Romania: March 15-18
I have now visited my third country, Romania! I left on a Thursday night and came back... well I’ll get to that later. Thursday night: all participating students met in front of the main University building. I got there a bit early and I didn’t know anyone. I knew that my friend from Norway would be coming on the trip, but I could not find her anywhere. I began talking to a guy standing near me from Poland. We both wanted to practice our German so this was great for me. He was very nice. He was 26 years old and is working on his Masters. More students arrived. Everyone had suitcases with them. I thought that was ridiculous. For a three day trip, you do not need a suitcase. I ,am aged to fit everything in my backpack and so did the guy from Poland. I spotted my friend from Poland and she introduced me to some of her friends. Finally I met another American! And it turns out that she lives in my building and on my floor. What a small world! We all boarded the bus and I sat with the guy from Poland. There are about fifty students on this trip. It was quite competitive to get a spot. Thankfully, the ESN lady let me pay early so I was the very first person to get a spot on the trip. The times that we could pay for the trip conflicted with my German class so the ESN lady was nice enough to let me pay before the office was even open.
The bus ride was long, super long. I believe it was 15 hours long. We had to go through border control between Hungary and Romania. We had to surrender our passports to a border guard. This always makes me uncomfortable. I don’t like leaving my passport out of my sight. We were at the border for about an hour and a half. I got my passport back and now I have two new passport stamps. I guess the wait was worth it. We arrived in Sibiu, Romania at about 7 in the morning. We arrived earlier than expected and could not check into our hostels yet. We were separated into three separate hostels. I chose the last one. My roommates were the guy from Poland, a guy from France, and an ESN volunteer from Austria. Their names: Marcin, Ben, and Aaron. All of them are super nice. Unfortunately, us four got stuck with the noisy group of Argentinian guys. Thankfully, we got a room separate from them. There were only two beds though so that meant we had to share. I have had to do this many times before so it did not bother me.
After checking into our hostels, we had breakfast at 11:30. More like lunch but they insisted that it was breakfast. The breakfast was delicious and I ate everything on my plate. After breakfast, we had free time to explore Sibiu. The city is quite small but very neat. There is a huge market square and lots of little pathways. There are many churches too. We then had a tour of the city and this was very interesting. I learned that the windows in the market squares are always in patterns of three and form a triangle. The windows are shaped like eyes, symbolizing that god is always watching. I also learned that Romania and especially Sibiu is a very multicultural city. It was originally a German populated town. After the tour, my roommates and I went back to our room to take a nap before dinner. Dinner was at the same place that we had breakfast. Diner was also very good. This restaurant is a wine ha,bed and is decorated very nicely. After dinner, we went to a pub. I was not thrilled about this. I figured that I should buy a beer to look normal. I told everyone I don’t drink and everyone was very respectful of that. I absolutely hated my beer and gave the rest to Aaron. I didn’t mind the pub atmosphere though. It was just a casual drink and talking. Noise was drunk, there was no loud music. It was quite late, so we made our way back to our hostel and went to bed.
The next morning we woke up at 7. We had breakfast at our hostel. Plates full of food were all set out for us. There was a hotdog in the middle of the plate. An odd choice for breakfast but I didn’t mind. Breakfast was very good. We met up with the students from the other hostels before heading to the bus. I quickly learned that the other hostels had to make their own breakfast. They just had eggs in the fridge and could make what they wanted. I am very glad I picked this hostel. We all got on the bus and headed towards the Bran Castle, aka the Dracula castle. The bus ride was about three hours. We arrived at the castle and I expected it to be a lot bigger. The castle looked cool though. We got a tour of the castle and I learned about the connection to Dracula. The author of Dracula described a castle that Dracula lived in through a few sentences in the book. The only castle in Romania that fits this description is the Bran Castle. In reality, Dracula never lived in the castle. He was only imprisoned at the castle for one night. I was disappointed. I thought there would be a cooler story. The castle was cool to see. My favorite part were the young dancers in the courtyard in the middle of the castle. Children and teenagers were performing traditional Romanian dances. This reminded me of my days as a Junior Tamburitzan.
