Romania

So I ended the blog for week one with a comment that stated somewhere along the lines of having been fortunate with the weather....it would seem I may have placed a slight jinx on us! We had a bit of a rainy day in Budapest today....we were lucky enough to be on the metro line when the rain came so we missed it...however our campsite could not get on the metro which meant when we came back there was a slight tent flooding for one of the girls, which was pretty crap even in my eyes so I can only imagine how Dee felt!

Budapest is a lovely city though. Myself, Rosie, Darren, Dave and Peter headed into the city on our first night here to see the city at night...and it was totally worth it. There is so much to see in Budapest and at night the main sights are lit up which gives a beautiful view when walking down by the river. I went a bit snappy happy at this stage so there are loads of pics to look through! When we got back to the campsite there had been a few drinking games going on so there were a few sore heads in the morning so we had a slow start to the day...but a yummy cooked breakfast to start us off. Then off we headed into the city again to see it by day (not half as impressive as night...but then I always was a sucker for a city at night!). It is still beautiful though and I got to see the details of the different buildings. We saw Parliament, Matthias Church, the castle, Gellert Hill...and a million other things along the way like theatres and the opera house. Half of the things I saw I can’t even remember what they were....all I know is they were bloody impressive!

It was another wet night then our second night in Budapest so most of us had an early night as it was up early the next morning for a very long drive day! We had a truck breakfast and left camp at about 7am to beat the traffic out of Budapest and the next morning we hit the road for Romania. Romania was the first country we were in that it was exactly like I imagined it was going to be...desolate and bleak! Right past the border we passed huge massive industrial estates totally abandoned and run down. The only thing that seemed to be kept immaculate was the churches we passed. We were driving right through the mountains after awhile and it did get prettier but the amount of rubbish that we saw thrown all over the place was unreal considering it was up high mountains! We got to our campsite after a couple of hours and it was really ice. We were right beside a river at the foot of a mountain. We were doing our first campfire that night so started digging a hole and getting the wood ready...when Donald copped that there was a massive rain cloud on the way. So it was a quick dash to get the canopy out and a few tents up! It didn’t take long for the rain to arrive and my God did it rain....which turned into a hail storm! There were a few people casting a worried eye at the river as it rose right up in a short space of time but the tents were safe in the end. After awhile the rain passed and it was back to getting the camp set up.

This is where it starts to get interesting too! We saw a man walking his cow first and then a few minutes later there was a little pony pulling a cart down the hill to collect old railway sleepers that were obviously being used further up the mountain. We also had a few locals pass us by with a puzzled look on their faces...and I have to say I returned the look! As I said we were in the middle of NOWHERE...so it seemed funny to me that there were people on their way home from what was probably a nine to five job somewhere! It was also at this point that the Germans turned up...which I realise now as I write this that makes it sound like they invaded or something like that (which is not the case!!). Two people pulled up on bikes and stopped to have a chat...after which we found out they were on a cycling holiday...cycling from Munich, Germany to Tibet....we suddenly felt slightly inadequate! I’ll make an admission here that when I decided to do the trip and started telling people I was quite proud of the fact that I could tell people I was about to drive across the world...but these Germans took the wind out of our sails when they told us what we were doing...suddenly we didn’t seem so hardcore anymore!! Nevertheless we invited them to dinner and they pitched their tent and spent the night with us! And it was a fairly fun night...made more fun by the fact that Rachel and Greg came up with another game for us to play that we all got very excited about! In honour of the royal wedding at the end of the month we are going to do our own royal wedding! So we all picked roles out of a hat and it turned out to be hilarious! I landed the role of the vicar, we have a few bridesmaids and ushers, bar staff (who also plan the hen and stag nights in Istanbul) a DJ, photographer, father of the bride, mother-in-law, crazy old aunt, dirty old uncle, maid of honour, best man...and of course the bride and groom! Joe managed to land himself the part of the groom...and Big Kev is our bride! He had first picked bridesmaid but there was one too many so he put his back in the hope of not being something girlie...and managed to pull out the bride instead!! Hilarity all round! And then the plans began...we are going with a Big Fat Gypsy Wedding style theme and have ideas for the wedding dress and that already...but first the hen and stag nights have to be planned...so I’m sure there will be lots of stories from that! After that we just sat around the campfire and had a few drinks before heading off to bed as we had a very early start the next day. Oh before I move on in another moment of pure amusement I managed to trip over a tent peg and fall face first into Greg’s tent...while he was in it trying to get to sleep!! Funniest part about it was that I managed to pick myself up still holding everything I already had in my hands. Myself and the girls just ran off giggling away to ourselves! That’s what makes a couple of glasses of wine and a campsite such a bad combination...not that it’s going to stop me!!

