Hi All,
Seems some of the last entry got lost in the bit bucket in cyberspace...so here it is again!
We had thunder storms and rain again and were not looking forward to the 1.5km walk to the station in the rain but we had a stroke of luck and the rain stopped just before the left the apartment. Strangely it still sounded like it was raining. The water coming off the wet leaves of the trees was deceiving.
It didn´t take long to get to the train station and find that the train was delayed. It was supposed to turn up on platform 2 but arrived on 3 which was a surprise but we hopped on anyway. A way into the trip the ticket inspector came and rejected our ticket. Wrong train. We had to purchase tickets at twice the price! So our trip cost AUD$12. Damn. At least the train was going to Brasov. We arrived about 1pm and headed to the local park to wait for checking to our old favourite one star hotel. Suprisingly the park was full of bridal parties. More legs that one might find at a centipede convention. We would have seen at least 30 bridal parties rotate through the park while we were sitting around waiting.
Brasov was a stopover on the way to Sighisoara as there were no dorms available in the hostel in the later. We decided too have a look at the carrefour supermarket on the other side of town. Big mistake. It surely must be competing for one of the biggest supermarkets in existence. It was sooooo busy. We just bought some alcohol and roast chicken and left. A pizza from our favourite place hit the spot before watching some lame live american indian music then heading back to the room. It seemed like it was going to be quiet night until some suspicious moaning from above the room. Oh no. Not another noisy couple. No marathon so our sleep wasn´t disturbed too long.
Next day. Easy morning just relaxing in the room trying to figure out how to edit a pdf file for the trans siberian trip. Ended up at the train station a couple of hours early with the usual gypsy children begging then a crappy train turned up at the platform. Our train. The peasant train or back in time train. It had double manually operated sliding door on the carriages and stopped about every 10 minutes along the trip to drop of and pick up people from obscure places. One group had been dropped off by horse and cart and were waiting on the side of the tracks! We had another dark passage through a long train tunnel. Perfect robbery time but we came through safe again. It seemd the further away in distance we went the further back in time we went. Arrived at the hostel and they didn´t have the booking but it didn´t matter. The dorm was empty but now is full with a couple of Austrians and Spanish turning up late. Yet another place with wifi.Yay.
Had a quick look around the old city which was 10 min walk away. Yet another fortified German town where Count Dracula lived. It has a super clock tower with moving figures that change from day to night and also the day of the week. Turns out that there is a cultural music festival running for the next week so we watched some lively performances from Albania and not so lively ones from a german group before heading back. Thought the chicken song was going to get played but alas it was a not to be...
Here is one for the database. Aparently the Romanian Gypsies have Indian ancestory.
We will stay here for tomorrow then back to Sinia to relax for a few days before heading to Bucharest then into Bulgeria as our next stop on the way to island hopping in Croatia in September.
Bye,
David and Vanessa
