tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17746846.post-19850360001807202302008-04-05T13:22:00.006-06:002008-04-09T01:00:18.090-06:00This is a massive post, and I do not really expect anyone to read it other than David Knobel himself at a post retirement age.<br /><br />Since Tuesday, March 25, 2008 I've been in Eastern Europe. I flew into Budapest, Hungary from Dublin and had booked a hostel online, but didn't end up staying there. See, my friends Ryan and Cole Sherburn who I know from the University of Montana met me there. They were with another American, Johnny, and a Romanian, Mircea. I got off the airplane in a country I hadn't researched, knew little about, and of course I didn't speak the language. Following Lonely Planet's advice, I hopped on this bus that goes from the airport to the nearest metro station. I was totally confused sitting on the bus because it went back to where I got on before it got to the metro. I don't know, I just sat there and didn't bother to ask anyone anything. Eventually it got to the metro, where I got off. I was alone. I have traveled alone before, but it was still an emotional roller coaster. I got a ticket to the central metro station, and then got a ticket to Oktogon, which was the closest station to my hostel. I walked up and down the street twice before I finally asked for directions to Caterina Hostal, which is where I had booked a night. By this time it was 9:30 and I had told my friends I would be there at 8:00. I was hoping they would be there waiting for me, but was prepared otherwise. I finally found the hostel, and when I walked up to it there were my friends from Montana, sitting on a bench in Budapest, waiting for me. I can't really explain how elated I was. Somebody will understand.<br /><br />They already had a place to stay, so I ditched my hostel reservation. They still charged my credit card the eleven dollars it was going to cost, but I don't care. As I say, it's just money. We walked around Budapest for a couple of hours, looking at the buildings and standing by the Danube River. We went to the place they were staying and hung out on there fifth floor balcony drinking some Hungarian beers, chatting about life in America and other abstract concepts.<br /><br />On Wednesday, March 26 we got on the train to Arad, Romania. It was a good train ride, although uneventful. On the border of Hungary and Romania the Romanian border control asked Johnny what his plans were. He said what he was doing, and then I said I am doing something slightly different. The guy said, "SO !?!!?!?!" I said, "I thought you might want to know, you asked!" It was hilarious and we all laughed about it the rest of the trip. When we got to Arad the guys realized the car they rented had been towed. I can't imagine what we would have done without Mircea. He and Ryan went to get the car while Cole and Johnny and I gave patronage to a place close to the train station that served beers. By the time they got back with the car we were in a grand mood and they were stressed from dealing with police and paying fines.<br /><br />That night we drove to Cluj, Romania. It was a good drive while it was still light out, and I saw my first horse drawn cart. As the night wore on, we entered the Transylvanian Alps. Cole and I got into what was to become a recurring argument, which in my opinion was essentially about whether America has been, on balance, a good or bad thing for planet Earth and the human race. He may not see it exactly that way but I do not know how else to describe it. We got to Arad very late and met up with some girls Cole and Ryan knew from East Glacier, Montana, who like Mircea had spent a summer working there. They went out to eat and drink, and I went right to bed.<br /><br />Thursday, March 27 I woke up to find everyone else already awake, to my amazement considering how late they had stayed up. I met the girls they knew and we went to their campus. We sat in their dorm room for a while and one of them gave us some 20 year old homemade Tuica, which was like 70% alcohol. I couldn't finish mine. Then we all went to this pizza place close to the Cluj campus, which was amazing. Then we started the long drive to Bucharest, on which I saw more small villages and more of Transylvania.<br /><br />But before we got to Bucharest I got to experience a truly Romanian delight. Mircea and his parents were kind enough to host us all for dinner in their flat in a eight or ten story Communist era housing bloc. His parents didn't speak English but his two brothers did. We all sat on somebody's bed and ate, because presumably there wasn't a big enough table. We had bread with some green tasty sauce, red peppers, tomatoes, some amazing homemade unpasteurized (I am assuming) cheese, cucumbers, and really good sausage. The cheese was my favorite. I have never had anything like it. I felt blessed to be able to meet such warm loving people. Warm loving people was also to become a recurring theme for my trip. We made it to Bucharest that night in time for me to fall asleep on another of their friends' couch. Cole gracefully took the floor as he did throughout the trip.