Brasov, Romania to Belgrade, Serbia

Brasov, Romania to Belgrade, Serbia

Today started with a long journey back to a new location. We departed from Brasov with kind goodbyes with Gabriel and Flavia at the hostel. We sure had a great time with them, even though our time was brief. I asked Flavia if she wanted a picture with us and she declined. But, we did get a picture in front of the reception desk. She seems a bit shy. The last night we were there, a group of 12 or so came in from Slovakia, and only for one night. She had told us that this was her least favorite since all the beds have to be changed and made for one night's stay. But, that's part of the job and she understands. Gabriel was out getting his Dacia's front quarter panels replaced and a new front end paint job. It's great he still takes such great care of this car. Hopefully other tourists will appreciate the old relic such as we have.

After the farewells, we boarded the city bus to the Brasov train terminal. Once again, it was time to fight off Roma people and kill an hour until the next train. The train station always has people to watch and this time we could see people working together to steal bags, or that's what it looked like. Some men passed us many times and were looking for easy targets. They never made a lift as we could see, but it sure would have been easy without obvious police presence. Gabriel told us that there were plain clothes police in there and he knows a few of them. We were assured that all would be good. We found a safe place with a good view and observed the people.

Next, was the train from Brasov to Bucharest. Nothing crazy here, but another nice ride through the mountains with cool air ending in the large city of Bucharest. This station is much more busy than Brasov and we had a longer time to kill. We needed water and a little food. The first place I went for water wanted 5 lei for 1.5L, so I put it back and told the lady that was too much. She and her 2 helpers started yelling at me about something in Romanian, and I took off. The station was super humid and hot, so a refuge of air conditioned comfort would help, so we entered what looked like the only place we could head to, Mc Donald's. Yes, we were dead smack in the middle of Romania and we were going to sit in an air conditioned Mc Donald's. We ordered off the dollar menu, which was their 3.5 lei menu. When you do something like that and need the air conditioning, you take your sweet time eating the minimal food you brought. One time in Moab, Utah, Katherine and I were able to kill almost 2 hours at a Mc Donald's. The people around the station were mostly legitimate tourists, but there is always the occasional opportunist and trickster. Those guys want to distract you and always say hello to start a conversation. After the conversation begins, they start in on their little scheme. I just look them straight in the face now and point my finger back and forth while saying "no" a couple of times. They get the point even if I do look like a total tourist with blonde hair and a large bag on my back. Gunna miss them though, it keeps things interesting.

The next train would be a sleeper car for the 3 of us going to Belgrade, Serbia. As we boarded, the train was hot as Hell. No joke, Hell must be about this hot, I assume. The room was nice, but unbearable. Once we got going, I opened the window, which didn't help that much. I used a magazine to funnel air into the room from the outside only to bring in a few of the flying bugs of the night. Great. After an hour or two, the mini air conditioner, we thought, was starting to cool. I shut the window to see what it was capable of. Not much. If you leave the window open, the sound of the tracks is enough to wake even the heaviest sleeper, and if it's shut, you sweat like a rat. We opted for quiet heat which finally cooled off and became bearable.

Now that we are in Serbia, I will pick up in the next post, since it is the next day.