Sibiu Sorrows

So, my travels and time in Sibiu, the 2007 EU Cultural capital, was quite interesting. I first came from Cluj and looked at bus times and saw it would take about 4 hours to travel 150 km, which I saw as a ridiculous experience. I really have grown to hate the minibuses in this country and plan to avoid them at all costs. So, I talked to the hostel guy and asked if it'd be easier hitchhiking, and he said yea, probably. So, he helped me prepare for it, told me where I should go and wait and thus, I did. I went there and was a bit confused with it all. I had my sign and I was waiting, and cars were stopping and taking everyone else but me, and I started getting discouraged.

But finally, after about 45 minutes or an hour wait, I got a ride from a pretty nice car from a pretty young guy. I thought that it was great because of course he'll be able to speak English. Most young people in this country can speak English pretty well and since this guy has a nice car, I imagined that he'd be able. I crawled in the car and said, "Vorbit engleza?" And he said "Nu", so I then asked him if he spoke any other language that I know anything in, (German, Spanish, Russian, Czech) and he said he spoke Czech! So we talked for 2 hours all the way to Sibiu... Ok, not true... he said that he only spoke Romanian and no other language. But no problem, I was determined to have fun with this, so I pulled out the papers I had printed out before my travels on Romanian phrases and I asked him things like What's your name, Where are you from, How old are you, he helped me count to 20. We had ourselves a real ball. And by the time we got to Sibiu, we were discussing the effects of Global Warming in connection to the recent migration of the humpback whales :D Well... almost, that is.

Yea, the car ride was fairly bland, but it went by and we were finally there. Once we got there, I took a taxi to the train station where I was to meet the guy I'd be staying with. Now... I kinda had a bad vibe about this guy from the start. Not like a serial killer vibe, but just a "this guy is strange and weird" kind of vibe. First off he started saying in his messages that he was really happy and blah blah and it was just really strange. And then he said how he refused to respond to my by SMS because of the international roaming. Seriously though, it's like five cents more. We met in front of the train station, and he was very adamant that I be THERE at THIS time. So i was, but he was 10 minutes late, and then I thought he'd be free, but no, he was just on a break and we went back to his office and then he said that I should meet him in 3 hours at this theater. Everyone knows where it is, ok? I'll see you there... Thanks very much sir, but I don't know where it is, so can you show me please? He showed me and said he was going to some classical music concert alone. And I said ok, I'll be there. And he lived 30 or more minutes from the center. As I was walking around the center, I just didn't feel right about it. Not that it would be dangerous, but just that I didn't really think it would be a very good time. The guy was a really nice guy, but I just felt strange. (Hey guy, if you're reading this, sorry).

So... I in the end, I wanted to just stay in the center, it was really fun and I wanted to be in the center, so I wrote him and said i randomly ran into an old friend i hadn't seen in 8 years and I'd be with him and stay where he's staying. And also I didn't want to walk around with all my stuff with me. I like to drop it off and then walk around like a local. I didn't get an answer and I went on my way. I found a hostel in the center and dropped my stuff off and started walking around. It was really awesome and I don't worry about anything. I came back early and used the net for a while and then I asked the receptionist about a place to get a drink about midnight. She said the pub just below. It plays good music and is open late. No problem, that's easy enough and I went. I got a drink and walked around to see the people. Let alone, I saw someone that looked familiar. Who was this familiar face? Was this a guy I had met at a previous hostel? If so, where was he staying. We exchanged greetings, and I kinda looked at him curiously for a bit, and then it hit me who he MUST be!! He's the guy whose place I was to stay at!! :D Gosh, I went back into the other room, finished my drink at a faster than average pace and then went back up and went to bed. It was a classic moment that will live in infamy. :D

Bus Stories thus far

So, in the bus scene, it's been a bit interesting. In inter city buses, nothing really ever seems to go right.