<br /><br />Friday, March 28 Cole and I were up before everyone else and decided to go look around and try to find some coffee. I got my first taste of the hundreds of thousands of stray dogs that roam Bucharest and bite over 15,000 people a year. Apparently, when the Communist dictator Ceasescu built massive apartment buildings and forced families into them, the families left the dogs outside and created what was to become the modern day headache. We tried one shop for coffee to no success and kept walking. After a while we got to McDonalds and Cole said, "At least I know I can get coffee in there." So we got coffee and walked back home.<br /><br />We went to Robert's, who house we were staying at, pizza restaurant Don Perfettos for lunch. It was even better than the pizza we had in Cluj! We went to a mall to drink some beer and get some food. I met one of Robert's friends named Adrian, the first of two Adrians that would be really good to me. After telling him that I was going to Moldova by myself he gave me his phone number and said to call him if I have any trouble. That night we out to a club, which was one of only two nights that I would go out. We weren't allowed in the first one because of the footwear of one of us. We eventually got into a club though and I had a fantastic time, other than my eyes feeling like they are burning out of my sockets because of all the smoke, which is the first of a few things I want to talk about at the end of this blog.<br /><br />Saturday, March 29 was apparently a busy day. I am remembering specific events I did in Romania but not the exact days. Robert decided to drive us to Constanta on the Black Sea. Of course we picked up five or six pizzas for the drive. We drove on the newly built, EU funded, U.S. interstate-like highway the couple of hours there, got out for a half hour and walked along the beach, and drove back. The Black Sea was beautiful and the drive was worth it.<br /><br />That night I had another truly Romanian experience. Johnny had bought some classic Romanian mici, which is like sausage, the night before after the club but we decided not to cook it. Instead, Saturday night we had true Romanian barbeque. Robert built a fire out of wood on his cement driveway, set up three blocks on either side of it, and threw a grill over it. Johnny, being a cook at the Firebrand in East Glacier Montana, did good things in the kitchen. We sat around the fire on the cement on the edge of Bucharest, drank some beers, and watched the mici (pronounced meech) cook. Goodness was it good, and boy was it beautiful to be in such good company and be treated as a friend by people I just met, as opposed to traveling by myself, which is another thing I will speak to at the end of this blog.<br /><br />The third thing I'll speak to is about the conversation Mircea and I had. Mircea had been relatively quite while the rest of us debated high minded concepts such as democracy and power because he was driving us drunk Americans around his home country. But Saturday night he wasn't driving; he was drinking. He argued with me in a much more intellegent fashion than I had grown accustomed to. He told me that Romanians had more freedom than Americans because they could smoke inside. He told me Americans were more like Communists because we have so many laws and prohibitions. He would know, he has lived there. All this I agreed with and could not argue with, other than the fact that I agreed with the process that created the rules, even though I disagreed with the rules. But what was most enlightening, even though I have heard the concept before, was his comment that America like any other empire (although I disagree it is an empire, that is beside the point) will ultimately fall because it can not afford to go on. Specifically he was talking about the Iraq war. More on this towards the end because I'm trying to finish a story right now.<br /><br />Sunday, March 30 Ryan, Cole, Johnny, Mircea and I went out and walked around Bucharest again. Mircea left us halfway to go see his girlfriend or something and I said good bye to a great person I never knew but treated me like family. We found our way to the train station, I bought my overnight ticket to Chisinau, Moldova and the other three left. It was such a coincidence for me to meet up with them, but I am so glad I did. It added to my experience an innumerable amount. I do not know when I will see them again but I can not wait.<br /><br />I walked around for two or three hours looking for an internet cafe before I finally gave up and just went to sit in Gara de Nord and wait for my train. I had The Economist that I bought in Dublin so it was not too bad. My train left on time and I shared a four bed cabin with another guy that did not speak English. The night went fast, other than being woken up at three a.m. to show my passport and bags.