The Dacia Express | Day 7

Being a bit rattled from reading those reviews, and stepping foot on to not the Orient Express, I had just posted up in my room. It was known, but at 2am a knock came at the door. We had stopped at a station somewhere on the Hungarian and Romanian border. A border agent was standing outside of the window while the knock at the door came from a train attendant. He was asking if everyone could have their passports ready for inspection. I sat on my bed barely awake with the door closed. I could hear the border agent making his way down the hall. Finally he had gotten to my door and knocked. I opened the door to see a medium height middle aged scruffy man. He had on the Romanian border agent attire and except for the scruffy five’o’clock shadow he looked very official. I handed him my passport and he used his device to scan it. We wait a few beats and the screen came up with green checkmarks. A stamp was given and he turned and just walked away. No questions or even a thank you in Romanian. I closed the door and locked it behind me. I half second later one of the train attendants who was with the border agent called in to question someone’s passport. It was unclear if there was an issue with his passport or if they needed to see someone else in their groups passport but I knew I wasn’t going to stick my head out and look.

The bed was firm but in fact not that bad. I quickly fell back asleep and continued the ride through the night.

I woke up about 6am to see the Romanian countryside go by outside my window. I sat up and admired the view. It was vast countryside with distant rolling hills. There weren’t any tall peaks just fields and hills. The time change between Romania and Hawaii is now 13 hours so my family was still awake. I chimed in to them with an update about the border agent, how I slept, and generally how I was feeling. We all chatted for a little bit which was lovely. I looked on the map to see how we were progressing. I know how time works, but I have to say, I was a bit stunned to see that we were only half way along in our journey. I sat there and looked out the window. The expanse of countryside is insane. It never seems to end and then out of no where a small village/town would appear. The first one I saw had maybe 30 structures. It was a combination of homes and dilapidated farm homes. If you blinked you would have missed it. There also seemed to be a ton of grain silos and construction buildings. The odd thing was, was that there never seemed to be any construction sites. I couldn’t quite figure it out. I watched the world go by for another 30 minutes or so and then I deemed I needed to go explore the train. I can hang out for sure but with 11 hours to go I needed a change of scenery. I made sure to pack all my camera stuff and computer in to my backpack to take with me and then headed out.

When I opened the door a train attendant was offering the room before mine coffee and food. He saw me and smiled. I inquired which way was the bar car and he said he was heading that way and could take me. He didn’t really speak english but we were able to figure out what each one meant just fine. I walked with him for about 5 train car lengths. With each passing car the accommodations changed. We started with the sleeper car and then went to rooms that were “couchettes.” These rooms didn’t have beds buy had couches on either side that looked like you could at least lay down if needed. It was unclear if those rooms were booked individually or if there was a possibility of others sharing. The following cars had rooms as well buy inside were just regular seats. Like the class change, the amount of people in each train car dwindled. I had read that when the train left Vienna it had attached seated cars for those not traveling the whole way to Bucharest. Somewhere along the way those cars were removed and Romanian ones were added for those only riding the second half of the trip. Either was it was apparent that not many people wanted to ride for 12, let alone 21.5 hours, in a regular train seat. We finally hit the bar car and it was quaint. Like myself, I think most people envision overnight trains in Europe as the Orient Express. A dining car that has tables and plated service. This I assure was not that. They had some candy bars, drinks, and sandwiches for purchase. I ordered a 7’up to start and found one of the many chair and table seatings available. I took out my computer and decided to get some journaling done since there was nothing but time.

I typed away on the computer and watched the countryside go by. Some time went by and started to get hungry so went to check out their selection of sandwiches. They happened to be 2. The choices were: ham and cheese, or ham and cheese with a slice of tomato. The end. The sandwich as well was no Jersey Mike’s. There was approximately 1 to maybe 2 thin slices of ham and a thin slice of cheese followed by a bunch of bread. What goes well with bread? Well beer of course! I ordered a tall boy Romanian Lager that all totaled $6. I returned to my seat to slowly eat this hearty meal. I had another beer or two as the hours ticked by. My computer was dying so headed back towards my room to grab my charger. Folks on the train had opened their doors and we standing in the hallways chatting with one another or leaning their heads out of the giant windows. I reached my room and the family next to mine was playing out in the hallway. Sean and his wife had two small daughters and the oldest, Maria, waved and said hello. We chatted for 10 or so minutes about travel and where each was from. They were on a train trip following the Orient Express’s route. The Orient Express no longer exists so they were piecing it together. The trip started in London and was taking them all the way to Istanbul. I have to say that sounded pretty daunting with two small children but everyone was smiling and having a good time. They were spending the night in one of the towns before Bucharest and then on to Istanbul in the morning.