My first experience was when I was traveling on a one hour minibus from Sighisoara to Targu Mures. It seems like a fairly simple idea. Just wait to you get to a big city and then get off at the main bus station, doesn't it? No no, that'd be way too easy. First, what you have to do is wait til you get to the city, clearly say only the city's name and point outside. When they don't understand you, you say it again with more vigor. When they nod, you look really scared because the bus didn't stop at a station and has already left the station. You get up, run to the front of the bus where an old lady is standing and look at her in despair trying to get her attention. You say the city's name again and she nods in agreement. You look more scared then and try and get her to tell the bus driver that you don't want to leave this city. She says something in Romanian to the effect of "Where are you going?" You mutter "here" with other nonsensical noises and point downwards. After a few minutes she does the same thing, as well as you do. But wait!... the bus is beginning to slow down and stop. But is this a bus station? No.... it's just a normal city bus stop. What am I doing here? you get off either way. you look around totally confused, but luckily you have the number of the guy who was supposed to meet you. You call him and say you have no idea where you are. He asks you to describe it. You say... well, I'm on the main street and there's a big yellow building and a sign with the date, time, and temperature. Later, you find out it's the Polyclinic and he makes it there. And it leaves you thinking... What in the hell just happened here?

Here's a photo of a minibus which are everywhere and act as real buses. Oh yea, it was an hour late also which is normal.


Story number two comes when I was planning on traveling from Targu Mures to Sigheti Maramures in the north. What is supposed to be a 5 hour trip. In the morning we went there because there was supposed to be a bus that leaves daily. We get there and apparently this bus is on holiday for the next two weeks. Oh, great, awesome, maybe they should update the national bus website sometime. Ok, no problem... luckily I don't care about keeping a schedule... where could i go. Where does the next bus go to? There was a bus (a real bus this time) going to a big city 2 hours away called Cluj. I really hadn't been planning on visiting this place, but I thought ok why not. So i went to the bus and tried to get on... you'd think it would be simple enough, wouldn't you? Just buy a ticket and get on, right? Well... you forget my friend that I'm traveling in Romania, the land where the traveller always gets the shaft.
I walked up and asked for one ticket please (actually my friend did cuz i don't speak Romanian if you didn't know). Yes? one ticket you want huh? Sorry, we have a few spots open still but I'm not gonna sell it to you right now, said the bus driver. (You see, the bus didn't end in Cluj, but in a big city 4 hours farther.) So, he said, if no one comes who wants to go to the farther city, then you can go, but you'll have to wait until right up to the time when we're ready to go. (Sounds like a reasonable sentence from a reasonable SOB, huh?)
Anyways, by the time we left, we went and asked again and there happened to be one seat left, and he said that it's "somewhere in the back". Well... of course it would have to be the one in the back corner. I'm carrying my satchel, backpack and some lunch and I look back and think, "There is no way me and all my stuff are getting back there, no freakin way." I walk and i try to put my satchel up top but it doesn't fit. Ok, no problem, i say to myself. But as i get closer to the back, people's stuff was strewn all over aisle so that I couldn't even get back there. So, first i put my lunch up top. Then kinda throw my satchel in the seat, and carefully take my backpack off and put it in the floor. And then i grabbed my lunch. So i'm sitting there, in the back corner of a crowded bus, jam packed, with my backpack between my legs, my satchel in my lap, and me trying somehow to make myself a sandwich from a loaf of bread, packaged cheese, and slices of ham, wriggling out my knife several times to cut something else open. And squooshed by the big gentleman next to me up against the window, and then trying to write something down. Wow, that was a good experience

Gypsy Lovin'

I apologize in advance for the lack of photos but i thought that it would be ok to at least give u something and i'll add a photo later, which i do have btw.

The story starts as I was leaving the town of Sighisoara the other day and walking to the bus station. The town was about as big as Kralupy but a million times more gorgeous (yes it's possible). Anyways, I was walking to the bus station with all my stuff and got there with plenty of time to spare, maybe an hour or more. I walked around looking for a market where i could buy some cheap food for snacks or sandwiches. After walking around for a while, I realized that that was a lost cause and that I just wanted something. I finally went to the only place that I had noticed to be open and selling food... a pizzeria.

As I walked in, I was accosted by this gypsy fellow with a clipboard of sorts. He asked me a question (I wasn't sure if he was wanting me to do a survey or give him money) so I just looked at him and said, "Uh... English" which gave him the idea to step down so I then thought his English was none. I sat down and five seconds later, he asked if he could sit with me. Now, at this point, I'm getting confused. I know I'm traveling alone. Gypsies have this reputation for me to be lazy thieves, always trying to scam you somehow. So needless to say, I was a bit hesitant and cold towards him right off the bat.

I sat and looked at the menu and decided what kind of pizza I wanted. Somehow, we got to start talking, and I was partly right. He was a poor gypsy, but he was studying in university and was almost at the end of a 200 km hitch hike home. So... I'm still thinking that somehow he's gonna scam me, so i kept my things close to me still and we keep talking. His English isn't that great, but we get by talking to each other, and he is super friendly and interested to talk to me. His clipboard was his hitch hiking sign it ended up. And so we stop talking a bit, he's drinking his coffee and reading a book, and I'm trying to eat my pizza fast enough to make my bus. We had ourselves some good convo though. He taught me how to say several important things in Romanian and it was fun. He really wanted me to learn some important phrases.

So anyways, at the end, I was quite please with the situation and I was happy to pay and leave with one more nice experience to my name. But wait! That's not it. I asked the lady to pay, and this guy, George was his name, told me that he really wanted to pay for me. I was confused. We'd only been talking for 20 or 30 minutes. And he can't even afford to buy his own bus ticket home and he was now buying my lunch. It was quite interesting I thought. And here he is paying for my meal, a gypsy. I'd have never thought it possible. I was quite humbled and felt bad for being so cold to him at first. The least I could do was get a picture with him, so I got my camera out and took a photo and promised to email it to him. Now that was a good experience.

Train Experience in Romania

As I have been sitting here on the train from Budapest to Brasov (a journey that will no doubt take up at least a fifth of my entire life when it's all said and done), we stop just after about 3 hours or less of traveling and a most perplexing things happens.

Several people get on... but that's not the perplexing thing. I'm not sure how many are in the hoard, but it could be as many as hundreds, but it seemed to be only more like 2 people, an elderly couple, and they kept bringing on board these grocery bags. But they didn't have groceries in them and they looked to be heavy. And then they started stacking them above the seats. I thought this to be quite strange because I was thinking, why would they stack them if they could just put them next to each other... I mean seriously, they're only three bags. (Sidenote: I'm at the Romanian border! About to cross for the first time into the land of the true Romans :D ). Anyways, back to the real story. So I was thinking... three bags, why do they need to stack them, they look as if they'll fall if you stack them. Then, they started bringing more. Two by two, as if the train were Noah's Ark and the boxes were different kinds of animals, they came on board. And two by two, they heaved them up on top above the heads of their seats.

They quickly noticed that they were going to have to start using other space, so before the tops were full, they were already putting them under their chairs and next to their feet and behind the chairs. I was confused because I thought that they could still use the top part, but then i thought that they were just tired of heaving them up so high. But after they had occupied all of the floor space near and around them, they continued to find more and more space which was up top. And then they started taking them to other parts of the train. And then they had just their normal bags as well. In total, I have counted at least 30 of these strange bags, and I'm sure I had to have missed about 10 or so, so that's 40 bags! How did they get them all here? How are they getting them home!? WHAT IS IN THEM!!!????

(Anyways, maybe you can help me out a bit. Here's a pic of most of the bags. You can see them up top, at her feet, and that red one is one of several they'd put behind the seats.)

Gosh, I'm so curious as to what kind of ungodly things could be in these bags. Maybe they'll open one of them up, but probably not. And since I don't understand Romanian or Hungarian (whichever country these ruffians are from) I can't even eavesdrop as to what could possibly be in these mystery boxes. For what kinds of goods were these strange people using this public train as their cargo ship? It's something that we will have to be content with never knowing. Can I handle it? Yea, I really don't care that much.

