Finally Made it to Rasnov

Scott and I had a busy day today. We woke up early and caught the bus to Bran. We arrived just as it opened which was great because there were so few people there. We wandered around the village a bit and Scott bought a painting that he liked. Next, I once again set off for Rasnov. This time started out better as we had a seat on the bus so we could see where we were at. We managed to get off at Rasnov and set out to try to find a way to the top of the mountain where the citadel is located. I thought it was a castle, not so much. We followed the signs to the citadel which took us all the way around to the back side of the mountain and then up a dirt path. Little did we know that we were walking on the path that cars take and there was a much shorter path from the front of the mountain that we could have walked up. Oops. We took that path down. Inside, there was a small village type setting. It was set up for tourists with things like archery lessons. We didn't do those. The view was amazing though so it was worth the trip. Back in Brasov we had to find somewhere for a late lunch and we are getting ready to catch the train to Bucharest. We will stay there for one night then off to Istanbul. More later. Becca

Encounter with the Bucharest Police

Of note, everything ends up fine by the end of the story.

So today was one of those days. We woke up super early to make our way to the Constanta train station one last time. There were no private compartments on this train and the guys next to us kept smoking so it was a great 5 hours. Once in Bucharest, we decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe for some American food while waiting for the boys. We confirmed with 2 people which bus to take and bought bus tickets. Now most buses have a little electronic thing that you put your ticket in and it stamps it. There weren't any on this bus. There was a thing for cards but we didn't have cards and a metal thing that I couldn't figure out what it did. Of course, the day we can't figure out how to stamp our tickets a controller came by. They asked for our tickets which we had but weren't stamped. They started yelling at us in Romanian and demanded a 50 lei fine. We know other people that this has happened to and they said if you say you didn't know how to stamp it, the controller people will stamp your ticket and leave you alone. That didn't happen to us. I kept trying to explain that we didn't have 50 lei. The controller told me he was the police and asked for my passport. Since I thought he was the police, I gave him my passport.
This was a mistake.

Now the controllers have our passports and are refusing to give them back without 50 lei and I find out they aren't police. Luckily, a very nice Romanian who speaks amazing English comes up to help. She explains and the controllers continue to be mean. They keep yelling at us and lots of arguing in Romanian continues. Apparently, this got to some of the people on the bus because an elderly gentleman and middle aged women also started yelling at the controllers. The younger one that started helping us said that they shouldn't have taken our passports and to call the police. Which I do, but they speak Romanian so she talked on the phone to them and they said they would meet us at the bus station. By now we are at the end of the line and the crowd staring at us has dispersed except for teh 3 helpful Romanian's who seemed to take personal offense that they were causing us problems and said they weren't leaving until it was worked out. I'm feeling ok at this point, because it's 5 on 2, except they still have my passport. I finally asked the girl to translate that if they weren't planning on stealing my passport I didn't understand why I couldn't have it back. It's not like I was going to run away with all my bags. I think this offended the controller, but I got my passport back.

After waiting for 15 to 20 minutes, the cops aren't there and the controllers are getting bored so they decide to let us go. I'm feeling great at this point but of course the cops arrive. At first I was concerned that we would end up paying a fine but oh no. The cops were extremely mad at the controllers. They got lectured quite a bit. My Romanian is rusty but they said something about taking the ticket and teaching people how to stamp it instead of harassing them. And to make it up to us they decided to give us a ride to the Hard Rock Cafe, despite at this point both of us loosing our desire to eat. So we ended up in the back of a police car, that they cleaned out for us, going lights and sirens and all the 3 blocks to the Hard Rock Cafe. They even offered us snacks along the way.

To top it all off, the cops decided to walk us to the door of the restaurant and tell the people working there the story. Our misfortune spread through the entire cafe because everyone that worked there made and excuse to come and talk to us at least once and make some sort of bus comment. I got a martini.

We made it back to the train station, on the bus, with stamped tickets thank you very much. Scott and Micah arrived around the same time we did so that worked out well. The train to Brasov was really crowded, but we are here now and ready to crash for the night. More later.

becca

Daily Schedule

We've gotten lots of questions about what we do during the day, so here is a typical schedule.

0645-0700: Loud, sometimes angry sounding Romanian voices begin outside our room.
0800-0900: We get up and get ready for the day while watching EuroNews or CNN
0900 - 1100: check email, read, kill time, do laundry if needed
1100-1400: maybe see 0-5 patients, maybe have patient encounters translated into English, maybe sit around and do nothing
1400-1800: cook if we have to, go into Constanta to eat cream puffs or walk on the beach, sometimes read or kill time
1800-1900: watch Amazing Race or Survivor on channel 21
1900-2000: eat dinner while watching Myth Busters, do dishes
2000-2100: watch Dr Quinn Medicine Woman while portia sews and becca works on her journal
2100-2200: portia takes her nightly shower, turn to channel 19 and watch random crime show
2200-2300: watch nightly movie or Oprah while reading
2300-0100: becca takes her nightly shower, finish movie and read until tired

As you can see, our tv watching/entertainment is the most scheduled part of the day. It's really sad. Good thing we brought lots of books.

Back in Constanta

Well we are back in Constanta and back to our usual sitting around. Yesterday we spent time with a doctor who didn't seem to want to translate what was going on so we listened to the patient's in Romanina. Fun times. Today there were 2 patients to see. But we did accomplish our last act of cooking in Romanina. We just made enough stir fry to last until the end of the trip. I wish there was more to say but not much is going on around here. More later. - Becca

Sighisoara Pictures

I know there are a lot of shadows in these pictures, we got there later than we had originally planned. I think you can still get the idea.

More Brasov Pictures

Our favorite pedestrian street.

View from the White Tower.

The Black Church.

Random street picture.