Travelling by train to Targumesh, Romania turned out to be much more of an adventure than we expected. Loaded down with gear, we reached the train station after a 20 minute bus ride. Thinking we were getting on the 10:30 pm train, we decided to have a dinner courtesy of Mc Donalds. As most of you know the only thing I dare to eat there is ice cream, fries or pie but on this occasion I had my eye on a chicken premiere burger. Yes I ate one and enjoyed it imensely along with the potato wedges and mystery fanta.
After we had spent about an hour and a half at the station we found out the only night train they had was at 8:40 pm and we missed it. So we quickly got ready to trek back to Casa Shalom, (where we stayed for a few days to catch up with the other teams and do some debriefing), as we didn’t want to miss the last bus. We all hudled really close together to make sure that nothing got stolen and felt like we were on display in a shop window because everyone was gawking at us. There was one guy in particular that was eyeing our stuff and I was not afraid to let it be known that I was keeping an eye on him. Next thing I know, he winks at me! Now for the record he was pretty good looking but at this point I was like uh uh, so I put on my face of stone and stared him down, not even giving him a hint of a smile.
Plans changed and we figured it would make more sense just to stay the night at the train station. Back into the train station we venture scoping out the best area to camp out. Settling against a wall near Mc Donalds we put down our gear in an organized manor enjoying the sweet relief from the heavy backpacks. Phew! With train tickets booked for 7:30 am, little did we know that our 10 hour stay would be filled with entertainment.
Hyper from our 1 Lei coffees from the Nescafe machine, we played card games to use up some of our time. Their were a couple people who opted to try and get some sleep and thankfully some of us had our air mattress hanging on the outside of our backpacks so they were a little more comfortable.
During our card game I was thirsty so I was about to have a drink when Anmari wraped her hands around my water bottle and squeezed it with all her might. As you might have guessed, a surge of water exploded into my mouth and before I knew it I was spewing it all over my lap and the floor. How kind of her to give me a bath in the middle of the train station..! For the rest of the night I had to walk around looking like I had an accident haha… it was totally worth it.
We were pretty hyped up for the rest of the night which led to Jeremiah`s crazy walk imitations, spining in the walkway and acting like idiots. Because we were so used to people staring at us by this point we didn`t think any thing of it when a couple of american looking people walked by. Then they walked by again, they took a closer look and then asked `”World Racers”? What a small world! So, we met some of L squad who were coming back from where we were about to go! It was really neat to talk with them. They are on their last month and told us a bit about where we are now staying.
The excitement didn’t end there. Next we had live entertainment from a few guys who were hanging around asking us for money yet they had a beer with them in their wheel chair. You figure that one out. Anyways, eventually they started doing all these crazy magic tricks, laughing and having a great time, so were we.
Our 8 1/2 hour train ride to Targumesh was beautiful! I’m thankful that even though it meant losing a night of sleep and having to ride on a hot train all day, that it was light enough to see the scenery. I tried to get some sleep when we first boarded but it was so hot and we weren’t in a sleeper train so it was very interupted. I eventually opted to enjoy the view and stick my head out the window to catch some kind of breeze. Clusters of slanted rooves colored the lush green mountainside in the middle of no where, creating an intruiging feast for the eyes of on lookers.
We got off the train to get on another one that was older and looked like it was ready to fall apart at any moment. We rode that one for about an hour and a half and then hung around at the train station for another hour or so waiting for the pastor to pick us up. A dinner of “cheese burgers” which were more like thin deepfried chicken patties with thinly sliced lettuce and the typical sauces, filled our growling tummies. Quite satisifying.
Pastor Zee arrived at the station with a big van with a trailer in tow for all our stuff, and within half an hour and a quick stop at the grocery store we finally arrived. The pastor’s wife and their friend had a traditional hungarian meal prepared for us to eat after we got settled. It was some sort of vegetable soup to start off with and cabbage rolls to follow. Mmm! After dinner with thankful hearts we quickly jumped into the shower to clean off the past few days of grime and sweat.
