Train trip back to Gura Humorului

The price of trains is interesting. I have been back and forth from Bucuresti to Suceava several times now. I return from breakfast in the park to find Vergil ready to go. Today is the first time I have bought my own ticket because he has too many of us to shuttle back and forth. I managed to procure exactly what I was looking for this time. I receive two tickets – one from Bucuresti to Suceava and the other one from Suceava to Gura Humorului. The odd thing is that the price is the same as I have been paying for the shorter trip. I am not sure how this works, but I am not going to worry about it either. I have an hour and a half wait at the Suceava train station but that is infinitely better than toddling off to the hitching corner with my overnight bag and trying to fight to get my overnight bag and me into a car. I will save that experience for another day.

Apparently, I was sleeping when the conductor came along to punch my ticket. I was sitting up in the seat and so I am quite sure that my mouth was probably wide open. I tend to sleep like that if I am upright. That must have been really attractive. I just hope I wasn't snoring. It seems someone tapped me on the knee to wake me. I found my ticket and handed it over to be punched. OK, embarrassment number one for this trip.

Ploesti - We are stopped here for quite a while. Suddenly there are some inexplicable noises coming from underneath our car. It sounds like they are opening the cargo holds on an airplane to unload the luggage. I finally figured out that they are dropping off and adding cars to our train and it takes a bit of time to do that.

There are four tracks and we are on the one closest to the station. I am sitting by the window and so I see the train traffic as they pull in, pull out, and wait. A freight train pulls in on the far track. Interestingly, it stops. I wonder if they plan to unload it right here at the station. I really would not be surprised. It is a grain hopper, albeit a small one by our standards. Actually, it reminds me of the ones from the 50s that used to run through our town. It would take two of them to be even the length of those on our trains. It stood there for three or four minutes as if even the freight had to check in with the station master.

I have finally figured out how the trains work here. The cars have signs on the sides near the doors with an origin and destination on them. When you buy your ticket to ride the train, it has a wagon number which is the car number and a seat number. That system is computerized and now I see how it all goes together. Very efficient. I now understand why it matters which car you get on. It is not so much the seat as it is the car that matters. Most of this train is going to Boto San and two cars are going to Suceava and the two sets will part ways at some point during this trip.

Interesting mother and daughter car companions. Mother has just retired from being a Romanian language teacher. She is seriously considering moving to Italy to teach Romanian to children of Romanians who are working there. The daughter will complete her education in December to be a doctor. Her dream is to move to London to be a doctor. This is why they will both leave.

The first train I took was a really nice, clean train. Since then, every single one has been filthy. I am going to have to figure out what I am doing wrong.

Sunshine on the train. I have been on this train since 11 o'clock this morning. I have had the sun in my eyes for the entire day. I am hot because it is a beautiful day. I don't have a sundress with me because they told us to bring warm clothes for our trip, which I did. Most of us were complaining that we had only cold weather clothes for 70 degree days. Now again, I wish I had something that wasn't so warm to wear. I have a rain clothes, snow clothes, and two sweaters I never took out of the suitcase. I have a hat in case it snowed on us and gloves to keep my hands warm. We took the Olt River valley route because it was too treacherous to take the Transfaguras Highway. It was never, ever, ever even close to that kind of weather.

I am sitting on the east side of the train. The sun is only just getting out of my eyes at 2:30 in the afternoon. About the time I get off this train it will be back in my eyes as t sets from the other side of the train.

We have arrived at a roundhouse and so we must be in a larger town. There is a town that I heard about this weekend that has a tiny Old Town. It seems that buses continue to drive into it even though there is nowhere to turn around. They have a very difficult time backing out and huge traffic jams are caused by the whole situation. The town fathers had a light bulb moment and built a roundhouse type contraption for the buses. Now they can drive right into the center of town, drop off the lazy tourists such as myself, gets turned around and head back out, without causing any undue hardship on any one.

Viresti – Another station where we stop to add or drop cars. It takes time. We get a rocky start, go about ten feet and stop. I can hear the train trying to go, but nothing is happening. Now the station master and his partners are headed to the train. They go under a car a few cars back. One of them holds his little red flag high. It seems like something is wrong this time. They have been under there for some time. A few of the passengers get off to smoke cigarettes. They loiter near the train, watching the station master for signs that the train will go forward. Several passengers make a dash for the station. Two of them are back very soon with their purchases. The last ones take their time, but they suddenly start running back. I guess the station master has called them. I hear the engine revving up again. There goes the whistle and we are off again.

I did have an interesting proposition on this train. There had been five people in our compartment, but they left one by one. Finally, there was only the old man across from me who was rather inebriated. He had a bottle of orange soda but I suspect it wasn't soda. After the last lady left him alone in the compartment with me, he started babbling about a bride. Finally, I realized that he wanted me to go with him to his "beautiful house" and be his bride. I think not!