Getting to Bucharest was a 24-hour ordeal involving trains, a bus, and a taxi (proudly only our first marked cab of the trip!), so when we finally arrived, dirty and exhausted, we were especially annoyed to discover our bank had shut off both of our debit cards.
We had been unlucky in attempts to reserve the comfortable sleeper seats for our journey, so by the time we sorted our bank situation out we were pretty grumpy from lack of sleep.
Given our crankiness, our initial lackluster impressions of the drab-looking city, and the fact that many of the other backpackers we had met advised against spending much time in Bucharest anyway, we made the split-second decision to cut our losses in Bucharest and try our luck elsewhere.
Favorite Bucharest moments:
- Elatedly being able to use the ATM and withdraw Romanian lei after the holds on our accounts were removed!
- Being seated in a train car with an eccentric old Romanian woman who didn't speak English but insisted on talking to us. At first, when we didn't understand she just repeated herself over and over, louder and LOUDER until she was yelling. Eventually, she grew frustrated at our inability to comprehend and perhaps our unwillingness to give her further attention (after an hour-or-so of yelling David put in his headphones to drown her out), so she found someone aboard and invited him into our cabin to translate for her. The highlights of her message: David has three girlfriends and will never marry because he values freedom over family, Bill Clinton was a good president to whom she once wrote a letter to, and Romania has a lot of homeless dogs (she began weeping very loudly while talking about the strays). Though we were really tired, this situation was bananas and provided quality entertainment for a few hours on a long train ride.
Next stop: Brasov, Romania
We had been unlucky in attempts to reserve the comfortable sleeper seats for our journey, so by the time we sorted our bank situation out we were pretty grumpy from lack of sleep.
Given our crankiness, our initial lackluster impressions of the drab-looking city, and the fact that many of the other backpackers we had met advised against spending much time in Bucharest anyway, we made the split-second decision to cut our losses in Bucharest and try our luck elsewhere.
Favorite Bucharest moments:
- Elatedly being able to use the ATM and withdraw Romanian lei after the holds on our accounts were removed!
- Being seated in a train car with an eccentric old Romanian woman who didn't speak English but insisted on talking to us. At first, when we didn't understand she just repeated herself over and over, louder and LOUDER until she was yelling. Eventually, she grew frustrated at our inability to comprehend and perhaps our unwillingness to give her further attention (after an hour-or-so of yelling David put in his headphones to drown her out), so she found someone aboard and invited him into our cabin to translate for her. The highlights of her message: David has three girlfriends and will never marry because he values freedom over family, Bill Clinton was a good president to whom she once wrote a letter to, and Romania has a lot of homeless dogs (she began weeping very loudly while talking about the strays). Though we were really tired, this situation was bananas and provided quality entertainment for a few hours on a long train ride.
Next stop: Brasov, Romania
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