Friday, a day everyone looks forward to especially if your week hasn’t quite gone to plan… mine has been successful and today i have to make a judgment call on where to go next.
I have breakfast and look out across the courtyard and do some classic people watching while flipping through SkyScanner on my phone looking at flights and trying to decide where to go next
Flights are going up by the minute. Flights that were 80 Euros last night are now 200 euros and flights to heathrow are going through the roof.
I decide on Timisoara, i will go up there for 3 days and see my Step Sisters (i call them my sisters tho). The transit to Timisoara is a simple enough transition … you just have to catch a train… how hard can that be right…?
I go back to the hostel which is literally 40 meters away , check out is at 11AM and from there i will make my way to the the “Gara De Nord “ the northern train line.
The station is about 4.5 KM away and i toy with the idea in my head that i should catch an Uber… however I will be sitting down for a long time and decided to walk it.
The walk takes me basically down the same route to the “Bucharest Bicycle Hostel” That i was staying in when i first arrived in Bucharest about a week ago, This was a relatively easy walk with Flat roads and i manage to catch the sun at the right time and i am in shade for 90% Of that walk so i don’t need to pretend like I’m dying
The Gara De Nord is where Dad and I Trained into 5 years ago from Drobeta Turnu Severin and it looks familia, i find a baggage depository and drop my pack off so i can walk around the train terminal and isolate what i need to do and where i need to go without having to worry about a big pack.
The departure board is about 200 meters into the train station so i make my way there and try and isolate what train i need, its all in Romanian and there are 2 arrows depicting incoming trains and outgoing trains.. There is a train at 15.45 which seems to be the earliest, and the train takes 11 Hours so i will arrive at 2.45 AM… not ideal however its my only option.
I make my way to the information desk as i cant see a ticket office anywhere, the man behind the glass has a wee speaker and i i talk into it.. he has no fucking idea what I’m talking about and looks at me blankly. I say “ticket” and he starts rambling in Romanian and points right…. and then makes a right hand turn gesture followed by a left hand gesture. I presume this translates to “ walk down the platforms head right , then left!
I wander cautiously down the platforms trying to make sense of that he had indicated and eventually go through a set i doors that opens up into a marbled room full of people, the ticket Machines are layered one upon each other and half dont work.
I make my way to a kiosk that looks like it would suck your money in with pure grace and then have a melt down and not give you a ticket in return.. .however it seems to be the only option.
I manage to navigate through 3 menus via the touch screen and find a button that has a Union Jack on it! ENGLISH Come at me! Decipher this grainy touch screen in to georgous words i can comprehend.
Right options available ….
Simple Ticket
Multi Ticket
Other
Help
Hmmm Help seems like a good place to start…… *beep*
…..and its all in Romanian… what bloody good is that!
Try again …. Simple ticket * Beep*
Enter Destintion
“Timisoara”
Enter Departing Train Station
“Gara De Nord – Bucharest”
….so far so good….
Initialising…..
….
….
Catastrophic machine failure please see desk
WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT EVEN MEAN!!!!!
I look round and spy another set of doors and walk thorugh… it opens up into another room and it is full of of people cued up for… what i can assume is tickets.
When ever you are greeted by multiple cues you brain starts assessing the lines, looking at the people in the cue and also the tellers… you start making assessments of who in the line looks efficient in what they do… you also assess the ticket issuers and see who has the efficency to issues tickets the quickest….. well in Romania it doesn’t matter every one seems to flap around in true Romanian fashion!
The ticket officers are in no hurry and the people in the line dont have there money ready… and dont have there ID Cards ready soooo every person that approaches the desk has to talk thorugh a glass window that must muffle every word spoken as every body has to repeat there instructions … then they have to fumble thorugh there bags for ID and then money as well
Feeling defeated i cue up for what looks to be a solid 20 minute wait the time is just on 12:30 PM so time is on my side here, I figure out i will not slip into the disorganised regime of a half broken society and i have my phone read with the words “Un Bilet la Timisoara va Rog” or “ One ticket To Timisoara please”
I also have ID ready and money…
I approach the window and say “hi” then whack my phone against the glass partition screen and show the teller my translation, she grins and say “Ok” she then gestures for ID and I thrust it through the window and then she demands payment… when they ask for money here no one smiles.
