We made it to Bucharest, though as expected not without adventures along the way. Our hostel told us to take the 6th stop on bus 282 from the train station. Our train got in at 10:30pm (we tried to take an earlier one, but it was canceled); we ran & caught the bus before it stops running at 11pm, and then we started counting the bus stops because they don't announce them.
Only, the bus didn't seem to be stopping. By the time we got off at the "sixth" stop, it was pretty obvious we were not in the right place (and that the bored driver had better things to do than stop at all the stops).
Luckily for us, the second guy we asked spoke English and wanted an excuse to use his super awesome GPS phone. While his friends made fun of him outside the grocery store at 11pm, he tried to point us in the right direction. Three kilometers later, we stumbled into our cozy hostel. Success!
We had similar adventures this morning while town hopping via local from Brasov to Rasnov to Bran and back again to see the old line of fortress and castles that defended Transylvania. (Very cool castles, by the way-- especially since it was snowing all day! We hiked up crumbled stairways on snowy, tree-covered mountains. Quite picturesque.) Romanians are very friendly people, and though we might get completely different versions of how-to-get-there from people we ask, we've always found help when we needed it.
It's late here, so I'm off to bed. Tomorrow we meet my friend Ben, who's been with the Peace Corps in Moldova for the past six months, and then we'll explore the city of Bucharest (got a head start on that tonight, didn't we?). Good night, all!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Romania: Great People, Lousy Signposting
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1 comment:
That reminds me of Dublin! Bus drivers that speak an unitelligible form of English that they shout as they speed past "stops," not stopping so much as slowing down a tinge so that you MAY not kill yourself as you attempt to leap to safety.
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