Tales from the Train

Last Friday morning my 5 o'clock cross-country train pulled out of the Sibiu train station. Two hours later we rolled into an anonymous station and the conductor left the train. The employees of CFR, the national train company, had gone on strike demanding higher wages. As I sat with the other passengers, wondering what the rest of the day would bring, one woman nicely summed up the general sentiment with her statement that we could be waiting there ten minutes, three hours, or three days. Naturally, some of the passengers made motions to organize a bus ride to our destination, while others crowded around the door to make sure the arriving media crews would hear their opinions. They encouraged everyone to join with invitations of "come, come!" Three hours after stopping we started moving again with the apparent resolution of the wage dispute. So that was that.

The recent surge in my time spent traveling may need an explanation - it's currently semester break. Well not really; it's currently the exam period. Exam period lasts 4 weeks, but most exams are held during the last week of class, or the first two weeks of Exam period. So next week is the actual semester break. But, for most, it's a 5 week break from class or anything related to school. Many students head home as soon as their exams are over, and few are interested in spending this time period learning about studying in the U.S. (interest is particularly low when it comes to learning about standardized admissions tests, which is what I had scheduled for this week). So, I have some time.

One way to fill that time is to plan for next semester's classes. Unfortunately, just like in the fall, I won't know what I'm teaching - or who I'm teaching - until possibly next week. I just hope that unlike in the fall, I find out before the first day of the semester. I'm planning nonetheless.

But last week I went traveling. In addition to Belgrade (below), I hit up Sibiu for a few hours overnight, Timisoara for less than 24 hours but including some sunlight, a trip to their massive mall, and dinner at a Greek place, as well as Bucharest for a whole 3 days.

If you look at a map of Romania, you'll see that traveling to these cities on the same trip doesn't really make sense. That's cause sometimes, that's just how we roll...

But here's my story, in trains:
Thursday night: Brasov to Sibiu, 19:30 - 21:01
Friday morning: Sibiu to Timisoara, 5:00 - 13:00 (delayed half way through for above strike)
Saturday morning: Timisoara to Belgrade 6:03 - 8:54 (one hour time change)
Monday afternoon to Tuesday morning: Belgrade to Bucharest via Timisoara, 15:55 - 5:39
Friday evening: Bucharest to Brasov, 18:50 - 21:27

No, no, that's not a story. My apologizes. The highlights from the train rides include the strike, which Nicole and I (en route to Timisoara) slept through for an hour before I woke up, read a text from Meghan, and realized that we hadn't left the station we pulled into an hour before. With our phones and other passengers we pulled together the story, which included that Cristina's train (Bucharest to Timisoara) had also stopped, like all trains across the country, but hers unfortunately stopped in the middle of a field. (Luckily, she speaks Romanian.) The strike was apparently announced the night before because a few people knew it was going to happen, yet most people on my train had no idea.

Another highlight - the overnight adventure (indeed) from Belgrade to Bucharest. There were a lot of uncertainties heading into this trip - would Meghan and I get into Romania with our temporary residence permits (pieces of paper with writing)? Would I be able to go all the way to Bucharest, even though I'd originally bought a ticket to Timisoara? Would the customs agents check under our seats for smuggled blue jeans? Do we actually need seat reservations even though the ticket agent said we didn't?

Questions we should have been asking were more along the lines of:

Are we waiting at the right track? (A: no)

Does this train go to Timisoara? (A: yes, but only after traveling west for 5 minutes, stopping at another Belgrade station for 20 minutes, then proceeding east toward Timisoara with another 20 minute stop at a teeny tiny station a few minutes outside of Belgrade)

Why does this train take 5.5 hours to travel just over one hundred miles? (A: why??)

What's it like to travel 2nd class overnight on a train to Bucharest? (A: freezing cold or stiflingly hot, depending on whether you've crossed the border yet)

Do we actually need seat reservations even though the ticket agent said we didn't? (A: undetermined)

The Belgrade ticket agent said we didn't need the seat reservations. On the train, we had to buy seat reservations because the conductor said we needed them. We grudgingly scraped together our remaining dinars as they scribbled on official looking receipts and assured us we were all set. As our train pulled out from Timisoara, the Romanian conductors came through and informed us that the reservations were no good. And yet, we didn't have to buy another. That's one of those times when Romania makes you feel good.

As for smuggling blue jeans (or other things), we didn't get accused, although it would have been fun. Basically, the seats on these trains lift up and apparently there's some storage space below. The customs agents checked the seats in surrounding compartments and the ceiling of our car, but left us alone. When one guard came through (I can't remember if he was Serbian or Romanian) he looked at my passport, and saw that we were American. In English, he asked (allegedly), "Do you have anything to declare?" but as I didn't hear that at all, I stared at him blankly, as did my traveling companions. He then looked suspiciously at my passport again, peered at me oddly and slowly said, "Do you speak English?" Oh yes, of course. "I asked you a question." (You did?) "Do you have anything to declare?" Oh oh sorry, um, no.

The last "highlight" was my trip back to lovely little Brasov from Bucharest. Being so close to Bucharest, I've traveled this route many many times before. This train originates in Bucharest (like everything) and heads all the way to Budapest. Nicole was joining me in Brasov for the night, so we bought our tickets together and made the journey to our car. Wagon 1. 1 of, I dunno, 20 or so? The last one was 462, but I'm pretty sure there weren't 462 cars. Our trek to wagon 1 took a good 5 minutes at a fast pace - that's a long time to get to your seat. But sadly when we got to wagon 1, the hallways were crowded and our seats were taken. We peaked next door and found seats in a nearby car, only to be uprooted by a distraught Romanian woman a few minutes later. We considered kicking people out of our seats, but instead found two seats in a car with a few other passengers. I'm not entirely sure what happened during the rest of the trip (I was in and out of dozing after a nearly sleepless night before this), but basically I was woken up 1o or 12 times as our fellow passengers climbed over us to get out of the compartment and into the hallway, and back. In the hallway they joined dozens of young Romanians (mostly men) sipping stinky beer and clustered into piles around suitcases. When they returned to our car, they would stare at Nicole and I, who made no attempt to appear anything other than American (by having a conversation in English). We were glad when the train pulled into Brasov at 21:30 on the dot. Nicole commented that of all her train trips, my "ride from Bucharest to Brasov was the most interesting." I assured her this was not normally the case.

Overall, train traveling this time around was a success. Basically, if you make it to your destination, it's a success. And don't take that as a complaint - I'm just being optimistic. After all, it's not like Amtrak's got anything on Eastern European trains.