so I figure I'l finish up my travels' tale:
Leaving Bucharest for Brasov went easily. The weather was crap, but we had gotten a taxi to the station, so we didn't have to slog through it much. Hans and I saw Midori off on her train and then caught ours. The weather cleared up a bit on the way out of Bucharest. It's an amazing transition. You go from the very Soviet-urban environment of Bucharest's industrial centers into the pastoral farm lands that surround the city.
the weather turned sunny for the first part of the train ride. After a little ways we were into the foothills leading up to the lower Carpathian Mountains. Once we hit that it turned very autumn. Trees were doing the full change of color thing that always amazes me. We just don't get that here in South Texas very much. What we have here is mostly oak, mesquite, and cedar. The cedar just stays like it is...everything else's leaves turn brown and fall to the ground. you get a bit of color here and there, but nothing like this.
and then....an hour or so later, we were in the Carpathians proper...and there was over a foot of snow on the ground! It was a really early snow for Romanis (this was about October 20th or so). It had snowed the night before and thru that morning. I wish now that I had gotten some photos of it, but I was more interested in sitting back and just enjoying the scenery. I didn't realize that the snow would be pretty much gone by the next afternoon. OH...and the train that Hans and I rode up to Brasov in was a second class car. The seats were comfortable enough I suppose, but the overhead light didn't work and the window had a really bad leak at the top...so droplets of water from the rain and snow outside would plop down and splatter on to me every few seconds. and it was cold. but that's train travel on the cheap thru Eastern Europe for you.
We got to Brasov fairly late and tried to catch a cab. Like cabbies most everywhere the first two we talked to wanted to charge us an outrageous fare. Eventually we just caught a bus and were able thru my limited Romanian and the bus driver's much better English to get to where we wanted to stay. At that point, after an eight hour cold train ride and finding the hostel...I didn't feel much like getting out and seeing the town. Plus it was a Sunday night and most everything was closed anyway.
The next day I wandered all over Brasov. It's an interesting town. I wanted to also make to the nearby Bran Castle and a couple of monastaries, but it turned out that everything is also closed on Mondays, museum wise. But walking around Brasov was fun. The Saxon old town where my hostel was is very Germanic looking and tourist friendly. Expensive. but I stopped into a shop for a good latte and checked out a couple of book stores. I think now that I should have gotten a couple books in Romanian to read at home and work on my language use. Once you get out of old town, Brasov is very much like other smaller Eastern European cities that are still coming out of their Cold War identities. Lots of huge concrete block apartment buildings, but with some of the older brick and stone structures mixed in . The weather had warmed up just enough for the snow to become rain and to melt most of the snow off by midday, but I still managed to get a few photos with the snow on the ground. The effect of Brasov at night under a blanket of snow is incredible, though.
Hans and I walked back up to the train station, which turned out to be less than three or four miles from the hostel. There was a sort of shopping mall by the statoin with a food court and we decided to take a chance on the Chinese Food stall. It was actually pretty tasty...and very cheap. We ended up heading out to an actual local restaurant later that evening. The local fare was excellent. The waiter conned us into ordering a shot of some brandy before dinner (I think it was plum brandy) saying it was traditional to have some before dinner. That shot made me almost instantly drunk. I don't know what exactly it was...but I suspect it was the distilled remains of drunken Romanian who have died from alcohol poisoning.
I had to head back to Budapest the next day. I wish I could have stayed in Brasov for another day to see Bran Castle, but my plane was leaving Wednesday and I wanted to get to Budapest the day before so I could have a good night's sleep before the long flight back to New York. I slept most of the train ride. I went and upgraded to a first class car, which wasn't all that much nicer, but it was sealed airtight from the outside winds and rain. I got into Budapest and to my hostel, no problem. I'm actually pretty familar with Budapest's train station and metro system by now, which is nice. I stayed in a really incredible hostel. It's the Mandragora hostel. It has a very zen, calm, zoned-out-hippie feel to it. The worker that let me in was a soft spoken Hungarian with dredlocks near down to his feet. And the rooms, while a little close quartered...were very cozy and relaxing.
that was the view sitting up from my bed.
apparantly I had missed some craziness the day before. It was a national holiday for the anniversary of Hungarian independence and there had been some kind of large riots downtown closer to the parliamant building. I wish I could have been there to get some photos. Instead I had a nice quiet evening hanging out with some Australians (of course) and drinking some red wine.
