Romania

Well the "to be continued..." was disappointingly (or actually gladly) anticlimactic. I arrived in Brasov without any problems. The conductor said Brasov and pointed to the train station to even let me know that we had arrived. I trekked the 2.5 miles through town to get to Kismet Dao Hostel, crawling into bed around midnight. Brasov itself was not the nicest or wealthiest of towns, but it was better off than the villages I passed along the countryside on the train ride in. I actually even noticed a few men on horses, pulling wagons full of logs. I later found out they were cheaper and essentially more reliable than the trucks to which these people had access.


Countryside as I entered Romania.



In the morning, I reluctantly crawled out of bed for breakfast before heading on a trip to see a few of the castles of the Transylvania countryside. Here is my quick, rough, probably not so accurate, summary of where I went. First stop, Bran Castle, was originally built sometime around the 14th century. It is commonly called Dracula's Castle due to it's resemblance to the castle in Bram Stoker's Count Dracula. However, there is little history confirming whether the actual Vlad III Tepes (the impaler) Dracul actually even visited this particular castle during his reign as Prince of Wallachia in the 15th century. Our second stop was Rasnov Citadel, built in the 13th century for defense in Transylvania. It was essentially a community surrounded by fortification walls and lookout towers. Last, we went to the newer Peles Castle where construction started in 1873 under King Carol I of Romania. Unfortunately I was unable to take picture of the interior, although a quick Google search of the interior will provide plenty of pictures that don't quite actually do it justice. The intricate detail in the woodwork and decoration was absolutely stunning. The massive servant quarters were also very plush and resembled the exterior of the castle itself. I also enjoyed some locally made cheese and chimney cake in one of the villages we drove through (chimney cake pictured below being made). After a long, full day, I decided to go ahead and book a flight out of Bucharest, Romania to Antalya, Turjey and then headed to enjoy some local Romanian cuisine.

Bran Castle

Inside Bran Castle

Bran Castle





Rasnov Citadel

Rasnov Citadel

Peles Castle

Peles Castle

Arriving in Bucharest, I found a very poor city (a lot more so than I had envisioned). Overall, Romania was the poorest country I'd visited on this trip. The number of Communist housing units was astonishing. A local informed me they were home to one of the largest in the world. Upon first arriving in the city, I explored Old Town Bucharest a little. There was a meetup group for travels I found online that was heading to a local flea market that occurred on Sundays. It was just that, a flea market with lots of useless "stuff" ranging from household cleaning items to car parts to locksmiths. When arriving at the meeting point to go in, a local from the meetup group approached me in Romanian. Apparently it has some similarities to Spanish, and I understood him, although replying in English, that I was there for the meetup group. I later went for a bike ride around the lake at their largest park in town.

The next morning I set off for the airport to catch my flight to Turkey. After checking in and going through security, I had a brief moment of panic because I had barely checked the travel Visa requirements for Turkey, and even when I did glance at them, it was practically a month earlier. I texted Jarrod because it was a random time in the middle of the night in Indiana, hoping he was up and could quickly do a Google search for me. In the meantime I bought some overpriced airport food and managed to find WiFi to look it up myself before he could figure it out. Suspicions confirmed, I shouldn't have a problem, I just needed to pay $20 to obtain a Visa which I could do at customs in the airport. For those of you unfamiliar with what I am talking about, some countries require special documentation and permission for you to enter their country (called a Visa) or certain guidelines you must follow in order to enter. For example, many European Union countries and other affiliates (in total called the Schengen Area) have a stipulation for American citizens that they can enter for 90 days out of every 180 days. Turkey is similar with a 90 day limit, but they are not part of the Schengen Area and do require a Visa, although payment is apparently enough for them to give you one. Many countries also require that you apply for a Visa from your home country as well.

