Hello from the land of Dracula!
Please, call me Alexandru.
I’ve been in Romania for eleven days so far; it’s been a mix of solo travel and farm living. My current lifestyle consists of manual labor in the mornings, cherry picking, watching the World Cup, and cuddling with friendly donkeys.
On June 4th my Wizz Air flight landed on the single runway airport in Craiova, Romania. Before leaving home, Mom had been talking to me about the importance of making smart logistical decisions for my travel itineraries. I don’t think that she would have approved of the decision to save 100 euros by flying to this random city in Southeastern Romania, especially since there was no publicized manner of travel to my destination for the night: Bucharest. During my free time in Jerusalem I’d looked on BlaBlaCar.com, a European ridesharing website, and messaged a guy named Gabriel who had advertised a “seat” in his drive from Craiova to Bucharest. He’d replied and instructed me to meet him at the McDonalds in town. After making it past customs easily (our plane was the only arrival for a few hours), I had to ask people how to get to the town center. It seems that most young people speak English here and I was able to get directions from a kind lady who told me to walk on the highway for three miles. Thankfully, the weather was very pleasant and I was able to enjoy a solid hour of walking despite carrying two large bags. I successfully linked up with Gabriel and we were off. We picked up two other Romanians along the way. The first thing they said when I told them of my plans to work on a farm in Cluj was “Why would you ever want to come to Romania? Everyone is trying to leave this country!”. I had a nice time talking to them for the next couple hours; the distance was only 137 miles but it took three hours because there isn’t a true highway and we constantly had to pass through cities and around horse-drawn carriages. Once we arrived in the capital city under mild rain, Gabriel helped me get my bags from the trunk and gave me directions to get to my hostel. I gave him some Turkish Delight that I’d picked up from the Jerusalem Souk; when he tried it his eyes lit up and he immediately demanded what it was. I pulled out money to pay the 28 lei (7 dollars) for the ride and he insisted that I didn’t need to pay him and in fact he also gave me some cucumbers and goat cheese from his mom. We parted ways and I made my way to my hostel.
I spent 48 hours in Bucharest, which is 48 hours too many. Every single person, Romanian or foreign, who I’ve spoken with has agreed that it is one of the least likable cities they’ve visited. The buildings are gray, the weather is muggy, and the people are unfriendly. During my time here I drank cheap beer with some French people from my hostel, met an Israeli who’d previously been a security guard for Birthright groups, and walked around with another Israeli named Nadav (like our Birthright tour guide).
I left the city on Wednesday morning for Cluj. The Romanian bus system doesn’t allow for online bookings and Google Maps doesn’t reliably show the station’s location so I had to ask various people for help on how to pay for the ticket and which bus to get on. The driver didn’t even check anybody’s ticket so I could have just hopped on any bus for free. I spent the next ten hours reading, watching a perplexing movie called Eyes Wide Shut, and people-watching. A couple of observations from this ride: everyone, young or older, wears American clothing. This can range from Abercrombie shirts to some extreme designs. The most interesting I’ve seen (profanity ahead) are: a shirt that had a strange image with the words “Scottish pirate heavy metal rock”, a dad pushing a stroller who was wearing a shirt that said “Lift Heavy Shit”, and a twenty year old with a hat that simply said “Bitch Slap”. You also notice immediately that people are very open with their stares. This is constant whether it’s young people continuously looking at me as I walk through the streets with my bags or older men eyeing younger women from the bus seat window.
The sun sets slowly in this country. At 7:30pm, in full daylight, I had the experience of viewing Cluj from afar. Because it is located in a valley and the Transylvanian churches were basking in the sun, I felt as if I was entering a hidden wonder of the world. Cluj is the polar opposite of Bucharest: weather perfect for walking around, young and happy citizens, and buildings with lots of Transylvanian charm. The guide from my walking tour called it the “Silicon Valley of Romania” (which doesn’t say too much). I stayed one night in the Transylvania Hostel before going to my first Workaway experience the next morning. That was ten days ago and since then I’ve been at Peter and Ulrike’s farm, seven miles southwest of Cluj. I found their place while searching on Workaway.com with Europe as my area and “goats” as my keyword.
Getting here was already quite an experience but there is much more to talk about… expect another update soon!
Sincerely,
Alex Gouyet
Alex's Crazy Gap Year 