After the castle, we headed to Brasov, Romania. We arrived a bit late and only had thirty minutes to eat lunch. I went to a pizza place and by the time I got my pizza, we only had five minutes to eat. I asked for a to-go Box and ate my pizza and toured at the same time. The skies were so grey here and it was hard to see the beauty in this town. Our tour guide was very interesting though. He even showed us where his house was. We then got on the bus and headed back to Sibiu. We were responsible to find our own dinner so I just got a chocolate covered soft pretzel at a bakery. It was delicious. Tonight, we were going to a club and I was dreading it. We walked for about twenty minutes and reached the desired club. We walked inside and then got kicked out because apparently some private party was going on. I wasn’t even in the club for five minutes and I already wanted to leave. Blaring music, flashing lights, and drunk people aren’t really my things. So we left the club and the ESN leaders looked for another club to go to. Some students just went back to their hostels. I yearned to go with them but all my roommates stayed and we only had one key. So we searched and searched for another club. All were full. We ended up going to some karaoke bar. I walked inside, there was no room, I was so miserable, so I just stood outside and talked with the ESN leaders. They were very nice to talk to and this was so much better than going in the bar. It was almost 2:00 when I got back to my hostel. I was not happy.
Breakfast was at 6:00. Hip hip hooray for four hours of sleep. Breakfast consisted of bread, a hotdog and some chicken nuggets. I was quite amused but it tasted great. We checked out of our hostel and headed towards Corvin Castle. The bus ride was about three hours. This castle was much bigger than the Bran Castle. We did not have a tour of this castle so we could just roam around as we pleased. It was very boring, I did not know the history of this castle and nothing was that exciting to see. My friends and I finished within an hour and had two hours to spare. We we to a market in the parking lot and shopped and just talked to one another. Finally, we had lunch. Lunch consisted of a huge piece of chicken. I was satisfied. It was now time to embark on our journey back to Vienna. We got on the bus and departed.
We were rolling along just fine and then we pulled off on the side of the road in Hungary. Apparently the bus was broken. So they couldn’t find or fix the problem so the bus drivers called a mechanic. Now the mechanic took an hour to get to the bus. Let me note that it was about 10 at night. The mechanic took about three hours to fix whatever problem there was. Apparently, we had the option to call another bus from Vienna that would have only taken two and a half hours. That would have been to simple I guess. So after about four hours, we begin to move again. Five minutes later, we pull off at another rest stop. We sit for another thirty minutes, then move again, then pull off at the next rest stop, wait for another twenty minutes, then move again. I had no idea what was happening, I was completely miserable and had no food or sleep. We arrived back in Vienna at 6:00 AM, Monday morning. We were supposed to arrive at 11:30 on Sunday night. Oh how I love traveling! I had about five hours of sleep in the past 48 hours. Besides this tragedy, Romania was a wonderful trip.
The bus ride was long, super long. I believe it was 15 hours long. We had to go through border control between Hungary and Romania. We had to surrender our passports to a border guard. This always makes me uncomfortable. I don’t like leaving my passport out of my sight. We were at the border for about an hour and a half. I got my passport back and now I have two new passport stamps. I guess the wait was worth it. We arrived in Sibiu, Romania at about 7 in the morning. We arrived earlier than expected and could not check into our hostels yet. We were separated into three separate hostels. I chose the last one. My roommates were the guy from Poland, a guy from France, and an ESN volunteer from Austria. Their names: Marcin, Ben, and Aaron. All of them are super nice. Unfortunately, us four got stuck with the noisy group of Argentinian guys. Thankfully, we got a room separate from them. There were only two beds though so that meant we had to share. I have had to do this many times before so it did not bother me.
After checking into our hostels, we had breakfast at 11:30. More like lunch but they insisted that it was breakfast. The breakfast was delicious and I ate everything on my plate. After breakfast, we had free time to explore Sibiu. The city is quite small but very neat. There is a huge market square and lots of little pathways. There are many churches too. We then had a tour of the city and this was very interesting. I learned that the windows in the market squares are always in patterns of three and form a triangle. The windows are shaped like eyes, symbolizing that god is always watching. I also learned that Romania and especially Sibiu is a very multicultural city. It was originally a German populated town. After the tour, my roommates and I went back to our room to take a nap before dinner. Dinner was at the same place that we had breakfast. Diner was also very good. This restaurant is a wine ha,bed and is decorated very nicely. After dinner, we went to a pub. I was not thrilled about this. I figured that I should buy a beer to look normal. I told everyone I don’t drink and everyone was very respectful of that. I absolutely hated my beer and gave the rest to Aaron. I didn’t mind the pub atmosphere though. It was just a casual drink and talking. Noise was drunk, there was no loud music. It was quite late, so we made our way back to our hostel and went to bed.
