Team 14 Feet left Serbia on August 16th and on August 18th, 1 bus and 3 trains later, we arrived in Draganesti, Romania. Our route went from:
Uzice, Serbia to Belgrade, Serbia by bus
Belgrade to Timisoara, Romania (on the western border of Romania)
Timisoara to Caracal
Caracal to Draganesti (pronounced Draganesht)
Once arriving in Timisoara at 9pm, we were in search of a hostel for the night. A woman at the train ticket counter said that there were no hostels near, only hotels…okay. Then, a girl from Australia, Leonie is her name, approached me and said she was on her way to a hostel and that we could go together. Great! Leonie is backpacking across the world, visiting friends and just living life. After deciding to take 2 cabs with all our luggage instead of the tram (in which ticket sales seemed to be closed anyway) we rounded up 2 cabs in front of the train station. We bargained a price of 15 lei ($5) per cab and shoved all our packs in the trunk and on our laps. On our way to the hostel neither cab driver seemed sure of where they were going. After the cab drivers swerve all over the roads, we pull down a dark, narrow street and the cabs come to a quick stop in the middle of the street.
As the drivers get out of the cab we look at each other and think, “where in the world are we?” I guess we will get out and see. No hostel seemed visible. However, Leonie begins taking care of the cab payment when an argument breaks out. Leonie gave one driver 50 lei, expecting 20 lei back. Somehow the driver didn’t think she needed change and no one could convince him, in our babbling between Romanian and English, that we needed change back. I proceeded to then walk up to a building on the corner, in which I could see people from the window, to see if they knew of any hostel in the area before the cab drivers drop us off in the middle of trouble. A window was open so I asked the woman inside if she knew of this particular hostel. As I was in the process of getting more information from her, I heard one of the cabs screech backwards. As I look over I see him cluelessly running over my big pack and continuing with it stuck behind his cab. Erin and I start yelling at him and I run from this window back to the street…to my precious pack. When he realizes that he is running over my pack he puts the cab in drive and skids out of there along with the other cab driver. I pick up my now black pack and say its okay, it’s fine and proceed to the hostel, which Leonie found right beside us.
The whole story unfolded shortly after where I found out that Michael was asking the driver questions to get information about him and was writing it down. He was ticked about getting ripped off. The driver noticed Michael writing info down and got ticked himself. He pushed Michael out of the doorway of the cab and since people were standing in front of the cab he didn’t go forward (thank God!) but went in reverse. However, our packs were not all removed from behind his cab after being taken from the trunk and that’s something he either didn’t realize or thought was the least of the two evils (hit a human versus hit a pack). As the cab was driving away Erin was snapping pictures of his license plate. Later we found that it was a fake plate…go figures.
The rest of the night went much smoother. The hostel was beautiful and so homey. The place was secure and the owners were great people. And we made it to Draganesti with no other problems…no missed trains this time 🙂
