Europe 2019 - Day 34

9 June 2019, Sunday

Today is a LONG journey to Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The first bus was at 7 a.m. to. Budapest (3 hours, and I slept for 2 hours) and then change to the next bus from Budapest at 11 a.m. to Cluj-Napoca for 9 hours. I think I slept for half of the journey so it was all good. We had to do this round-about journey because we couldn’t return via Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia, as we need a visa for Serbia and the process to obtain it is not so straightforward. So we are avoiding that side of the land and sticking to this side. If that makes sense. Later we will come back to Romania again, to Bucharest and Brasov to see my Dracula Castle (love eyes)!

There was a group of very muscular men (maybe body builders or wrestlers) on the bus and I had the misfortune of having one sit next to me. No privacy or personal space for pretty much anything. At the border, for the first time since I arrived in Europe, the officer took our passports away to stamp. Finally a stamp. From Romania!

We arrived early, about 7 p.m. and bought bus tickets from the machine. We had difficulties changing money to Romanian leu(plural lei, code RON) which literally means ‘lion’ in Romanian (almost dollar for dollar with our RM). Outside Romania there are next to no money exchanges that would change Euro to lei. So we arrived in Romania without any local currency. Luckily the ticket machine for the bus tickets accepted payment by card. 

After paying, the only thing that came out of the machine was a receipt for the tickets, but not the tickets itself. We were standing there for some minutes wondering what the hell was going on when my friend put her hand into the place for the ticket to come out, and it was there, stuck! I burst out laughing. My friend was not so amused. The bus schedules or directions were not properly written anywhere, so we took the wrong bus in the first instance and had to change half way. Not amusing when you have extra baggage on you.

I must say that so far in Europe, this is the best experience I’ve had in so far as the locals are concerned. On the bus, 2 kind souls offered me their seats as I had heavy baggage, and then when we were figuring out where to go, a stranger who could speak English helped us out with the directions. Such lovely people! I know it’s too soon to tell but I think Romania is my favourite European country so far! The countryside view is also very beautiful, full of horses and cows and quaint little cottages in a sea of green grassy meadows. Picture perfect (love eyes)! People keep looking at me here, too, but they are generally kind and helpful so I don’t mind. 

And now for some history. The territory of the present day Romania was inhabited in ancient times mainly by the Dacian tribes, which reached its peak in the 1st century BC. In 106 AD the Dacians were defeated by the Romans, and the region prospered so that a population with a distinctive Latin character and language emerged there. In the early Middle Ages, Hungarians began settling in the area now known as Transylvania. Then came the German Saxons from the 12th century. To protect themselves from frequent Tartar or Turkish invasions, they set about building fortified cities and castles, many of which remained to this day. The principalities of Wallachia and Moldovia (Romanian speaking towns created in the 14th century), and for a while also Transylvania, fell to the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century.

For a short period in 1600, Michael the Brave (Mihai Viteazul) ruled over all 3 principalities, thus becoming the first de-facto ruler of a unified Romania. However, nationalistic movements for the unification of Romania only really seriously started in the 1700’s right up until WW I. After WW II there was Soviet occupation which led to the abdication of the King. Romania only recently severed ties with its former communist / socialist leaning during the  2004 elections, till today. Romania’s religion is mainly orthodox Christian (I’m not really sure what that exactly means).

We made it to our apartment; it’s one of those self check-in places with instructions via e-mail and a thousand codes before you can enter your room. It’s a very compact room but it had towels and a hair dryer, luxuries for a weary traveller like me.