Our couchette (cuşetă in Romanian) was already occupied by 2 Romanian men and one teenage lad (one of their sons?) already in bed when we got on at Brasov, so quite strange sharing such a small space with 3 people we hadn’t met and weren’t sure we shared any common language with.
It was a hot hot night. Air conditioning not working well and the Romanians wanted the windows shut, so not the best sleep. Woken 5ish by border guards.
In the morning i managed to chat a bit with the older guy in German. He’s going to Budapest to work for a month on a ship doing 7 day cruises down the Danube, I think he said from Budapest to Dachau, but haven’t checked a map yet to see if that makes sense. He’s then taking 2 weeks holiday. So that’s why the border guards were checking his papers so thoroughly — that very official looking letter he handed them together with their passports must have been in connection with a work permit or the like.
I’m left wondering what the work situation is like in Romania and how many men and women have to make similiar trips for work. Also what about the teenage lad who can’t be more than 15 — has he come to work too? It felt a bit too nosy to ask.
We part on very friendly terms: “Auf wierdersehen, au revoir, bye bye”
So we are now in Budapest. It feels so western these days. I was last here in 1989 and miss the excitement in the air of those times. Now it’s all H&M and Ikea. Looking forward to visiting the large covered market tomorrow before heading west, west, and west again.
Room here is lovley and looking forward to a good sleep tonight.
(Please excuse dodgy punctuation- working out thsi Hungarian keyboard is quite challenging)
Martha // Aug 4, 2009 at 6:45 pm
I think it was 1989 or 1990 when we last visited Budapest too Jane. It must be quite different now but probably more English spoken.
Mary Jane // Aug 5, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Sounds like a cramped sleeping arrangement. I guess there were 6 beds or you had to double up!
MJx