UPSV: A Beginning After the End
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9.24.13
After 34 hours of straight travel (Cape Town -> Johannesburg -> Doha -> Bucharest) on limited sleep, I was ready to take at least a brief 20 minute DaVinci-esque ciesta. But I also had a bus from the airport in Bucharest to catch, in order to catch the train, in order to sit on said train for three hours up to Brasov where I'll be for the next month. And, I was hungry and thirsty. And if you've been following the journey as I go, or know me well in person, you'll know that filling my stomach is priority over most everything else, especially sleep which sits at about #84 just below "clean the lint trap in the drier." So, onward.
First stop, the bus. After hearing about digital theft being a pretty big business in Romania, I was leery to try my card in the ATM, but needed cash at least to get to where I needed. So I tried one ATM. Denied. I tried another. No luck. By the time I got to the fifth, certain I'd already had four duplicates made of my card, success. And as soon as there was money in my hand, there were "taxi" drivers offering to take me up to Brasov for the low-low price of triple what it would cost everywhere else. They're really persistent with their insistence that you go with them, which isn't particularly my favorite sales tactic. But I digress.
The bus ride itself was easy to navigate and the people on it were super friendly but didn't speak a lick of English. So, here I am in a European country, surrounded by Caucasian people for the first time in half a year, with not-a-one speaking (unfortunately) the only language I know. And let's be honest - English makes absolutely no sense, even to you who are reading this - so I can't fault the people on said bus for not knowing it. Someone understood "train" though and told me where to disembark.
First stop, the bus. After hearing about digital theft being a pretty big business in Romania, I was leery to try my card in the ATM, but needed cash at least to get to where I needed. So I tried one ATM. Denied. I tried another. No luck. By the time I got to the fifth, certain I'd already had four duplicates made of my card, success. And as soon as there was money in my hand, there were "taxi" drivers offering to take me up to Brasov for the low-low price of triple what it would cost everywhere else. They're really persistent with their insistence that you go with them, which isn't particularly my favorite sales tactic. But I digress.
The bus ride itself was easy to navigate and the people on it were super friendly but didn't speak a lick of English. So, here I am in a European country, surrounded by Caucasian people for the first time in half a year, with not-a-one speaking (unfortunately) the only language I know. And let's be honest - English makes absolutely no sense, even to you who are reading this - so I can't fault the people on said bus for not knowing it. Someone understood "train" though and told me where to disembark.
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