The next day was insane because I misread my flight time. I had written down the time for my CONNECTING flight out of Amsterdam instead of my time for the flight leaving to Amsterdam. I realized this about forty minutes before my flight was supposed to have left. The hostel worker who was there that morning lept into action and called a taxi she knew to be good. He arrived, she explained the situation, and he hurried me into his cab and took off like a shot. It was a very spy movie kind of feel. He didn't break any traffic laws aside from the speed limit, even refusing to run a light that was just barely turning red. But he zoomed down back streets and what I'm sure were meant to be alleyways in his little taxi, turning off of asphalt roads and down cobblestone streets. He zipped around slower cars and made sudden turns to avoid a garbage truck blocking one roadway, and a construction zone in another. He pulled up in front of the airport three minutes after my flightwas supposed to have left. I gave him all my Hungarian money I had left (couldn't change it anyway) and ran to the counter. The lady looked at my ticket and pointed me towards the reticketing counter. I asked her to check on the flight because I noticed that online it had said it was delayed, but it didn't say by how long. She made a tortuously long phone call...sitting on hold for what seemed to be about four days...before looking up at me and smiling. "The plane just now landed. They aren't even boarding for another thirty minutes. You are very lucky!" Hurrah!
so. I made it into New York on time.
I should probably make that part three. i can tell from the paucity of comments that you kids just aint into these long rambling tales as much as I am into typing them up for my own later rememberances.
and you can still find all the photos right hyah!
Leaving Bucharest for Brasov went easily. The weather was crap, but we had gotten a taxi to the station, so we didn't have to slog through it much. Hans and I saw Midori off on her train and then caught ours. The weather cleared up a bit on the way out of Bucharest. It's an amazing transition. You go from the very Soviet-urban environment of Bucharest's industrial centers into the pastoral farm lands that surround the city.
the weather turned sunny for the first part of the train ride. After a little ways we were into the foothills leading up to the lower Carpathian Mountains. Once we hit that it turned very autumn. Trees were doing the full change of color thing that always amazes me. We just don't get that here in South Texas very much. What we have here is mostly oak, mesquite, and cedar. The cedar just stays like it is...everything else's leaves turn brown and fall to the ground. you get a bit of color here and there, but nothing like this.
and then....an hour or so later, we were in the Carpathians proper...and there was over a foot of snow on the ground! It was a really early snow for Romanis (this was about October 20th or so). It had snowed the night before and thru that morning. I wish now that I had gotten some photos of it, but I was more interested in sitting back and just enjoying the scenery. I didn't realize that the snow would be pretty much gone by the next afternoon. OH...and the train that Hans and I rode up to Brasov in was a second class car. The seats were comfortable enough I suppose, but the overhead light didn't work and the window had a really bad leak at the top...so droplets of water from the rain and snow outside would plop down and splatter on to me every few seconds. and it was cold. but that's train travel on the cheap thru Eastern Europe for you.
We got to Brasov fairly late and tried to catch a cab. Like cabbies most everywhere the first two we talked to wanted to charge us an outrageous fare. Eventually we just caught a bus and were able thru my limited Romanian and the bus driver's much better English to get to where we wanted to stay. At that point, after an eight hour cold train ride and finding the hostel...I didn't feel much like getting out and seeing the town. Plus it was a Sunday night and most everything was closed anyway.