The total is 101 RON and I happily put the exact amount of Monopoly money through the window.
1 minute 15 seconds in total … yes i timed my self…. and i think i might have made a new ticket time record for Gara De Nord Bucharest…….my prize… a 11 hour train ride!!!!
My train number is IR12990…. and will b e departing late at 4.25 ( typical) however it isn’t the worst thing as the later it leaves the closer i will arrive to the sun rising.
I look on the departure board…. and their is no IR12990…. only a IR129999….. it departs at the same time but doesn’t mention anything about Timisoara. Why cant anything be simple here… it’s like they set you up to fail… no wonder the development of this country is so slow…. no one knows what the hell is going on!!
I take a seat and think ‘I’ll worry about this at 3PM” the train station is hot so I find a public seat and sit down, i will start my New Book “ John Grisham – Rogue Lawyer”. As I’m sitting there reading a lady sits down next to me and strikes up conversation, she would be early 50’s and asks me a question in romanian and i smile in my innocent New Zealand fashion and say i only speak english sorry… she then changes language and asks if i a enjoying my book, i said i am only into the 12th page however its good so far, she then goes on to tell me that she owns a book shop and John Grisham is one the best selling authors she stocks. she really enjoys his writing style and we sit there and talk about a few authors, during this conversation i decide that she is my best bet to figure out my train ride as the Gentleman behind the bulletbroog glass booth in the information boot would probably only send me in the wrong direction. I ask the nice bookshop owner how i find my train and she is as puzzled as i am so i go back to not worrying about it.
The lady leaves shortly after i decide to go back to reading my book… about 15 minutes later i get a tap on the shoulder, its the book shop lady and she said she couldn’t in her right mind leave a foreigner to get lost in the train station, while i was reading carelessly she had lined up in the Information cue to ask the bullet proof monk what the story was with IR12999….
Now apparantely that is my train how ever the carriage i have to get on will have a number saying IR12990 and that carriage will be detached along the line at some point and a new Engine will take it onwards to Timisoara. Thanking the lady i pulled out a book i had finished in my bag and gave it to her , i also put 20 RON in it to say thank you for her efforts and she was very great full for the gesture and i told her that “people who a genuinely good, get good luck” she smiles and shakes my hand and i go back to reading my book… unfortuanty in the process of doing my kind gesture a Gypsy child had seen this and thought he would become the next entrepreneur of Gara De Nord and then didnt leave me alone for the next 3 hours!… oh well if he wants to help me out maybe there might be a reward in it for him … except i dont think he will make a good Sherpa as he probably cant carry a 15 KG pack around for me for the next week.
It’s is 3.45 and i locate my train and just as the Book keeper had insturucted
Carriage 23
IR12990
Timisoara
My Seat is # 32
I sit down, this is an old train and each train has 15 Cabins with 6 seats in each.
I take a seat in the cabin and get comfy, shortly after a young family of 4 arrive and sit down as well they dont speak a drop of english and i say hello, the kids would be teenagers and the mother and father would be mid 30’s they are all in good health except for the son who is horribly sick sniffling away and coughing… luckily i have Otrivine and Sudafed PE in my bag, I fumble around the cramped conditions and i think the mother assumes I’m trying to pull a Gun out of my bag.
I get the drugs out and type out “For your Son, will help with nose and aches” and gesture the medicine towards her and she first turns it down….. we all do this..imagine you are at a relatives house that you dont know that well and they offer you a cookie…. you always instinctive turn it down to be polite….. however 2 minutes after you turn that cookie down… you regret it and i assume this is the same laws of etiquette taking place here… i wait a minute and re offer the medice this time with a small bottle of Iced Tea that i had in my bag, i dont need it as i have a 2.5L bottle of water i procured in the supermarket before walking to the train station.
Finally she takes it and i gesture 2 pills and a squirt of Ortivine up each nostrill.. with great hesitation and uncertainty she takes the medicine and offers it to her son, he take it and flops his head against the back of the seat looking rather miserable. The mother clasps my hands and thanks me once again, i go back to my world of John Grisham
The time starts to tick by and the lady’s son looks like he might actually be human again, they will depart the train about 4 stops up the track.
