New year, new places, new adventures (Part 2)

So safe in Suceava. We slept the whole morning as part of our well-desevered recovery program. Actually, I felt like on an Italian beach there. It was so warm! Granted, only warm in comparison with Iasi or Chisinau, but nevermind, I was happy.

In the noon we started discovering the city center. In a certain way Suceava had similarities with Bucharest: Most parts and spots of the city aren’t very pretty, but there were some nice places. Needless to say that we visited them. A lot of churches were on our to-do-list.

Definitely a highlight became our visit of a monastery almost located in the city center. Covered with snow it was undeniably marvelous. Especially I liked the paintings and the big yard surrounding the monastery.

During this travel I developed a strong appreciation for the orthodox churches. They are not as swanky and excessive designed with a lot of gold like the Catholic churches. Furthermore, I love the paintings inside and outside of the churches on the walls. They are very beautiful and makes the church more interesting, meanwhile the appearance is still staying modest.

After that we entered a restaurant to eat some stuff. It was supposed to be a short snacking session, but because of the Romanian working speed it ended up like a visit of a four hour theatre play. So we had to go meanwhile it was getting darker and darker outside… With all our good luck during this trip we had to climb, then a lot of stairs, very slippery ones by the way. Fun for the whole family.

We discovered the biggest Stefan cel mare monument ever seen on earth. There’s a true love story between Romania and this guy. Even in churches we found big paintings of him (bigger than Jesus, of course), needless to say that he’s a saint. Behind that massive statue we explored a path passing a graveyard and leading to a nice castle. Unfortunately, we came too late to enter, but not too late to take some photos. Finally, we decided to come back to our hostel which was a little bit tricky to find, so we ended up standing in the cold and darkness and searching for the right way. After a couple of hours we managed 😉 This evening we had very nice talks with our Romanian hostel owner. Moreover, we enjoyed the company of two bottles of wine and a Canadian tourist. She wanted to convince us to join her on her monastery tour costing 30 Euros per head. We didn’t have to say anything, but she went down and down with the price. In the end she offered us to pay only 1o Euros and to pay the rest out of her pocket. Awesome. Unfortunately the next day we faced a quite uncooperative guide who wanted more money than we were willing to pay.

So we did a tour on our own. We took a train, walked 5km through the cold to one of the most famous monasteries there. It was nice to see, especially because of its paintings on the walls. Besides this monastery there was no special building in the yard, a bit disappointing.

However, we very luck in the circumstances, because we visited the monastery on the 6th of January, so they celebrated it on the yard through a service. Thereby a lot of people filled the square. Of course we didn’t understand anything, but we saw an orthodox service.

After 5km back to the town we picked up a car there to drive to another monastery (for 5Lei per person). This monastery was nicer than the one before. The yard was bigger, moreover, there was one amazing tower Ania and me entered. It became one of the most adventurous moments of my life. In this medieval tower there were stairs, I never saw in my life before. Basically, these stairs shared more similarities with a wall than with stairs, because it was very steep. Moreover, to complete our bad luck, very slippery. I was so proud to survive and enjoyed so the panorama view at the top of the tower even more.

The best is mentioned last, but not least: We didn’t pay any entrance to this monastery 🙂 After finishing our monastery visit, we faced the follwing challenge: To come back to the town (to catch our train). Half an hour walking passed and our muscles became tired as we decided to hitchhike our way back. The third car stopped, picked us up, problem solved.

In the evening we took our train to Cluj. Never thought that 275km could be so long. 6,5h we survived in one of the worst CFR trains on earth.

Overall, we spent two whole days in Cluj. From my point of view, this city isn’t incredibly beautiful, nor are there impressive buildings to see, yet I’m convinced that’s very cool to live there (just like in Bucharest). During our first day we managed to find the main square (inevitably named “Piata Unirii). Besides that we had a walk (other sources claimed “we climbed the Mount Everest”) on the citadel’s hill. At the top of the hill we had a very good view above the city. Unfortunately, there were not plenty of spectacular things to see.

