I arrived in Bucharest safe and sound on Friday night. Daniela picked me up and got me to the hostel in good order but not, however, without a few glitches. (What is my life without a few of these after all?) SO.....
I arrived in Kiev Thursday after a rather pleasant 6 hour journey from home. It was the first time I took the day train into Kiev. Normally I take the evening train and arrive in the morning. I splurged and purchase a 2nd class ticket because I heard it was air conditioned and it was. Ahh.....nice.
I got on the Moscow-Sofia train okay. It arrived early and we were allowed to board and get ourselves situated before the train left. Mistake #1. I had forgotten that the A/C doesn't work when the train is idle. It was deadly hot. Once they hooked up a car for us everyone began crowding into the very cramped quarters all at once. I went to my compartment and there were like 8 people inside....I didn't know who was staying, who was going, who was in the wrong place...I had an old man trying to tell me I had the upper bunk when I knew this was incorrect. I had to get the conductor to straighten things out which he did but boy was it hot! Miserable! So...after a time the train got underway and it did get a little cooler...but not much. The overnight journey was quiet but hot. The A/C in our compartment was not working all that well...in fact, throughout the entire 27 hour journey, it just barely pumped out enough cool air to keep one person cool...let alone 4, and then only intermittently because the train stopped a lot.
So. The Ukrainian border...mid-day. My best guess would be 94 degrees and climbing outside, and more so inside. We stopped at the border for 3 hours. No toilet, no A/C, no food from the cafe car. Oh, did I mention that no one spoke any English? Or, that at the point when they took our passports and disappeared for all this time and then started to rip open the insides of our compartment looking for contraband and that I had no clue as to what was happening and I was a bit...freaked out? Bad enough to travel alone and not speak the language that everyone around you is speaking, but to have things happen and you have no idea what it is or why....hmm. Pretty scary. After a few hours of intense worry I met 2 guys who spoke English..one from Ukraine and the other from the Czech Republic. They explained why it takes 2-3 hours at the border of Ukraine. The tracks running from Russia through Ukraine are a wider gauge...the rest of the continent have the "other" size. The trains are crane-lifted and put onto different wheels. Huh. Now I get it.
Okay. So, we get to the Romanian border and have to sit for 1 more hour in the sweltering heat. Best guess: 105 degrees by now. I felt like I was in a toaster oven. By now I am beside myself with the heat..all of us are just DYING in there. The customs officials come aboard want to know if I smoke. In fact, they ask this of everyone. Those that admit to smoking are asked how many packs they are carrying. It turns out, there is a black market for Ukrainian cigarettes in Romania. The cigarettes are much cheaper so they are smuggled aboard the trains during stops. (A spoke to a French girl staying at my hostel in Bucharest and we were comparing our trips on this train line..her just coming into Bucharest from Sofia, Bulgaria. She told me that in the middle of the night the train stopped at a station in Bulgaria and a gypsy woman came into her compartment with a big bag of cigarettes and stored them with their luggage! I told her what I experienced and we figured that this is how they are smuggled into Romania. Someone must pick up the bag just over the border with no one the wiser. I told her she was lucky...who knows what could have happened if the border guards searched her compartment and found them?)
Okay. So. Onward to Bucharest. A few hours later we pulled into the Bucharest station and my friend Daniela is there with her daughter and her boyfriend. The train was an hour late but I was thankful to get off the thing. It was quite possibly the longest journey ever. Two days and one hour door to door, for a journey that, done by car, takes 16 hours total. Crazy.
So, off the train I go into the sticky heat of the evening (it's now midnight) so happy to see Daniela I forget all about how terrible the train ride was. I am so happy, in fact, the heat doesn't even phase me. We arrive at the hostel a few minutes later and I am pleasantly surprised...it's a lovely old building with lots of kitty cats lounging around. Oh Joy!
Or...not. My room is being used by someone else, it seems. The Chinese tourists who are sleeping in my bed had an issue with their flight and stayed another night. The only alternative is to stick me into the 8 bed dorm with lots of ...someones. I am not prepared for this. I am upset. I am tired and hot and keep asking 'but what about my reservation'? In this moment I recall that Seinfeld episode where Jerry and Elaine are at the car rental counter and they don't have the mid-sized car Jerry had reserved.
Incredulous, Jerry says "... so you know how to take the reservation...you just don't know how to hold the reservation..." Strange how the mind works when it's over-tired. I ended up across the street in the "annex" which was a nice place too, but I was put into the basement where someone lives. The guy was out partying all night and told not to come in until I had gone.....wow. Talk about strange. I really didn't like the fact that I could not lock the room, but the funny thing was, by this time I was so tired I didn't care and fell dead asleep until 7:30 am when I heard some movement outside my bedroom door.....huh.
I get up and peak around the corner and say "hello? Who's there"? This young man says not to worry...he won't bother me, to just go about my business. Yes, it's his apartment and he has some kind of agreement with the owner that he is some kind of "partner" in the business and that he is tired of all the overbookings...it happens all the time, it's not my fault but he is tired of giving up his bed. He said a lot more but it was incoherent. I asked where he was from and he said the USA...Georgia. I asked him what he was doing in Bucharest and he said he had this drunk driving thing and didn't want to bother with community service. Right away my radar goes up. Who runs away from community service? That's a slap on the wrist. This guy was headed for jail...this much I know without him saying anything more. The more he spoke the more I knew he was lying through his teeth. Boy, do I hate drama and I couldn't wait to get out of there. I packed up my shit quick and went across the street to the main hostel.
Back in the main hostel I run into Mario the night manager and right away I apologize for being such a bitch the night before and he said never mind it was their fault and he was sorry. He made me a lovely breakfast and we sat outside on the pation and gabbed for hours...a super nice man. Roxanna (the owner) came in later and I apologized to her too but she insisted it was their fault and gave me the first night for free. Nice. They are lovely people and I was very comfortable with my new room in the back (the Chinese tourists left) and the A/C was awesome! After spending 3 nights there I got to know these people farely well...I also know that they had been trying to unsuccessfully get rid of the person in the basement who I had encountered my first morning there...he wasn't a partner but a hanger-on of sorts who they couldn't shake loose. I told them he was a felon on the loose and to be careful.
How do I end up with so many crazy things happening? Is it me? Is it Romania? (Remember last time...) Well, Just wait. I am not finished yet. The best is yet to come.
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