I started to make my way back to the bar car and I passed another gentleman who had a nice camera as well. I commented on the camera and turns out he is from LA doing a train trip to Bucharest shooting and scouting for a documentary he is producing. We chatted for just a moment and then he said he was heading back to his room. I found the bar cart in the same level of crowdedness as when I left it. There was a lady still doing Sudoku, a kid about my age asleep at his table, and the cafe attendants chatting amongst themselves. I took a seat, with another beer of course, and started to watch the landscape change. The expansive countryside started turning in to mountains. We were going up in elevation and passing through the mountainous region before dropping down to the countryside again at reaching Bucharest. Some peaks had small amounts of snow. Low level clouds covered some and rain started to fall. We passed one town Busteni that had a large sign boasting “Welcome to the filming location of Wednesday’s Nevermore Academy.” Something told me that the cast didn’t have to take a 21hr train from Vienna to get to set haha. Cantacuzini Castle was the exterior location for the academy. We couldn’t see it from the road but was a cool little thing to pass by there and say I actually know where that is! Not to long after Busteni we came out of the mountains and were back in the flats. With about a half hour to go I returned to my room to pack up my stuff. The couple on the other side of my cabin were standing in the hall chatting about packing as well. They looked over and smiled and then inquired if my cabin had a bathroom. Was an odd question I thought as we all had sleeper cabins. To my dismay in fact just odd number rooms had bathrooms and showers, whereas the even number rooms just had a sink. I felt a little bad being in between a family of 4 with kids, and a couple my folks age, and I was the only one with a private bathroom. We chatted a while and they were on a bigger trip as well. They live in London and had been to a few of the places I was going to and then were ending up in Switzerland to hike the alps for a week. They were happy to learn of the cabins that had a bathroom so they could request one of those for their next long ride to the Alps. Finally the train pulled in to the station and was time to leave this part of the journey behind.

A lady asked me to help her with her bag off the train and while we waited to disembark she inquired where I was from. She said that I had a funny accent and had to know. When I told her, Hawaii, I thought her head was going to explode. She couldn’t believe it and threw her head back and let out an “oooo.” She was mesmerized. I helped her off the train and her husband was below waiting for her. Before I think she could answer about how the trip was I heard her say “Hawaii” in between Romanian. I got a nice little smile out of that and they walked off. I hit up the Uber app and he said to meet just outside of the station. I exit the station and like some foreign countries the taxi drivers were quick to hound you for rides. I kindly said no thank you but that wasn’t going to deter him and he asked me probably about five more times, finally took the hint, and moved onto the next tourist coming out of the train station. The Uber driver arrived, and oddly enough, his name was Dacia as well. He was incredibly nice and we chatted all the way from the train station to the hotel. He gave me some recommendations of where to go, what to eat, where to party, and things to go see. The disparity between buildings and social class is pretty evident so that prompted me to ask him about if it was safe to walk around in general. He replied, “of course it is. Like any city, if you want to find trouble you certainly can, but the city is very safe. He helped me with my bags and I walked into the hotel.

The hotel had a classical look to it. The receptionist helped check me in and his colleague helped m with my bags to my room. The room was very nice. It had 15 foot ceilings, a bed with headboard decorated french molding, and a sizable bathroom with tub shower. I dropped my bags and headed downstairs to get a recommendation for food. It was already 7:45 and was hungry and tired after that long train ride. The same nice gentleman that checked me in gave me a recommendation to a restaurant called Caru Cu Bere that was maybe a 10 minute walk. I checked the maps and ventured off out of the hotel. I walked for a few minutes and then decided to recheck the maps to see how close I was getting only to find that I had walked the wrong way. Laughing at myself I turned around and got back on the right path. I passed various street cafes that were all predominantly filled. There was small church nestled between two larger apartment looking buildings that was pretty neat. I was ranging up and across the street from the where the restaurant was, was a the most fantastical building. It was a large gated building that had a large archway, a clock above it, and a large dome with a spire. The building extended in both directions with similar domes and spires on the top of each corner. Everyone was looking and taking photos and it is probably one of the most impressive buildings I have ever seen. I took my photo and then headed down the small stone street and care to the restaurant. it was packed! They had outdoor seating that sat probably 100 or so people and it appeared most every seat was full. I talked to the hostess and she was able to seat me. As we walked down the row of table I could see that in fact every table was filled. I got a seat at the far end but it was one that was closest to the building I had previously seen. Dinner and a view if I don’t mind haha.

The waiter, who was about 23 came over and introduced himself. He gave me a few recommendations and so I had to go with a Romanian beer but also he had me try a spirit that was poured in the amount of a whiskey drink and was made from blueberries. You drank it slow and it was delicious. He said that he does not bring the drinks or food he simply keeps making rounds and taking your order if there was anything you needed. He had helpers that were constantly running food and drinks from the inside. He did say that he wasn’t sure how long the food and drinks would be because of how busy it was, but that was fine with me. Romania for sure likes their meat. He recommended me a Romanian Ribeye that came with a peppercorn sauce and fries. Needless to say I killed it. After that awesome ham sandwich from the train a steak dinner was welcomed. I sat for a while longer and had another beer and then was ready for bed. Before I left I walked inside to see what it looked like and it had extremely tall ceilings with arch domes and a bar situation in the back middle. The bar was gorgeous. Made of all wood and a pill shape the bartender stood in the middle slowly checking on the patrons. Like the outside the inside was filled. Obviously this was a very poplar spot and I can see why. I walked back to my room and even though I had turned the air down to 12 degrees celcius it didn’t feel any colder than when I left.

Bed time was welcome and in the morning I had my tour to see Peles Castle, Bran Castle (Dracula’s Castle), and the historical city of Brasov. It was to be a long day but one I’m sure will be really cool.