Later we continued our city trip, which included (again) a lot of churches. We finished at Piata Stefan cel Mare. A propos Stefan cel Mare: This dude is omnipresent in Romania, especially in Moldova (region & country). In Bucharest I was annoyed because of all the “Mihai Eminescu” streets, yet Stefan cel mare is another category. There is no second in your life without facing Stefan cel mare somewhere. A typical town trip during looked like this: We arrived at the train station “Stefan cel mare”, then crossed the “Bulevardul Stefan cel mare” and walked straight ahead.The first street we turned left into the “Strada Stefan cel mare” until we came to one of the plenty “Piata Stefan cel mare” where had lunch in the restaurant “Stefan cel mare”. Of course, as a curious person, I googled this guy and yeah, it looked like he did an awesome job as the former king of Moldova. He defended the country against almost every occupator: Polishs, Ottomans and so on. As we learnt from our hostel owner in Chisinau: “If you ask me, he was the best, best, best king ever! <3”. Meanwhile, she said that you could really the love in her eyes.

Ok, back to the serious stuff. We were lucky, Ivan, who we met during our on-arrival-training hosted us in his place. With him and a lot of other volunteers (almost German ones) we went to a place which was – depending on whom you asked, boys or girls – a Shisha bar or a tea house. Afterwards we started a party at one of the volunteers places.

Surprise, surprise, the next morning people were quite tired, dehydrated and had some headaches. As, of course single person without hangover I visited the city center a bit further on my own. That trip should be worthwhile. I explored some more medieval parts of the city and an impressive and even more slippery graveyard (after my visit of Sighisoara it became kind of a tradition).

In the evening then, Ania, Mallaury and followed a recommendation and visited the Ursus factory where I had one liter of Ursus black. Without words, only paradise or “Kölsch” could bet this experience. Moreover, we discovered during our walk in the evening some nice stuff in Cluj, so we have now plenty of reasons to come back.

Basically, our trip ended like it started: With an interesting travel experience. Our blablacar truck driver let Ania and me sit behind the seats. It was quite nice to travel as luggage, however, I could lay down and sleep in order to recover from this exhausting trip.

During this travel I had the sensation that I seriously arrived, after three months. Although we had to cope with a lot of difficulties, I enjoyed it a lot or to be more precise: I liked it somehow that travelling is so exciting here. Needless to utter that I’m still not a professional in the cities’/regions’/countries’ history. I didn’t focus too much on knowing plenty of things in these manners which I regret. Nevertheless, it was more about myself and enjoying the process of travelling with people I love (Ania and Mallaury! <3), meeting volunteers and new people and just experiencing. That’s the spirit of EVS 😉

New year, new places, new adventures

Random, exciting, exhausting, fun, Romanian, you can choose out of a lot of adjectives to describe our one week trip in the beginning of January. What shall I write down? What sticks is rather the  general experience than certain places or happenings.

My travel experiences I gained depend highly on our choice of transport devices, people we met and – even more important – the attitude (during) this trip.

As I noticed during my short trip to Transylvania, travelling in Romania is a real adventure and the process itself is often even more interesting than the destination which is weird because normally it’s different. Especially the start of our trip looked promising. We wanted to travel to Iași , because a bunch of people recommended this place. Unfortunately, there were no seats for in the bus to Iasi, so we ended up on the bus’ stairs. For four hours. Actually, it was very funny and surprisingly cozy. This place offered me a lot of possibilities seats never offer. I could lay down in the bus’ corridor and sleep.

At latest in 2016 I got rid of my German attitude. I don’t plan a lot, I let things happen and don’t worry anymore about all the surprises Romania offers its inhabitants and travelers. As part of this new attitude Henri developed a before then unknown kind of spontaneity. Henri noticed that during our stay in Iași as we spontaneousely decided to go further, to Moldova, Chișinău to be precise. Never thought before EVS that I’d end up there without being kidnapped.

“Go to Chisinau. It’s very cool there.”

With these words, our couchsurfing host Tudor suggested us a visit of Moldova. Should become awesome, but be patient, you’ll read more about it below. First let me write some lines about Iasi:

Before and after our trip I heard really interesting stuff about this city. Unfortunately, and almost inevitably by taking in consideration that we had in fact, only a couple of hours in the city, we saw nearly nothing. In the evening we had our first and last walk through to the city center (to 30% is consisted walking to the bus station to ask for tickets to Chișinău ). We saw the palace, which was rather nicer to see than to visit, because – by chance – it was under construction. Moreover, we discovered a mall in order to flee away from the cold and get some proper winter clothes.

