After a 5 hour bus ride to Johannesburg, short 9.5 hour flight to Istanbul, and a quick 2 hour flight, we arrived in Romania! Because it was Sunday, or contacts could not pick us up at the airport, so we found a bus that took us to a train station 45 minutes away. We had heard that there was a lot of snow and freezing conditions in Romania, but what we did not know, is that 47 of the countries major highways were closed and 145 trains had stopped running. Without any issue, we purchased tickets to take us to Draganesti (pronounced Dragon-esth) where we would be staying for the month. We sat in the train station for an hour waiting for our train to arrive. It was some kind of crazy cold! I got my sleeping bag out and wrapped myself in it and tried to take a mini nap at the train station. When it arrived, we all put on our packs and attempted to board. Oh my goodness, have you ever tried to get 13 people wearing a pack on their backs and carrying a daypack onto a train? we’ve done it so many times now, that you would think it would be easy. Instead it’s just something that we dread just a little bit. There is no easy way to accomplish this task. It usually involves a lot of running, pushing, shoving, and knowing us we are usually are in the wrong car and have to make our way awkwardly to where we are supposed to be sitting. It was a struggle to stay awake on the train after being up all night. We had one interesting thing on our minds. The train only stops for 60 seconds to let you off. I’m not even sure 60 seconds is enough time for one person with a pack and a daypack and a pillow (me) to jump off of a train, let alone 13. We staggered ourselves to 4 different doors and hoped for the best. When we pulled up, there was no platform, just a two foot jump down to 4 feet of snow. Jump!? Did I say jump? I meant fall…gracefully of course. We had all heard the story about our squad leader in Romania when he was on his first World Race. He got left behind on the train. Thank goodness for stories like that to help us prepare. A couple of people fell flat on their backs, but we all made it off of the train and were welcomed be our Romanian contacts. They were so friendly and amazing, it made the whole experience totally worth it.
They drove us a short distance to the mission house where we would be staying. I can’t say the temperature inside felt much different from outside. It seems the heating systems aren’t used to this type of cold either. We were given a brief tour with the promises of a more in-depth tour the next day. We were told to use the back door to come and go, and to keep the front door locked because we were living in a gypsy neighborhood. We were also told that there were two women living upstairs. Our contacts had purchased the fixings for sandwiches and when the contacts left, we settled in for dinner. During our meal, there was a knock at the front door, then a knock on the window. One of the guys got up and used the key to unlock the front door to see who was there. A woman who looked to be in her late twenties walked right in. My initial though from how confident she was in walking into the house was that she must be one of the women who lived there. That thought very soon changed when she looked at me, rubbed her belly with one hand and said “bambino.” Then held out her hand to me. I turned to the teammate who let her in and said “she is not the roommate, she just told me she has a baby and she wants money or food.” The rest of the group was gathered around the dinner table and most of them seemed stunned. We handed her one yogurt and she proceeded to grab five of them. I tried to grab them away from her before she got the last one, but she was quite fast. Then she took a loaf of bread, but still wanted more. She started to try to walk deeper into the house, but one of the girls stopped her by standing up and bumping into her. Another girl handed her a bag to put all of the things she had just taken from us into, and we ushered her out the door. The whole incident must have lasted less than 2 minutes, but we were all in a state of disbelief. Did we really let a gypsy woman into our house within 30 minutes of arriving?! Yes. Yes we did. This is going to be one exciting month! Stay tuned…
After a 5 hour bus ride to Johannesburg, short 9.5 hour flight to Istanbul, and a quick 2 hour flight, we arrived in Romania! Because it was Sunday, or contacts could not pick us up at the airport, so we found a bus that took us to a train station 45 minutes away. We had heard that there was a lot of snow and freezing conditions in Romania, but what we did not know, is that 47 of the country's major highways were closed and 145 trains had stopped running. Without any issue, we purchased tickets to take us to Draganesti (pronounced Dragon-esth) where we would be staying for the month. We sat in the train station for an hour waiting for our train to arrive. It was some kind of crazy cold! I got my sleeping bag out and wrapped myself in it and tried to take a mini nap at the train station. When it arrived, we all put on our packs and attempted to board. Oh my goodness, have you ever tried to get 13 people wearing a pack on their backs and carrying a daypack onto a train? we’ve done it so many times now, that you would think it would be easy. Instead it’s just something that we dread just a little bit. There is no easy way to accomplish this task. It usually involves a lot of running, pushing, shoving, and knowing us we are usually are in the wrong car and have to make our way awkwardly to where we are supposed to be sitting. It was a struggle to stay awake on the train after being up all night. We had one interesting thing on our minds: the train only stops for 60 seconds to let you off. I’m not even sure 60 seconds is enough time for one person with a pack and a daypack and a pillow (me) to jump off of a train, let alone 13. We staggered ourselves to 4 different doors and hoped for the best. When we pulled up, there was no platform, just a two foot jump down to 4 feet of snow. Jump!? Did I say jump? I meant fall…gracefully of course. We had all heard the story about our squad leader in Romania when he was on his first World Race. He got left behind on the train. Thank goodness for stories like that to help us prepare. A couple of people fell flat on their backs, but we all made it off of the train and were welcomed be our Romanian contacts. They were so friendly and amazing, it made the whole experience totally worth it.
They drove us a short distance to the mission house where we would be staying. I can’t say the temperature inside felt much different from outside. It seems the heating systems aren’t used to this type of cold either. We were given a brief tour with the promise of a more in-depth tour the next day. We were told to use the back door to come and go, and to keep the front door locked because we were living in a gypsy neighborhood. We were also told that there were two women living upstairs. Our contacts had purchased the fixings for sandwiches and when the contacts left, we settled in for dinner.
During our meal, there was a knock at the front door, then a knock on the window. One of the guys got up and used the key to unlock the front door to see who was there. A woman who looked to be in her late twenties walked right in. My initial though from how confident she was in walking into the house was that she must be one of the women who lived there. That thought very soon changed when she looked at me, rubbed her belly with one hand and said “bambino.” Then held out her hand to me. I turned to the teammate who let her in and said “she is not the roommate, she just told me she has a baby and she wants money or food.” The rest of the group was gathered around the dinner table and most of them seemed stunned. We handed her one yogurt and she proceeded to grab five of them. I tried to grab them away from her before she got the last one, but she was quite fast. Then she took a loaf of bread, but still wanted more. She started to try to walk deeper into the house, but one of the girls stopped her by standing up and bumping into her. Another girl handed her a bag to put all of the things she had just taken from us into, and we ushered her out the door. The whole incident must have lasted less than 2 minutes, but we were all in a state of disbelief. Did we really let a gypsy woman into our house within 30 minutes of arriving?! Yes. Yes we did. This is going to be one exciting month! Stay tuned…