Frankly, I'm more interested in how long it's gonna snow for. It's been snowing for 2 days straight now and there is a sizable amount of snow on the ground, and with seven hours left on this train ride of doom (I'm just kidding, it's actually been pretty comfy thus far) it doesn't show any sign of letting up. I'm sure glad I packed my hiking shoes and not my tennis shoes. I guess we'll see if I am as glad about that when I'm at the southern coast in Turkey in a few weeks.

PS. Oh... it was pretty cool, the guy just opened up a bottle of wine with no more than a knife. He dug it out and then pushed the remaining into it. It was great

Sleepless in Budapest

Oh what a sequel that would be if Tom Hanks would just give in to the immensity of such a heart stopping thriller. Hm... I wonder how it'd go. Maybe Meg Ryan could be like a Chinese lady who moved to Athens and Tom could be some really awesome Hungarian guy who just needs some kind of maid or something. Anyways, she sees the add that some cool Hungarian guy can't sleep because his house is too dirty. She sees her chance to make it big and to help such a poor man out. She hitchhikes all the way to Budapest and tada, it's almost the exact same story as Cinderella... but a bit not.

I would pretty much totally buy an awesome movie such as this... or at least rent it or see it in the theaters. And we could get Antonio Banderas to direct it. I hear he's got some killer photo angles that are revolutionary in the 21st century.

Hm... I really could have made that story a whole lot longer, but part of me just doesn't want to since it's... uh... late and part of me really wants to just write out the whole story and make it awesome, but part of me just doesn't and I can't make it just a half hearted effort, so I just won't do it. Maybe I'll think about it later. But for now... I can't sleep and I'm trying to figure out why. Could it be:

-the fact that I'm going on a 10 hour train tomorrow to the vast unknown known as Romania where I start the real journey of whatever it is I'm doing?

-my affinity for How I Met Your Mother that I just want to watch more and more even if it means losing sleep over?

-the fact that I'm so relaxed cuz I was at the baths today for 2 hours and just kinda kicked it back today?

-I'm worried about what the future (post-journey) holds for me?

-that I just really don't want to wake up tomorrow at 630?

-that i feel dirty since i didn't shower after the baths and that I have to wait until tomorrow morning? better yet this morning :)

-that I'm mulling over the many long discussions that me and David entertained each other with throughout the day

-that I wished I'd have bought some real hungarian paprika to take with me on my journey as to spice everything up.

No no no... all of those seem like good reasons, but I'm pretty sure that the reason falls somewhere between two main reasons, one of which is slowly going away, and the other which really hasn't subsided even minimally:

1. The fact that I'm just not tired and I just can't fall asleep. (this one is slowly going away)

2. The fact that I have heartburn from all the awesome food that I ate today. I had real Hungarian gulash with real Hungarian paprika and an awesome spaghetti for lunch and the a huge amount of fajitas and homemade guacamole and so many awesome things that tasted just so yummy. Thanks David and Susan for a great trip. But it'll be good cuz i can sleep on the train tomorrow... I hope.

Dreams of Destiny

So... last night I had an interesting dream. I always like it when I dream of something fun and new. But as I start to set off on a journey of adventure and daring bravery, I had a dream that perhaps correlates to it, though I hope in no way it does :) I had a dream last night that I was taking an adventurous trip to the Amazon (the Amazon in my dream is Romania in reality) and I am always so careful about my bags and keeping them with me. But somehow, I managed to leave my bags on the plane or they were stolen from me or something and just at the beginning of the trip, I didn't have any of the stuff I needed. I was totally lost and with nothing at all. :) Crazy, but it would be more crazy if it really happened, but don't worry, it won't. I can't wait for the adventure to start and for the times of tomorrow to be the times of today. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what kinds of fruit are exhumed from such a trip as this. :)

Birthdays

So the other day i was talking with an old student and he was talking about his birthday and what he's gonna get for it and blah blah blah. So, I asked him a normal question. When's your birthday? I got for the first time in my life this answer. I don't know. He didn't know when his birthday was. He had it narrowed down to three days, Feb. 19,20, or 29th. Given though that the 29th only happens once every four years. He proceeded to tell me that it was normal that people don't know when they're birthdays are. I proceeded to show him that he was wrong by asking everyone who was there when their birthday was. Of course everyone knew. He just couldn't concede to the fact that it was very abnormal for someone to not know when their birthday was.