As evening program, we spent the time at Tudor’s place. It was a very interesting and funny experience. He told me a lot about Romania and its culture. Moreover, I almost died in his bathroom (smart advice: Never enter a bathroom without light).

The next morning I hoped to escape the cold (by going to Moldova). Basically, I jumped from the frying pan into the fire, but a fucking cold one.  Moreover surprisingly for me was the fact that I could enter only by an ID card. I enjoyed my good luck during our bus trip to Chișinău , because my seat neighbor was a Moldovan guy, working in Romania for a German association. Therefore he spoke German. Contrary the German guy, living in Romania and going Moldova didn’t speak a proper Romanian. It was a perfect combination, because in the end, we were teaching other our languages (mostly he taught) and talked about carnival in Cologne and the current situation in Moldova for instance.

Even in hindsight, it’s hard for me to describe my time in Moldova and Chișinău . To (try to) put it in a nutshell, this country attracts me in a way I can’t really explain (omg it’s love!). Somehow it’s very similar to Romania. As I left the bus at the central autogara I felt like at Piata Sudului. In some regards it’s obvious that you’re in Moldova. The massive police presence, also because of some kind of protests or sit-in illustrates the domestic tensions and division. Although it’s not everywhere, so obvious, you notice in the city’s face the Soviet past. Overall because of the experience I can definetly recommend a visit of Moldova. I’m still curious and plan to come back to this country oscillating between West and East. Hopefully I’ll manage to arrive with more time and a  life insurance good enough to explore the rural areas as well. 🙂

Sometimes you get the feeling that destiny isn’t on good terms with you. I got this feeling as we couldn’t take our bus back to Romania. By chance is was also the last bus of the day. It dorve us crazy and we were very desperate. We thought we had to face another night in Chișinău. Good luck for us, it was only the last bus until we asked at the information. Fortunately, they had space for us to come back to Iasi. Unfortunately, in different buses. So I took the first one alone. Alone in the bus where I noticed every little hole in the streets. My beloved body received a proper shake. For hours.  Not enough of the good luck in the middle of the outback my bus stopped. A very strange situation occourred: We had to change buses. Even the Moldovans and Romanians wore questionsmarks on their faces. As I saw then the Moldovan landscape passing by occupied by my thoughts and questions with no answer.

What are you doing here? How did you end up here, in Moldova!? What the fuck…

Contrary to my travel to Moldova, was way back not so talkintensive which was a pity. Finally, I discovered why my neighbor acted like a silent monk: He supposed that I’m Russian. Inevitably, he didn’t like them. As I said then that I’m a kind of German he became more open and we talked a lot. Moreover – and a welcome trait of Romanians – he was very helpful and helped me to organize our further travel to Suceava. Arrived then in Iași , I had an awesome meal in a very nice American fast-food restaurant meanwhile waiting for the girls. Despite all problems and difficulties we managed to meet alive, so we were able to travel further to Suceava where we arrived at half past midnight. #survivorsoftheday 🙂

These were only three days of our amazing travels… Still curious how it went on? Read more about Suceava, incredible walking tours to monasteries, why I like orthodox churches more than other christian and our visit of Cluj… Worth a visit, worth to read my next post 😉

Tales of people and cats (of Istanbul)

Before coming to Turkey I had very diverse experience with the people of this country. I had a chance to meet a lot of them, in different circumstances and with different conclusions. I didn’t really know what to expect from our first trip abroad during this EVS, although my intuition was telling me to be rather optimistic about it.  And I was totally right!

Already in the bus we got to know what does it mean to be well cared of. Ok, maybe our memories from the bus aren’t the best ever, however we cannot complain about how all the people were preocupied by our well-being. The drivers didn’t speak English at all, but they did their best to communicate with us as muchas they could, checked if we are able to get our tickets, pass the border control, and find our way to make first steps in Istanbul.

