Arriving at Budapest the first thing I did was get some Hungarian Forint from a cash machine. I was stupid enough to go for a nice round figure, 5000HUF, which came out as one single note. The exchange office didn't want to change my note into smaller value denominations because they wouldn't be earning a commission on this service. Just in front of the exchange office some dodgy looking guys were hanging around, they too were into the money exchange business. I was sure they had watched me and when I was approached by one of them I indicated that I already had sufficient funds and merely interested in smaller notes. With this knowledge I assumed the guy would just leave me alone, but he insisted on helping me. That was rather surprising since again, he would not be able to earn a dime on me, unless he is into cheating, and this made him even more suspicious. Aware of the situation I decided to be extra alert and went along and followed him to a snack shop in the station hall. He talked to the shop owner about my money problem, and seconds later I held five 1000HUF notes in my hand. The money tout just smiled at me and walked back to his spot outside the exchange office. This all was too good to be true, I thought, and started inspecting my new notes, wondering if I had become victim of a counterfeit money scam. The notes however looked alright to me and everyone accepted them without a second look. Appearances can be so deceptive!
After this first bit of excitement it was time to go and look for my host Ági who had offered to pick me up from the station. Just before arriving in Budapest I had sent a message to her, explaining she could recognise me on my blue coat and the head scarf. I was lurking around in the station hall, scanning the faces of every woman for reactions to my presence. After a minute or two I spotted a girl with a wide friendly smile and she was heading straight for me. My gut feeling told me this must be Ági, and this time my gut feeling was right!
For the next two days Ági and her friend Peter made me welcome in their house like I have been a long-time friend. They live outside Budapest in the small town of Alsónémedi, where almost every house seemed to have a nice garden and often feature a small vineyard. The next morning I took a local bus into Budapest and sorted out my onward ticket to Brasov, Romania for the day after. Without any fixed arrangements for the remainder of the day (they only thing clear was I would stay for a second night) I used the time to visit Budapest's Memento Park, a open air museum where the “remains of communist dictatorship”, the statues from Hungary's communist period are on display. In the evening I headed back to Alsónémedi and found out that Peter's parents were expecting us for dinner. It was cold outside and the roads icy so we took Peter's car for what seemed not more than 1km journey, skidding through the streets. At his parents a big pot of goulash with galuska (Hungarian style gnocci) awaited us. However, before you start the meal it is custom to have a shot of palinka to boost your appetite. When I was getting ready for my second serving of goulash Peter signalled that there are two more dishes waiting to be sampled, and so I made it a small portion. The next dish up was paprikás krumpli, a dish made from potatoes and spicy sausage, flavoured with lots of paprika. This was followed by túrós tészta, a dish made from cottage cheese and pasta. I put a portion on my plate and Peter's dad mixed it for me with the right amount of sour cream, salt and sugar. This last dish didn't feature any paprika and did a great job in reducing the heat in my mouth. Before we left for home Peter's mum made me a big lunch pack for my long journey to Brasov. Starting with the palinka, the wine, pickled paprikas and even the spicy sausage in the potato dish, everything served that night was home-made. The language barrier made direct communication with Peter's parents difficult, but I hope they could feel from my body language how much I appreciated their hospitality.
I was pretty much the only visitor at the Memento park. The cold and snowy weather just added to the feeling that no one is missing the old communist relicts.
This T-shirt is
being sold at the Memento Park, and for those in doubt, it made absolutely clear that Memento Park is not about romanticizing the old commuist days.
After a long feast of Hungarian home-made food and drinks
The next morning Peter's dad came by the house. He was on his way to Budapest for work and he gave me a ride back to the Keleti train station, where Ági had picked me up two days ago. In these last two days I felt fully submerged in local life and culture, something you don't find – at least not to the same extent – when you stay at hostels. I still haven't used couch-surfing yet, but I got the feeling that I shouldn't wait much longer and start writing couple of emails to potential hosts.
On Tuesday morning I board the IC 435 which provides a direct connection between Budapest and Bucarest. The train was virtually empty but this changed when we get closer to the Hungarian-Romanian border. In Békéscsaba the platform was bustling with Romanian traders who had come over to Hungary to buy cheap supplies. Every single one seemed to have at least 20 large shopping bags. As soon as the train had come to a halt they started rushing to the doors. They only had 3 minutes to get all their stuff on the train and it was a mad display of people running back and forth between the train doors and their bag depots on the platform. A few of the guys must have been through this ordeal before, they had organised a cart for their bags and so they could just bring them all up to the doors in one go. The final stop in Hungary is Lökösháza, no one boarded there but the Hungarian police came through the train checking passports of every one. I had to hand mine to a female border police officer with an excessive amount on make-up in her face. She stared at me for what seemed like minutes, checking if my face matched the photograph in my passport, and then went on to inspect every single page of my passport before she was pleased. A little bit further down the track at our first stop in Romania the Romanian police came through the train but these guys were way more relaxed, the passport check only took seconds.
Thanks to the generousity of my Hungarian hosts I got to enjoy this for lunch whilst waiting for the border crossing formalities to complete.
Entering Romania from the north-west, I was shocked about the sudden change of how everything looked. There were tons of derelict factories and abandoned company yards, and everything that had not yet been abandoned looked like it is going to collapse any time soon. There was garbage everywhere and instead of seeing tractors on the fields farmers used horses and carts. I remember thinking that passing the border felt like entering a different world, a world hard to believe to be a member of the EU. In Arad, the first Romanian city that we passed, two Romanians joined me in my compartment. Minutes later we were already discussing the poverty (the average income is 200€, but many prices match or even exceed those back home) and corruption issues of Romania, and with a few short interruptions and changing passengers this discussion only ended 7 hours later when I arrived at my destination, Brasov. For the next few days this would be my travel base for exploring Transylvania (German: Siebenbürgen), an area influence by German settlers that followed an invitation by the Hungarian king in the 12th century to inhabit these lands.
The very first stop in Romania, things still looked pretty "normal" here...
...but further down the track this was a much more common display.
View over Braşov's old town with its huge "Black Church" and the old town hall.
Overlooking snow-covered Râşnov from the fortress. Our day time temperatures this week were around -10, and one night it even plummeted below -30 degrees.
Peasants with their horse carts - a common sight outside Romania's cities
The impressive fortified church of Biertan, you can see it from miles away
