Ok I know I’m overdue for an update. Work has been crazy busy this summer as we’re incredibly understaffed. However, I did manage to squeeze in a trip to Bucharest Romania for a three day weekend! I’ve always wanted to visit Eastern Europe and Romania seemed as good a place as any. Budapest and Prague are still on my list but at least I got my feet wet here.
The trip started out like most of my other vacation plans…everyone was running late. The trip was planned the weekend in prior and in order to save the most money on airfare, we decided to fly out of Bergamo, Milan which is the farthest airport in Milan (about a three hour drive from Sacile). Despite our late start due to Drew locking himself out of his apartment, we started on the road in plenty of time. Unfortunately we hit traffic about an hour out. Not just slow traffic, but stand still, Italians getting out of their cars to smoke and chat kind of traffic. As we sat in the car, we watched the destination arrival time on the gps continue to rise which gave everyone in the car that uncomfortable feeling that we may not actually make our flight… Every few minutes I would do the math trying to count up exactly how much time we would have to park the car, find the check in point as Bergamo is a relatively large airport with a number of parking hubs, actually check in, get through security, find our gate, and board. Math isn’t a skill I’ve really developed but it was pretty clear that we would be pushing to get to the gate before it closed. Finally the cars started to move and we continued our slow trek to Bergamo. When we finally got there we had about half an hour to park the car, make it to the checkin point, check in, get through security, and find our gate. We did the parking rather quickly only to find out we had to catch a bus to our terminal…*sigh* We waited for five minutes for the bus, which, under normal circumstances would not have been an exceedingly long time to wait. In this case it was agony watching the clocks and looking for the bus. It arrived and made its slow way across the airport. We hopped off the bus and jogged to the check in counter which, not surprisingly, was uncrowded as everyone in their right mind had already checked in and were waiting like good little travelers at the gate. We checked in and made it through security with a few minutes to spare. At this point we decided to sprint through the terminal to our gate to ensure timely arrival. If you’ve read any of the previous entries, you may have discovered a theme of my choice in shoes. I tend to choose the most impractical shoes to wear for any occasion. On this occasion I decided on flip flops which are awesome for both riding in a car or a plane. Horrible for sprinting… One of the guys grabbed my carry on (which I’m amazed they allowed to be a carry on as it was incredibly full) and we booked it all the way to the gate only to find that the plane was somewhat delayed. This was good as we were technically late and it made me feel a little sorry for the suckers that got there on time or even early. This pity would be very short lived due to our experience on the return trip. More on that later.
One uneventful plane ride later we landed in Romania. Our plan was to meet a friend coming from Germany at the airport as his flight was due to land an hour later than ours. Unfortunately the airport we landed at in Romania offered nothing but a tiny snack bar and an ATM to lean up against once we crossed the point of no return that every airport now has. So we waited patiently…and continued to wait…and kept waiting… I was the POC for this guy and he had emailed me all his flight information. I had, of course, forgotten to print it out and was relying completely on my memory to guide us. Big mistake. While I had roughly yet correctly remembered the time and the place he was flying out of, I had actually forgotten to double check that we were meeting in the same airport. Apparently we were not. How was I supposed to know that Bucharest has multiple airports?!?! As an aside, he had let his phone run out of minutes so we couldn’t get in touch with one another. I blame that entirely on him. Finally we got tired of waiting and thought that maybe I had forgotten some vital piece of information (I had) and grabbed a cab to the hotel. Once we arrived and checked in, the pleasant front desk lady informed us that our friend had checked in and was waiting for us. We did a quick introduction/AAR on how we were separated…blah blah blah everyone blame Joni for not realizing a poor Eastern European country has multiple airports…whatever. Time to explore!
Bucharest is a really interesting city. The hotel we stayed at advertised that it was “close” to the main downtown area. It was actually a pretty far walk but we were able to really see the city’s dichotomy as we explored the area. There were modern and ornate buildings immediately adjacent to dilapidated ones. You could tell the city is really struggling to get on its feet but that it has pockets of wealth in certain areas. We walked around taking in the sites of gothic buildings and trash ridden sheets. We finally wandered onto a side street that was really not much more than rubble but was lined with shops containing designer gowns and clothes. After the travel ordeal we’d become pretty hungry so we ate at “Probably the best restaurant in town.”
