E

This is a story of entrepeneurship, personal quest, and living in a community. 

When we arrived in the main train station in Bucharest we were immediately hassled by a fellow who wanted to find us a room. Gerry thought "why not" but Jan's instincts said otherwise. It only took a few minutes before his contradictory answers became apparent: "No, there is not a cash machine in the station." "Oh, I didn't mention that one because it is broken." "Oh, I didn't know it was fixed." 

We'd arrived from Bulgaria momentarily cashless and helpless. Now, with cash in hand we got rid of him and began to plan our assult on Bucharest in a modest amount of leisure.  Jan sat down in McDonalds and looked after the bags while Gerry went off to buy a map and get info from the tourist office. He came back and we then ate supper and discussed our options. We agreed that as we had no guide book (we later bought one in Bucharest), we should go back to tourist info and ask her to call a hotel for us. The young lady was helpful, but seemed nonetheless to be steering us to certain hotels. She said she couldn’t call any hotel but Elvis’s hostel

We later learned that the tourist office only existed because Elvis had pushed, cajoled, and maybe even bribed people to get the office opened. Once open, he had provided the clerk with a phone card so that she could make bookings at his hostel and call an honest taxi to ferry arriving guests there. (Not all taxis in Bucharest are honest, as we found to our cost.) The price at $12 each per night was okay, although higher than what we were used to from Turkey, so we said OK and were put in a taxi and sent off to the hostel. In about four kilometers, on the other side of the center, but still not far out in a suburb, we drove up what was once a mansion and was still a residential area. Our to the curb came Elvis and crew and swept us in to their hostel. 

Elvis and his wife Katarina are young Austrailians who have another, pharmaceutical, business in Eastern Europe but have opened their hostel mostly, it seems, as a leisure pursuit. They are warm, friendly people, love to have other people around, and provide a needed service and good value for money. The hostel was in a large house in a near suburb of Bucharest.  It had about six rooms including two dorms, a couple of doubles and a couple of triples/quads.  The rooms were very simple, but very clean and even without a private bathroom it was more than acceptable. The great advantage of such places over standard hotels is that they are always filled with young travellers who are a great source of information about places they have been.  The hostel, too, provided a wealth of information and advice about what to do and see in Bucharest.  The walls of the reception area were covered with maps and lists of all kinds. We of course were very much the oldsters in the hostel.  We found it rather quaint and amusing that Elvis and his wife and the other guests all treated us with a certain deference. 

When we left Bucharest to go to Brasov, Elvis and Katarina suggested that we stay in a 'sister' hostel there, run by a friend of theirs.  The price and conditions were the same as in Bucharest, so we agreed and were happy to be met at the train station and ferried by taxi (at our expense, of course) to the hostel. Our host in Brasov, affectionately known as Asian Elvis, was a young Korean American.  He was much less laid-back than Australian Elvis, but the place was run very efficiently and provided a great service.  Brasov is a much more picturesque place than Bucharest, and the hostel was located on the edge of the old town, with the most lovely views (from our bedroom at least) over a green and wooded hillside. 

Asian Elvis took us somewhat under his wing.  On our first day when we asked for a restaurant recommendation, he said, "For you folks, I would definitely recommend The Blue Corner." The implication clearly was that he would not recommend it to all his guests, but being 'of a certain age', he felt we would appreciate it.  And he was dead right.  I think we can safely say that we had one of our best meals of the trip here.  We ate pork chops that were so succulent and tender, served with grilled brie, and served in a delightful Germanic-style house with crisp white tablecloths, good local red wine, and very pleasant service. 

Undoubtedly one day Brasov will be as popular a destination as Prague. That will be good for the people who live there and for the tourists who will get to enjoy this lovely mountain town.  But we will be glad that we got here before they did and for however brief a period enjoyed it as it is now.