"This is why I Travel" - Romania - February 11th to 19th, 2012

My idea to quit my job as a teacher in Connecticut and make radical changes in my life came after a week long solo trip to Mexico.  I just completed a week long trip in Romania...

...cue sly mysterious smile...

When you travel solo it gives you plenty of time to think.  I think about myself sometimes - what I want to improve in my life...plenty...but also about qualities I have that I wish everyone would have.  I believe I truly love living.  When I travel, hike or am riding my bike this rush of energy sometimes rises from my gut through my chest into my mouth and I smile and shake my head.  I shake my head because I can't believe what I'm doing.  This morning I was in Romania in midwinter.  What was I doing in Romania?  Who fucking knows, but I really couldn't have been happier to be there!

Another quality I feel fortunate to have developed is the ability to smile when stuff goes wrong.  Stuff will ALWAYS go wrong, so smile, because soon enough it will go right.  Plus, when stuff goes wrong you learn something; you're smarter because of it.

The Snowy Streets of Bucharest

The major obstacle and improvement I hope to make in my life is to take those two qualities and learn to share them with a partner.  Unfortunately, I don't think I try very hard to find this partner.  I generally don't worry about this, but then again, sometimes I do.  The boulder that blocks my way to asking out a girl that could be interesting is a difficult rock for me to move.  I sometimes wish it was as easy for me to smile and talk to women as it is for me to smile and care less when I realize I've been waiting at the wrong bus stop for 45 minutes, then find the right bus stop only to get on the wrong bus and realize it 30 minutes into the ride.  I did say I have plenty to improve in my life right?  For now it is all good.  I love solo travel and the simplicity of the way I travel and question how simple it would be with a woman.

I arrived in Bucharest, Romania, the capital of about 1.7 million (about the size of Philadelphia) and instantly made an error.  It wasn't the fact that I walked up and down the stairs of the arrivals section four times before asking for directions to where I can catch a bus.  That is my usual dance when arriving to a new place.  The error was I excepted the help of a complete stranger and he didn't know the secret code word.  He told me I was standing at the wrong place for the bus.  "Do you work here?" I ask cautiously "Yes." he lies.  I just arrived the furthest east I've ever been in my life and apparently was feeling more trusting and child like than a solo travel should ever feel.  I followed him through the parking lot on the side of the airport and up to another part of the airport.  He waited with me inside the sliding doors asking me where I was staying and if I wanted him to take me out on the town that night.  I didn't really answer, but he asks again.  I tell him I have a hostel booked.  At this point I'm pretty sure he is trying to get commission off me at a hotel of his choice.  As I see the bus coming up to the stop I begin to feel better about leaving this kind gentleman behind, but alas, as the bus pulls up he climbs on with me.  Apparently he assumed I needed help scanning the bus pass I had bought.  At this point the "sh-" word began repeating in my head.  Good start to your trip Matt.  This guy had taken it upon himself to be my personal escort to my hostel.  I didn't ask for one and when I told him I didn't need help he just kindly replied, "No, I help you."  Well, OK then...

After the 40 minute bus ride he got off at my stop.  Don't get me wrong.  The guy was actually a nice guy, but there was no way he was doing this solely out of the kindness of his heart.  I was expected to pay the man and because I'm cheap, I had no intention of doing so.  We walked by where I thought the hostel was, but he was sure it wasn't...(it was).  Apparently he wasn't used to dealing with cheap asses that stay in hostels on side streets with no proper signs.  He asked everyone that's walking around in the 0 degree weather if they know where the hostel is.  I helpfully hold out my journal for them to read the hostels name.  Nobody knows anything.  Finally we go back to where it really was and we walk through the gated entrance.  I'm silently hoping he doesn't follow as we go through the door and walk up the stairs to the reception.  He does.  At this point in my travels I know hostels.  I know how they work. They don't want strangers coming in their establishments.  I brace myself for this as I enter the final door and greet the receptionist.  I tell him I have a reservation.  "Who is that behind you?"  "I don't know, he followed me to the hostel."  Some yelling happened in Romanian.  I felt like a jerk.  First off, allowing this guy to come into the hostel in the first place and second off for having this guy yelled at when he was really helping me find the hostel.  He almost refused the 10 Lei I offered him for the bus back to the airport ($3.50).  He left with his head down and I felt like an ass.

On this trip I didn't have a Lonely Planet.  I didn't do any research.  I wanted to go to Romania, so I bought a ticket.  I booked the hostel at 23:00 the night before I left.  I had an amazing trip.  I stayed in Bucharest the first two nights.  It snowed everyday and was between 5 and 25 degrees Fahrenheit the whole time.  I loved it.  I packed one small carry on.  Most of the clothes I brought I was wearing.  The Lonely Planet doesn't recommend staying in Bucharest.  I'm glad I didn't have the Lonely Planet.  The first night I went out and heard some amazing live music in a packed bar.  I stayed for four hours and didn't talk to anyone.  Sometimes, that is how I roll.  These are things I need to work on, but I left at 1 in the morning happier than ever.

