Regarding my blip of a trip to Transylvania

Bus from Budapest to Cluj Napoca: 7 Hours
Bus from Cluj Napoca to Sibiu: 3.5 Hours
Train from Sibiu to Sighisoara: 3 Hours
Train from Sighisoara to Cluj Napoca: 3.5 Hours
Bus from Cluj Napoca to Budapest: 7 Hours

Arrival back in Budapest...Priceless!

Out of 62 hours between Wednesday afternoon (4/16) and early Saturday morning (4/19), I spent 24 hours alone in some form of long-distance public transportation. Was it worth it? Debateable.

It was another one of the spontaneous..."hey do you want to go to in two days?" And me being generally bad at saying "no," I of course agreed. To be fair, I had been bummed that I had taken so little opportunity to visit the places within easy reach of Budapest that I won't be able to see over the summer. I only went away one weekend, to Vienna (don't get me wrong--our summer travel plans are EXTENSIVE and AWESOME! yes I just used a lot of caps). Plus there is an amazing bus company, Orangeways--serving coffee and film entertainment, that had tickets for 22 dollars round trip.
So Wed. I joined my friends, who were apparently part of a 20 person group from other schools (I was the only Corvinus student), with a strong presence from the Polish community. At least 40% of the group went by the name of 'Magda.'
Upon arrival in Cluj Napoca, the city seemed attractive, particularly in the well-lit central square that the bus kindly dropped us off in at our request. We found the Retro Hostel, cheap and dorm-y digs, went for a drink (romanian beer -- Bergenbier. meh.) at an empty (despite Lonely Planet's promise of a lively student nightlife in Cluj) but alternative looking spot nearby. The next day we checked out the city, with many long delays waiting for people of the group to come together----I cannot express my frustration with large groups and with collective touring...I never have and doubt I ever will have any interest in seeing the Botanical Gardens anywhere!

Cluj was cute, very similar Hapsburg-influenced style of Prague, Vienna or Budapest, only pale in comparison to those cities. Unfortunately, that was my general impression...Cluj and Sibiu...nice, clean, pretty, etc. etc. but nothing unique or special.

the one difference: aluminum-looking roofs (this is a synagogue) I think Transylvania would be a good destination for hiking and seeing the mountains, but merely city-hopping is not so worth it. So with the large group frustration, this underwhelmed impression, and plus with all the assignments i have to do weighing on me, I decided to return on Friday night instead of Saturday night.

Thus began my first experience 'traveling' alone. I am not a big fan of said circumstance, but I am glad I have experienced what it was like. I have definitely gotten to destinations alone before, but this was a 24 hour period of time, with sightseeing thrown in.

As the number of transport connections in Transylvania are significantly fewer than promised in Lonely Planet and their timing is not the best, I took the 7:30 am train from Sibiu to Sighisoara. This entailed my walking from the hostel at 6:30 in the morning, getting whistled at by miner's arriving in town for work (seriously, it's an unholy hour, i purposely look as unattractive as possible for no unwanted attention and still...), and going in circles looking for the actual train ticket office. After which, god forbid they provide a board specifying departures and platforms.

I will say, however, that the people are very friendly. The hostel receptionist was indispensable for helping me plan which trains would allow me to arrive in time at Cluj, and some friendly man at the train station showed me the right platform despite our complete lack of ability to communicate in any common language. On the train I wound up sitting across from an old, leather-skinned, scarf-wearing woman who was later joined by some grizzled old man, and then they proceeded to flirt during the entire early morning journey. They thought I was Spanish.

Having spent so much time on the train or on the bus, I saw quite the fair amount of countryside. Transylvania is extremely rural, lots of ramshackle houses, and a fair amount of horse-drawn carts being used in all seriousness. Unfortunately my camera does not take good shots in motion and through a grimy window.

romanian granny's

Sighisoara I enjoyed stopping in. I opted for it over Bran-Brasov and Dracula's Castle, because this UNESCO world heritage site (due to the medieval citadel) is the birthplace of Dracula,and that was enough of a connection for me (and 3 hours less spent on a train). Course, now the home he was born in is a restaurant, but no matter. The citadel truly was medieval and interesting, and it was a brilliantly sunny day. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to linger because I was going to catch a train to Cluj two hours later--a train I almost missed for being $2 dollars short (5 leu) of the fare and the only exchange office/atm was back in town. Thank goodness for nice Romanian people--this time it was a waiter at a deserted dive who changed 10 euro for me. This slight delay did work an amazing coincidence--I ran into two funny french guys from the hostel back in Cluj, and had a pleasant chat with them.

On the train back to Cluj (after it was significantly delayed. Again...thank you for not having any departure boards, Transylvania!) I thought I was going to have to stand the entire 4 hours as there were no seats. Somehow I finagled one in a crowded compartment with 3 Romanians, and the most PDA international couple I have ever seen. The latter was also returning to Cluj and then to Budapest on the same bus as I, so I had the pleasure of waiting in the cold at the bus stop for 2 hours at night chatting with them about how crazy the European school system is. The girl, Finnish, had studied abroad in Mexico, Thailand and now Hungary, lived for a year in Estonia and traveled extensively in Latin America. And somehow, with almost no time at her home university, she would be earning a Finnish college degree. Unbelievable.