Budapest, Hungary

After a grueling, long train ride (which seems to be the trend on these day consuming trains), I came to the conclusion that bus travel through Europe might be an easier and less stressful option that I will consider should I remain in Europe after my Eurail pass expires at the end of this month. The nuisance with the train is that each time you cross into a new country, they change conductors, each time starting the process over of awakening me from my slumber to review my ticket. A lot of the conductors aren't well educated on the Eurail pass, in turn looking for anything that they can to attempt to fine you (since you're clearly a tourist when using one of these passes which also means you should have sufficient funds for whatever bullshit they would like to charge you for). So if you can't tell where this is going, I didn't properly have something filled out according to this conductor who could only magically speak the English he wanted to understand or say...such things as €50 please, cash only, etc. Of course I tried for 20 minutes to babble on to him that it was extremely unnecessary and that he was leaving a terrible impression on me of the Hungarian people and that he should be ashamed of himself for targeting tourists. Of course this didn't work and the cash only part gave me a glimmer of hope, because I literally only had about €1.50 in cash on me, and I had given the remainder of my Polish money to a homeless guy when I changed trains in Katowice, Poland. They decided that when the train arrived in Budapest that they would escort me to an ATM. Being the law abiding person and paranoid of ending up in a police station, I abided and went with them to the ATM. I made sure he produced a receipt and additionally asked his name (not that it mattered or that it was worth my time to stress about it) but tossed the receipt as soon as they walked away.

Breather, I needed a breather and some fresh air at this point after wanting to right hook this guy in the jaw or knee him where it really counts, so I walked 2.5 miles with my 50lbs of backpack fun to the Buda part of town where I was staying. Budapest is situated on a river with Buda being on the hilly, elevated side and Pest being on the flat side. Some people argue that it is comparable to Prague in its beauty. Comparable maybe, but if you're basing it solely on the aesthetics while walking the streets, then my vote is for Prague. However, if encompassing the social atmosphere and uniqueness that many "hipster" places around the world could only attempt to fabricate, then Budapest wins outright. I've never been to so many unique restaurants and bars with so much character. For a fact, I could not do these places justice by trying to describe them, so you will just have to trust me on this one. My first night in town I found a locals meet-up group online from a travelers site and headed to this restaurant/bar to meet them. I regurgitated the previously told story about my train experience and one gentleman was ticked. It was a fun night with some locals and another traveler.

The next day I did some exploring and walked up to the castle hill on the Buda side of town where the Royal Palace is located, providing stunning views over the river to Pest and the Parliament building. I continued to "get lost" in the streets of Pest for the day, exploring. I met an Australian girl while on a tour, and we later decided to explore some of the well known nightlife of Pest, starting at a very popular venue called Szimpla. My last day in town I met an American college student who was attending school in Sweden and his two Swedish friends. We headed to one of the well known thermal baths and swimming pools in town called Széchenyi Baths located in the city park. It was extremely relaxing, and we spent about two hours enjoying the warm waters of the outdoor pool, followed by the saunas and cold baths, but of course ending in the warm water since I have about zero cold tolerance! We had dinner at a very eclectic bar that I wish I could duplicate in somewhere Colorado for when I return.

After waking up entirely too late, I threw my belongings back into my bags, brushed my teeth, and practically ran to get to the train station a mile and a half away in time. You see, some trains require a reservation for a small fee on top of my Eurail pass, so I needed to get to the ticketing office to ensure I had this, if I even needed it. Come to find out, I did not, and quickly borrowed a pen from the ticketing office to PROPERLY fill out my pass per Hungarian conductors standards and boarded the train. The train was a huge one but come to find out only he front three cabins were actually the international part. Luckily this Hungarian was a lot kinder and showed me to the proper cabin so I could make it all the way to Brasov, Romania as I intended. He had no problem with my ticket. We went through border patrol when leaving Hungary, since Romania is not part of the European Union or the Schengen Agreement, and then again upon entering into Romania. The new conductors boarded the train, and here I sit on my 14 hour journey to Brasov. I have one hour left, and it has been a smooth trip, minus the boredom that set in hours ago. So, will I make it to Brasov without any fines? We shall see.