 It was a very long day on the truck next day so we were up for a 6am breakfast...which was really 5am as we jumped forward again into another time zone. It was freezing on the truck that day and we were all layered up...at one of our toilet stops I whipped out my sleeping bag from the locker and curled up under it for most of the day watching movies! We didn’t see too much of Romania that day... we had gotten a pretty good idea of it that day before...and the windows were full of condensation anyway so it was just effort to be bothered! Once or twice though someone did spot a patch of snow...so we quickly grabbed our cameras to get evidence of the fact we saw snow...which seemed pretty stupid considering what was to come!! At the end of our drive we stopped at Bram where Dracula’s Castle is. We didn’t get there till about 5 and it was just about to close up so we just took a couple of pictures and then dived into a cafe for some heat! And then it was time to go to our campsite. I should mention that when we were in Bram we saw a few piles of snow that had obviously been shovelled together out of the way...so we started to get slightly nervous as we had been told out campsite was only a couple of kilometres from the castle. And so we drove on...into thicker snow...where there was no one around to shovel it out of the way...and then the engine switched off!! We all looked at each other “slightly” worried and waited for Greg and Rachel to come up to us...and then they told us what we feared most...we were camping in the snow!! Which might not sound too bad until you realise we got off the truck and were in snow up to our ankles instantly! I have to say as horrified as I was at first I quickly got excited about the whole thing...I mean when else am I ever going to get the chance to camp in snow in the Romanian mountains!

Pitching the tent in the snow was an experience in itself as, as I was sticking the stakes in I realised that when they had disappeared from sight into the snow they hadn’t actually made contact with the ground! I eventually managed to stick all the stakes in though and so it was time to have some fun in the snow! Myself, Rosie and Kev built a snowman...a proper sized one...not like the little token snowmen I built in the snow last year back home! There was also a few small snowball fights and then it was time to gather round the campfire again for dinner. We stayed up quite late considering the snow but I think it was just a case of not wanting to leave the heat of the fire! Greg also told us we were at 975 metres (or something around that figure) so I guess I can see why it was so cold up there!!  I have to say I slept surprisingly OK considering my mattress was 4 inches of snow...getting up the next day though was a chore as I could feel how cold it was outside of my little cocoon! But when I did manage to drag myself out I found a lovely big pot of porridge waiting...it wasn’t so good as Dad’s of course but it was still a pretty damn good bowl of warmth!! Then it was a quick pack up before we left our little winter wonderland! Some of us wanted to head back up to the Castle to get some proper pictures and the rest of us just waited in a cafe again and then it was time to head to Bucharest.

It was another day of movie watching and getting cosy under my sleeping bag but the drive wasn’t as long as it had been the previous couple of days. We got to our camp ground in Bucharest and Rachel told us we had an option to upgrade to little cabins. Some people seized the opportunity to sleep on a real bed but I figured if I survived the night in snow I can do anything now!! I was on cook group so once that was all cleared up some of us headed to the supermarket to buy some drink for a game called Three Man!! This game had been played a couple of nights previously but I hadn’t been there...so I decided that night was a good night to give it a go! It’s actually a really fun game...but you need a lot of drink at hand! It was also during the game that Dee got the hiccups and asked Andrew to scare her in awhile to try get rid of them....we had no idea the results would be so funny! He literally karate chopped her off her tree stump! She went half way then kind of froze in mid air for a few seconds before tipping all the way back! When we all calmed down a bit we picked her up off the ground...and saw that the tactic had the desired effect and she had in fact gotten rid of her hiccups!

We had a fairly late breakfast the next morning as we had all had a few early days and no one was in a huge rush to get into Bucharest that day. We headed in about 12 and were back at the camp at about 4 or so. Bucharest...glad I saw it...won’t be coming back!!! It was a bit of a weird city, some buildings were really run down and crumbling to pieces and on the opposite side of the road there was brand new buildings which were selling Prada and Gucci! We did find a few nice buildings like their Opera House and a Palace type thing and we also walked up to their Parliament building...which they have been building since 1984 and still have another 10% to go until it is fully completed!! We ended up walking back through the edge of the city and got a different look at life, finding a cute little parked that was packed with locals soaking up the sun on a Sunday afternoon. We had all seen enough of Bucharest at this stage though so we headed back to the campsite to relax for the evening.

My first impressions of Romania were that it was a bleak country...and my estimations came down further when the heavens opened and looked like it was going to be our first really rough night camping! But then it turned around and I have to say that as much as I enjoyed the trip up until now I think Romania has given my first real memories of the trip! Everything I experienced here is something I am mostly likely never going to do again for the rest of my life so I’m going to chalk Romania up as a winner...despite not liking Bucharest!!