Standing outside of Peles Castle, Romania
PREPARATION
Pre-departure preparation consisted of:
1. Researching Romanian cheeses
2. Researching hiking, via ferratas, mountain biking, etc. that's accessible by public transit
3. Realizing there's almost nothing accessible by public transit outside of Bucharest so contacting outdoor tour companies instead
4. Booking tours and planning daily itineraries for all 2.5 days in Romania
5. Finding and booking a hostel
6. Mapping out how to get everywhere
The "adventure company" I booked with was lovely. Since I'm only one person and this kind of tour often takes quite a bit of work from the guides, I decided to email ahead of time to ask which already-booked tours they had going that I could tag onto.
No response.
For several days.
Finally, I called instead and the slowest, sweetest, quietest man's voice answered the phone. Something about how he spoke gave the clear impression that this is someone who doesn't "internet" very much; this is someone who exists 100% in the physical here and now. Turns out the only other booked tour they had this weekend was Saturday, which couldn't really work for me because I was arriving around 1:30am Saturday morning so leaving 4-5 hours later for a day of physical activity probably wasn't the best idea. Also, what I was interested in seeing didn't completely fit the tours. I'd been expecting to skip some of the things but this man, in the middle of a phone conversation, crafted a completely new tour covering all of it for just 30chf more than the other tours. Also, the only payment accepted was either cash or a Romanian bank transfer (honestly I'm not surprised?).
Now. Ready for a recount of the worst hostel EVER?!
WORST HOSTEL EVER PART 1
I typically arrange all the essentials before arriving. The booking site I use gives the option for late check-in after midnight, which I select. Flight arrives after midnight. On arrival, I find an email sent *while I was in the air* that they're closing at midnight. I show up anyway because it's now after midnight and everything else is closed. It's completely dead and locked. I start Googling hostels and searching the streets of Bucharest for anything open. Everything is closed, full, or >200chf/night (way outside my price range - only fancy hotels have 24h reception).
By 3am, I start looking for grass patches and benches.
By 4am, I'm laying on a park bench trying to fall asleep with one eye open.
By 4:30am, a group of young men comes to investigate but runs away as soon as I sit up.
By 5am, it is FUCKING COLD and I root around my bag for anything that will cover me.
By 5:30am, a group of cats get in a small fight nearby.
By 6am, pigeons start to show up and form groups.
By 6:30am, I get up in search of coffee to warm up.
By 7am, I am at the meeting point for my tour leaving at 8am.
The tour van arrives 20 minutes late. At least the seats are soft and it isn't freezing anymore.
DAY 1: Peles, Brasov, Vampyres, and More
The tour guide is so excited about his job, I feel guilty for falling asleep in the van seats regularly. This man is truly the ideal person for a tour guide: happy, energetic, loves where he is, wants to get us excited about it, full of stories with plenty to say.
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| Peles Castle |
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| Bulz, a traditional Romanian meal featuring local cheese and bacon cooked into polenta with an egg on top |
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| Brasov |
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| Bran Castle, the inspiration for Dracula's castle |
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| A priest's box of tools for fighting the demons of Transylvanian folklore, including a wooden stake to drive into the hearts of vampires. |
It's a full day tour, which is great. We also covered quite a lot of ground:
WORST HOSTEL EVER PART 2
I'd been emailing the hostel during the day to assure them I'd arrive much earlier tonight but hadn't heard anything back. I show up around 9, they are open, the woman working invites me in, and she assures me it will only take a few minutes. After a while, she tells me they cancelled my booking because I "didn't show" last night. I say I haven't heard anything from them and ask if they were ever planning to tell me that they cancelled my booking. She apologizes and offers the couch in the common area. I accept (it's now 10pm and where else can I go?), but she needs to confirm with her boss.
I wait half an hour while she deals with someone else. I inquire about the confirmation, explaining I had no place to sleep last night either because of them and am not keen to repeat that. She then contacts her boss, who tells her I cannot stay on the couch because they can't charge for that, but they have beds available tomorrow night if I want to pay some extra.
Is this a joke?!
Leaving the hostel around 11pm, once again with nowhere to stay, I receive a new email informing me of the cancelled booking. So they overbooked but didn't cancel my booking until after I showed up.
Is. This. A. Joke.?!
A PLEASANT END TO SHITTY HOSTEL PART 2
After 45min of wandering into, calling, and being turned away from numerous fully-booked hostels and hotels, it is nearing midnight and I stop into a 24h shop to find water.
The cheerful old security guard in the shop discovers my Romanian is limited to about 4 words. I hear him talking to the two younger cashiers, who are giggling awkwardly and offering him helpful English phrases like "nice to meet you." I hope they don't start talking to me; I'm sure they are lovely but I am so stressed out right now and can't handle new social interactions that don't move me closer to having a place to sleep tonight, however well-intentioned they may be.