The advertising left something to be desired but the food in Romania is actually really good. I think it has a lot of German/Hungarian influence. Also, lots of minced meats, spices, and sour cream, all of which I love. After a long relaxing dinner (which was really cheap), we walked back to the hotel and got ready to go out to a club. I’ve always been interested in going to an Eastern European club ever since I saw the movie Eurotrip. It was not as crazy wild as the movie depicted but it was really fun! I do have to comment on one thing I noticed on my travels through Eastern Europe. It’s something of a genetic anomaly really. All the women are really gorgeous. All the men are are not really attractive at all. It’s completely bizarre. You would think that generations of unattractive men marrying and having kids with attractive women would even out the gene pool. Not the case. The women remain beautiful, the men remain underwhelming. Which brings me to my next point. If you’re a single male, Eastern Europe is a great place. You’ll be good looking by default and they assume every American has money. Just a suggestion… Anyway, here’s pics from the club:
The next day we woke up a little late but decided to go on a road trip. We wanted to find Dracula’s castle. There are technically two Dracula’s castles in Romania. The one that Bram Stoker modeled his novels off of and the one that Vlad the Impaler lived and tortured people in. First thing’s first! Step 1, rent a car. We found a lovely van/car-ish crossover type thing. After some haggling with the car rental lady we ended up paying full price and not the price that was quoted to us on EasyJet. Despite the sales associate’s complete indifference to our quote and general antipathy we put a credit card down and were on our way!
First up was the Stoker castle which was really not as ominous or sinister as I was expecting. In all actuality it was quite pleasant. It was a beautiful sunny day with lush green surroundings on our short stroll up the hill where the castle was located.
Even inside, the castle looked like a great place to live. We didn’t find any coffins or skulls or torture chambers. Honestly the most offensive part of the castle was some mediocre decorating. Maybe it turns scary at night. We didn’t get the chance to wait around for it because we were on a mission! We also wanted to check out Vlad’s castle, which, according to my guidebook, was pretty much just ruins. At some point, the majority of it broke off the base and slid down into the ravine it overlooked. Also, it happened to be on the other side of Transylvania. It didn’t matter though. We wanted to see it! We took some final photos at the Stoker castle, and accepted the fact that we were not going to see vampires at this location…or so we thought…
After my quick encounter with the undead, we decided to hop back in the car and press. We didn’t have a GPS but did have the forethought to buy a map at the gas station we stopped at during the beginning stages of the drive. When we looked at the map we found a highway that wound around some mountains and got us to the town we needed. We also found some smaller roads that appeared more direct but went straight through middle of nowhere. We figured the highway would be quicker… However, part of the charm and allure of renting a random car is going off the beaten path to see the real country side and culture of a place. Highways are for suckers! So off we went and boy did we see country! Unlike the more urban areas, the rural areas are still decades from modernization. We were immediately recognized as outsiders and promptly stared down at every town we passed through. It could have been the new car or the fact that we all had cameras plastered to our faces and were gawking at what they considered normal.
But seriously…what American wouldn’t gawk? Is she wearing Crocs?!?! Anyway, we continued on. We weaved through the countryside going from small town to small town. Eventually we ran out of what could loosely be described as civilization and went straight into the backwoods, gravel roads of Romania passing only the occasional barn here and there. It was quite a lovely and peaceful drive until we hit the most bizarre sight I’ve seen in a while.
The backstory: From 1945-1989 the Soviets occupied Romania implementing a communist government. In 1947 Russia declared Romania a people’s republic. Romania remained under the direct military and economic control of the USSR until the late 1950s. During this period, Romania’s vast natural resources were continuously drained by mixed Soviet-Romanian companies set up for exploitative purposes. And that’s what we came across. As we drove out from the the wooded surroundings into a road running between grassy fields we suddenly saw old abandoned buildings. Rising randomly out from a Romanian field we found this old abandoned Soviet era industrial town. It was straight out of a bad horror movie. I was just waiting for our car to break down and our phones to lose service prompting us to separate to find some kind of help then be picked off one by one by “The Hills Have Eyes” style mutants in old soviet uniforms… This didn’t happen and we actually made it through the town without incident. It was still incredibly creepy. Imagine an entire town with no people. Just homes, business, warehouses, factories, all somewhat boarded up and entirely abandoned. All the homes looked the same, businesses and other buildings built in an economical and functional fashion. No frills or interesting decor. What made it even more weird (if that’s possible) were the signs that advertised a place called “Vacation Land” We came to a four way stop which showed us that vacation land was behind us.
As we crossed the street we saw more dilapidated old stuff,
and when we finally got to the other side of the four way stop, we found a sign that told us vacation land was, in fact, in front of us rather than behind.
As an aside, we never actually found Vacation Land…or maybe we did and just didn’t understand what the Romanians meant when they described a vacation… Regardless, soviet town wasn’t it. Anyway, it was getting late in the day and we were concerned that we were going to lose the light necessary to check out Vlad’s ruins. We checked the map again when we came to the base of a mountain pass and found that the town we were looking for was just on the other side of the mountains! Not big deal, right? The road, which could be better described as a goat path, took a little longer to get over than we thought but we did find some time to hop out of our awesomemobile and take some pictures of the mountains.