Then it was only better. Our first day we wouldn’t survive without helpfulness of the people we met around. Although, before meeting anyone, we met the other habitants of this crazily big city – animals. They are a valid part of your experiance there, and their behaviour says a lot about the people’s attitude. So it started around 6 am with the dogs from a park nearby Hagia Sophia. They were a lot, and they followed us everywhere for around 2 hours. One of them tried to eat my scarf, but who cares – I can forgive that, given that they were so happy and well fed 😉 The dogs are everywhere and they are incredibly friendly – they mainly sleep in the parks and on the squares, without bothering anybody. But for me the biggest surprise were the CATS. Everybody who knows me knows also my affection for those little fluffy creatures. I suffer so much everytime street cats of Bucharest are running away from me, because they are simply afraid of people. Well, let’s say Istanbul is a different story. I was just running from one cat to another, stroking their fur with the ethernal happiness on my face :D. Cats were sitting among the tourists on the main square in the Old Town, running freely through the streets in the further parts of the city and hunting sneakily after each other by nights. I miss it already.

Make a guess…

Ok, but the cats behave this way because of the people and their general friendliness. I should definitely start of our precious host and his friends. Let’s say I could predict more or less how it will be, as we knew each other with Kaan earlier, although we couldn’t expect more hospitality than we got. We spent 3 joyfull evenings full of talking, fun and beer. The one that was particulary cool included traditional raki drinking and meze eating in the district of Kadikoy. OMG, that was something. Of course it was followed by the “afterparty” in a nice place nearby, my memories are only more or less clear, but well – I must say this part of Turkish culture convinced me the most it’s a nice place for me to live in for some time 😀 Except for that, I must admit, that probably without Kaan and the rest we would never find our way in this labirynth, we wouldn’t enjoy the seaside view in the freezy sunday afternoon, we wouldn’t get to the best pub in the town and – most importantly – I wouldn’t find anything to eat that would be suitable for me. We wouldn’t know those few words in Turkish we know now (ok, it’s not a lot, but we did our best). We couldn’t neither just lay down until 1 pm when it was needed and enjoy everything slowly. I could continue for hours, but I suppose you got the point 😉

Street seller – rambo style. making the best juice ever (at least for that moment).

However I would also point out the other people we met on our way. From the first day I remembered the most the guys from a teahouse we stepped in in the middle of the day, trying to teach us how to say thank you in turkish proper way. His version was more or less “tea, sugar and ash”. Later we’ve heard also the other options, although none of them was really helpful. Anyway, they tried, so it’s nice 😉 .The second they we met whole variety of people working on the bazaars. Most of them were only annoying and from my point of view – rather  discouraging to make any shopping. Anyway, there were 2 people who made my day. Forst of them was selling a pommegranade juice. I don’t reaow what was more convincing – his energy or my eternal love for pommegranades ;). Whatever it was, buing the juice was a nice idea, as it was super tasty. The second one was Omar, the love tea seller. Ok, it’s not THAT easy to catch my attention for more than 5 minutes, but this one managed to do this. If you would asow the perfect clerk should look like I would show you Omar. The result of more or less 20 minutes talking was few liras less in my wallet and one number more in my cell phone. I still kinda regret I didn’t make use of it at the time. Finally, the third day the most funny moment was going back to the bar we drunk too much the night before. It was a walk of shame, as Henri left there his camera, and I took one beer glass with me as a souvenir (yes, I’m confessing my sins in public – but I always dreamt about original Efes beer glass and I make a good use of it now). Anyway the bartener seemed to be really happy seeing us alive and with no bruises. We also have some small talks with the other guests, most of them having pretty impressive stories to tell about (well, if you spontaneously decide to stay in Turkey for living you have to be at least a bit crazy).

So basically for me the most important part of the trip was about people (or animals) behaviour and attitude. Although the city itself was really impressive and made me curious enough to discover Turkish culture more, it was the people who made it complete. I seriously admire Turkish hospitality, talkativeness and energy. It’s one of the best places I’ve been so far for being a guest – of people and cats 😉

German boy almost at home in Transylvania

My trip promised to be an experience in a different way. After almost three months living together with five (awesome) other people in one flat I went alone on a trip to Transylvania. Furthermore, I left the noisy and lively capital Bucharest and went to some comparatively smaller cities. Basically, my trip was quite spontaneously and bad-planned from the perspective of a German boy 🙂 Two days before starting I wasn’t even sure where to sleep. Even during my trip I hadn’t any fixed plans how to switch between the towns, although I had done some researches to be not completely lost. 😉

However, I didn’t completely lose my German genes. If you want to organize everything as efficient as possible you have to make uncomfortable deals. In order to have an appropriate time in Sibiu I decided to catch a blablacar at 8:30am. Far too early for normal humans. Consequently, I had to wake up at quarter past six (!!!). In hindsight, my behavior was very stupid and cute because the car had a delay. Welcome to Romania! As I wrote in my post about Constanta the landscape behind Bucharest is a wide plain. This time I was prepared, but still surprised how harsh the change is. Almost immediately after the city border, there is nothing.

