Night train to Romania

I had a wonderful time on the night train between Budapest and Bucharest. I was in a four person sleeping car but there turned out to be only two of us. My traveling companion for the night was an extremely sweet lady named Theodora. She is from Bucharest but has done a ton of traveling and speaks English very well. She filled me in on exactly what to do because this was my first night train experience. When she suggested that I go get my sheets I quickly followed her instructions and left our compartment. But I had no sooner started down the hall when I heard, "Marla! Marla! Come back!" I went to see what was the matter and Theodora explained that I must never leave my handbag anywhere! I had left it on the seat with the rest of my luggage thinking she would keep an eye on it for me, but she was adamant that I take it with me wherever I go, even to the toilet! :-) I appreciated this very important lesson. My handbag never left my side for the rest of the journey. I got to know Theodora a little and turns out she was an electrical engineer, just like my brother Justin! She has traveled all over the world and just got done spending two weeks with her friends in Budapest going to the baths every day! Now isn't that the life!

I went to bed pretty early, but was woken up twice at border control. First the Hungarians wanted to see our passports before we left the country for some reason. And then the Romanians wanted to see our passports when we entered the country. At least I got two more stamps in my passport! Yippee!

I slept pretty well. I tell ya, night trains are the way to go. You spend a couple hours chatting with your lovely train-mate, go to sleep, get two stamps in your passport, and when you wake up you're about there!

I had set my alarm the night before, but it turned out I didn't need to because I was woken up by Theodora. "Marla! Marla! You must get up! You must come down and see the mountains!" :-) I am very glad Theodora woke me up because the mountains were absolutely beautiful. One of them even had a wooden cross on the very top of it. Beautiful scenery.

The train was delayed so I missed my connecting train, but Theodora was with me the whole time. She helped me get off the train and took me to information to find out when the next train was and got me to the track and everything before she said good bye. I was definitely extremely lucky to have shared a compartment with her on the night train to Romania. :-)

I hopped on the train to Pitesti shortly after and sat by a really nice old man who kept trying to talk to me in Romanian. So we ate milky way minis together and laughed about how much luggage I had. And then about how we couldn't understand each other. At least I think that's what we were laughing about... He also helped me off the train and carried my bag for me. He made sure I didn't have to take another train or bus that he could help me find. And when he figured out I was waiting for a ride, he kissed my hand when I tried to shake his and waved good bye. Romania is full of super nice people as far as I can tell so far.