived in Brașov on a Sunday night after an hour train delay. Brașov is nestled among mountains in Transylvania, and I could tell as soon as I got off the train that it would be a chilly couple of days. I was tired and hungry, but fortunately my host, Eftenie, picked me up from the station, brought me back to the apartment, and fed me homemade tomato soup with dumplings, plus chicken and roasted potatoes. By the time dessert (delicious apple cake) came around, I was feeling myself again.

Unfortunately, the weather was not too kind to me in Brașov. The next morning I awoke to clouds and rain, the first bad weather I had experienced since I left Italy.  I soldiered through, and wandered around the city center for a bit before meeting Colin, the man I mentioned in the post before, who is looking for a house sitter this winter. It was getting pretty miserable outside, so I looked for a museum to hang out in for about an hour before I was supposed to meet Colin. Unfortunately, it was Monday, and all the museums were closed, so I settled in with my Kindle and a cappuccino in a small cafe.

After a while, I met Colin for another coffee, and we ended up chatting for two hours. He’s from England, but has lived in Romania for twenty years. He’s the sole proprietor of Roving Romania, and takes tourists by Land Rover around the country. Every winter he goes back to the UK to visit family, from mid-January to mid-March. He doesn’t like closing up his house, so he asks someone to stay for a couple of months. The gig isn’t paid, and you need to pay for your own food, but there’s central heating wi-fi, and television provided.

Brasov

I had some other ideas for what to do between January and March, namely, continue to volunteer in Turkey and then visit Spain for a few weeks. However, the house sitting stint sounds tempting. Two months of free housing, during which I could work on anything I wanted? Sure, you have to pay for food, but it’s ridiculously cheap in Romania. I would spend more money traveling, during the winter no less, so maybe it’s better to hunker down for a while. I figure I could work on my yoga practice, study for the GRE, finish my TEFL certification, and read as many books as possible. I could be as productive or lazy as I wanted.

As an added bonus, there’s another girl my age from the United States who’s looking into house sitting for Colin, too. We’ve had a brief email exchange, and she seems super awesome. It would probably make the time go faster, and I'm sure days would be more entertaining. (No pressure Allison, I’m sure you’re reading this :P) So, I haven’t emailed Colin yet to officially accept the position, but I’m about 90% sure I’ll do it. Thoughts, anyone?

The day after I spoke to Colin I took a day trip to Castle Bran, supposedly the castle owned by Count Dracula from the popular book. I took a bus out to Bran, the village, and waded through souvenir stands galore to get to the castle, which was quite cool. I think it depends on how I’m feeling a particular day if I wanted to be surrounded by locals or tourists. Today was a tourist day, and I heard many languages from across the world, and of course American accents as I wandered through the castle and village.

The next day was to be a long one, as I was planning a stop in Sinaia before heading to Bucharest, Romania’s capital city. I woke up early to catch my 9am train, which was to stop in Sinaia before continuing southward. I had a nice conversation with a Romanian guy in my cabin, and before I knew it, we had reached the Sinaia station. I said a quick goodbye to my brief friend, hoisted my backpack onto my shoulders and hips, and headed for the door, which...wouldn’t open.

I jiggled the handle, and found a button to press. Finally, the door seemed to give way. As I pushed it open, the train started to move. Great. I saw a couple of what I’m guessing were train security guards on the platform.

Me: “Sinaia? Can I get off?”

Them: “Nope.”

In hindsight, the train was moving slow enough that I could have hopped off. But I didn’t. Instead, the ticket

Oh Campina

guy found me, somewhat frantic, and flipped through his timetable book to tell me where I could get off and take a train back to Sinaia. Slightly defeated, I returned to my cabin and explained my situation to my friend and the others in the cabin. It would be about half an hour before the train stopped at the next station, so I tried to settle in, but the anxiety of missing my stop was still with me. Fortunately, my cabin friend made sure I got off the train in Campina. I purchased a ticket back to Sinaia, and sat at the platform, waiting, determined not to miss this stop.

Eventually I made it to Sinaia, which was a beautiful village nestled in the mountains. It was cold and windy the day I was there, otherwise I would have spent the entire time exploring the town. Instead, in Tourist Sophie Mode, I went to the main attractions, Peles Castle and the Sinaia Monastery, both of which were worth seeing. I then hunkered down in a bakery for some coffee and chocolate cake before making my way back to the train station. (Note to self: Buy a coat. It’s too cold for my Columbia fleece jacket, which had kept me sufficiently warm up until then.)

I purchased my ticket at the station, and sat down for a while. I was early- it was too chilly to explore some more, and I was NOT going to miss my train. I fed some bread crumbs to a pigeon trapped in the station, and tried to lead him out the door with a trail of crumbs- except there were several stray dogs right in front of the doorway. That pigeon was not going anywhere. I earned a sympathetic smile from an older woman waiting for her train.

Eventually, a train arrived at the platform I was waiting for. I looked at my watch. Eight minutes early? Good! The sooner I can get on, the better. I was ushered on to the train quickly by the ticket collector. I hopped on, and as soon as I got to the seats, the train started moving...fuck. That should not be happening. Trains never leave the station early. I asked the ticket man- this goes to Bucharest, right? Nope, Ploiești, a city before Bucharest...great. He tells me I can get off at Campina and pick up the train to Bucharest there. I start to laugh. This is not my train day.

Back at Campina.

That being said, I’ve actually been pretty lucky on this trip. This is the most transportation trouble I’ve had, and I managed to cram it all into one day. Hopefully I’ll be a little smarter in the future.

Eventually, I board the actual train that will take me to Bucharest, my last stop in Romania, and the subject of my next post.

To be continued!