After almost three months I’m unfortunately still not able to communicate in Romanian in a proper way. But my listening skills improved a bit. Therefore, I was very proud to understand what the other passengers were speaking about. Bad luck for me that they exchanged their thoughts about food, so I became very hungry 😦 Sometimes it’s better to know nothing. Nevertheless, I can survive with my Romanian. It’s still very shitty, but I managed to survive this trip with my skills.

Finally arrived in Sibiu I did what every tourist does: Searching the tourist information to gain a map. Almost useless because everything was very close. I spent the afternoon with walking around the city’s beautiful and calm medieval streets and narrow roads. Contrasted to Bucharest it was like a monastery of silence. I became very relaxed there, I calm down. As “highlight” I climbed the council tower and how a great overview about the city.

After some tea (against the cold) I also checked out the Christmas market. Somehow it felt like a deja-vu: Food everywhere! Besides that the market wasn’t that spectacular. I spent my time to explore Sibiu’s German origins by visiting a bookstore. I felt just like at home! Almost every book was written in German. After three minutes I fled away, too much German for one day 🙂 I noticed a lot of German influences there. Of course I read the language quite often. Moreover the buildings and churches for instances are different from other parts in Romania. In Transylvania you find catholic and evangelic churches, not only orthodox ones. In the evening I met my couchsurfing host, she was very nice and helpful. We spent the evening in her place with talking (and eating).

The next morning I discovered Sibiu’s market. Moreover, it was the annual day of the revolution. So I also saw old veterans singing revolutionary songs swinging the revolution’s flag. But for a proper memorial of such an event it was a too small group. Just twenty people came to the main square.

Often people describe their personal down occurs during noon. I can confirm that, my personal down came in person of one of CFR’s regio expresses. Next time I’ll walk. This train was very cheap. That’s the only nice thing to say. So this train with an estimated speed of 10km/h stopped at every little and unimportant village. By the way, a village a la CFR definition is one house. As a quite moderate and tolerant person I also survived this experience without significant long-term damages. To see it in a positive way, I had time for a proper meal. My breakfast, lunch and dinner during my travel was the same: Cheap Romanian (not German…) bread, fresh cheese or some dip and to gather some vitamins also clementines.

So I arrived in Sighișoara in the afternoon. From there I planned to hitchhike until Cristuru, a village/town/city where the amazing yellow house volunteers are located, 25km away from Sighișoara . Basically, it was my first hitchhiking experience and I was quite excited. Well, it became a very interesting experience. At first I tried to find some appropriate hitchhiking place, so I had to walk a lot along the main road. Then I tried to hitchhike. For a weak and untrained person like me it was exhausting to raise the arm again and again. That was the point when I decided to join the gym. I spent the time by smiling and insulting the non-stopping drivers. Fun for sure, but in the cold and alone without any company it wasn’t that cool after some point. “You win or you learn” we say in our project. For instance, I learned that it’s better not to hitchhike at a bus station (Captain Obvious: The bus stops). Finally I hitchhiked and took buses until a crossroad from that I again hitchhiked. In the end I arrived safe and more or less fast in the yellow house. It was very relaxed there. We spent the evening with having a fire in their garden, barbecue and playing games.

It was very interesting for me to experience the different influences and minorities in Romania. In Cristuru they speak Hungarian, next town they speak Romanian and then in Sighișoara you find a lot of German. It’s kind of surprise box what you’ll hear.

On Tuesday morning I hitchhiked with Victor, a Hungarian volunteer to Sighișoara (hitchhiking with tin good company is definitely better). We asked for our buses/trains for the next day and had a walk across parts of the city. In the afternoon he left to Cristuru and I switched into a tourist-mode. My camera and I discovered the city. Sighișoara is supposed to be a marvelous city. Well, for me it was a little disappointment. The medieval core is nice, but not more. It’s beautiful for sure, but a kind of boring because of the lack of interesting or extravagant buildings and stuff.

