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The trip back home started today at 07:00 from Crisan to Tulcea by hydrofoil. We arrived in an hour and since the first mini bus to Bucharest was due to leave at 09:00 we went to the quay bar for a drink. We found the mini bus at around 08:40 but to our dismay it was full up. The next bus was at noon so we had almost three hours in Tuclea.

Romania Travelogue - Saturday 12th June

Mike Krupel
2006-06-28 19:38:13

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The trip back home started today at 07:00 from Crisan to Tulcea by hydrofoil. We arrived in an hour and since the first mini bus to Bucharest was due to leave at 09:00 we went to the quay bar for a drink. We found the mini bus at around 08:40 but to our dismay it was full up. The next bus was at noon so we had almost three hours in Tuclea.

Our first attempt was to find some shops, maybe well manage to prove our visit to Romania, but we failed miserably. Next we tried to find a café for an ice-cream. Unknowingly we went inside an outdoor nightclub on its first day of operation instead. We had to settle for coffee and orange juice. Just before leaving we saw a policeman giving a ticket to a man pissing on a wall. We spent the remaining two hours near the filthy lake Cuperci (Lake Mushroom) reading and writing the diary.

(This part was scribbled on the mini-van to Bucharest) My butt has been kissing this cushioned seat for the past 150 minutes of the remaining 3 hours. I made the armature mistake of bringing a thin childrens book for my holiday despite knowing that we had a minimum of two full days travelling. I am trying to busy myself in all sorts of mental pursuits, and reading the least important parts of the guidebook.

Today we made the wrong choice of using a micro-bus (mini-bus) to travel from Tulcea to Bucharest instead of the train. Uncharacteristically the bus is modern designed on the interior of a plane. Luck has been horrendously cruel with us because the air conditioning system was not working. The heat is making the trip unbearable and Im sweating buckets of ill smelling saline liquid. I will now be easily mistaken for a Romanian. The driver isnt helping to rectify the situation either. He first got furious because we opened the bus window, and now hes planning to end our lives with his reckless driving.

(Back to normal Mode) We arrived in Bucharest at around 17:00 and the bastard bus driver purposely didnt stop us at the train station. Two other people stopped there but he just continued driving when we approached the door, despite the rest of the mini bus telling him to stop. We had to walk for about 500m to the train station and another 500m to find Hotel Ibis in Bucharest.

We were now back to civilisation once again. What a refreshing change. The best thing was that we had a cable TV and we could watch the first Euro 2004 matches. Before settling in bed we satiated our hunger at the train station Mc Donalds. To enter the train station without a train ticket you must pay 4,000lei (0.04Lm). This is probably a way to keep beggars away from the station.