Trip to Romania or breaking the stereotypes

Well, I'm heading the road again in a direction of Denmark this time and while I'm waiting for my plane at the airport, I decided to share some memories about our trip to Romania with Lali September this year.

First of all, I'd like to say that my opinion about this country turned upside down and what I saw was the opposite of what I expected. You see, everyone was really worried when we said we wanna go to Romania. People in Bulgaria were worried because we said we're travelling by train, my parents were worried because we are two girls going to the heart of the gipsy country. So, there was only one reason to worry actually, can you guess which one? :)


I like travelling and I've been using different means of transport and I could never think train can be a problem in Europe, well, it was. So there's Varna, Ruse (an amazing city on Bulgarian-Romanian border) and Bucharest. The total distance of around 270 km was made in 16 hours... Yes, the first train was late like 1,5 hours, but we still had to wait in Ruse for 4 hours at night. We took a cab to centre and went sightseeing. What can I say - at least at night city looks amazing and I am really sorry I didn't come back there. Maybe next time I'm in Bulgaria I need to add it on my schedule :) Well, it was fun in Ruse though, one of the momerable moments was when we entered some club and the dj said loud: "Hey tourist, c'mon join us, you can put your tents here".

The train to Ruse was fun too, the old Bulgarian guy was talking to Lali and she was answering something different in Spanish, but they had a long conversation with laughting and even understanding smth through me or body language. I learned some Spanish on the way. Yo tenga una amiga. Ella es Lali. Ella es mui guapa ;)

The remaining part of the trip wasn't that nice though, it was really cold in the second train, it left Ruse three hours later and we came to Bucharest 9.30 instead of 6.30. The average speed 270/16=16,88 km/h, would be faster to travel by donkey perhaps...

The really first impression was the expected one - when we got out on the street, gipsy taxi drivers tried to get our attention to drive us to centre and the train station itself suddenly seemed dirty and crowded. This impression changed later when we actually got to the city.

The hostel we were staying at was really nice, it was a room for 10 people, but it wasn't full and all the people were quite, so we were lucky, it was 1 tube station away from the centre and the guy working there gave us a map and marked the notable places on it. So we went sightseeing. Well, it's just impossible to describe everything what we have seen during the time in Bucharest, but I must say - everyone needs to visit this place.

The city is just amazing - it's full of fountains, the buildings are really cool, there are nice parks (not the one at the Parliament though, it's too dry), the weather was +28 all the time and if for Lali it was ok, then I was seriously thinking that I'll get a sun stroke. I didn't.

We had a kind of a tourist guide book, which appeared to be a lie. For instance, it was said there that the metro in Bucharest is terrible - a lot of homeless dogs, graffity, slow and terrible trains. Well, I haven't seen any of this there, have I been to another Bucharest? What people think about Bucharest is not true either. I'll tell you what I heard before and you can compare it with what you heard. Here's the story:

"Bucharest is the capitsl of gipsys, gipsys are everywhere there. It's a really dangerous place where everyone wans to steal things from you, kidnap you, steal and sell your kidneys and other inner parts. Everyone is really poor and uneducated there. People don't speak other languages, don't have any money, so they steal."

Here's what I've seen - the amount of gipsys there is approximately the same as in Bulgaria or Latvia. There are SOME. I'm not sure about criminality level, but we were late in centre and didn't see any criminals walking in the street and despite what the tourist guide book was telling us, no kids wanted to poison us with some gas to steal our kidney, seriously, who's writing that? Yes, not so many people spoke English, but who didn't - knew Spanish. Since I was with Lali - we always could explain ourselves and understand others. However, Romanian people were not really communicative, that was strange. They were helpful, but once they answered our question and learned we're not locals - they didn't speak to us any more. The city was really clean and beautiful and there were MUCH less homeless animals than in Varna, even though the damned guide book said the opposite.

In addition to that, it was a lot of cafeterias and bars in the centre, so it was really-really full of people, the prices are nice and the food was good as well. The only problem was the speed. It takes you a lot of time if you want to eat in Romanian restaurant. You are lucky if you got your menu in the beginning. 30 minutes waiting for the bill, 30 min to get rid of the bill and 30 min waiting for the change. But wel, that's probably in the culture - not rushing anywhere.

Ruse

The real-lemon-lemonade

something traditional - corn porrage (Polenta) with lamb

Bank with the best name one can think of

One of the most central streets and the building of the Parliament at the end of it

My overall impression from the visit is extremely positive and definately recommended to everyone. I would definately like to go to Romania again and to visit the Vlad Tepes castle next time. But we'll see how it's gonna be. :)

Norok!


Dates: September 3rd-6th, 2011
With: Lali
By: Train
Accommodation: Hostel
Overall impression: Really positive