romania condensed, and with pictures

from an email.


I. Here's the original cast of characters (otherwise known as Team Botmania):

Kristen Darling: Darling is easily my best friend in Prague, and I'm
almost positive that she's going to be a key figure in my life
forever. We're perfect travel buddies; we always want to do the same
things, eat the same food, and talk to the same people. She's from
Nevada City, California, where she grew up with nature-loving parents
in a log cabin. She's had the same group of girlfriends for most of
her life, including one popular harpist/singer/songwriter named Joanna
Newsome. And she talks frequently of a river in which she would
skinny-dip almost every day (during warmer months) since she was a
child.



Ronen: Ronen is a fast-paced New York City
musician/artist/student who always wants to do everything, see
everything, and eat everything he can. He thinks that sleep is for
suckers and anyone who sleeps more than 5 or 6 hours a night whilst
traveling is therefore a sucker (eh hem, sleepy-faced me). His
quick-witted comments that he spits out when we all sit on park
benches and watch strangers do stupid things (like pet and feed wild,
rabies ridden, Romanian dogs) are impressive, as is his expository
story-telling voice, which he uses to charm strangers into being our
new friends. He gets annoyed if Kristen and I talk to boys for too
long, or if we giggle too much when we do it. He almost always needs
espresso.



Nicole: That's me. When traveling, I'm one of those people
who is somewhere in the medium maintenance category. I need a full
night of sleep every night, pretty much, or else I get sick, and not
the kind of sick that goes away easily either. And I'm a vegetarian,
which makes things harder for travel-buddies sometimes. Other than
that, though, I enjoy most activities and am willing to spend a little
extra money for particularly awesome things (like the hot spring spa
and the caving tour that we went to in Budapest), but prefer to work
on a tight budget for most other travel expenses. I like to factor in
down time. I prefer towns and countryside to big cities and
nightlife.



All three of us wanted to go somewhere a) cheap, b) harder to get to
directly from the States, c) interesting (duh) and d) where we could
hike in pretty mountains. ROMANIA!

We met tons of other interesting and wonderful people, but I will hopefully have the time and patience
to go into this more later.

II. The itinerary:
-20 hour train ride to Brasov, Romania (i.e. the heart of Transylvania)
-5 nights (6 full days) in Brasov at the Rolling Stone Hostel
-overnight train to Budapest, Hungary
-1 night (2 full days) in Budapest
-overnight train back to Prague
*(Note that we saved three nights accommodation expenses by taking
overnight trains, the results of which include a nasty head cold that
I am currently fighting.)

III. Dracula, the Fortress, and the Black Church

Transylvania is most famous for being the home of Dracula. Dracula
the vampire, as imagined by Bram Stoker, was actually based on a real
guy named Vlad Tepes, who was ruling prince of an area of Romania
called Wallachia between 1456-1462 and 1476-1477. Tepes was not his
actual last name, but rather a name given to him for his preferred
method of capital punishment. Tepes means 'impaler'. Prince Vlad
would carefully impale his enemies, making sure to miss all vital
organs so that the victim would survive (and be conscious!) for about
two days before he died. Another nickname of Vlad's was Dracula,
which means son of Dracul. Dracul means dragon. Vlad's papa was a
knight of the Order of the Dragon. Evidently, Vlad Tepes is somewhat
of a folk hero for Romanians, due to his key role in maintaining a
strong resistance against the invading Ottoman Empire.

On our first day in Brasov, we visited 'Dracula's Castle' in a town
called Bran, knowing full well that it was just a vampire-ish looking
castle on the top of a rocky hill, and that Vlad Tepes never actually
lived there. The fortress at Bran was actually just a pretty castle
that Dracula may have once attacked, and it is rumored that he spent
one night in prison there, but it was also the inspiration for Bram
Stoker when he envisioned his vampire's evil fortress. The castle is
surrounded by little booths selling plastic fangs, monster masks, and
t-shirts that say 'Someone in Transylvania Loves Me' over exaggerated
pictures of vampires. Darling and I had some fun posing for photos in
our plastic fangs. Ummm, we also bought matching t-shirts. Don't
tell.