I was actually concerned about our gas situation since we hadn’t stopped for gas since the very beginning of the trip and we’d been driving all day. The car actually lasted the entire road trip without a refill which amazed me, yet foreshadowed future problems which will be discussed later. A storm did roll in over the mountains which made our slow going even slower and we did not hit the town until after dark. We weren’t able to go up and hang out in Vlad’s ruins but were able to see them from a distance, perched on the side of the mountain. While it was pitch dark and we were looking up from the ground, we were able to see the ruins by virtue of the flashes of lightning from the storm. Given the macabre scene it was actually perfect. The way back to Bucharest was marred by a storm but we eventually made it back to the hotel early in the morning to get a few hours sleep before flying back to Bergamo.
In true fashion, we were running late to the Romanian airport and were concerned were were going to miss our flight…again. We turned in the car as quickly as possible, got lost trying to find the check-in desk, and finally arrived only to be told that the flight was delayed. Instead of flying out at 1300, it would leave at 1500. The check in lady for EasyJet delighted in telling us that this was great news as we were running late anyway. I kind of figured we’d make our flight even if it was on time but we decided not to argue and wandered around the airport until they let us check in. After waiting in a monstrously long line, we finally got our boarding tickets and sat down at the gate. We were all exhausted and nodding off until one of us opened our eyes and realized that the flight to Bergamo had disappeared from our gate monitor and was replaced by a flight to Prague. We checked the departure screens and it showed that our flight had disappeared entirely. Weird. Unsure what to do, we started asking around and got completely conflicting information regarding a bird strike, plane repair, plane swap out, etc. It was about that time that I started having bad flashbacks of the trip back from Malta. How is it absolutely impossible for me to make a simple trip home? I seem to be entirely incapable of just hopping on plane and landing at my destination at the time originally planned on the tickets I buy. Turns out an EasyJet plane from the night before was cancelled due to bird strike, EasyJet decided to give those poor souls our plane, and were attempting to fix the damaged plane for our flight. We were getting all of this information second hand as there was absolutely no EasyJet representative in the airport at that time…at all… *sigh* No one really offers good customer service these days. So we waited patiently, waited some more, and when we were considering finding alternate routes home, were finally informed that our flight would leave at 1900, putting us in Milan at 2100 which made our arrival time at home around midnight. It would suck as we all had to work in the morning but it was our best option at this point. So we waited some more and our plane from Romania finally took off around 2000. Woo! I couldn’t wait to just crawl into bed for a good couple hours of sleep. Starting out the work week like that wouldn’t be too horrible.
The plane landed around 2200 and we paid our exorbitant parking fee and were on our way home. In an effort to keep the driver awake we engaged in a lively debate about college sports. We were about 30 minutes outside of Venice (a little over an hour home) when the car started slowing down. Apparently we’d done such a good job of distracting the driver from being sleepy that we’d distracted him from everything else as well. The next words out of his mouth were something along the lines of “Uhhh guys…I think we’re out of gas…” In America, when you run out of gas at 1 in the morning, you call AAA or call a taxi to a 24 hour walmart where you can buy gas canisters and gas in bulk. In Italy when you run out of gas at 1am…you’re screwed. We successfully maneuvered to the side of the road which was not lit or marked. I watched the car (and did a damn good job of it) while the guys split up walked opposite directions in the rain to find a roadside phone. I stayed behind to watch the car in case someone stopped. Horror film in the making? Our one saving grace was that the driver spoke pretty good Italian. He came back to the car and told us not to worry, that he had gotten in touch with a tow company, to hang tight and that they were going to bring us gas in about 45 minutes. Brava! If only it were that easy. We did get a nice 45 minute nap in while we waited for the tow truck which pulled up, flat bed and all, around 2am. The tow driver informed us, and by us I mean our Italian speaking driver (the english speakers were entirely ignored), that it was against Italian law to transport gas on the autostrade. Of course it is! Why wouldn’t it be! Why would anything go right on this trip home! The bottom line was, whether the law existed or not, this guy wanted the tow fee and was going to tow us to the closest gas station. Ironically we only flew out of Bergamo because of the cheap fares… Anyway, as I mentioned, this driver ignored Drew and I entirely. We tried to engage, albeit halfheartedly/sleepily, to ask if they needed help moving the car on the flat bed. The guy didn’t even acknowledge our presence. We didn’t think anything about it until we felt the car start to move on its own volition. They’d gone so far in ignoring us that they left us in the car when they pulled it onto the flat bed to tow! Then they started driving!
View from the backseat of the car on the tow truck driving down the autostrade. It's a good thing his flashers were on or this would have been unsafe!
Drew and I were convinced we’d died on the autostrade and became ghosts no one could see.
We were in a car, on a flat bed, riding on the autostrade to get gas. This was probably the most bizarre thing that had happened to me since encountering abandoned soviet town… Finally we were dropped off at a gas station, emptied our wallets of whatever cash we had left so that the guy would move the car off the truck, and bought just enough overpriced gas to make it back to Sacile…which we did…at 4am. I was able to log a solid two hours of sleep before waking up to start my week…but I wouldn’t have traded any of it. =]
