Storyline: Vidin to Ruse Bulgaria via Romania by train Jul – Aug, 2017
The train to Bucharest was rather full. Families with kids and huge suitcases, families without kids and with huge suitcases, and younger people with duffel bags, were boarding the train. They were all vacationers, going to the Black Sea. Their final stop would be Costanza, a major resort town on the seaside. This brought memories from my childhood and my youth. Going to the Black Sea was a religion. Many families would go for two or more weeks. It was this sun “gathering” at the seaside, like bears gorging to prepare for the winter, that was a must. The culture in this part of the world has not changed. Many travellers we chatted with along our journey said they prefer to go to the Bulgarian Riviera – “it is cheaper, less crowded and cleaner”, they’d say. Since we left the Danube delta for another time we can’t really compare, but we’ve heard this same in the Bulgarian resorts, where the Romanians are a major tourist group. There must be a reason.
It was another short trip of about two and a half hours on a fast train. The train itself wasn’t as nice as the previous we took. Bigger, fuller, with fewer tables between the seats. But there were electrical outlets for laptops and wifi, as far as we could tell, if one wanted to do some work.
Braşov train station was the most developed so far, in terms of services. It even had food booths, not only in the station, but on some of the platforms – the ones that are most heavily used, we suppose. We knew this from our arrival in Braşov, so that’s where we bought our food for the train. There was some variety too. Sandwiches, croissants, and even coffee! A step up from the previous stations. But can’t say the same about its toilets, which were again disgustingly dirty. Not as small as the Sibiu one, so one could maneuver around. A woman behind a glass window gathers the money (1.50 lei per pee) and hands you the smallest piece of toilet paper I’ve even seen: a see-through pink paper about 5 cm (2 inches) wide and 20 cm (8 inches) long. Use it as you want, but if you need to use public washrooms, don’t forget to bring your own paper and towel. Bring enough to clean up a bit, too. To the end of this trip public toilets were a theme of horror (nope, vampires and Dracula have nowhere near the same effect). Never understood why the money collectors were there: why did they collect money but no one was cleaning? And why did they bother giving you paper that was completely useless?
The train arrived half an hour early. We were sitting on the platform and thought this was a train before ours. Because why would a fast train be so early? Many boarded the train… Fifteen minutes later, the train was still occupying the platform where our train was supposed to arrive. Being a nervous commuter, I finally asked if by any chance this wasn’t the train for Bucharest (well sooner used sign language and the word “Bucharest”). Yes, yes, a few people pointed to the train as though they were telling us, hurry up you’d miss it. So, there we boarded the last carriage, where we found empty seats. We actually managed to take the only table in the carriage. Well done, for me! If it was for Alex, he’d probably be still waiting for our train there… (Hah!! Well she could be right, but now we’ll never know: Alex)
We were glad we had bought some food at Braşov train station, since like the other Romanian trains we took, there was no food service on board. Even though it was going all the way to Costanza, a long trip for some. Maybe the locals would not spend the money in the train. They are all used to carrying their own. And there were not enough tourists to make such service viable.
A few entrepreneurial fellows did board the train at Bușteni with baskets full of (supposedly wild) berries. The berries didn’t look wild, but rather like they had “fallen off the back of some grocery delivery truck”. The locals told us that this was the case. The men were trying to make some money on a train that had no food service. Can’t blame them for this.
The views of the Bucegi mountains rising above Bușteni near Sinaia, the area we had already visited the previous day, were magnificent. The parallel highway was really busy and we were glad again we had train seats. All in all, of the trains we took there were plenty of seats available. I don’t think booking a seat is even offered as a service.
Not long after we pulled in Gara de Nord, Bucharest to begin our final few days in this, Romania’s storied capital city.
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