Actually, though Romania probably has nothing to do with real vampires
(although who REALLY knows the truth), it isn't hard to see where the
clichés come from. The people sort of look like vampires- they all
have pale skin, black hair, and mostly light eyes. There are funeral
parlors on almost every corner, including one 24-hour funeral parlor
right next to our hostel. The Brasov city center borders the Gothic
'Black Church" that is actually black, due to a fire that occurred in
1689. The streets and the city square are full of people all day
until sunset, when they suddenly empty completely. And, when it
rains, the mountains mist over entirely. Team Botmania went on a hike
up the mountain during a foggy day and had about the eeriest
experience of our lives. This will be featured in another chapter.

I love shit like this.

IV. Train Ride Goes Creepy

Admittedly, we were all slightly daunted by the prospect of a 20 hour
train ride, but the time actually flew by. We slept for twelve hours,
and despite being woken up six times (!) for passport control, we were
undisturbed by any interlopers trying to sit in our compartment with
us. (Please, if anyone can figure out what six countries we might
have traveled through between the Czech Republic and Romania, tell
me!)

We officially woke up somewhere in Hungary, we think, and we got into
Transylvania about an hour before sunset. Within a few minutes of
crossing the Romanian border, we noticed that our car kept filling up
with ashes. We looked out the window and saw several small fires on
the side of the tracks, which we attributed to local agricultural
practices. Then, at sunset, Ronen decided to 'go exploring' on the
train, leaving Darling and me alone in our compartment for the first
time since we got on the train. The sun set quickly, and we came
immediately upon a hill side with little fires lit in a horseshoe
pattern that centered around two gnarled, dead, black trees. Beside
this hill was another one where we saw an orange glow sort of haloing
the black hill; there were fires lit behind the hill. The only
explanation I can think of is the obvious one- we were entering
Transylvania at sunset on the night of a full moon, so it must have
been some sort of ritual tied up with vampires or werewolves or
something. Of course. We also passed an old run-down building with
all the windows knocked out. Behind one of the broken windows, we saw
another lit fire, but no people. Oooooh. Spooky.

The rest of the train ride was uneventful. There were some Roma
children trying to get us to buy things from them. A legless man
stared at Kristen through the window while she drew a picture in her
sketch-book. One older guy with red pants must have walked by twenty
or thirty times within the course of four hours.

V. Day Hike Number 1

On our train ride back from Budapest, I asked Kristen and Ronen what
their favorite parts of our Spring Break trip were. All of us agreed
that our first sunny day hike ranked number one and that the Hungarian
caves were number two. For number three, Ronen liked the thermal
baths in Budapest, and Kristen and I agreed upon hanging out at the
hostel. We all loved every minute, of course. Ranking is just one of
those things people do to review things they like in an organized way.

Our first two days in Romania had beautiful weather. We're talking
mid-60's, sunny, intermittent slight breezes. It was especially
refreshing to us after our cold, snowy winter. So, enticed by the
second day's sunshine, we walked off in the direction of the
mountains, expecting to just find a trail somewhere. We ended up lost
in somebody's backyard. We heard a ruckus behind a fence, and so we
figured that someone back there could help up find a trail. I walked
through the fence and saw a gigantic lawn next to a run-down shack,
with about six people whipping a horse that was pulling some logs up a
hill. I timidly called "Poiana Brasov????" because that is the name
of a town that we heard we could hike to. One of the men walked
towards us and said "Speak English!" Encouraged, we told him we
wanted to go on a hike and that we'd heard that Poiana Brasov was
near. He took us through his property, which included not only the
horse, but about 10-15 half-wild dogs (Romania has a problem with wild
dogs) that would excitedly bang up against our legs, several chickens,
and one turkey that chased us for a little while. He showed us his
own personal path to the outskirts of town, where we could find more
paths, and warned us about bears before he disappeared behind a little
hill.

We walked through a small wooded area that led into someone else's
backyard. Then we walked to a road where everyone knew each other and
nobody knew us. And then we finally found our path. After hiking it
for about five minutes, we saw a man running frantically past us with
a horrified expression on his face (bears? vampires? vampire bears?).
The hike progressed pleasantly, except that every time I saw
paw-prints in the small amounts of snow that hadn't yet melted, I
stopped and made Kristen and Ronen assure me that they were too small
to be bear-prints, and too near to boot prints to be werewolves.

