BUCHAREST, ROMANIA

2016-01-29, 15:33, JASON

STAY: UMBRELLA HOSTEL

‍

The train ride over from Veliko Tarnovo was the sauss-a-bauss. Thorin blogged briefly about the Germans and Australians we shared a cart with. It was the weirdest culture exchange. Aussies talking about their "pavs" (pavlovas) and how to make the perfect "pav", with a bit of German loopiness on the side. They were enjoyable. I peed on the train -- no, not on the seat -- and the hole just led to the tracks so that you could see the earth moving beneath your feet. Quite the experience.

The main station in Bucharest is further out from our hostel, so we have to walk in. During the day time, it's pretty chill. I'll elaborate more about the walk on the way back from our trip to Sinaia, another small town just outside of Bucharest. So, back to today, we check into the hostel, throw our things down, then begin our day of touring Bucharest.

The biggest surprise was getting out of the "Romania is this developing country" mindset. Actually, of all the capital cities we have been to, Bucharest had a modern, 'high end' street with all your name brand stores and shops. The buildings were grandiose and developed, and there was a lot of things to see down the main promenade. The cost of things was also higher in restaurants, and so a far cry from what we had imagined. In the town center, there were no 'gypsies' that we heard of abroad, and no poverty like we imagined. The entire city layout is sprawling, and so the buildings span wide, and are decked out with that Western European decadence, except, you know, you're in freaking Romania!

I can't remember a lot of the things that we saw. There is this section that exists kind of in a square of sorts, and there are a lot of churches inside that bit. I recall actually, taking a picture of one of the churches, and trying to get Thorin into it. We then get these two -- what I imagine were -- Romanian ladies that are like, take a picture with me in it, take a picture with me. So we're both like.. uh... and then I say O.K. because I'm fucking STUPID. Thorin is weary in this situation, and then I start to get the hint a bit. We keep saying no, no, no and I proceed to try to take a picture with just him in there, but these girls keep nudging in. So I deleted the picture then left, but the girls wouldn't leave us alone. When Thorin dropped the gay bomb on them, they went from Caterpie to Butterfree and fled in 2 secs. Apparently, it's a popular scheme to have girls take pictures with you then to have their pimps come and collect money from you. Nooooo thanks. 

So, we're heading down that main street. Duck in to some places here and there, run into those girls above, and finally make it to the 'end' of the street. We planned to go to the world's second largest building, towered only by the Pentagon (I believe..). This is the main Parliament house for Romania, called the Palatul Parlamentului, and it's seat of the Parliament in Romania. The building is absolutely HUGE, and decked out in this grand, white stone. See what I mean:

It makes you realize how small you are. Seriously, the sheer grandness of the building on the hill just makes you look at it agape. We walk to one end, since we're not sure where the entrance is, and turns out we were at the wrong corner of the building. So, we walk down to an adjacent one and about half way to the diagonal one (i.e. we walked down and made a left) and about 25-30 minutes later, we get to the entrance. It took all that damn time just to find the entrance. So, obviously, as we get there, we're going to go. Inside was just as grand. Not as ornate I wouldn't say, but I don't mind, seeing as you'd probably buy all the world's artifacts and only fill one hall of this pantheon. There are stunning views at the main balcony that overlook Bulevardi Unirii which is this hugee stretch of road that runs all the way down, into the horizon. As you can tell, we're still taken away by the size of it all.

After the palace, we decide to walk around Bucharest, just a free wander. We ran into some other cool buildings like universities, and attempted to look for a mini Arc de Triomphe that Bucharest advertised. Because the city is so big, it took us substantial time to walk from the Parliament house to the Arc. However, when we finally got the Arc, say, about 3 or 3.5 hours of just walking, we get there to find that it's under construction!! But, by that time we are so delusional that we just laugh it off and say, "well, that was a good walk." That's how it is sometimes, you either get to see it or not.. whatev. 

