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| The Caucasus - My Journal |
Lost in the Middle of Nowhere
8th July - Budapest (Hungary) -> Oradea (Romania)
After about 2 and a half hour's sleep, I tried my best to get ready in silence so that the others, who'd literally just returned from the club, could get to sleep. It wasn't too difficult, except for the outrageously squeaky door, and by 7:30am I was back at the bus station searching for the bus to Romania.
Unlike most of the other buses at the station, mine was a privately owned Romanian one and it arrived at about 7:45am, 45 minutes before it was due to leave, and the large queue that already built up began to filter on.
I watched the people in front of me, and realised how much like a small child I felt. The way a child learns how to do things is by watching others. He/She can learn everything, from etiquette, to procedures to games, simply by observing and then doing. The backpacker is forced to do exactly the same in many cases! Unable to communicate verbally, like small children, the rules are learned by watching then copying. I realised that a certain ticket buying passport examination procedure needed to be done, and as I was about 10th in the queue, I'd seen enough people to work out what I was meant to do.
The 6 hour journey to Oradea was pretty uneventful, even the border crossing was problem free (if long and boring) except for a small break-down on the way. Luckily our driver appeared to be a semi-skilled mechanic, so with a few repairs and some coolant, the breakdown only held us back by about 30 minutes.
Oradea is a very small town, very close to the border, and even though the journey was easy enough, finding a place to stay wasn't!
 It was uber-hot and scorching outside of the bus, so I wanted to find a place to stay and dump my bag as fast as I could. After some wandering I couldn't find the tram into town so I grabbed a taxi (only 50p) to a place marked in the guide book as the "best budget option" with beds from 5 euros. Perfect. Except I couldn't find it at first. However, on spotting my larger backpack, a friendly English speaking couple pointed the hotel out to me. I was standing right next to it! But when i got inside, it turned out that it'd upgraded itself from a hostel to a 4* hotel! The cheapest beds were now 40 euros!
So I then had to set off on a mammoth expedition to the opposite end of town (really, really far away) to find the only other hostel. After a long walk in the scorching heat...it turned out that the place was full! Luckily, the guys spoke really good English and make a few suggestions. They said there was a place a little out in the sticks but it was very nice and really cheap. As I didn't want to fork out 30 or 40 euros for the other places listed in my guide book, I took them up on their suggestion. They called a taxi for me and it drove me on a crazy route deep into the suburbs. I'd tried to follow the route but just as I got totally lost, the driver stopped and confidently pointed out a nice looking building. It didn't really look like a hotel, but he was confident, so who was I to argue! I handed over the money (60p) and he zoomed off. Of course, as soon as he's disappeared into the dust, I find the place isn't a hotel, just some random house. So I'm lost in the suburbs with no map, little Romanian and sweltering with a big bag, all teute seule! :oO
 After some desperate wandering to check if the hotel was nearby, I eventually saw a taxi and got it to take back to the middle of town. I'd resigned myself to paying for a slightly more expensive place...better than bunking on the side of the road! But as I was walking down the main street, the guy who was one half of the English speaking couple from earlier walked up alongside me! He questioned me about why I was still wandering. I explained the situation and he really helpfully told me a few other places I could try, He also says that he'll meet me at the McDonalds in 20 minutes if none of the places work out and he'll help me some more (nice guy!). However, the first place I went out, supposedly 25 euros, had vacancies...and it only costs 10 pounds! Score!
The receptionist at the hotel didn't speak English...just Romanian and French, so in a slightly surreal fashion, I did all the booking and negotiations in French! Strange to be speaking in French out here!)
 After all of these adventures, it turned out that the town was pretty boring and very dead. A large part of the town was also under renovation so it looked like a big building site and a fine dust was being blown everywhere. Because of these facts, and also because my 3 hours sleep from last night was beginning to catch up on me, I had a very quiet afternoon. I did some e-mails, wrote some postcards, then went to my room to slob out in front of the TV in my room (first time I've had a TV on these travels!) before passing out into a deep sleep...
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To know the road ahead, ask those coming back
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