To be continued...

Krakow, Poland

I have a friend, Nicholas Bujak, who is from Poland, was raised in Canada, went back to Poland for medical school, and now resides in Arizona. He has family still living in Krakow, the Stronckzak's. I had been in touch with his cousin, Monika, prior to arriving in Poland. On Saturday evening I met with her, her boyfriend, and her brother for drinks. It was awesome to meet locals. There's nothing better when traveling than being able to spend time with people who are a part of the culture. You can learn more about their way of life and of course visit less touristy, more local restaurants, pubs, etc. They extended an offer for me to have dinner at their parents' house on Sunday around 3pm. I was so extremely excited about it too. Neither their parents nor grandmother speak English fluently or more than a few words. Dawid and Monika translated for me though so it wasn't a problem. They made a traditional dinner. The first course was a type of salad and herring with peppers and onions and bread. With the herring dish, it is typical to drink vodka. Their dad poured us all a shot of vodka, and then another shot, and then I politely declined and he took a third alone. That was definitely a new experience for me because I can't say that I frequently drink vodka with dinner...or anytime for that matter! The main course was basically breaded pork which is very typical of the region, a cucumber salad, mashed potatoes, a type of cabbage dish, and red wine. We ended with dessert and tea. They live in an apartment, or flat, or condo. I'm not really sure what you call it. The family has owned it for approximately 65 years I think they said. I had dozens of questions that I felt were too nosy and I felt bad having Monika and Dawid have to translate everything, such as their heritage, involvement in World War II, and what it was like during the communist reign.

My last day in Krakow I went to the salt mines just outside of town. They are absolutely massive and have been there for over 700 years. It was interesting to see and hear about the working conditions of the miners who were actually very well off with the job. In their free time they also used to carve sculptures in the salt. I don't just mean random, abstract art, but extremely good sculptures of people. There were numerous of these that still stand. All of the pictures are sculptures from the salt. the chandeliers are also made of salt crystals. The mine is no longer in use though (besides some salt they mine from the water that runs through) and is more of a tourist attraction.

Adventures in Transport Experiences and History

The remainder of my time in Prague was delightful, although fighting a lovely cold. I explored the streets of the city on Wednesday and visited the Prague Castle. On Thursday I miserably boarded a bus for Munich and then to back down to Innsbruck for another week...coughing, sneezing, and blowing my nose the entire way. When I arrived back in Innsbruck, Michael met me at the train station and I ran to the pharmacy for some Benadryl so I could sleep that night. I rested until Saturday when we had tickets to the Billabong Air & Style snowboarding competition which was a full day of fun (and an American actually ended up winning)! On Monday and Tuesday I went with Kerstin and Kathy snowboarding. Wednesday I did some last Innsbruck sightseeing and visited an old castle and ended up walking about 11 miles to explore town and the grounds where the castle was located. Interesting enough they had these old grottos where they used to lock guests up and challenge them to drinking games. It was only when they finished the drinking games that they would be released from the grotto.



