Blog

I might have taken my time a bit too much on this morning, and barely missed the tram. I took the next one, but timing was becoming worrying.

Bah, no need, I was almost 5 min ahead! Farewell hungary, you were quite fun!

Debrecen might be only a few kilometers to the Romanian border, it still took us over an hour to get there. First, because the train is quite slow, but mostly because we stopped half an hour at the border, for passport control. I had completely forgotten that, but Romania isn’t in Schengen. The train was pretty much empty though, so it went relatively quick. On we go…

Buna România!

The 32nd country I’ve ever visited, but much more importantly, the 20th country of the Great European Train Tour, out of 40! Yes, that’s true: I am halfway there already, in terms of countries, and only a few days until the half of the rough estimated time. Already…

A second half hour of passport control on the other side, where I realized that I’ve also changed timezone, being an hour ahead of the rest of Europe, and the train finally slither through the bucolic Romanian countryside. It’s much more hilly, obviously, than the great plains of Hungary, but the plains are also more rural, more colorful, wilder.

Although it is in an apparent state of abandon. Old wooden eletric pole broken to the ground, villages in ruin… It does give out a poverty vibe.

The train being slow and empty made for a wonderfully relaxing time, and I feel that this, combine with the last few days that were relatively calm, made me recover some strength.

I first set foot on Romanian ground in Dej. The station feel uncared for, lying at the outskirt of town. First thing, I go to the ATM to get some lei, and immediately a kid comes to beg me for money. But never let their guilt tricks work on you! This is a scam that shouldn’t be encouraged at all: it creates a vicious circle where families stop sending their child to school to become professional beggars. Or worse. Then later it was a woman carrying a young child begging insistently. I stand my ground though. I acknowledge that I’m a rich privileged Western European white man, but you can’t know in this situations if it’s an act or not. Sorry, not taking the risk.

Anyway, in the next train, I got a compartment all to myself. It’s funny how most villages in the area are located at the foot of a hill, with a pearly white silver-roofed church sitting a bit further up the hill.

In Cluj-Napoca, after securing a ticket for tomorow’s trani (you can’t book them online with Interrail sadly), I took the bus to the hostel, checked-in, and went immediately out for laundry. Cluj-Napoca isquite a pleasant city to walk through, except for that ever-present fuel-filled air. It’s quite hard to breathe at time. Romania still has some progress to do in that regard.

Laundry got complicated when the card payment wouldn’t work, and I had given all my cash away to the hostel. Damn. I had to walk even further to find an ATM, come back, and by 22:30 I was finally out of there. Now, foooood!

But overall, a niiice day.

Finally, the video for week 9: