Romania is really weird...

So my trip to Bucharest was a little bit chaotic... Obviously the first part of the train trip in Turkey needs to happen on a bus. And the first thing that greeted me on the bus was a girl with longer and thicker underarm hair than me... haunting in that "I can't take my eyes off it" sort of way. I then got to sit next to a crying Romanian girl for the bus ride. After we eventually got to the train I got to jump into a sleeper car... That was pretty cool, I felt very Sean Connery-James Bond getting to travel across borders in a sleeper car. I was sharing with a German dude... he was nice, but very very serious about everything. It was a bit "we make conversation now", "it is sleeping time now" etc. Waking up at 3am to cross the border (not to mention that it took FOREVER to get my passport back) was a bit sucky though. A stop for an hour or so in Bulgaria around 12 was annoying too as noone took Lira or Euro... But I'd been told that Bulgarians nod their head no and shake their head yes, and it's true! They actually do it.

Bucharest is a really fucking weird city though... I couldn't quite work it out. It had a lot of WTF moments... I had massive trouble finding my hostel (not the least because it had two addresses) and I found what seemed like whole blocks that are just empty/abandoned. It's like whole blocks went broke (including the strip clubs... which are EVERYWHERE).
There was also a metalica/motorhead/slayer concert (or something like that) in Bucharest that day so of course I ended up at a metal club after going to dinner. It was a refreshing change after a week of Turkish pop. Vaguely related to that, metalheads worldwide all dress the same... And on that note have you ever noticed the only difference between a fat metal chick and a fat metal guy with long hair is the beard (and vajay jay obviously). So there was a lot of windmilling on display and a couple of dudes dancing in a rather amusing way (or having a fit I can't tell)... Very cool. The "half dan" salute also lives on in Romania now.
Traveling alone means I get way less opportunity to cut way loose like I would at home, but if you were traveling in a pair would you be that happy if your "other half" kept going nuts all the time? And in a larger group you're risking the development of a "man of shame". Smoking is also not banned in Romania and it was so smokey in this basement you could barely see by the end. I planned on leaving early but ended up having to much fun so once again I was out till 2am. I also nearly wandered into the Shisha bar I walked past too...

Anyway for my day in Bucharest I went to the Palace of Parliment (after observing that Romanians appear to love to rollerblade). The palace of parliment is apparently the second largest admin building in the world (after the pentagon) but it's still not entirely completed. It was so insanely over the top though (especially given it is barely used). Very pointlessly/dictatorially opulent but just kinda depressing at the same time as it's just a waste. On that tour I saw a "Billabong New York" tshirt... Wtf?

I also bought my train tickets to Brasov and Prague. Now Lex may mock the Germans customer service abilities, but the Romanians were mindblowing... Admittedly I was buying a train ticket from a city I wasn't in to another country... but it shouldn't be that hard.

And of course some old guy assumed I was Romanian.

I also nearly missed my train to Brasov, and when I got on it my cabin was padlocked...

I'd like to say I arrived in Transylvania on a dark and stormy night... but I didn't... it was just a rainy late afternoon. And the chick running this hostel is pretty hilarious

Love, Hugs and Kisses
ANt