The next four or five hours were sunshine, chit-chat, pb&j, cows
crossing roads, and basically just pure happiness.



VI. Day Hike Number 2 (Werewolves and Haunted Houses)

Even though our sunny day hike was our favorite, our rainy misty fog
creepy day hike was also one of the best experiences I've had. On the
side of one of the mountains near town, there is a big sign that looks
like the Hollywood sign, but says Brasov. We wanted to go there. So,
again, we just walked towards the mountains until we found a trail.
This trail was more grueling than the last, and because it was
raining, we kept slipping in the mud. We walked almost straight up
until we got to a crossroad where the mist was so thick we couldn't
see fifteen feet ahead of us. We decided that we didn't want to hike
back down, so we followed signs to the cable car. At one point, Ronen
wanted to see if there was another trail near us and he walked about
twenty feet away and disappeared entirely into the fog. We followed a
winding dirt road up and to the left, by a tree that looked almost
exactly like a crucifix, complete with white bark-shapes twisted like
Jesus' dying body. We saw no signs of people, no footprints. We
heard nothing except what we thought was the roaring of the cable
cars.

Meters before the cable car station (that we couldn't see in the mist,
so we didn't yet know was there), we found an abandoned house with no
roof or doors or windows, so we went in. There was another section of
the house that we couldn't reach without exiting and going behind the
ruins, so fearless Kristen led the way. As we tiptoed through the
dripping branches behind the back corner, a dog suddenly barked a
warning and the three of us simultaneously ran away and down the stone
steps back to the path. Two wild dogs followed us and eyed us
suspiciously. We continued down the path, now with two creepy
weredogs following us, until we came up the cable car station. It was
abandoned. There was a restaurant with no people in it, sidewalks
that led into concrete walls, and voices coming from inside that
didn't seem to be connected with any bodies, and didn't respond when
we knocked. One or two little barks from our dog-adversaries sent us
quickly back to the trail until we found a nice zig-zaggy path down
the empty mountain.





VII. Traveling and Touring

The Rolling Stone Hostel was the center of our social life when we
were in Brasov. Like I said earlier, the streets empty at night, so
there was not much to do except stay in with the other travelers. It
was anything but tedious.

One of the lodgers was Nick. He works for Maria, the owner of the
hostel, in return for reduced rent, and leaves it only rarely. He was
born in 1960, and spent his youth in the English punk scene, doing
drugs and watching shows. When music turned sour in the 1980s, he
started moving. He's traveled through the busiest and the remotest
areas of Europe and Asia, and doesn't want to stop. His proudest
accomplishment is that he has been to Albania. He said that when he
went to Albania, one of his taxi drivers offered to take him on a tour
of the sights for the equivalent of about 40 or 50 British pounds.
Nick responded that, although he'd love to see the sights, he couldn't
afford it. "I'm not a tourist," he said, "I'm a traveler."



I thought this was an interesting distinction that Nick drew. Many of
the guests at the Rolling Stone Hostel were travelers. Brasov is a
small town with one square, one pedestrian street, and no nightlife.
You don't go there to party. You don't go there for postcards or
museums. You go there to live, for a little or long while. For many
people, our five nights in Brasov would probably have been tedious,
but for all the people who we met at the hostel, five nights in Brasov
was a horrible tease. I could've stayed there for months. I would
hike in the day, watch Romanian VH1 in the afternoon, go to the
internet café in the evening, and read at night. I could be perfectly
content doing just that for months. I think Nick felt the same way.

[WARNING: NEXT PARAGRAPH IS A TANGENT AND YOU MIGHT WANT TO SKIP IT.]
I'm not going to fool myself, though. I'm a tourist, not a traveler,
even as much as I want to be. I'm going home soon, where I'll have to
start thinking about my future career (psychology? literature? which
one?!?!?! either?). I'm not living in the places I go. In many ways,
I'm using them. I'm studying them and the people in them. I'm trying
to use them to figure out who I am, where I fit, what I like, who I
belong with. I went to Milton's house in England, hoping that Milton
could tell me what I was supposed to do with my life. I ended up with
photos and no answers. I went to Freud's house in Vienna, hoping that
his consultation room would extract the answers from my subconscious,
and ended up only with some more postcards and some confusion. Truth
be told, I love people and want to know all about them and maybe
interact with them too. So which avenue do I take? Will my travels
tell me?

