View inside the church. Breathtaking!
(James, Giggs, Ashley and I)
Having had an uneasy time in Serbia we were anxious about Romania. Luckily we had emailed the hostel asking someone to meet us at the train station and they had agreed. We arrived to the train station in Timisoara around 9 and sure enough someone was there with a paper with our names on it. She was so nice and friendly and had brought her car to drive us. She even drove us around to see the town before heading to the hostel. Our hostel is called hostel Costel and it's so cute. It's an old house converted into hostel rooms with a basement suite for the workers to live. It is such a great atmosphere and everyone was so welcoming. The neighborhood is safe so we walked down the street to an Italian restaurant for dinner and when we came back everyone was hanging out in the kitchen so we joined them. There was such a mix of people and ages (they were from Luxembourg, Croatia, France, australia, and a couple Romanians). They were all so funny and kind. The one guy in charge of the hostel poured all ten of us a shot from his home brewed vodka, it was disgusting but it just went to show how generous they were to us all. This morning we were bound to wake up early to explore before our train at two but that never happened. We woke up later than expected but we still had plenty of time to head into the old town and take photos and sight see. We found my favorite church of all, despite all the pigeons surrounding it, it was yellow and so beautiful. We couldn't go inside though so we continued walking. It must be their national day in Romania because everyone was carrying around flags (we even got one!) and there were a ton of guys in uniform in front of a church giving speeches. After trying to understand their speeches but failing we left and found a gorgeous square with another church at the far end so we made our way to it and this one we got to go inside. It was incredibly beautiful and i always feel at peace when inside a church so it helped calm my nerves from the Serbia experience. We decided to have lunch in the square and afterwards Ashley treated us both to gelato before walking back to the hostel to grab our things. The two Australian guys were also on their way to the train station so we all left the hostel together. They were headed to Sofia, Bulgaria and were supposed to transfer in Craiova (where we are headed for the night) so we all sat together for the ride. We had a ton of fun on the train to Craiova! Turns out James loves Gossip Girl so we watched a couple episodes together on the train and then the four of us played cards. They are both hilarious. When we got to Craiova they had missed their train so we told them they could crash with us as we are headed to Sofia tomorrow anyways and we can all go together in the morning. Ashley and I checked into the apartment we got for super cheap on booking. com and carried all four bags up (not an easy task as the boys did not pack lightly and both have a huge wheely bag that weighs more than me) then we met them outside to explore. The town is tiny and there wasn't really anything to do there. There was one main square where we took photos then we sat at an outside bar and just chilled for a while before we all headed to the apartment. We snuck them in and they crashed on the hardwood floor, not the best sleep probably. We had a super early start having to catch a train at eight so we ordered a taxi from the apartment to take us to the train. The boys bags barely fit in the car so it was a tight squeeze with their bags on our laps. Quick side story: there are a lot of dogs here and while in the taxi to the train station we saw a guy riding a scooter with two dogs chasing him trying to bite his ankles, it was hilarious to see! We arrived at the station and found what platform we were on before hitting the snack shops for our twelve hour journey to Sofia today. Let me tell you how lucky we are the guys missed their train yesterday because I would not have gotten on the train without them. The train is ancient, literally falling apart and so dirty that the guys were even weary we wouldn't make it, but we feel a lot safer traveling in a group of four rather then two. To try and explain how awful this train was just picture a train thats been derailed and rusted over then multiply that by a hundred. The doors to get on the train don't even close and their is no toilets other then a hole in the ground. Some of the stops we made were literally in the middle of fields where farmers would just get off and have a horse there waiting for them. We endured the three hour journey on the train from the dinosaur ages and arrived in Calafat which is a tiny town on the boarder of Romania and Bulgaria. When we got there I asked a man working how to get to the Vidin train station (as it said we had to transfer online) and he was able to speak to me in French and explain that we had to walk to the ferry then boat across the river to Bulgaria. We walked the short distance to the ferry and bought our tickets. The lady ushered us quickly away as the ferry was scheduled to leave so we started running but as we rounded the corner the ferry was already moving. They were so nice though and came back just to get the four of us (they hadn't made it that far we could have taken a step or two in the water and climbed on but the boys with their huge bags would've gotten wet). The ferry only took about ten fifteen minutes and then we were in Bulgaria!
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