Well initially this was to be the last week of my placement.. Week 26... but lucky for me I have an additional two weeks left! So on to the events of last week!I can only really focus on the highlights of this week which were an unscheduled visit to Bran and the infamous 'Dracula Castle' and my weekend trip to Budapest, Hungary.
Myself and my fellow volunteer Karen, welcomed the news that our room in the hospital was to be fumigated, after increasing numbers of encounters with cockroaches! It sounds far worse than it was... anyway, we decided with time running out, we should really go for it, and test the Romanian public transport system one last time... so after a very short deliberation we opted to go 'further than ever before' in just one day, and headed for Bran.. The journey was as follows: a taxi from our house (Tarnaveni) to Medias (20mins). A train from Medias to Brasov (3 hours) a bus from Brasov train station to bus station (15 minutes) and then a bus from Brasov bus station to Bran (50 minutes) and the same to get home!!! Despite six months of telling just how impossible it was to go anywhere on public transport, without fear of losing your life, beer crates for seats, or cancellations for fun, this journey was seamless, with no more than a 10 minute wait between connections....God bless Romania!!! So to Bran, famous to those who don't know Romania, as the castle that is notoriously used as a picture of Dracula's castle, because of it's hillside location, in the beginnings of the mountains in Transylvania, despite having no connection with 'Vlad the Impailer'... It was actually used by Queen Mary (who I believe was actually Scottish, and King Ferdinand) as a real home, and there are plenty of pictures around the place to prove it! The snow around the castle was several feet thick in places, and we made the most of it by running through several snow mounds, and the skies were blue offering some amazing clear views of the castle and the surrounding hills... yet another 'must see' place to mark on the map!!!
My second trip this week was far more planned, as I went to Budapest, after several recommendations from people, and I was fortunate enough to have a local guide (Csilla, the sister of Becky, and daughter of my Hungarian neighbours). I was definitely happy to have a guide as the Hungarian language is near impossible to understand, as it is so different to Romanian and Latin based languages... Budapest, is actually two cities divided across the river Danube, on one side you have the city of 'Buda', and the other 'Pest', very practical! My favourite memories of this weekend have to be walking around the city, seeing the palace lit up at night towering over the river. The food is equally as good as in Romania (though I'm sure not as nice as my neighbours home cooked food!!!) and there are any number of museums, historic buildings and places to visit! I personally just enjoyed spending time walking around the city and meeting friends of Csilla. Be warned though travellers, you must buy tickets for transport before you get on buses / trams... or at least know which are likely to have inspectors on! Views from the Citadel are very impressive despite the 5000 steps up there (a slight exaggeration!), and a visit to a fairly large island on the river is also worth a visit, as there is plenty of places to sit and soak up the sunshine, or for the more energetic, jog around a designated pathway! Budapest is very much a working city from my impression, and like any big European city there are many interesting faces on the subway.... many people did seem weary and tired looking though and I get the impression people work long hours though and that maybe accounts for a lack of vibrancy I felt here... maybe the city at night offers a different perspective? 
On to a more Romanian tale to end on, after returning to Turges Mures from Budapest, I refused to pay for a taxi home, so I walked for half an hour into the hills (the road to Tarnaveni), but watched in horror as not one, but two buses passed me by.... (there is not normally two buses going by in an hour!!!) so I decided I must take the Romanian approach and hitch a ride... so after trying to stop every car that passed (which was not many) I managed to get a lift to a village called Mica, which at least took me over the hills and halfway home, but as the sun was beginning to disappear and even horse and carts were becoming sparse, I was starting to think I may need to do something drastic like lie across the road, to get someone to stop, But after a short conversation with some Hungarian villagers (speaking in my garbled Romanian) they persuaded me to keep trying, and shortly afterwards I got my second lift all the way home.. the hitching cost me 4 lei (90 pence) and the bus normally costs 5.5 lei - bargain or what?!!!!!
Despite the travelling I was feeling lively enough to teach my English class to the kids across the street, so I headed over there, and my reward was yet another feeding by the mother, who fed me home made vegetable spread, with some part of a pig, that I really didn't want to know what it was.. but it definitely had a pig taste! There was no 'pickled water' this time, which I was relieved about, after almost throwing up last time I drank it, not knowing what it was of course.. many things are pickled over here in winter, and the water was left over after a water melon had been pickled... this is so true!!!
Anyway, enough for now... this time in two weeks I’ll be home... so let’s hope the final two weeks will be as educational as ever!!!
Regards from Romania
Dan
Despite the travelling I was feeling lively enough to teach my English class to the kids across the street, so I headed over there, and my reward was yet another feeding by the mother, who fed me home made vegetable spread, with some part of a pig, that I really didn't want to know what it was.. but it definitely had a pig taste! There was no 'pickled water' this time, which I was relieved about, after almost throwing up last time I drank it, not knowing what it was of course.. many things are pickled over here in winter, and the water was left over after a water melon had been pickled... this is so true!!!
Anyway, enough for now... this time in two weeks I’ll be home... so let’s hope the final two weeks will be as educational as ever!!!
Regards from Romania
Dan
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