A broken-down train full of gypsies

Together with my hungover Bulgarian buddy I drove from Sighișoara to Brașov, the capital of Transylvania. Brașov has a population of 253,000 and is also known to have a lot of students.

We took the cheapest class train and were already wondering why no other tourists took this train. They seemed to know better, that you shouldn't take the cheapest train in Romania.

Already from the outside the wagon was covered with rust, inside the train didn't look much better. The upholstery of the seats was totally battered and if you leaned on the seat a little bit forward or put your arm on the armrest, the seat completely loosened from its anchoring. It did not surprise us that the train was full of gypsies. Sitting opposite us was an alcoholic Romanian who kept dozing off and almost missed his stop. Moreover, the train was almost boiling with heat, because it was still summer and of course it lacked air conditioning. Over 4 hours the journey dragged on.

Choosing the cheapest hostel in town

My Bulgarian buddy pays attention to his budget, that is also the reason why he can travel so continuously. Most of the time he stays in the cheapest hostel in town. I prefer to pay a little more and have a little more comfort. In order to accommodate him, I agreed this time to stay in the cheapest hostel of the city. The price was almost half as cheap as the other one, while the reviews were quite good.

The hostel was called "Evil Clown". I had never experienced such a bedroom arrangement like here. Probably to accommodate even more beds in the smallest space, the hostel had introduced an attic. The distance to the ceiling from there was only about 1 meter.

Horrible sleep

And they gave us exactly those beds directly under the ceiling. So we had to go into a crouching position and climb up a long narrow ladder to get to our beds. It is clear that with such a cramped arrangement there was a lack of oxygen. And to top it all off, in the evening we received a visit from bedbugs, which dropped down on us from the wooden struts on the ceiling. I did not sleep a minute, but sat down in the kitchen and the next day I demanded my money back.

I moved into a hostel with a German name that was almost twice as expensive, the Jugendstube Hostel. According to its German name it was well organized and clean and I could finally sleep well again. And the owners were really nice.

Virgin forest surrounds the old town

The beauty of Brasov is on the one hand the nice big old town and the great nature that surrounds it. The big city atmosphere also brings more variety to the city and the tourists are better distributed here than for example in Sibiu or Sighişoara. It is my favorite Romanian town.

In Brasov I joined the city tour. As a joke, the guide explained that being eaten by a bear was a "tourist attraction" in Romania.  Together with a young English woman I then walked to the nearby mountain on which there is the lettering "BRASOV", inspired by the Hollywood lettering.  You can also take the cable car up there, but we wanted to do some exercise and chose the hiking trail - in the midday heat.

What I liked most about Romania are the dense forests it has. It is the only European country that still has primeval forest. However, you should be careful where you walk, because there are still wild bears in Romania. When we returned to the city from our hike, I saw a small animal among the bushes. But I could not see exactly what it was. Maybe it was a small bear, but maybe it was just a wild boar.