On the advice of the flamboyantly gay Serbian hostel guy we had decided to take the scenic route on our drive to Romania, which we were told would add about 2 hours onto our expected 4 hour journey but ended up getting us to Sibiu at midnight, having left Belgrad at midday. However the scenic route was definitely worth the vast amount of time spent trapped together in Cumu and the slight madness we picked up (or at least gained) as a result. The drive took us along the Danube river and was a constant stream of unbelievably beautiful scenery, mountains, little rivers, the massive Danube, a whole series of little Serbian villages that really brought home that we were in Eastern Europe and, the site of our lunchtime tuna sandwich and warm German beer lunch, a magnificent castle ruin right on the river which had no security or fences so we were free to wander and explore and was right next to this crazy, slowly collapsing, soviet box building built into a cliff-face looking out over the river and straight at a Romanian town on the opposite bank. The road also, as it wound along the edge of the river, went through a very cool series of tunnels in the mountains but was, at times, troublesomely pot holed.
The border crossing was by far the friendliest of the trip, every security guard seemed incredibly happy to see tourists and practice their English, we were told to bypass the queue once they realised we had a British car and avoided the two hours of waiting, were waved through customs after answering the two oddly blunt questions "do you have any weapons?" and "do you have any drugs?" which seem like the very best way to catch people smuggling either of these things over, honesty being the guiding trait of criminals. We were then also stopped by Romanian police immediately after passing through, but not to be checked but rather so that they could help direct us to Sibiu, despite our lack of need for such directions with me as navigator.
The Romanian section of the drive was a lot less scenic, with the same series of small villages but with a much more dirty and run down feel to them than the Serbian ones and with seemingly every house having it's own group of old Romanian women in shawls glaring as we drove past in our car (as opposed to the frequent horse and carts we encountered after the border crossing). There was also a noticeable increase in the number of strays on the Romanian side, especially dogs, as there were a few cats around Serbia but we saw no stray dogs at all. Romania quickly became dubbed "bat country" (as in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" style). We also noticed a sudden transition accompanied by the onset of night where the scenery was no longer visible but was replaced by a constant series of used, sad looking prostitutes and scarily aggressive traffic, which at least kept it an interesting drive. Finally checked in to the "Sibiu Travelers Hostel" at midnight and went straight to bed in our thankfully empty 8 person dorm.
Another fairly unproductive day as Lewis had to spend the day working while Macky and I amused ourselves around the hostel with a series of games of giant chess (chess on one of those huge boards on the ground with the foot high pieces) at which I was undefeated champion, a large amount of reading and a couple of forays into Sibiu old town square. The hostel itself was really nice, very friendly and helpful Dutch staff, good facilities, the afore mentioned giant chess set and, until that evening when it began to fill up, the place to ourselves.
Our first foray into Sibiu was to acquire bakery lunch and a slightly late birthday cake for Lewis. The first thing we saw when we emerged from the tunnel under the railway was 2 stray dogs mugging an old lady, chasing her, trying to get into her bag and barking until she pulled out a loaf of bread and threw it to distract them, which it briefly did but they returned until she also through out the plastic bread bag, which for some odd reason soothed them sufficiently for her to escape. Macky and I were too far off to help in any way and dodged around the dogs who seemed more impressed by the bag than the bread and, after a quick explore of the old town square, headed back with breakfast supplies, apples and an odd, gingery cake loaf for Lewis. Thankfully the dogs had moved on and the countless other strays we saw seemed more placid.
For dinner, and to get Lewis out of the hostel, we headed back into town to the hostel recommended restaurant "Grand Plaza" where we each gained very cheap and tasty multi-course meals then, stopping briefly at the supermarket for more driving snacks and also discovering 2L plastic bottles of beer for $2, which we bought several of.
The evening was spent quietly in preparation for another long day of voyaging through Romania but our relaxation was broken at around 11pm when an entire coachload of Polish tourists arrived and immediately began causing a huge fuss because they, having booked months before but not since contacted the hostel, discovered that half of them would be staying at a hotel instead and the rest were unhappy that a hostel that was meant to hold about 25 people only had 3 bathrooms and showers and that they were meant to book a place for the coach driver. The entire 2 hour long debacle made more amusing by the inability of the group to communicate properly with the hostel owner and his constant joking asides to us, who got along great with him.
Up at 9, made ourselves a surprisingly tasty salami and egg sandwich breakfast (bacon being something we repeatedly struggled to find throughout Eastern Europe and Germany) but, due to internet communication requirements by the others, didn't leave until 11. Drive to Bucharest was awesome, very scenic through the small Romanian towns and stunning, massive, Carpathian mountains. Stopped off halfway at Bram Castle, famous as Dracula's castle. Although it was never visited by Vlad "The Impaler" Dracul it could have been the castle used in Bram Stoker's novel. Either way it was a very cool castle on a small mountain top, looking out over a mountain pass and the town that surrounds it and appeared to be entirely supported by Dracula-based tourism and merchandise.
Arrived about 5pm at the "Doors Hostel" in Bucharest, checked in and befriended our roommate Keelyn, who, small world that it so often seems to be, is from Pennant Hills and is a regular at Penno RSL where Adrian and Lorraine run karaoke. Joined by Keelyn we went to find ourselves some dinner and, pointed to the shopping mall food court as close and cheap Romanian food by the hostel, found ourselves entering going through a mall that seemed more a formalised bazaar and up to the food court of pizza and steak restaurants. Hungry, we decided we couldn't be bothered to look elsewhere (plus it was about 10 minutes plus extra for getting lost just to get out of the huge mall) and grabbed pizzas. After dinner we headed back and met our 2 other roommates, a couple of French-Canadian guys, and grabbed some drinks from Cumu and headed out to the hostel's chillout area, which was a fantasticly cool pavilion of low tables, cushions and carpets all over the floor and coloured drapes forming the roof and accompanied by a bar next to it which also offered about 40 different types of tea in multicoloured tea pots.
At about midnight, sufficiently liquored up and conditioned to the Eastern Europe fashion of starting nights out later, the 6 of us went out into Bucharest to explore the Tuesday night nightlife. Found ourselves a bar up a side street with cheap beers and a little outdoor area that was completely packed inside with thick smoke (thanks to the lack of smoking restrictions), Romanian guys dressed in tight white polo shirts with popped collars and Romanian girls dressed in very little dancing on tables. Probably should add here that this wasn't a seedy strip joint or anything, just Romanian girls seem to like dancing on tables, most likely as it affords them their own slutty little territories and makes it easier for the popped collar douchebags to see them in all their "glory". Had a few drinks outside then Macky and Lewis headed back to the hostel and the rest of us moved inside to try and brace the dance floor. The rest of the night passed in a relatively quiet section of the dance floor and yielded 2 fantastic sights; a Romanian guy, who initially looked a cut above the rest as he slow danced and spun a girl around for a couple of songs who then ruined it and earned himself a nice slap by dipping her backwards, grinning towards his friends then frantically humping at her and a not particularly great looking girl dancing on a table for about 10 minutes, looking around at the empty space around the table, tucking the sides of her dress into her undies then almost immediately acquiring a whole posse of desperate tools dancing around her.
Woke up the next morning at 11 feeling none the worse for wear and, having all missed the complementary breakfast, headed to the hostel recommended lunchplace, "Caru Cu Bere" where we paid $7 each for a 5 course meal. The others settled for the safe main option of schnitzel but I decided to try something proper Romanian and picked a random dish and got grilled pork scruff, which was surprisingly tasty if a little tough. Very similar to steak.
After lunch went to check out the Romanian parliament building, the 3rd largest building in the world, and walked almost a full lap of it which took about 45 minutes as we made our way around to the southern end, which holds the Romanian Museum of Contemporary Art. The parliament building itself is enormous and spectacular but on closer inspection it looks like it will not last another 100 years, the concrete cracking all over and a lot of the decorations stolen or broken. The museum was wonderful, each of the 4 levels has a different curator and different theme, the most impressive being the third floor, an exhibition of paintings by Nikolae Comanescu, my new favourite artist, and the ground floor which was a display of photos about the universal, unifying nature of reading.
After we completed our exploration of the parliament building and museum we moved down to the boulevard (1m wider than the Champs Elise because Romania wanted to stick it to France) and met up with Keelyn for the free 6pm walking tour, which was worth every cent. The guide was a young Romanian guy, who kept the tour fun but was also surprisingly knowledgable and on several occasions shut down an annoyingly obnoxious, know-it-all American woman while showing us all the sites of central Bucharest and providing us with a lot of very interesting history as he did.
Exhausted afterwards we all went back to the hostel for 2 minute noodles and a much needed drink and spent the evening watching a Romanian comedy play put on by the hostel and then hanging out in the chillout area.
Bucharest was a real surprise as I was not expecting very much from it but it was awesome. It has a very Eastern Europe meets the West feel about it, the first place we found in Romania with billboards and fast food (both of which were everywhere). I particularly liked the billboard for a radio station that claimed that it repelled mosquitos and which, in hindsight, I should have listened to to avoid the multitude of mozzies that found us each night. This is all contrasted by the slightly dirty feel of the buildings and their very tanned occupants and overseen by the plethora of giant buildings. Romanians seem to really love building things far bigger than necessary.
Up early enough the next morning to partake in the free breakfast, showered and said our farewells and then, after a quick walk to grab some bakery lunchtime surprises, got back on the road with Cumu, who is a lot more under the thumb now that the Navman has given up due to lack of Eastern European maps and we are navigating ourselves, however she does still get a bit cantankerous and try to strangle Macky with his seatbelt whenever she thinks we are getting less wary of her.
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