Category Archives: Romania

Things I saw on the train from Bucharest to Sofia

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Waiting in Bucharest station

Did you know that Romania has an oil industry? Yeah me neither until I looked out the window and think, are those… oil wells? Turns out, the oil from Romania played an important role in WW1 and 2.

Perhaps more stereotypically, as the train goes through a level crossing the first vehicle in the queue, in front of all the cars, is a horse-drawn farm cart with hay in it.

Speaking of stereotypes, the train out of Bucharest has quite a few Brits on board. All sitting in the same part of the carriage. None of us talking to each other, even when interesting things happened like the Romanian border police collecting all our passports and getting off the train. (I later spotted some of the same people on the street in Sofia and we all politely pretended to not recognize each other. Honestly, what a nation.)

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Zoe’s post office reviews, from Budapest to Istanbul

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On this trip, I’ve been writing postcards as I go. Initially I thought I’d hang onto them all until I get to Australia and post from there, but then in Budapest I decided I’d give the local post office a go. And since then I’ve done a post office trip in every city I’ve stayed in. Here are my reviews.

(“Did the card actually get to its recipient” — arguably the main function of the postal system — is not a criterion, because it’s far too early to judge that. I’m still in Istanbul for goodness sake.)

Budapest

This was my first post office, and I approached with trepidation. Would there be some obscure queueing system that I would get yelled at for misunderstanding? Would I be waiting all morning? Would I be able to explain that I would like a stamp for this postcard to the UK?

Lol. There was one person ahead of me in the queue. The lady behind the counter both smiled at me(!) and spoke perfect English. I regretted having only 2 cards to send, given how successful the exercise was.

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The night train from Budapest to Brasov

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The 19.10 overnight train from Budapest to Bucharest, calling at Brasov, consists mostly of seated carriages, with just a couple of Romanian couchette and sleeper cars attached at the front. I loiter on the platform as long as possible, awkwardly eating my dinner from McDonald’s (don’t judge) while leaning against a wall — with a scheduled time of nearly 12 hours to Brasov, I want to enjoy non-train-life as long as possible. Most of the passengers are getting onto the seated carriages, some with heavy bags and suitcases, one guy with 6 tins of beer in a plastic bag and seemingly nothing else.

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6 things I loved about Brasov

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1. Everyone outside Romania who heard I was going to Brasov, in actual real life Transylvania, cracked some kind of joke about visiting Dracula. Brilliantly, Brasov itself is well aware of being a tourist destination — as a well-preserved medieval town founded by Germans in a beautiful natural setting, thank you very much. Seriously, the place is tasteful. I think I saw more “let’s go party with vampires!!!!!” tat within 5 minutes of wandering around Bucharest old town than I did in Brasov.

Get ready to enjoy that town square cafe lyfe
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