Back in Cluj, around 5 pm, I had oodles and oodles of time to kill before the 11 pm bus back to Budapest. I tried the street food (a necessary activity while traveling anywhere) which was called 'Palacsinte si Brynza,' but it was more like a thinner floppier Langos than a pancake and brynza is sheep's cheese. Yuuuummy. As I had already seen all of Cluj that there was to see, and the weather was about to turn to rain, I took refuge in a greek-themed cafe. I took an hour eating my decadent caramel dessert, I read a good amount of Lonely Planet, and a few hours later I got antsy and left. Getting to the bus station meant walking on a crumbling path along an overpass from the train station, and I did not wish to do this when dark fell (if I hadn't already been there with the group previously, I would have NEVER found it alone). And so I continued reading (this time Writing with Hitchcock by Steven DeRosa), waiting, avoiding the stray dogs, and chatting with the PDA couple, and I was SOOOO thankful when the bus arrived finally. Hot chocolate, lights out, and sleep until I was back in my fabulous and familiar city. God it was good to be home in Budapest.

Transylvania photos

Regarding the Budapest soundtrack, and plans for the summer

It seems that wherever we go (club, coffee-shop, H&M, grocery store) the music is always the same. I have heard the following songs way too many times for my taste:
David Guetta "Love is Gone"
Erick Morillo featuring Puff Daddy "Dance, I Said Dance"
Rihanna "Don't Stop the Music"
Natasha Bedingfield "Love Like This"
Britney Spears "Piece of Me"
Sugababes "About You Now"
Kanye West "Flashing Lights"
Fergie "Clumsy"
Timbaland "Apologize"

I am having withdrawal from rock and normal music. I mean...I even know the lyrics to the above-mentioned songs! This is painful.
Unfortunately Pandora and many other North American music sites do not work over here due to licensing restrictions. However, musicovery still does, as do most youtube videos, and someone turned me on to www.deezer.com which is a great site! It doesn't always have everything (like youtube), but it will actually play a whole stream of the same artist or the same album and that just makes my day.

I also found a used bookshop that had the tiniest assortment of english books so of course I got something. I read the first book on the train to Vienna, Lajos M., Aged 42 By Zsolt Csalog. It was actually in Hungarian and English, on opposite sides of the book, and it was about a hungarian prisoner of war in the soviet work camps following WWII. I can honestly say I have never read anything more morbid and brutal than this. I'm surprised I didn't have nightmares.
I'm looking forward to the next book that I found in the bookshop...one from the Gossip Girl series, bahahaha.
In other media news, I just watched 3:10 to Yuma. It was ok, built up to some moments, but I wasn't too impressed. Some of the dialogue was just ridiculous: "Tommy was weak. Tommy was stupid. Tommy is dead." Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is better by far. Actually, during the end credits, I realized the film was based on a short story by Elmore Leonard--wow, that man is prolific! His stories/novels have inspired Jackie Brown, Get Shorty, Be Cool, Out of Sight. He is very readable, lots of captivating stories and alcoholic, brash, charismatic, rough-but-kind leading male characters. I do enjoy his work. So yea, the movie wasn't bad, but it wasn't the best. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is better by far. Then again, I am hardly the most interested person when it comes to Cowboy's and the Wild West. On the actor front, Christian Bale still looks gaunt (from his Rescue Dawn days?) while Russell Crowe is rather portly...but nonetheless, both fine specimens of maleness.

On that note, we went to club called Moulin Rouge the other night, and got in for free as it was a private business-sponsored party (and we were three young pretty faces, :-P )...so it was definitely an older crowd. Despite the saying that men age better...oooeee, not by the looks of this place! I guess it's the whole alcohol-is-a-big-problem in the East thing, and they grow the bellies while losing the hair. Not pretty. Then again, these guys at least have jobs, whereas most of the drunks I encounter in the bus or I smell on the street likely don't.
The club did have the nicest interior I've seen. It's actually an old theater, so the upstairs have theater boxes and it is very ornate. This picture is more of the theater 'lobby' area.
What a weird reversal...this week we went out every night M-Th, so for the weekend I was like...ummm, hell no! I so enjoyed creating study notes, doing laundry, and watching movies, you have no idea.
On Friday my friend did beg me to go to a rock&roll night with her, and as I was so fed up with the club music, I agreed. This was hilarious! Apparently Gaby takes salsa lessons, and whatever school teaches it was
having a boogie-boogie night in some dorm. I felt like it was a junior high dance, and they were missing the pink and blue streamers! But it was cute, the music was definitely better, and I beat the hell out of there as soon as Gaby's class partner showed up.
The crowd at the dance night did remind me of my earlier tirade against men with long hair. I don't know if I clarified this correctly, but my issue is not so much with the cute, mildly hippie, say-no-to-the-man, beach bum of the USA. The guys with long hair here look like they play Dungeons and Dragons, read books about trolls and warlocks, and go out to clubs that are really converted meat warehouses (Blade?! anyone?!). Ok, that's actually a bad reference as the Blade people looked kind of cool.

On the travel updates: Ryanair had a huge special earlier this week so Courtney and I were frantically trying to put together our plans. So far, Steve and Courtney come to Budapest mid-may, we check it out here and do some day trips, then head toPoland. From Poland we take an awesomely low-cost Ryanair flight to Germany, where we go all over and Kate will meet us there. Then, Kate and Courtney do their thing, while Steve and I fly to Estonia (also nice price--this one from EasyJet, much more user-friendly website!), and hopefully make our way down through Lith and Lat. But this is where we are stuck (near the end of June). Somehow we need to make our way to Kate in Croatia around July 4th, but first we need to get out of the Baltics and go somewhere else. Unfortunately, despite the fact that Eastern Europe is on the whole cheaper than the west, it does not have the transportation infrastructure to make traveling it particularly convenient. As in, most flights seem to go to the West, and trains take incredibly long and I don't think I can keep my eyes open while gripping my passport tight for two whole days, passing through mafia-run land.
On the plus side, we already have sketched-out plans and some flight tickets for half the summer (although still have to sort out the trains/buses, accommodations) and apart from the Baltics, I have friends in every country we are going to.