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Sent from Chisinau, Moldova on Aug 13, 2005 

Chisinau, Moldova to Romania: Bra(sh)ov (Transylvanian
Alps), Sinaia, Bucharest, Constanta (Black Sea) to Bulgaria
to Macedonia.  Still on East European Time: EST + 6 hours.

I am completing this email at the Astoria Internet Cafe in
downtown Skopje (at Bunjakovec Shopping Center) in
Macedonia, while waiting from my 7pm bus to Istanbul--I
will get off in Edirne to catch up to one site--the
Suleimania Mosque, the finest creation of Ottoman architect
Sinan--I had skipped last Oct. when I did the Mideast &
Eastern Turkey.  (I arrived here last night by bus (5
hours) from Sofia, Bulgaria, stayed at the HI hostel here
for 1000 Dinars--about $22--TV and bath included, alone in
a spotless 2-bed dorm.) After just a few hours in Edirne
for a photo, I will take the 1st bus to either Salonica or
directly to Athens, Greece on Aug. 20.

Something I should mention.  From the time I left Lithuania
on Aug. 4 to my arrival in Bucharest 10 days later, I am
the only backpacker (packroller in my case) from West I saw
in any of these places (Kaliningrad, Belarus, Ukraine,
Crimea, Moldova) I visited.  The only exception was a guy
from Finland--Keijo his name--I met at the train station in
Warsaw who was on his way back from Ukraine and Moldova. 
There were some backpackers from Slavic countries, and some
elderly Germans, etc. on organized tours in Crimea, but I
saw NO traveler from West on his or her own.  Since these
Slavic countries are closed societies, with no one at
ticket counters, etc. speaking English, indeed I dont see
why Westerners should visit them.  There are backpackers in
Romania and Bulgaria, but since these in no way qualify as
prime destinations the numbers are so so, more in
Bucharest--many wondering why they came, since the old town
there is mostly crumbling old buildings, but for a few
exceptions.  I did not see a Western packpacker in
Constante, a few in Sofia.  More below.

I began typing this at the Internet cafe in Chisinau (I
mentioned in last report--7 Leis per hour) near the Central
Bus Station, while waiting for my 7:30pm bus to Bra(sh)ov,
Romania (cost 130 Lei = about $11, there at 6:50am), also a
prime destination for winter sports since the town (and
villages near it) are situated around the Transylvanian
Alps.  (There is also a daily bus from Chisinau at NOON
that arrives in Bra(sh)ov at 11pm, but I prefer daylight on
arrival at a new place.)  And at the nearby town of Bran
there is also the touristic (not real) Dracula Castle. 
Instead of taking the 5:10pm sleeper train to Bucharest,
and then coming north again for Bra(sh)ov (about 100
miles), I decided to cover Bra(sh)ov first and then do
Bucharest, since my next destination Constanta on the Black
Sea is also much closer to Bucharest. And having caught up
with sleep last 2 nights in Chisinau, I feel zappy again .
. .

Continuing from Villa Helga Hostel in Bucharest, tomorrow
morning, I am taking the 8:45am train to Constanta on the
Black Sea.  Details follow below.


1. ROMANIA ($=26,770 to 29,250 OLD Lei = 2.677 to 2.925 NEW
Lei, both used until 2006) The city of Bra(sh)ov at
Transylvanian Alps (Romania).  This was 10-hour night ride
from Chisinau on the bus, over the CARPATHIAN Mountains. 
We arrived at 4:45am.  I waited for daylight, then took Bus
4 to the city square Lonely Planet mentions as worth
seeing, did so (very nice!), and then took Bus 4 back to
the station and took a minibus to SINAIA for Transylvanian
Alps and the (best) castle there--better than the one at
Bran.  The minibus to Sinaia is immediately to the right
facing the station.  The fare was 60,000 Old Leis (a bit
more than $2).

