Storyline: Vidin to Ruse Bulgaria via Romania by train Jul – Aug, 2017
Researching our train trip from Vidin to Ruse through Romania we knew we would have to stop in Craiova. All the guides we read (books and online) and all the people we talked to pointed to the same direction – there is nothing to be seen or done in Craiova: don’t waste your time there. It is a dead city; most of the factories are closed, our Romanian friends living in Canada would tell us. The TripAdvisor community seconded.
And thus, Craiova was not in my initial itinerary. We would take a train from Vidin, for which we would find out more information once in Sofia. We expected there would be a timely connecting departure from Craiova to Sibiu which was our next destination point after Vidin. So, we’d spend a night in Vidin and then off to Sibiu via Craiova. We had all accommodations booked before we left Canada: some cancelable, some not.
Once we found the DB Bahn agency in Sofia, from where we bought our train tickets for the Vidin – Craiova leg, it became clear that there was only one passenger train crossing the border that day and its arrival time was inconvenient for any other connecting trains. Our initial plan wouldn’t work. Luckily the reservation for the hotel in Vidin was cancelable.
And… our friend Milan offered to drive us from Belogradchik the day after we were to attend an al fresco opera performance, to the train station in Vidin. This put our itinerary back on track. We decided to skip exploring Vidin (a nice town on the Danube with lots of history) altogether and overnight in Craiova, for which all we’d heard was – don’t. I managed to book a nice 4-star hotel there for a very good price and off we went: Vidin, then onto the cross-border train to Craiova. The schedule of our little train project was saved.
What a lovely city it was. Craiova surprised us with its apparent affluence. When taking trains (or buses for that matter), we usually walk from the station to the accommodation, dragging our carry-ons, even if it is over an hour away. This gives us our first impression of the place.
We reached our hotel in about half an hour. All the neighbouring houses and apartment blocks were renovated. The number of luxury cars driven in the city was surprisingly high. We chose this hotel because it was relatively close to the train station and was cheaper than those in the centre. After all we did not expect much more than to just spend a night there and continue the next morning to Sibiu. We didn’t even plan to go into the centre of a city that everyone told us was not worth it. That is, until we stepped out of the train station…
The hotel evoked unexpected class and richness. This would be our best, most luxurious (although it tended to form over function), and cheapest hotel in Romania.
Craiova was our first stop after crossing the border, so we had a few important tasks. The first was to find an exchange bureau, since we had no Romanian currency in hand but had Canadian cash. We arrived at the hotel around 5pm, quickly checked-in and rushed out before the bureaus closed at 6. Then we needed to buy tickets for our next day’s train so we could confirm our arrival time with our hostess in Sibiu. She had actually recommended this train as our best option, so we knew well in advance our departure and arrival time.
It was a long day, starting in Belogradchick, a few hours and lunch in Vidin followed by a slow ride through the run-down and poor southern part of Romania. We were hungry and it was getting late. But we also wanted to try some typical local food. The restaurant next door looked quite overpriced. The friendly receptionist recommended that we visit the center, which he said was just renovated and was about half an hour away.
Glad he sent us there. The walk was nice and reinforced our first impression of Craiova. The centre, that is. Clean, renovated, lots of expensive cars. The centre had great pedestrian areas with many pubs, cafes and restaurants. It was Friday evening and they were all full of people that one could safely assume were primarily locals, since as everyone had told us that the city was not of tourist interest. Most of the establishments were pizzerias, where the youth were enjoying their beer and cheesy dinners.
We explored for over an hour until Alex began to feel like he’d just walked through a desert and still had nothing to quench his thirst. It was time to find the recommended traditional Romanian style restaurant. Well, did I say it was Friday evening? Of course, it was full. And so were many others.
After chatting with a young family, we followed them into a Danish chain restaurant serving supposedly Spanish food. There went our attempt to try local food. But they had sangria! We wrapped up the evening with another walk after dinner and headed back to our hotel, where we had a quiet and comfortable night in our plush bed.
We have no idea where the local wealth came from. Perhaps foreign investment. Craiova was the auto industry centre during the communist era. German automotive companies are now in, taking over old factories and building new. There are also high-tech companies flourishing…so perhaps our friends living in Canada have not kept up with developments there.
We did see some slums and run-down areas in the suburbs, deserted factories and farms the next day from the train window. The young chap sitting across from us told us that the Americans are buying the land and trying to revive the agricultural sector. They all live in Craiova, he added. Perhaps that’s why the demonstrations of affluence.
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