The family have left me and it is just me in my train cabin…. no what i didnt know is that i was lucky enough to be in the only cabin with
A- a working light in the roof
B- AC that works
everyone else on the train in my carriage had none of these amenities, as the sun sets the lights come on in the train and i carry on reading happily, its getting onto about 9PM and i have been on the train for 5 Hours…6 to Go… as the mintues clock past a girl come and joins me, she would be mid 30’s and is reading a book also, we ride in silence for about 30 minutes untill she strikes up conversation in English, asks where I’m from and i do the same, coininsidentaly she is from Drobeta turnu Severin and i tell her That i am from there too, she ask how that is possible as i dont speak Romania and it tell her my tale if good luck and fortune and she is happy to listen
She works for an auditing company and spend a lot of her time investigating for accounts around europe, she is heading home to see her parents for a few days.
After some light conversation i go back to Grisham and she goes back to her novel…
A few hours later at 12AM i am alone again and the train is moving at an alarmingly slow rate, there is about 4 hours left to the journey and I decide to take a 40 Minute power nap… I don’t trust sleeping on this train… last thing i need is a bag to go missing.
I awake at 1AM and we are slowly navigating the Transylvania mountains on our way to Timisoara
The train arrives at 4AM on the dot and I feel amazing… like the finest walking zombie a midnight train ride could buy, i have a hotel booked here for 3 nights as i cant stand another hostel at the moment i need some undisturbed sleep… however i cant check in untill 2PM…. great planning andrew!.
I walk to the main town centre and hope that it will be a beautiful site to watch the sun rise, i dont see a single soul on my walk and the streets are dead, the walk to the town square is 1.7 KM and take about 20 minutes with my pack and i take some photos of the Millenium Cathedral and the centre itself, i sit down on the bench in the square and wait patiently talking to my friends back in NZ on various social media platforms, time passes relatively quickly.
It’s 6AM and sunrise is at 6.37AM. I will witness this in person and then i only have 8 hours to go of waiting. My eyes are heavy… skin oily and i feel the reaper of sleep pulling at my arm to follow him into a sober sleep.. i fight these urges and decide to take a walk and plod my way though the gardens and keep as mentally focused as possible.
I eventually come to a park bench in a secluded area of trees and sit down… i cant fight it any longer
I put my pack down, i attach 2 Carabiner’s to me. 1 for my Pack and 1 for my Day pack i lock it all up and then lock the the ropes around my belt…. and decide that i will risk a nap.
…. Fuck…………the nap turns into a 1Hour 20 minute nap and I awake to both my bags missing and there is blood coming from arm and I’m not sure why or how… i get up and scramble with panic running thought my veins… money and passport have gone along with all my clothes….as my breathing intensity start to increase my heart rate and my heart starts pounding i hear the contraction of blood vessel in my ears and the sound of rushing water…. how could i be so stupid…. you Fucking idiot… i dont even have my phone as it was in my bag with my wallet and life….
I Jolt awake and its been 40 minutes there is finally sound of birds and my clothing is drenched in sweat.
the sun is beating down on my face like the warm touch of a mothers love… it had all been a dream
Bags still attached in the crazy formation at my feet and locks exactly where i had left them, i start to untangle the immense mix and match of cables and carabiners, I sit on the bench and start to google for a cafe, they all seem to open here at 9AM so i have about 1.30 minutes to kill and decide to plod my way back to the main centre of town,
I take a seat at Massimo which appears to be an Italian cafe and have an omelet and black coffee, I actually fell pretty good and decide that I better type my blog for Wednesday ad kill some time
These blogs take about 2-3 hours to write on average and about 2300 Words in each so they are a great time killer when you need it.
I finish the blog at 11.30 AM and decide to settle my bill and start my walk to my Hotel. The hotel is located about 3 KM south of the main centre and takes about 40 minutes to walk, the walk is uneventful and i arrive outside my hotel at just after 12PM i hope that i can check in early and make my way to reception.
The hotel interior is decorated like a grand home with Mahogany furniture and desks followed by elaborate detailing in the ceiling with gold paint, i make my way slowly to the reception counter and as if it is possible to check in and the receptionist says the room is ready and i feel my whole body relax, after a few moments of filling out my information for there system i slowly but surely make my way to the third floor and and swipe my room key into suite 308.
I dump my pack at the door… kick my shoes off and turn the AC on high.. 3…..2…..1…….Dead to the world.
Quantum Entanglement 