<br /><br />Monday, March 31 I arrived in Chisinau, Moldova to rain and gloomy weather. I walked a few blocks and found an internet cafe. Surprisingly, Cristina was online and I told her I was in Chisinau. We decided to meet up when she got off work and I left the internet cafe to find some coffee, food, and a place to read. I found this place on Stefan cel Mare, which is the main street in Chisinau, and ordered a couple of coffees and read some Lonely Planet. I ate some peanuts and other snacks I bought but that was it. I went back to the internet shop and Cristina told me to go to her house and her brother would let me in. I said OK! I had not showered in three days and desperately wanted to be comfortable. I found a taxi and showed him the address, which was 19/1. I wrote a 9 like a backwards P, not like a lowercase g written above the line, so the guy took me to a place that he must have thought was 1a/1. Thankfully, after asking multiple people where the heck I was and showing them the address I had, this guy that worked for the (naturally in a country still run by Communists) state run telephone company took me under his wing. He did not speak English but after walking around for 20 minutes I motioned that he should call Cristina, since I had her cell phone number. He pulled a phone with wires dangling from it from his bag and hooked it arbitrarily into some lines and called Cristina, ultimately finding out that I was looking for 19/1. I know I have bad handwriting, but this has to be the worst consequence of it ever! This guy was just another person I have met on my travels that has helped me to no end. I tried to thank him as best I could, repeating Multumesc and bowing (even though that is more Asian). All around the world, people are wonderful.<br /><br />I got to Cristina's and her brother Vlad was waiting outside for me. I had made him late for class but he still stuck around long enough to heat up food for me and show me how to work the shower and offer me use of his computer and internet. I took part in all three and enjoyed it fully. I met Cristina and her mom that night and then went to sleep in what was my most comfortable lodging so far this trip. They tried to offer me a key so I could leave the next day but I said I needed to rest.<br /><br />Tuesday, April 1 I stayed in the house all day. I did not wake up until noon and when I did I simply sat at Vlad's computer. Honestly, it was great to catch up on news I had missed both globally, nationally, and within the circle of my closest friends. I do not really remeber if anything else happened that day.<br /><br />Wednesday, April 2 I slept in again and then waited for Vlad to come home from high school so we could go see Chisinau. He got home and we left around three to go on a walking tour. His friend Sase joined us. I saw a lot that day. I saw the central market, the artists' market, the theatre, the government building, the two main parks, the central Eastern Orthodox Church, the statue of Stefan cel Mare, the statue of the Russian Pushkin that a petition is trying to get rid of, and most importantly Andy's Pizza. Apparently Andy's Pizza was owned privately but when it started to make money, President Vladimir Voronin's son Oleg bought it for cheap. It is still everywhere and still serves good food, but it is essentially state owned, if not officially. I had my first beer in days there and bought one of their glasses for a dollar off them because it had the logo of Chisinau Bere on it. It was a great day.<br /><br />Thursday, April 3 I went to high school with Vlad. It was a great experience I could not have had if I was a typical tourist, like so many of the other experiences I have had. I got to see how the classes are taught here. I got to see how the school is physically set up. Most importantly, I got to talk to all the 16 and 17 year old students. At one point I was surrounded by 10 or 15 boys and girls all listening and understanding me. They all spoke impeccable English. Mostly, as expected, they asked me about the truth of their impressions of America, which come exclusively, and I mean EXCLUSIVELY, from Hollywood. I tried to debunk the myth I have confronted over and over again in my travels: That American women are sluts and American high schools are simply about sex, drugs, and alcohol. When I told some girls that not all Americans lose their virginity at twelve and that some are conservative, they laughed. I understand because they get their impression from American Pie, the movie. It is the same impression radical Muslims have of America, and a major reason they hate America. Personally, I believe extremist radical Muslims hate America more because of the filth Hollywood spews than because of our foreign policy, but that is either a subject of another blog or the subject of an in depth academic study.