The next day I wandered all over Brasov. It's an interesting town. I wanted to also make to the nearby Bran Castle and a couple of monastaries, but it turned out that everything is also closed on Mondays, museum wise. But walking around Brasov was fun. The Saxon old town where my hostel was is very Germanic looking and tourist friendly. Expensive. but I stopped into a shop for a good latte and checked out a couple of book stores. I think now that I should have gotten a couple books in Romanian to read at home and work on my language use. Once you get out of old town, Brasov is very much like other smaller Eastern European cities that are still coming out of their Cold War identities. Lots of huge concrete block apartment buildings, but with some of the older brick and stone structures mixed in . The weather had warmed up just enough for the snow to become rain and to melt most of the snow off by midday, but I still managed to get a few photos with the snow on the ground. The effect of Brasov at night under a blanket of snow is incredible, though.
Hans and I walked back up to the train station, which turned out to be less than three or four miles from the hostel. There was a sort of shopping mall by the statoin with a food court and we decided to take a chance on the Chinese Food stall. It was actually pretty tasty...and very cheap. We ended up heading out to an actual local restaurant later that evening. The local fare was excellent. The waiter conned us into ordering a shot of some brandy before dinner (I think it was plum brandy) saying it was traditional to have some before dinner. That shot made me almost instantly drunk. I don't know what exactly it was...but I suspect it was the distilled remains of drunken Romanian who have died from alcohol poisoning.
I had to head back to Budapest the next day. I wish I could have stayed in Brasov for another day to see Bran Castle, but my plane was leaving Wednesday and I wanted to get to Budapest the day before so I could have a good night's sleep before the long flight back to New York. I slept most of the train ride. I went and upgraded to a first class car, which wasn't all that much nicer, but it was sealed airtight from the outside winds and rain. I got into Budapest and to my hostel, no problem. I'm actually pretty familar with Budapest's train station and metro system by now, which is nice. I stayed in a really incredible hostel. It's the Mandragora hostel. It has a very zen, calm, zoned-out-hippie feel to it. The worker that let me in was a soft spoken Hungarian with dredlocks near down to his feet. And the rooms, while a little close quartered...were very cozy and relaxing.
that was the view sitting up from my bed.
apparantly I had missed some craziness the day before. It was a national holiday for the anniversary of Hungarian independence and there had been some kind of large riots downtown closer to the parliamant building. I wish I could have been there to get some photos. Instead I had a nice quiet evening hanging out with some Australians (of course) and drinking some red wine.
The next day was insane because I misread my flight time. I had written down the time for my CONNECTING flight out of Amsterdam instead of my time for the flight leaving to Amsterdam. I realized this about forty minutes before my flight was supposed to have left. The hostel worker who was there that morning lept into action and called a taxi she knew to be good. He arrived, she explained the situation, and he hurried me into his cab and took off like a shot. It was a very spy movie kind of feel. He didn't break any traffic laws aside from the speed limit, even refusing to run a light that was just barely turning red. But he zoomed down back streets and what I'm sure were meant to be alleyways in his little taxi, turning off of asphalt roads and down cobblestone streets. He zipped around slower cars and made sudden turns to avoid a garbage truck blocking one roadway, and a construction zone in another. He pulled up in front of the airport three minutes after my flightwas supposed to have left. I gave him all my Hungarian money I had left (couldn't change it anyway) and ran to the counter. The lady looked at my ticket and pointed me towards the reticketing counter. I asked her to check on the flight because I noticed that online it had said it was delayed, but it didn't say by how long. She made a tortuously long phone call...sitting on hold for what seemed to be about four days...before looking up at me and smiling. "The plane just now landed. They aren't even boarding for another thirty minutes. You are very lucky!" Hurrah!
so. I made it into New York on time.
I should probably make that part three. i can tell from the paucity of comments that you kids just aint into these long rambling tales as much as I am into typing them up for my own later rememberances.
and you can still find all the photos right hyah!