On the way to Romania

Did I already say that I love Romania? Because if not – that’s what you have to know! Because it’s just an amazing country! And what’s best, with every trip I love it even more and it seems like every single trip is just better than the previous one…

This time I went for whole week and destinations were two – Brasov and then Sambata de Sus in Fagaras mountains for the festival In Transylvania.

But the story begins in Chisinau, on the road next to Gara de Sud where my first ever hitchhiking trip started. It was early morning (around 11 am :P) and we should be in Brasov in the night same day. Sounds like a plan? Well, not really!

 

The first thing I got to know very fast it’s that hitchhiking sucks! Ok, maybe it’s not that bad, but seems like this sport it totally not for me! Too much waiting, too much sun, too much things that get on my nerves and I end up mad all the time. 

Beautiful Brasov

We waited quite long time for the first car, but we managed to get with it to the border with Romania, so it was very lucky, only that we had to pay for it anyway. Because that’s how autostop looks in Moldova or Romania, it’s just a normal mean of transport that you pay for. But fortunately it wasn’t all the time like this, in Romania we managed to catch 3 cars where the guys where really friendly and understood that for foreign tourists hitchhiking means something different and they didn’t ask us for money. 

Guy no. 1 was Moldovan working in Iasi and that’s where he took us. I’ve already been to Iasi and I had nice impressions about it, what’s good because if this was my first visit I would hate it to unbelievable extend! Why? Mostly because people in Iasi have no idea where they live and because we were walking for 2 or 3 hours around, looking for the places that don’t exist or don’t work. Example? We had to get to the main train station – “go to this station and take bus no. …” – bus with this number wasn’t even there! We ask another person about train station – “bus? You don’t need the bus, it’s just here, maybe 500 m”. Well, exactly that’s how it was, only that the station was some kind of old station that wasn’t even working. After, we just took a taxi to the center, ate and checked on the internet where we should go to catch the car. Plenty of buses, all depart from Piata Eminescu, the biggest or second biggest square in the city. You’d think it would be easy to find it? NO WAY! Out of 6-7 people we asked, only one (sic!) knew where it is, despite that we were very close to it, in the center! Oooo, Iasi people, you need to revise some knowledge about the city! 

 

Then it was quite easy, after couple of minutes a very nice guy stopped and took us all the way to Bacau, next big city on our way. He even left us on the way to the next city in our plan, only that it was already quite late and we decided to look for the bus to Brasov. But how? We noticed this older guy going around and asked him for the direction to the bus station, but he said it’s pretty far. Then he started asking questions and we explained him (in my “perfect” Romanian – yeah, I speak this language when there’s no other way to survive :P) what is our situation. And he turned out to be such a great guy! He called few of his friends, working on bus stations and on train station (he seemed to have friends everywhere) to check if there is anything going to Brasov now. It wasn’t. So he called his another friend, a taxi driver who took us to the hotel, as it was the only solution now. 

 

Of course I was so pissed off (mostly on hitchhiking) because the hotel wasn’t cheap and we still had a reservation at the hostel in Brasov. I called there begging to not cancel our reservation, promising that we’ll pay 3 nights anyway, but the owner was totally cool. She said that there’s no worries about our places and that we will pay only for 2 nights anyway. Very nice hostel by the way – Liberty Villa on strada Democratiei – cheapest option in Brasov and very decent place. 

 

So we stayed for a night in Bacau but we were too far from the center to visit anything. Instead, we made a manele party at our hotel with the bottle of beer and manele channel on TV (one song worse than other, exceptional experience). 

Brasov

 

 Next day we left quite early and caught a car to Onesti, next bigger city on our way, so it went quite smooth so far. Then it changed a bit, it was visible that most of the cars are local and they didn’t seem to go in a longer journey. Finally one car stopped, it was this 30 years old (at least) Dacia with a pair of gypsies inside. For a second I had this thought that maybe it’s not good idea, but then I thought “why not” and we got in. And it was such a great experience, in this car, with gypsy music and this woman dressed exactly like Roma women from the movies, passing all these hills, forests and gypsy villages on the way.

At some moment we got to the point that was kind of neighborhood of the driver, he was cherishing many people on the way and I had this thought in my mind “wow, if they wanted to rob us now it would be like nothing easier”. Maybe it wasn’t too nice and politically correct from me, but then it got even worse, as the driver started watching us in the mirror in very obvious, creepy way and had a phone conversation with someone and what I understood from is was “din Polonia” and “cinci sute de euro” (from Poland and 500 euro). Well, maybe I’m a paranoid, but in this moment my heart started beating really fast and I just wanted to get out. Finally nothing happened, they left us in the city they were supposed to and it seemed we just had too big imagination. 

 

One more car (that we also had to pay, so in total cost exactly as much as the bus from Bacau) and we arrived to Brasov – lovely city surrounded by mountains. We spent 2,5 days there, already on the first day taking the free tour that starts at 6 pm on the main square next to fountain. Good way to hear some interesting stories about the city. 

The narrow street in Brasov

Brasov is so beautiful and a bit touristic too; there are many nice bars and cafes, mostly in the area of Piata Sfatului and strada Republicii. It’s also close to other famous attractions like Bran castle or Sinaia with Peles castle. On the second day we went to Bran and my friend took the tour in the castle, as I’ve already been there, but she didn’t seem too impressed. I agree it’s not too impressive, but it’s a nice experience and I recommend going there. 

 

Evenings in Brasov we sent on watching football games, as it was the end of World Championship and just wandering around different bars. Very relaxing time. Don’t miss coming to Brasov, you’ll love that!

The second part – about festival in the next post ;) This one seems already too long :)  

Once again Brasov :)