However, Sighișoara is definitely worth a visit, but only for afternoon and not for a day as I had it. Consequently I became utterly bored and therefore I felt also lonely. Moreover because it’s a little city without any nightlife, but with empty hostels. So no people to meet. A deep feeling of melancholy flew through my veins, alone in this city, almost alone during christmas and my birthday. Finally I figured out a clue how to contain the boredom. Taking selfies!!! After this exhausting activity I became thirsty and decided to grant myself cheap Romanian beer.

Actually, I regained my explorer spirit and I decided to find another route back to my hostel. In the middle of the night I ended up in a medieval graveyard, only with my smartphone flashlight, snickers, beer and the Beatles’ song “Help!” in my ears. After some time and a bunch of blasphemous bad words I found a way out. Did I write that  Sighișoara is boring?

The next day I woke up in a very happy mood and I decided to sacrifice my precious time by visiting the famous clock tower and its included history museum. Basically, I learned nothing about Sighișoara history (but now I know the difference between a Roman and Dacian amphora: There is no difference), but the view from the top of the clock tower was pretty awesome.

For cheap 22 Lei I took an autobus to Brașov . Without any space to move my body I arrived two and a half hour later in Brașov . As long as you’re not in the center it’s not that nice, but the old town, the core is the complete opposite, very cool. It’s not as marvelous as Sibiu, but beautiful in another way. I felt very comfortable there, somehow I had the sensation that’s the better Bucharest. Nicer, calmer, more medieval, but with (night) life to contrast it with other not-cities like Sighișoara . I visited the old castle on the hill where I had a very good view on the city. Moreover, I visited parts of the preserved medieval wall, such as the white and black tower. I also enjoyed walking through the city centre’s streets. Finally, I had also tea. My night program changed from a planned pub tour to a nightly geocaching tour. I hit two birds with one stone, I had stuff to do and could discover the city further. Necessarily I ended up in the pub afterwards to warm myself up 🙂

On Christmas, the final day of my trip, I attended a free city tour offered by the same NGO as our city tour in Bucharest. As a welcome contrast to Sibiu and Sighișoara I learned a lot about the city’s history stamped (again) a lot by the Germans. Moreover, I increased my knowledge about Dracula my hearing about his love life. After the longest tour they held (almost three hours) I left to catch my train. Finally, I also saw some snow on our way through the mountains.So Somehow I had “white Christmas”.

I enjoyed my trip a lot. Finally some time for my own, although I sometimes missed company. I could see medieval German towns we don’t have even in Germany. It was definitely worth an experience. I can’t wait to discover Transylvania further, with more time to discover the smaller towns and more hidden places as well.

Buses and borders. Amazing tales by survivors

There are plenty of very easy ways to travel from Bucharest to Istanbul. A plane for instance. It’s fast and uncomplicated. Unfortunately we are poor volunteers who can barely survive with their money. It must have been inevitable to take the cheapest connection. We reserved tickets for a trustworthy-seeming  bus company. It was a quite good deal: 160 Lei to Istanbul and the way back was (whyever) for free.

Actually, our trip didn’t start that bad. Apart from that we had a) difficulties to find the bus station, b) the bus at the bus station and c) and that we left with half an hour delay  ̶  Romanian style of travelling. From my point of view it was impressive to see how close Bucharest is located to the Bulgarian border, just an hour by bus. Inevitably Bucharest didn’t leave us go. That’s a nice way to describe the one hour traffic jam at the border. Incidentally I’d like to suggest the government to finish the construction area at the bridge, vă rog!

At least after passing the Romanian border  ̶  by the way without any controls  ̶  we realized in which kind of company we had to enjoy our travel. Everyone was smoking, of course including the drivers who were also a little bit drunk, I suppose. These wouldn’t have been a problem but then they turned the music on… Actually even now we’re unsure which kind of folk music amused/annoyed us the whole travel (not a long time, only approximately eight hours): Romanian or Turkish? Though choice.