The next morning we woke up at 7. We had breakfast at our hostel. Plates full of food were all set out for us. There was a hotdog in the middle of the plate. An odd choice for breakfast but I didn’t mind. Breakfast was very good. We met up with the students from the other hostels before heading to the bus. I quickly learned that the other hostels had to make their own breakfast. They just had eggs in the fridge and could make what they wanted. I am very glad I picked this hostel. We all got on the bus and headed towards the Bran Castle, aka the Dracula castle. The bus ride was about three hours. We arrived at the castle and I expected it to be a lot bigger. The castle looked cool though. We got a tour of the castle and I learned about the connection to Dracula. The author of Dracula described a castle that Dracula lived in through a few sentences in the book. The only castle in Romania that fits this description is the Bran Castle. In reality, Dracula never lived in the castle. He was only imprisoned at the castle for one night. I was disappointed. I thought there would be a cooler story. The castle was cool to see. My favorite part were the young dancers in the courtyard in the middle of the castle. Children and teenagers were performing traditional Romanian dances. This reminded me of my days as a Junior Tamburitzan.
After the castle, we headed to Brasov, Romania. We arrived a bit late and only had thirty minutes to eat lunch. I went to a pizza place and by the time I got my pizza, we only had five minutes to eat. I asked for a to-go Box and ate my pizza and toured at the same time. The skies were so grey here and it was hard to see the beauty in this town. Our tour guide was very interesting though. He even showed us where his house was. We then got on the bus and headed back to Sibiu. We were responsible to find our own dinner so I just got a chocolate covered soft pretzel at a bakery. It was delicious. Tonight, we were going to a club and I was dreading it. We walked for about twenty minutes and reached the desired club. We walked inside and then got kicked out because apparently some private party was going on. I wasn’t even in the club for five minutes and I already wanted to leave. Blaring music, flashing lights, and drunk people aren’t really my things. So we left the club and the ESN leaders looked for another club to go to. Some students just went back to their hostels. I yearned to go with them but all my roommates stayed and we only had one key. So we searched and searched for another club. All were full. We ended up going to some karaoke bar. I walked inside, there was no room, I was so miserable, so I just stood outside and talked with the ESN leaders. They were very nice to talk to and this was so much better than going in the bar. It was almost 2:00 when I got back to my hostel. I was not happy.
Breakfast was at 6:00. Hip hip hooray for four hours of sleep. Breakfast consisted of bread, a hotdog and some chicken nuggets. I was quite amused but it tasted great. We checked out of our hostel and headed towards Corvin Castle. The bus ride was about three hours. This castle was much bigger than the Bran Castle. We did not have a tour of this castle so we could just roam around as we pleased. It was very boring, I did not know the history of this castle and nothing was that exciting to see. My friends and I finished within an hour and had two hours to spare. We we to a market in the parking lot and shopped and just talked to one another. Finally, we had lunch. Lunch consisted of a huge piece of chicken. I was satisfied. It was now time to embark on our journey back to Vienna. We got on the bus and departed.
We were rolling along just fine and then we pulled off on the side of the road in Hungary. Apparently the bus was broken. So they couldn’t find or fix the problem so the bus drivers called a mechanic. Now the mechanic took an hour to get to the bus. Let me note that it was about 10 at night. The mechanic took about three hours to fix whatever problem there was. Apparently, we had the option to call another bus from Vienna that would have only taken two and a half hours. That would have been to simple I guess. So after about four hours, we begin to move again. Five minutes later, we pull off at another rest stop. We sit for another thirty minutes, then move again, then pull off at the next rest stop, wait for another twenty minutes, then move again. I had no idea what was happening, I was completely miserable and had no food or sleep. We arrived back in Vienna at 6:00 AM, Monday morning. We were supposed to arrive at 11:30 on Sunday night. Oh how I love traveling! I had about five hours of sleep in the past 48 hours. Besides this tragedy, Romania was a wonderful trip.
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