Snowboard Competition in Innsbruck



Snow covered Kathy

Hiking up to get to some fresh powder

Aerial view of Innsbruck

Last day exploring a castle in Innsbruck

The next morning I set off for my long, adventurous journey to Krakow, Poland. I was low on Euros and didn't want to go to the ATM due to the bank charging $5 each time I withdraw money and the fact that Poland doesn't use the Euro, so I would have to hassle with exchanging money or going to an ATM once again. I set off with about €15 to get me through the day (thanks to Michael giving me €10 that morning). I ran to the store to grab a choco croissant and a sandwich for lunch later and was now down to about €11. The first leg of my journey started with a four hour train ride to Vienna that did not require a reservation since I have the Eurail pass that I am using to travel Europe. On this train, I realized my next leg from Vienna to Katowice did require a reservation and I wasn't sure how much that would cost (even with the pass some trains required a cheap reservation). I had one hour when I arrived in Vienna to get from one train station to the next which was two miles away. I could have easily hopped on a local train to transfer between stations but considering my funds were low, I had an entire hour to kill, and I wanted to see some of Vienna, I decided to walk with my two backpacks totaling about 50lbs...one on my back, one on the front. It sounded like a grand plan until I arrived nice and sweaty at the second station, having only seen a mediocre part of town and a huge cemetery, and frantically looking for a ticket office to get a reservation for the rest of my journey. I found the office and my two reservations for the next two trains totaled €7. That was perfect. it would leave me with €3 which I spent on an apple juice and an orange soda on the train, and I could get money at an ATM in Katowice, Poland. This train from Vienna was approximately six hours long and took me up into the Czech Republic and then over into Poland. Each time you cross into a new country, new conductors come through to check your ticket. That was fine and dandy, until I reached Poland and the conductor pointed out that my Eurail pass was not valid there. OOPS...guess I should've looked at that in advance! The conductor didn't speak English (most of them don't on the trains) so he was communicating to me in Polish and I was communicating back in English. It surprisingly worked well, probably due to body language. He was very nice about it though and asked if I wanted to stay in first class (which is what my Eurail pass is for) or move to second class. I motioned for second class and he found me an empty cabin and luckily accepted credit card for the ticket that came out to about $20 which would get me the rest of the way to Krakow. However, at this point our train was running late so I would miss my connection to Krakow but the conductor knew that and made a phone call and told me the best option was to wait two hours in Katowice for the next train to Krakow. I was slightly relieved by this because it gave me more time to get money and actually have dinner. I finally arrived in Krakow at about midnight after 16 hours of traveling and made my way to the hostel where I would be staying.

After a solid night's sleep, I went on a walking tour of Krakow. It wasn't the best walking tour I have been on, but the city is gorgeous (especially covered in snow) and there is massive history in Poland, too much to cover in a two hour walking tour anyhow. I met two English gentleman and had drinks with them before settling in for the night. I was due at a bus stop for a "field trip" to Auschwitz at 9am.

On the bus to Auschwitz, they played a movie for us, reviewing when the Soviet's arrived at the camp and the emaciated state of everyone. The pictures and video footage is chilling and nauseating. It was an eye-opening preface to seeing the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau. Auschwitz was chosen due to its central location from countries where the Germans would be transferring people via train, the number of trains coming into the town from numerous directions, and the rivers surrounding the town. A total of at least 1,100,000 people died there, about 90% being Jews. The majority were murdered in gas chambers, first using carbon monoxide and later the cheaper Cyclone B was tested and used. The majority of people did not last longer than two to three months before being murdered. Pregnant women, children, and elderly were always separated and sent immediately to the gas chambers upon arrival. Only the young and healthy were kept to do work until they were starved and too sick to work, and then they too were sent to the gas chambers. Everyone's bodies were shaved, hair over 20cm (I think it was) was kept and sold to textile companies to be used to make rugs, socks, mattresses, etc. The ashes of all the bodies were also recycled and used as fertilizer. The living conditions and sanitary facilities were obviously terrible. Those are merely a few details that I heard about today at Auschwitz and Birkenau, and I am by no means a good historian! It's crazy to think how much we take for granted.

I also feel like this is a good time to mention how sad it is how little information we are taught about World History in the United States. We actually even have a reputation around the world for this. I have met numerous people so far on my travels that have asked me about this and wanted to know if it was true. I confirmed it was true. I am also eager to try and improve my world history and political knowledge through my travels. Wish me luck though because this is definitely not an area of education where I ever excelled!



People arriving off the trains in Auschwitz

Cyclone B tablets

My mom's madain name, Horner, can be seen on one of the bags.