This is a tangent. I guess what I'm saying is that traveling is
appealing, and interesting, and everything all at once except only for
a little while. I can't run around my whole life. I want to, and
can't. I think Brasov is like my impossible promise land. I've had
some moments in my garden and I probably won't ever go back. And, to
be honest, it is probably changing soon. I have a feeling that
tourism is about to devour Transylvania, so, please, if this email was
interesting to you, go now and don't bring the rest of America with
you. And if you can think of a way that I could live and work there
for a few months, tell me and I'll go.

VII. Nicole Gets Sleepy

I've been writing way too long, and although I've only just touched on
all the impressions I had of Romania, and I didn't even talk about
Budapest and my favorite caves in the world, I'm tired and need to
stop soon. Three more short chapter things and I'll let you guys go.
Sorry this is so long.

VIII. A Picture of Kristen and Me at Rasnov




VIX. YOU CAN HELP ME!

I'm planning to travel as long as my funds hold after the semester in
Prague is through. Currently, the plan is to go through Austria and
Slovenia to Croatia, and then back up to Prague to drop off sweet Amy
Sommer who is coming to visit (yay!!!). Then we'll spend a week in
the Czech/Slovak area with Darling's parents. And then ___. I know
for sure that Italy (Milan and Venice definitely) go in the blank, but
after that I could go anywhere. Spain, Greece, Switzerland, Bulgaria
even. This is where you may come in.

a) Suggestions? Sights? Cities?
b) Anybody wanna come visit me in Europe?
c) DO YOU KNOW ANY FRIENDLY PEOPLE IN ANY OF THESE PLACES WHO CAN SHOW
US AROUND AND/OR HOUSE US FOR CHEAP OR FREE?
d) Donations? Just kidding. But if you want a postcard, send me your
address and you'll get it some day.

X. Finally. Do You Want More?

I know I've been talking for a while and you're probably sick of this,
but I'll just list some more topics that I wanted, but didn't have the
energy, to write about in this email. If you want to hear about any
of them in particular, let me know and I'll probably re-energize
myself again soon.

-why Prague is great, but not for me
-Maria, Silvia, and their obsession with keeping our kidneys warm
(including ear pulling and head-bopping)
-Charles the Australian Capricorn who has been traveling for 9 months
(Rhys wants you to know that this is more potentially interesting than
it looks)
-the Germans who love to party, and their pet sausage, Matt
-Roma (Gypsies) in Romania; the kid who stole my coffee and tried to
charge me for it
-the mean cop who woke me up to write me a ticket for having my shoes
on the seat
-the American whose first time out of the country was to go to
Romania, and who managed to find the only sports pub in the country
-the British girls who worked in the orphanage
-the British Lauras who live in Brighton and love us and we love them
-the bathtub sized Jacuzzi in which we squeezed four girls
-Jeremy and Megan who Peace Corps in Ukraine
-Rasnov, my favorite castle in the world, where Cold Mountain was filmed
-internet café culture in Brasov
-Sinaia, the town full of castles and weird souvenirs
-the six mean-funny English guys who love Dracula
-the mean-mean missionaries from Bucharest
-who ate Ronen's Nutella?
-Romanian chocolate
-the graveyards
-the Mexican restaurant and the final countdown
-bryan adams EVERYWHERE
-taking out 4 million lei from the ATM
-wild dogs everywhere. Dogs can recognize foreigners by scent.
-the busses that don't stop for you, and you have to jump on them
while they move
-romanian folk music
-the Budapest thermal baths, naked ladies, nice steam room
-the Budapest caves (ooooooh yeah!) including 'the Sandwich'- (one of
my favorite activies)
-renting bikes in Budapest, the Croats from the caves in a bike gang
-nikki gets sick
-returns and parents are in Prague for a visit!



I'm sure I could think of some more if you gave me some time. But I
think this is probably more than enough, isn't it?