On my way to the cash register with water in hand, the old security guard steps confidently into my path with a huge grin wide across his face.
"NIGH TO EAT YOU!" He shouts loudly and proudly. The two cashiers immediately burst out laughing, covering their faces and looking away in embarrassment. Briefly frozen in surprise, I can feel a smile start to work its way onto my face.
"Nice to meet you, too," I respond, and feeling a bit lighter.
"WHAT OH NAY?" He continues.
"Sorry?" I ask, confused, and glancing at the cashiers.
"What's your name," one of them clarifies, still embarassed.
"Ahh, my name's Anneke," I answer the security guard while handing the waterbottle and cash to the cashier.
"NICOLA?" he tries to repeat my name, "MAN NAME. NICOLA MAN NAME."
Everyone's laughing now but before I can say anything, the cashier starts scolding him in Romanian. I start to leave, thanking them for the water. They smile, wave, and I continue the quest for a bed while feeling much better.
The cheapest hotel I can find that still has room is a bit outside my budget (200 Romanian lei/night = 50 CHF = 75ish CAD) but I need a shower and a bed. By 1am, I am in a clean bed with an alarm set for 6 to get to my 6:30 tour on time.
DAY 2: Mountains and Cheeses and Communism Oh My!
The best way to depict this day is through photos because it was so darn lovely. To start, Nicu picked me up at 6:30 and we drove several hours to get into the mountains. Driving through tiny Romanian villages, Nicu told me about how the communities changed dramatically before, during, and after foreign occupation, communism, and the following onslaught of capitalism.
Once arriving in the Fagaras mountains, we paid much more attention to the scenery. The Transfaragasan highway is supposedly "the most beautiful highway in the world." On our way up, we also came across some sort of marathon, a local cheese and meat market, and some fucking fantastic views.
On the long drive back, Nicu tells me more about his family, his life, and Romania's extremely difficult relationship with communism and capitalism. On the one hand, entire villages were destroyed when communism came in. Yes, the people were evacuated and given homes elsewhere, but their real homes were gone. People felt a sense of peace and security in that they were guaranteed work and food, but it wasn't always the specific work they wanted, or the quality wasn't as high. Then the revolution against communism was extremely violent in the cities (the countryside hardly noticed a difference). The years immediately following communism were even more difficult than the communist years for many people because suddenly they were left entirely on their own to navigate not only work and livelihood, but also the sudden and tremendous onslaught of foreign Western media that essentially "took over" society. Many older people now are the ones who look back fondly on communism because they are the ones who lived through both the cruel stability of communism and tumultuous instability of its fall to capitalism and Western media.
Nicu also recommended the best place to find cheese in Bucharest and probably all of Romania: Otpor Market. Apparently, this market used to be downtown but was pushed out because city planners didn't like the mess of having the livestock bought and sold in the middle of the city. Sadly, there is no longer livestock for sale at the market but you still have to make your way to the very edge of the city to find it.
DAY 3: Bucharest
Since I'm actually based out of Bucharest for this entire weekend, you'd think I should spend at least one day here, right? That was Monday.
Waking up, I decided to find and explore Otpor Market before my walking tour at 10. Navigating the confusing city transit, I finally found the massive building and endless stands outside... only to discover it opens at 9.
Are. You. Kidding. Me.?
I wandered around drinking coffee until 9, scrambled through to find the cheeses, bought them, then booked it back to the tram to make it to the National Theatre (tour meeting point) by 10.
This tour guide was much less politically nuanced than Nicu. She was very direct in her bold statements about Romanian culture and identity dying under communism, the ugly buildings built by the communist leader Ceausescu that overshadowed the true Romanian architecture, lamentations about the deliberate communist neglect of the beautiful old buildings, etc.
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| A communist-era building and a quote from the tour guide. |
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| But many old buildings did manage to survive; this one is the French consulate. |
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| Oldest graffiti on the street: "Vote for the Sun" from the pre-communist 1940s. A sun was the symbol of the communist party at the time. |
After the tour, I finally found mici and papanasi :)
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| Mici: Romanian grilled skinless sausages made with ground meat and spices |
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| Papanasi: a fried dough ball covered in a yogurt-like cream (sour cream?) and blackberry jelly |
WORST HOSTEL EVER PART 3
You would think the story of the goddamn hostel would be done by now, right? Right??
After flying back to Geneva and checking into my bank account, I discover the goddamn hostel had the AUDACITY to actually CHARGE ME for all three nights they didn't let me stay. IS THIS A JOKE?!?! Seriously. I love hostels but these are the types of places that give them a bad name. Go fuck yourself, Paris Hostel.
