....DEAR PATIENT READER, I HOPE you may still be with me.
Can't yet figure out the technology to get our photos up there so shall continue with
the text We were at Bucharest station.
Travelling through miles and miles of suburbs to the north of Bucharest. Am trying to
follow progress on our map. Tthe train is not full and we've a block of two plus two
seats end of the carriage. On the railway sidings are acres of recent-looking but now
obselete carriages and locos. Its all a bit sad.
Scenery is - what you might expect in E Europe: farms,fields and woodland in the middle distance but - the wagons
on the roads are horsedrawn. Orthodox towers in each hamlet. (photo will follow)
An hour out of the capital and we are rising; woods, beeches by the look, and the stream beside us
has been brutally diverted by concrete-encased piping in places and running parallel.
Again - abandonned factories, as in Bulgaria. And, this is something new: v. crude concrete watchtowers
at intervals. We can't imagine what crops they might be used to store (well, I can).
BRASOV - and its misty. I get out to photo an xtra electric loco being added to the front ( reminds me of
the Rimutakas).
vide LONELY PLANET for good material on this town.
THERES A GARALOUS middle-aged woman got on. And the nervy skinny guard; he's like something
out of Zille's Berlin Types lithographs. ( I wish i could get my sketch of the fellow onto this journal
and share it ). This woman's endowed with a good heart and not too much in the intelligence dept.
She's berating the poor guard for the train being late, and is in constant contact w her mum (!- the
mind boggles as to mama's character ) on a shiny pink cellphone. Its all q an amusement to certain of the other
passengers, one of whom we've befriended by the time we reach CLUJ at 10.30pm. Her name is Anka, she's
getting off too, and generously gets her boyfriend ( native of Cluj) to actually drive us to the hostel.
( photo to come).
Later on - like after midnight - and we're at a student/young peoples establishment not far from our
hostel ( photo will come). Again - its v noisy and v cheerful and wd have been impossible under the
former regime.
Good soup and beer and then to bed. Comfortable tho rather spartan in the blanket dept - and
decorated interestingly in turquoise and blue.
thanx for staying w me - I'll continue later this week. Vide LONELY PLANET for Cluj.
AlanBlake
