Romania - Brasov & Translyvania

The six hour journey to Bucharest was more fun than I imagined, as I shared a compartment with an Australian and Dutch couple and ended up chatting all the way. After arriving in the Romanian capital at 7pm, I headed toward the 7.30pm train and asked a conductor-looking person if it was the train to Brasov. He responded by grabbing my bags from my hands, running along the platform and jumping on the train. He then put the bags in a cabin, gestured for me to sit, kissed me on the cheek and stuck his hand out for money.

A church opposite my hostel in Brasov

I was utterly bewildered, having seconds earlier been standing rather tired on the platform, but it turned out this was a fitting introduction to the rather strange world of Romania. The train eventually departed, beginning a somewhat-creepy journey onward to Transylvania, with me on my own in the poorly lit cabin and the train winding its way in the darkness through the mountains. Traders regularly came to my cabin, trying to sell me everything from pens to toys, but I relented.

Brasov town centre

I arrived in Brasov, a major town in Transylvania, at about 11pm and took a taxi (with a female driver, the only one I have seen in eastern europe so far) to the hostel at the other end of town. I was greeted by a woman, who stuck her head out of the window above and yelled that I was late. What a nice welcome! Once inside, she was actually really nice and clearly just having a bad day. She even lent me money to eat and insisted I go to a local Romanian restaurant, called Casa Romanesque.

Not quite as glamorous as Hollywood, but probably nicer

I spent the rest of that evening chatting with people on the hostel's terrace, which had a great atmosphere. I talked with a funny Swede, a Mexican living in Cuba about all kinds of things, from life there to Castro, politics and communism and even spotted two Americans I had met previously in Macedonia and two Brits from London I had shared a taxi with in Bulgaria.

Walking through the backstreets

The next day I set off into town with the intention of getting to Sighisoara to see 'Dracula's castle'. The train times were inconvenient, so I waited for a minibus with another girl from the hostel for two hours, but for some reason none of the drivers seemed willing to take us there, despite it being marked on the route. I gave up and visited the Black Church and the old town, which was much more charming than I expected.

Behind the sign

I walked to the foot of the hill featuring the Brasov Hollywood-style sign and while deciding whether to walk up or take the cable car, the two Brits I had met in Bulgaria, brother and sister Em and Daniel, turned up. We decided to walk up the hill together. It was a pleasant climb as it was entirely in shade and at the top were met by a spectacular view. Just before the summit we passed a guy carrying a big jar of gherkins and a bottle of wine which seem, at least to me, strange things to have on a mountain.

Throwing a gherkin off a mountain. Somehow, strangely symbolic.

After a drink in the hilltop cafe, we descended back to the town and I headed off to the station to buy my next ticket. On the way I ran into the Dutch couple from the train the day before and was invited to dinner, so instead ended up back at Casa Romanesque where we had a great meal.

I think I'll skip on that one

Upon leaving I met with Daniel, Em and Taka, a Japanese traveller from the hostel, who it turned out had also been eating there but sitting outside. Together we went on a quest into town to use an ATM, then back to a kiosk for beer and sat on the terrace until the middle of the night.

With Em and Taka, triumphantly clutching our beer

The next day I once again set off to go to Sighisoara and waited for a bus to the station, but it took ages to come and I managed to miss the only reasonably timed train by a minute. Frustrating! After two days of trying, I gave up on going there and instead, determined to go somewhere for the day, caught a train to Sibiu, a town a couple of hours away.

Self-promotion in Sibiu

Sibiu is this year's European Capital of Culture, whatever that means, and is a nice place to spend a day. I didn't see anything specifically amazing, but it has a charming atmosphere and plenty of old buildings, with an impressively large main square.

Yet another nice old-town

Romania has five different type of trains, ranging from the fast and clean 'Express', to the cheap and agonisingly slow 'Personal'. Annoyingly, I was forced to take a 'Personal' train back to Brasov, which is something I was told to avoid. The journey took more than twice as long going back, the train was dark and full of very strange, mostly drunk people, who threw all their empty cans and bottles straight out the windows. The train stopped regularly, sometimes even in the middle of fields for a farmer to get off. Not particularly enjoyable, but it was interesting to experience things as the locals do.

Hiding off the main square

I made it back to Brasov after 11pm and spent a final night relaxing on the terrace and chatting with all kinds of travellers. There's just one final stop before the end of my trip, so tomorrow it's back to the capital Bucharest, for a penultimate bout of sightseeing.