And, that's our tour day in Bucharest! We went back to the hospital knackered, and just sat around, and pretty soon found ourselves amidst a conversation with some interesting people. There was an Israeli guy that was nuts about tahini, and he was the friendliest guy ever. He was sharing with us his travel stories and discussing different methods to make tahini. He then prepared a dish for everyone in the hostel and offered the food up. Nothing hotter than an Israeli who cooks good Israeli food with a good personality! After dinner, we got to drinking, as we do. Popped over to the local and bought some beers. We were then joined by two Brazilians, one that looked Japanese mixed and one that was white Brazilian. It was pretty cool, they joined in and began talking about some food and shit as well, and joined in for the whole dinner preparation thing. But, the last guy stole it all. So, usually in Europe you don't come across a lot of black folks. Well, let me rephrase: in Eastern Europe, you don't come across a lot of black people. You just don't, and the reason can be a whole mixture of things. Let's not get into that. For whatever reason that night, there was a guy from Martinique. Now, everyone's like, "Whoa, where the fuck's that??" But, if you paid attention in geography (or, if you even took it? I know I had to look't up), it's a small French island in the Caribbean. And, he was studying medicine in Romania. At least, I think he was. His English wasn't that good, so we just chatted to him a bit about back home and what it's like. He didn't drink any beer with us, but we don't discriminate (too much at least. Only a bit). At one point, we're not getting what he's saying, and all the while this Canadian guy comes out of nowhere and just begins chilling with us. Turns out, he's Quebecois so I mean, speaks some inkling of the French language, and he begins conversing with him about Romania. I swear, the most random night we've come across in terms of international presence. Anyway, we've not kept in touch with them, but, as it goes, they make for a great story, and some great ambassadors of local history.

The next day we decided to take a day trip to Sinaia and then come back into Bucharest, so that we could leave for Chisinau. This section requires a little detailing... So, imagine we've gone to Sinaia and back, and we're onto the next day. First, we pull into Gara du Nord again, except this time at night. Holy shit folks, this place is TERRIFYING. There are homeless people abound on the streets (their homelessness didn't make it terrifying, just their presence was off), and these really sketchy people looking around and staring, and making weird noises. I'm not sure what it is really that made it weird, but the crowd out there was just vicious on an emotional level. Then, we hear what sounds like these gunshots about 100 meters back from us, and then a bunch of honking, so immediately our hearts jump. Turns out, there was a car accident right behind us and the person in the car in front was just sitting there, unconscious. I'm not sure actually if they died or not, we put our heads down and kept walking. So, after we got the hostel a bit shook up, we thought OK, time to get our asses to Moldova. The people at the hostel agreed to call us a bus, and for the bus to meet us at some bus station maybe 5 km walk away, leaving at 23:30. We say fine, and decide to walk. The walk from our hostel to the bus stop started off fine, down the same street that we went on the day before. However, once we passed the parts we were familiar with, we had about another 2 km to go, and these street afterwards were deserted. It was about 22:30 and there was no one around. Everything was quiet, and it was just Thorin and I walking by ourselves. I've never felt so scared before.

We arrive at the bus station -- or what we think is a bus station-- on time. But, there's no one there. All there is is this abandoned old ticket counter, with one gate open into what I think is the main waiting area. We push open the door, and there's this old homeless man giving us this nasty look like, "what the heck?? what are you doing here?" so we walk around, see if anyone's around, and there's no one there but a few stray dogs and this guy. We ask him for a bus, if there's one headed to Chisinau, and he says all the buses have finished for the night. Sigh..

So, we decide to wait it out until 23:30 to see if our proposed bus would come, but it never does. What we do see though, is these small vans starting to line up, and some people getting onto the van, with the front having a sign saying "CHISINAU, MOLDOVA." We hesitate a moment, but quick realize we are not letting our asses die tonight, so ask them to take us to Moldova. The guy's English is non-existent. So is our Romanian. Luckily, a university student who spoke a traceling of English said I can help you translate. And, so, with a stroke of luck that is how two know-nothings of the world boarded a bus that we knew no one on to Moldova. I think we were so clueless all of that night, wondering where the bus was, where we were headed, etc. But, as it goes, every turn is an adventure. By the end of that night and walk we were just so relieved we found a way to Chisinau.

Given that, perhaps parts of Romania aren't as safe as we imagined. Perhaps some bits aren't as developed as well, except for that central bit. Maybe we just saw the minority. However, I will say that Romania is such a vast country and diverse; all we saw was the city. Apparently there are salt caves around, a bunch of nature hikes, and just a lot of culture to take in. It's one of those places we never thought we'd go but, as it is with traveling, you go where the budget buses, flights, and boats take you. Holla, Romania! <