<br /><br />That night, I think, we had mamalika (sp?) which is the Moldovan national dish. It is just corn flour boiled down into a cake. It was so fantastic to live with a Moldovan family for a week and truly experience life. The food was good. As long as I am on food I will talk about other food I had in Moldova but did not mention. Vlad cooked some macaroni and cheese one afternoon but this was not from a box. The cheese was home made sheep cheese, stored in salt water. It was so good! Also, I had a couple of different wines that were homemade. It was amazing!<br /><br />Friday, April 4 was another day of rest. I relaxed all day, had a few glasses of wine at lunch, and then took a nap to get ready for what was the second of two nights in the club for me. We went to Nostalgie, in my opinion a high class club. Some cocktails were ten dollars, or 100 Moldovan Lei! I met some of Cristina's friends, and yet again I was amazed at the kindness and love that was shown to me. I am at a point right now where I am just amazed at how many good people there are in the world. Honestly, it makes me quite happy.<br /><br />Saturday, April 5 we did not do much because we could not get into any of the big Moldovan wineries that are abundant around Chisinau. Apparently a person has to make reservations four or five day in advance, not the day before or the morning of. To compensate, Cristina took me to a restaurant that served Cricova wine. I sampled four wines and they were all some of the best wine I have had, other than maybe their homemade stuff.<br /><br />Sunday, April 6 I did little other than buy a train ticket to Bucharest and buy some amazingly good hot dogs from a street vendor. On this train there were four of us in a four bed cabin. Two of the guys I was with were Moldovans who studied at the American Romanian University and naturally spoke perfect English. We had great conversation the whole time and went to the bar car to get some food and beer. There we ran into this drunk middle aged ladely who seemed to want to hang out with me the rest of the train ride. My new friends helped me escape.<br /><br />Monday, April 7 one of the guys, the second Adrian, offered to show me the university, his housing, and his classes. I said why not? because I had a full day to wait before the train left for Budapest. It was a great day, other than the 25 dollar fine we had to pay when we did not have the right ticket on a bus. I sat through more classes in Romanian, and went to another pizza place. All in all it was just one more person that I met and immediately felt close to.<br /><br />On the train to Budapest I had a cabin to myself, which was nice, but little consolation for the 100 dollar ticket.<br /><br />Tuesday, April 8 I got to Budapest and immediately set out for a thermal bath. Thermal baths are basically the number one tourist draw to Budapest, I think. This one did not disappoint, other than the fact that everybody in there had to be over 65. I hope the medicinal baths made me healthy. The sauna was the hottest one I have ever been in.<br /><br />After that I came to this hostel and began writing this blog. I met a British guy from London and we went out on the town. It was a lot of fun.<br /><br />Wednesday, April 9 is today and I just woke up to finish this blog. The British lad is still asleep because he stayed out after I checked in early due to exhaustion. I am flying to Dublin tonight, Going to Cork the next day, and the next day my parents are coming to Ireland! I may write about that later.<br /><br />Back to the smoky, smoky, smoky club in Bucharest. It was unreal. My eyes are permanently damaged I think. My clothes stunk terribly the next day. I would not want to go back there, but I think if some people want to go there they should be able to. I do not know if this is true or not, but someone said the EU is forcing Romania to outlaw public smoking. Freedom just going up in smoke, if you will.<br /><br />Back to traveling alone. I do not mind traveling alone, but I much prefer to travel with somebody, even if it is someone I just met. I have done a bit of traveling alone and I think it is a must for everyone to experience. It is just such a learning experience. I do not think I will undertake any more big adventures alone, even though I have met so many good people when I am alone.<br /><br />Back to the comment about America not lasting much longer. I think a lot of people beleive America is not going to be a superpower for much longer and that China will take over. This scares me. After Mircea said that, I got an intense desire to learn more about the economy, the cost of the war, and America's viability. Frankly, finance is one of the most confusing concepts for me. Maybe I should take a finance course.Davidnoreply@blogger.com