The Wild East

"...we had inadvertently crashed some kids party"

The next day was an early start- up at 5.30 to get the train to Brasov. It was absolutely heaving. We were given a harsh fine (80p) for not reserving beforehand.
In Romania you have to make a reservation every time you board a train. A legacy from the communist era when travel was discouraged, and the police could easily record every journey made. A few gypsy children shoved their way down the carriage. One would 'play' a harmonica and another would 'sing'. They were dire, and made a huge din.

By midday we were approaching Brasov, Romania's biggest tourist centre. We arrived in the station and began our plan of finding accommodation.
A very good- looking girl pounced on us and began the hard sell- free taxi ride there, free internet access, central location…She was called Eni, spoke very good British English, was friendly and sociable, and had long dark hair.
Me and Taylor were soon convinced this would be a good option, though I don't think we got an especially good deal….her looks were probably a great asset for the hostel.
The hostel was miles from the town centre,and they moved us into another room with some strangers. There was the possibility it could be two psychos...

I was very impressed with Brasov and my negative views of Romania were changing.We retraced Taylor's steps from '99 by catching a cable car up to 3000 feet, where we enjoyed a cold beer with good views over Transylvanian mountains.

We had a typically unimaginative dinner in a pizza restaurant. It was good, but something was really off, as I would discover the next day- luckily I had some Immodium!

The Belfast Bar, our evening's entertainment was near the hostel (score: 1/10). We, the sole patrons ordered beers at 23p each while the bland TV played in the background. The décor was 1970s with everything in orange or brown.
It was totally deserted apart from the butch female owner and her friend - an extremely ugly dungaree-clad woman with triangular crooked teeth, Mark quickly pointed out, who was very drunk. She wanted more beers, but couldn't pay for them, and started wailing to the uncaring owner.
Later Mark was so taken a back by her ugliness that he got out his camera intending to get footage of Crooked Teeth.
She spied it and could smell money.
She started pestering us for money, and was more persistent than the gypsies. In hindsight it would have been easiest to chip 11p each for another beer. But a slight misunderstanding ensued.

Taylor gulped his beer down intending to get out ASAP.
I couldn't tolerate the idea of being chased out of a pub by a woman, and drank my beer as leisurely as possible initiating a disagreement between me and taylor, but we got out alive, and unscathed...just.

It was very noisy in the hostel that night, our companions weren't back.
They came in at about 3am, Taylor slept threw the ordeal as they turned on the bedroom light. They were 2 Canadian girls (who probably got a nasty shock when they arrived back to find some strange men sleeping in their room!)
No sign of Eni at the hostel.

Sighisoara - a little village in the heart of Transylvania. Very touristy for Romania. Taylor negotiated our accomodation with a loitering local: the house was a bit of a dump, but the room was comfortable and centrally located.
Dracula lurked everywhere, though his main danger was how many pounds, dollars, deutschmarks, lei… he could suck out of the tourists.
We sat and ate lunch and dinner outside at a little café. There were two waitresses: Diane and Claudia. Diane was late 30s, smiled and generally friendly. Claudia was late 20s/30ish had dyed reddish hair, and looked continually pissed-off.
Maybe she thought she should have been a model, and she probably would have been had she lived in Western Europe, since she had the figure and looks, but unfortunately she was the owner of a Romanian passport.
I had a little issue with Claudia. I have a kind of in-built mentality to try and speak as much of the local language as possible, and try to blend in like a chameleon. I had been attempting to convey the menu in Romanian, and had probably been talking gibberish.

Claudia suddenly lost her temper "SPEAK IN ENGLISH!!" she snapped, slamming the menu down on the table. I ordered apologetically in English. Anyway about 20mins later she came out with 1 meal and placed in front of Mark. I looked for mine but she just gave me a long cold stare. It looked like I was going hungry.

It wasn't long before the English duo were causing trouble again. After unsuccessfully looking for the Black Box disco, we found another disco. It was free, but the bouncers looked at us a bit strangely. We stepped inside, and looked around.
Almost immediately we began attracting stares. I had the discomfort and paranoia of someone who can see they are a topic of conversation. Everybody seemed so young as well, about 13/14. We purchased some local beers, and sat down at a large, unoccupied table. I had my back to the crowd, but I could still feel the stares.
Taylor also seemed unusually uneasy.

Then someone came over and told us to move- this was reserved for a party. We drifted over to the dancefloor.
It only struck us later that we had inadvertently crashed some kids party, hence the stares, and why nobody was more than about 14.

The next day was a long journey. We went through Copsa Mica (most polluted town in Europe).
During the journey I purchased a couple of beers from Copsa Mica, Taylor refused his after the first sip. Almost gasping for air he noted that it 'tasted like metal'. I finished his and mine. The train winding into Oradea took a ridiculous amount of time to cover a small distance, and was constantly becoming more popular. On one occasion a local just manged to catch the train: he threw his bike on but the train was already accelerating and he was fortunate to scramble aboard.
Meanwhile Taylor is performing his usual party trick: a young child sat next to him is disproportionatly interested in his water bottle and maintains his interest for well over an hour.
We didn't get to Oradea, close to the Hungarian border until 11 at night.

The hotel was one of the most rundown I've ever stayed in. The toilet doors were kicked in, the shower lights didn't work, and it became clear it was a brothel. At least it was cheap....

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