Bran Castle (Dracula's Castle)

I love staying in hostels.  It is easy to meet people there.  The Midland Hostel in Bucharest is cozy and inviting.  In the morning you get a all the eggs, bread, and bologna, you can eat.  Free coffee and tea all day.  10 dollars a night.  I had some great conversations there.  One with a Polish kid who assured me the general opinion in Poland is for the U.S. to have military bases there to protect them from Russia.  We had a few beers and talked for hours in front of the Europe map on the fridge.  Another traveler, an Aussie, is spending a year traveling around eastern Europe.  All of a sudden I wish I wasn't working anymore.  But I need too.  I need the money, so I don't need to work.

Brasov

From Buchurest I took a three hour train ride to Brasov.  A medieval Transylvanian city of 225,000 nestled among the massive mountains of the Carpathian Range.  It continued to snow.  I fell in love with the city and the Romanian receptionist at my hostel. I stayed at Kismet Dao Hostel for about $12 dollars a night, the 4th night being free.  I stayed five.  Every morning there was an assortment of cereals, and of course, free coffee and tea all day.  One of the main reasons people come to Brasov is for the castles and palaces located near by.  Some of Europe's most famous castles are in Romania and two are only about 25 miles from Brasov.  One of the most famous, although less impressive to me, is Bran Castle, also known as Dracula's castle.  The castle was built in the 1300's and is thought to have inspired Bram Stoker's famous novel, Dracula.  The actual character of Dracula is based off Romanian's famous villain, Vlad the Impaler.  In the 1400's he impaled (speared vertically though the torso) somewhere around 40,000 people.  Vlad's father was known as Vlad Dracul.  Hense, Dracula.  Vlad the Impaler never lived in this castle. It being called "Dracula's" castle is somewhat of a convenient ploy to promote tourism.  It seems to work.

Peles Castle

A bit more impressive is Peles Castle.  A website listing the most famous castles in Europe has Peles as number 2 and Bran as number 8 (http://www.offtoeurope.com/europes-top-25-castles/).  Peles was the home of the Romanian royal family in the early 1900's.  It seems to house all the wealth the family could get there hands on in all of Eastern Europe.  Ironic to have so much riches housed in one place when the country around the castle was poor and starving though out parts of the 20th century.  Especially during certain times in Romania's communist era from the 1960's to 1989.  I knew nothing about this stuff.  Another reason I love to travel.  In 1989 Nicolae Ceusescu who had been the communist leader for 30 years was executed by a people's revolution along with his wife by a firing squad.  I was five years old then.  I learned nothing of this in my 27 years of existence.  I should know it.  This is why I travel.  The hostel owner in Brasov talked of her childhood.  She knows it is better for the country today but wonders if it is better for the individuals.  She worries about her child growing up in this world.  She remembers clearly the rations she would be given and the poor conditions, often with out electricity in the winter.  The bonds she formed with the friends she grew up with are unbreakable.

While in Brasov I went to a ski resort close by known as Piona Brasov.  It was about $1 for the 30 minute bus ride to the mountain, $10 dollars for rentals, and $25 for four hours on the mountain.  I was afraid of the cold, but I dressed properly and was comfortable.  It was around 20 degrees Fahrenheit with only a slight wind.

On this trip I drank more than I usually do, ate more meat than I have in six months, and inhaled more cigarette smoke without actually smoking a cigarette than I care to think about.  I had a great time.  Bucharest and Brasov are modern in many ways, but I felt as if I was going back in time in many other ways.  You can smoke in restaurants, bars, and on the trains.  After my first night out in Bucharest I had to accept the fact that my one set of clothes for my week long trip would reek of cigarettes the whole time.  Beers average around $1.50 for a 500 mL bottle.  A nice three course meal is around $8 dollars, but you can get much cheaper.  The best part was the coffee machines all around the city for 1 Lei (.35 cents).  I love coffee.  Another reason to love Romania.

Poiana Brasov Skiing

An eight day trip to Romania in February of 2012 is now something I can carry with me for my whole life.  It changed me in a better way, as does most all travel I've managed to do.  It sparked ideas and most importantly it confirmed what I knew already, that I want to keep traveling.  There is still so much more I don't know I don't know out there to find out.

Things to Remember for next time:
1.  Call credit card and debit card before hand - make sure they except your card in their country.
2.  Fully charge Kindle!  It will last forever - but needs to be charged.
3.  Bring shorts for the hostel - jeans 24/7 is not so bad.  When they are wet from hiking in the snow.  They are.

"Have what you need and need what you have!"