In the end, we looked at his ID card and found out that it was the 19th. Really unbelievable for me though that he didn't know. And i finally got some back up from the other people who were with us that it was strange to not know. Anyways, now he knows his birthday and hopefully he will remember it from now on.

Nights Worth the Story

As time goes by, memories are made. As memories are made, people start to see good things and bad things that they didn't once before see. The past week or two has been marked with meetings of several different friends and many innumerable long nights. Let me take you back to a few of them.

The first one I was meeting some adult students that I became quite close with the past year for bowling. Of course, I won, as I always do, but as the night got later, and as the venue changed on multiple occasions and as the attendance of the group slowly dissipated, the night never really seemed to die down. It really never does with this group. But before I knew it, I got offered a job by my friend to be the token American in his garden making business and an invitation to join them on their Thai vacation. But after hearing their offer and doing some quick math, I realized that my salary would hardly be enough to live off of let alone to save enough for a Thai vacation. Oh well... maybe they'll up the stakes a bit. :)

In one of them, I was celebrating a birthday of a student with her class. It was a class which started studying at the school the same year as I and it's the class with which I have probably experienced the most things with and enjoyed interesting moments, some good, some not so good, some quite awkward, but nevertheless, moments. I was speaking with one of the students and although we never had many good talks, she was always a part of our experiences and after a really good talk with her, she let me know what an impact my friendship has meant to them, and it was a really happy evening.

And last night, I was in Prague with Joseph and my friend Stephanie and we were having a good time, starting with a depressing movie, then followed with a walk across town to a pizza place which has become frequented by us incessantly in the past 4 years. A bit pricy, but the quality is unmatched by any other in Prague. Though the only pizza in Kralupy is better. Anyways, we were walking after dinner and Joseph found on the ground, off the main square, 1000 crowns (or 50 bucks) which made as a late Christmas present. We took that money and proceeded to indulge and enjoy the night a little further at the next venue.
Following this venue, we started walking around Prague again as to decide to what would be the next desirable location, for none of the weary had to be home anytime soon. We just had to make the last train a bit past midnight. So as we were walking, the snow started to fall, and continue to fall it did. As we got off the beaten track, the snow was clearly starting to cover the ground. And after the view of a gorgeous church, and a well placed tackle of an intruder into the church's gardens (joseph) we digressed onto our next location.
After some moments there, we realized that we needed to get back as to take the last train back home. For if we missed it, we wouldn't be able to take another one until 430 in the morning. That would mean 4 more hours of finding something to do. We walk into the train station as we always do, only to not find our train on the board. I run to the ticket office and as what's up, and she says that it's leaving from the other station in 5 minutes. Now, let me relay to you what this means. After a full night of relaxing and hanging out, now we have to make it to a train station in five minutes which is clearly more than 5 mintues away, but we decided to try for it anyways. So... it's almost 1230am, and snow has now covered the cobblestone streets, and there are two guys, who clearly aren't in the kind of shape to run as hard as you can for 5 minutes to a train station which is probably about a bit farther than half a mile away.
So we were off, I got to a quick lead and I didn't look back, as my partner trailed me by perhaps a hundred meters or more when it was all said and done. I reached the train station, ran through it, up the escalator, saw that the train was still on the board and ran through the gates to gate 5 (it had to be one of the last ones). I run up the stairs and see it still there. I am dead, officially. I stand at the entrance and wait for a about 10 seconds and then the conductor starts yelling at me to get on. I look around and finally spot him. I tell him to wait a minute for my friend. Joseph finally comes and we get on and I felt like a ghost. I wasn't sure what to do. Should I die right there, should I go throw up in the bathroom? Does this train even have a bathroom? So I decided to revert to option 3 and just fell asleep. As some old students got on the train, I was glad that Joseph knew them better than I so I let them be and they as well to me the same.
We got home and the night of adventure had finally been wrapped up. Tonight should be a bit less exciting due to the fact that we will be not making the last train, yet the first one in hopes of some good times with the Super Bowl and some friends. Until next time.