In the middle of the night we arrived at the Bulgarian-Turkish border. Especially my beloved person was very curious. I mostly travelled in the Schengen area so I was not used to proper border controls. The Turkish border police controlled us in little steps. At first passport control (I felt like an outsider by being the only person who entered with ID card), then luggage and bus control. After about two hours we finished. Needless to say that the border controls are stricter after the Paris attacks. So from the view of Turkish policemen’s the three of us seemed a little bit out-of-place in a bus full of Turkish and Romanian people. Therefore they picked the possible Islamists out of the crowd and asked them questions a la Sherlock Holmes:

• “Where do you want to go?” To Istanbul, I recommend to read the sign on the bus
• “Why do you want to go there?” Tourism, not Islamism
• “Where will you stay?” By a friend
• “Is he Turkish?” Probably

Every one of you knows that there’s a little gap in every plan between theory and practice. In theory we planned to arrive at 3AM, to sleep some hours in a cheap hotel and then to start exploring the city. In practice we arrived at 5:30AM at the shitiest bus station on earth. We decided to walk immediately to the city centre and to skip the sleep.

Keep on reading, the best part of the story is coming 😉

As we booked our travel with the way back for free we were thinking that some problems could occur. It seemed too good to be true. By chance we were right. On Monday we went to our beloved bus station and showed our printed reservation. At first there was no problem. We got our tickets. The tricky point came up as they wanted us to pay. With an evil smile on the face we pointed out to have a look on the price (zero Lei). Immediately after this moment the whole clan (strange company) panicked. For us it was fun. They just wondered. Of course they were thinking we’d try to betray them (which they did to themselves by placing these strange offers). Because of the language barrier one guy called his sister who spoke a very good English. In the end the guy was screaming into his phone, then he gave it to me and I pointed out our point of view. After that I gave the phone back and the circle started again. At some point they agreed to let us in, then later they used the Columbo trick and said we should stay in Istanbul or pay. Exactly at this point one driver of these well-organized firm said “haide, haide” and wanted us to enter the bus. Without thinking to long about it we entered or let’s say ran into the bus, lucky to be there.

Actually I feared the Turkish border control. How much time would it take this time? Not even at this point I realized that I’m very privileged to be a citizen of the European Union, the Schengen area and Germany. Ania for instance needed visa to travel to Turkey. The situation and rules for Turkish people who want to enter EU is even worse as we heard during our stay. As we passed the Turkish control after a few minutes I was very optimistic to be soon at home. What a naivity. Entering the EU is horrible. Especially if you’re travelling with Romanians and you have to pass Bulgaria. By chance the Bulgarian border police controlled every centimeter of the Romanian buses. “Fuck you Bulgaria” was one of the most important terms this evening. However, in the beginning (first three to four hours) it was fun to see policemen controlling every car and bus very carefully. Parts of the time I stood outside and talked in a mixture of English and Romanian with another passenger. The most important words:

• “frig” (to freeze)
• “ieftin/scump” (cheap/expensive)
• Problem autobus
• Coruptia
• Faked adidas
• Mare problema (big problem, my new favorite phrase)
• “Profesionist alcoholic” (I named Romanian beer brands)

I was amused by all the stupid guys in the buses (interesting that only Romanian buses were controlled very intensively) in front of us trying to smuggle adidas or toilet paper into the EU. And I was pissed because we had to wait for hours. Actually it was fascinating. I suppose the Bulgarian border police is the only border police in the world who can (or let’s say pretend to) control anyone without staff. So now wonder why we had to wait for hours.

Only minutes before our control started I realized that also our bus was a “problem autobus”. The staff hide adidas everywhere in the bus in the professional bags. Also cigarette packages (who knows what’s inside) were everywhere. Of course they failed. If you smuggle, please do it in a smart way! We had to leave the bus (yeah! Frig for an hour in the cold), the police controlled the bus. At some point our drivers started to collect money to “accelerate” the process of intensive controls a bit (and to avoid a x-ray scan of the bus). Bad luck for them, the bus must go into a x-ray scan. Bad luck for us, we had to wait in the cold again. Furthermore the Bulgarian police (what else would you expect) didn’t work very kosher. They also “controlled” the rest of the company’s luggage, but only superficial. Maybe there’s a connection with the collected money… speculation of course.

From quarter to six to quarter past two. Eight and a half hour we enjoyed the EU’s border controls. Awesome. It was an experience I can only recommend (no joke). You’ll notice how privileged you are in the Schengen area. You’ll value it even more, especially in times as borders become slowly more closed. Also it was an experience to notice how corrupt (sorry, but I have no better explanation) things are working here sometimes. Moreover nobody really cares. The other passengers worried, but more on a level of resignation: Yes it’s a “mare problema”… The police doesn’t act consequent and collaborate perhaps somehow with the smugglers who just keep on.

