eekend. Me Helen and Karen set off on Friday after work, back to Turges Mures (with the cheap lovely hotel with interesting pictures of women on the wall...) this was all fine.. just an hour bus ride. We then spent the evening going to a festival of youth, which was situated at the citadel / fort, on the top of the hill, where they had music and food stalls and beer! A great night was had by all, and an ageing rock band "Cargo" played whilst the kids swished their hair about, like a women on a shampoo advert. I have pictures that I'll send at a later date of this... it was fantastic! We then retired early to the hotel as we had a 0915 bus to Brasov...The reason I was going to Brasov, apart from it being the most beautiful place I've seen for a long time, was to meet with two other organisations that I have been in touch with. One organisation works in community mental health, and the second one works with the Roma (gypsy) people......
The next morning after a great night of sleep we headed to get the maxi-taxi (minibus!!!) to Brasov, but it was full, and they wouldn’t let three of us on, and the next bus wasn't for 2 hours. They did however say one of us could go on the bus, but I wondered how as there was not a single free seat! We decided that I should go because I was due to be meeting my first contact in 3 hours. The driver pulled out 2 smelly, empty beer crates, and placed them on the floor of the bus, gesturing for me, and another young passenger to sit on, and my crate made me face the rest of the passengers... I couldn't believe it, this was to be a 3 hour journey through some mountain terrain... but things soon became much worse... 5 minutes into the journey, the driver pulled over at some lights and negotiated to take another passenger... so I was sat on a crate, on a mini bus floor, facing the rest of the passengers, with the latest passengers armpit just resting on my head... could it get any worse I thought? YES was the answer! Because as we crept up the twisting mountain roads the bloody crate I was sat on, kept sliding sideways, so I was trying to read my book, whilst sliding around on an empty beer crate, in a minibus!
I survived this journey (only just) at the cost of having the imprint of the local beer "cuic' imprinted on my backside the rest of the weekend! I met my first contact Luiza, who ran a community day centre for people with schizophrenia... it was amazing what they have achieved without any financial support from the government, and I'm hoping to go visit them during a working week... Luiza then turned into our personal tour guide, when the girls arrived. not only finding us accommodation in a near sold out hotel market... but then taking us on a walking tour of the city... and wow, what a city it is! People you must come here!!! It’s like a Swiss alpine village...
After the tour and a pizzeria meal, we returned to our nice little apartment in the city centre (200 lei for all 3 people = less than 50 pounds. and ended up having an early night cos we were knackered. The next day I explored the most amazing panoramic views from the old town towers whilst the girls went shopping... I'm not commenting on that!! I then arranged to meet my second contact Dan, who took me and Helen to the project he is working on - building a community centre for the Roma families in the area... it’s amazing and I would urge anyone who really wants to give anything to check it out at www.fastcharity.ro. He then took us to one of the gypsy villages to deliver a cement mixer, and we say both a newly built 'house' and the existing shacks that a 7 child family is living in a space of 5 by 5 metres... as we walked in a rat shot across the floor, and remember this is where the children sleep too... it was truly humbling, and I didn’t take any pictures of these condition as I felt it would be disrespectful to do so...
Dan then took us back to the train station to get our mini bus home.. but guess what?? it was full again, and this time not a beer crate in sight... so we thought sod it.. we'll get the notorious train... why not for just 23 lei... (roughly 5 pounds) for the equivalent of a 3 hour bus ride.... what a great idea, see the country side... and how long could it possibly take???
The train left at 1615 so we chilled out before getting excited about boarding the train... once on the rain we noticed a miss-print on the ticket, it said it arrived in Turges Mures at 0005... so when the ticket inspector arrived we pointed this out, but he just gently smiled and said no. the train journey was 8 BLOODY HOURS.... I couldn’t believe it... where else in the world could a 3 hour bus ride turn in to an 8 hour train journey???? So we sat there for 8 HOURS! But wait.. 8 hours later the train jerked to a halt and the girls suddenly started telling me to move as we had arrived in Turges Mures.. I informed them we had another ten minutes to go, but they were insistent we rush off the train... so no word of a lie, we tried to get off the train, Karen led the way and as Helen was try to get down the steps the train started moving!!! Karen shouted this at me, and I thought bloody hell.. I know the trains moving!!! So I jumped from the MOVING train with my bag... as it rolled out of the station... and guess what... it was the wrong bloody station!!! I thought this can not be happening to me today! Anyway, we ended up getting a very expensive taxi back home I was glad to be back to my 'normality' of Tarnaveni!Sorry this was so long, but imagine my 8 hours of train travel yesterday!!! Happy travelling!!!
Regards from Romania
Dan
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