Romania - Land of the helpful

I crossed the border into Romania by means of a sleeper train. What a wonderful experience, I could have so easily been back in the 1920's (I think the train was), watching the countryside roll by, whilst I had the luxury of an entire compartment that sleeps six to myself. A group of Australians next door where squashed in, 5 in their compartment (he he). For the first time in its entire history, the train managed to pull up almost 2 hours early into Bucharest. It meant I arrived at the station at 6am! Not surprisingly, there were not many people around I could asked for directions to my bus stop. I spied an out of service bus (complete with driver) and thought I would ask him. He was a good 5 mins away in the wrong direction, which when your carrying my luggage is a huge gamble! But he was the nicest man on the planet (well one of them anyway. He gave me loads of info about Romania then drove me a couple of blocks to the stop I needed. He even apologized for not being able to take me all the way to my hostel, but his bus was due to start running in the next 10 minutes. What a love. When I turned up at my hostel at half 6 - the owner let me have a bed straight away, gave me a free breakfast and then did all my washing for me (free). Later than evening I got given alot of free beer, toasted cheese sandwiches and apple pie!

Did I actually do anything in Bucharest I hear you wonder (apart from eat and drink). I had to visit the Palace of the People, the extremely ugly building you see above. Nicolae Ceausescu destroyed most of the historic city of Bucharest to build this - it turned out to be the second largest building in the world (the pentagon is bigger) It 10% percent larger in volume than the great pyramid. Ceausescu even had the road in front of it widen so it would be bigger than the Champs Elyse. These days it is known as the Palace of Parliament as guess what - it houses parliament. I took a tour inside some of the rooms and my goodness it is grand on a gigantic scale. The floors are marble, as are the columns, it is literally dripping in crystal chandeliers. One room has 50 of them. Works of art, paintings, sculptures, busts - all line the corridors. After a while I was stunned by the glare coming of all the crystal and marble!

I spent the reminder of my time in Bucharest, walking around the area of Lipscani. This is the last of the historical district - the part that escaped Ceausescu's large sledge hammer. The architecture is magnificent. Every building has a different style, though they are all ornately and intricately finished off. That afternoon I turned into architecture student - I just couldn't stop taking photo's off the different buildings. This area was also known as Little Paris because of the cafes and boutiques that lined the streets. There are still pockets of these cafes in existence, and sitting there, enjoying the most wonderful cakes, in a 1870's cafe complete with original wrought iron fixtures and fittings was a very pleasant way to wile away the time. After saying that a couple of days in Bucharest was plenty for me, I was longing to go someway alot smaller with alot less traffic. I boarded a train to take me to the town of Brasov. As I was entering my carriage, I was finding it very difficult to haul my backpack onto the overhead racks. An elderly gentleman appeared from the next carriage and despite my protests, picked up my pack and threw it into storage. He was shorter than me but refused to let me keep trying. Romanians are by far the friendliest and most helpful people I have come across so far. I am determined to be able to say more than Moultzoomesc by the time I leave!