Unfortunately our travel didn’t end after the Turkish-Bulgarian border. Instead of driving as fast as possbile home we spent about one hour at a gas station close to the boder to wait for more passengers. With my good luck I got a smoker next to me. At this point in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night I hadn’t any energy to become angry, I just wanted to arrive. Like in a desert where you have only one aim: Reaching the oasis. Finally we managed to go on. I was very afraid as we arrived in the early morning at the Romanian border. I seriously thought the whole thing would start again. Stupid me! I forgot to take the corruption in consideration. After controlling our passports in the bus the Romanian policeman went outside together with our bus drivers. I saw them giving the policeman cigarettes, probably we got also some notes. Thanks to the enormous corruption we hadn’t any problems there. Thanks a lot! Not even an hour after passing the border we arrived in Bucharest. We left the bus as fast as possible. What a travel… But we survived! With plenty of new experiences we went back home.

So what did we learn from this trip? Well, first of all we experienced travelling like local with all its related consequences. Moreover we learnt a lot about the Romanian mentality concerning their attitude to corruption. Besides that we all agreed to that we have very good luck to live in the European Union and in the Schengen area. Now we know even more how precious it is and how important to fight for that.

Istanbul’s bazars. A don’t miss

We had no idea where to go, so we just followed the crowd which lead us to the bazar.

The bazar was split into two different parts. The well-looking part and the more easy parts. This photo is taken at the beginning of the bazar.

Ania and the bazar are in the same shade. Try to find her 😉

Unfortunately I don’t eat a lot of fish in Bucharest. I realized this during my Istanbul trip. Fish was ominpresent.

That’s one of my favourite photos frim Istanbul. It really emphazises the amount and awesomeness of all that stuff we found at the bazar.

I don’t know how they manage to have these amounts of food and where they have their supplies. Sometimes it was too much of the good stuff.

I’m supposed to write some stuff about our bazar visist. Sometimes I think the others want to punish me. It’s so fucking hard to write about it without getting hungry. Let’s say it’s impossible.

Mallaury and me had enormous good luck to be with Ania at the bazar. Everyone was totally enthiuastic about her hair clour. So Omar too. After a few minutes of talking/flirtung we had two amazing cups of tea for free, discount on this “love night tea” (mine is still not opened, interested persons can contact me) and a phone number. A completely success.

We had a look on all the spices they sold at the bazar. We searched for the cheapest ones, like always. Finally we found some nice and cheap place. It was hard to stop ourselves to not spend all our money on spices.

Of course it was hard to watch all these delicous stuff, but there was also a positive side of the coin: Mostly they gave the people passing by some sample delights. So we just went from shop to shop and tried the different kinds of delights without paying. I can recommend that strategy! Afterwards you don’t have to waste your money on dinner.

For only one (or two) Lira you could buy at the bazar some sweets. It doesn’t look like a lot, but it’s totally satisfying. After that even I had enough (unbelievable but true).

After our first bazar we were so excited that we were also very eager to find the the famous grand bazar. We didn’t like it that much. Because of all its fame it was very touristic and therefore without the necassary flair.

This was one of the few places which didn’t sell a) delights, b) spices, c) tea, d) cheese, e) meat or d) everything of that together.

We just left the Grand Bazar and thought nothing could bet it. What a mistake.

Not only cats and foxes get Ania enthusiatic… I think it’s especially because of the flowers on the head.

Nobody knows why they stood there. But they are nice.

He was one of the few successful salesmen who could convinve us to buy something. we bought fruit juice, a mix of oranges and other stuff. He used this machine to do the juice.

Finished. The result was very delicious.

The Turkish are also very talented architects.

Again a photo of delights. My favourite strategy not to get crazy was to take as many photos as possible, because otherwise I’d have eaten too much. My bank account is now very thankful for that. 🙂

This photo is for David, my beloved food mate! ❤

In many restaurants, especially in the touristic old town, we saw women like this one. It was quite interesting to watch.

Only 2,5 Lira. 🙂 We were in a very nice bar with very friendly staff and cheap prices. It was the perfect place to relax and to reflect our experiences.