a) TRANSYLVANIAN Castles.  As for the DRACULA Castle in
Bran, the buses to that direction operate from somewhere
else, as that direction is off the road to Bucharest.  I
skipped it, for, as Lonely Planet also states, Dracula
never set foot in that castle.  Instead I went to see the
one at Siniai, said to be the best.  If you want to do the
same in Bra(sh)ov, by all means, take a taxi (5 NEW Leis,
less than $2) from the train station (where also the
minibus arrived) to the castle, for it a VERY steep climb,
and more than 1 km of it, then walk back. 

b) POSITIVES/CONS in Romania.  1) Almost all younger people
speak English.  2) All stations have English-speaking
staff.  3) The train station I saw at Bra(sh)ov, Siniai,
Bucharest, and Constanta all have luggage storage
facilities, but dont be surprised if you are charged 60,000
(NOT 30,000 for 1 piece) it says for your backpack.  4)
There is some corruption (say irregularities, also funny
rules) at train stations: a) Buy your train ticket one hour
before the departure time, OR when they start selling the
tickets to your destination.  (That is, you cannot just
walk into the station in the morning and buy your ticket
for the afternoon train.)  For the 2.5-hour ride from
Siniai to Bucharest, I paid 380,000 Leis ($14, with a fine
for not reserving a seat first. b) to enter the train
station in Bucharest you must pay a fee (5,000 0ld Leis)
supposedly to keep out Gypsies, etc.  OK, but a tourist,
obviously not a gypsy, should be exempt from such stupid
rules, for the officials at the entry, this one a woman,
wanted from me 5 NEW Leis instead, which is 50,000 OLD
Leis, 10 times more.

c) HOSTEL Villa Helga (very nice, but far from the train
station; 370,000L ($11) per night, 350,000 with HI
membership, breakfast incl., Internet 40,000 per hour).  If
you follow Lonely Planet's directions to the hostel, you
might go in the opposite direction, though one stop later
it is the end of line on Bus 133. You get on another Bus
133 10 meters away and head the other way, pass the station
again, and count 6 stops to PIETA GEMENI.  (Ask the driver
to let you off there.) Then, following the bus route, keep
the pieta (a small fountain near the bus route) on your
right, pass the street adjacent to it, and TURN RIGHT at
the next street 15 meters later.  The hostel will be
staring at you 100m away at the end of that road.  It is
some distance from the station, but very nice.

d) Bucharest.  Bucharest is an OK city.  The Old Town is
old period in some parts, a few nice buildings in others. 
Start from Pieta URUNII.  To get there from the hostel,
walk towards Pieta GEMENI and stop at the street car No. 5
or 16 immediately on this side going to your right (facing
the street car).  (There are no ticket booths there, so I
rode it for free.)  Ask someone to tell when to get off. 
About a block before the pieta, the car turns left, you go
right, towards the McDonald's sign on top of a building. 
Pieta Urunii has the largest fountain I have seen anywhere,
about 100m wide.  If you cross the Pieta diagonally towards
a dome that is visible, there is a nice church and
residential quarters there.  The old town itself starts
right off the large boulevard across from the McDonald's
sign, Blvd. Bratanu.  The old town is on both sides.  Pieta
Universitii is the most lively part of the city--0km starts
right in front of the theater at the pieta.  The American
embassy and (separate) consulate are on an old and narrow
(and well-protected) part behind the huge Intercontinental
Hotel, along the Bati(sh)tei Street.  If you continue that
street it will intersect Blvd. Lescar.  You can catch
Street Car 16 or 5 back to the hostel--2nd stop.

NOTE:  The Info Kiosk at the cornet at Bucharest train
Station is not set there by the Govt.  It belongs to some
Elvis Group who want to rent to you their apartments.  Dont
expect help from them.

e) CONSTANTA, Romania--NO Connection to Bulgaria. 
Constanta is on the Black Sea, Romania's summer resort.  I
paid 280,000 Lei ($10) for the 7:38am 3-hour fast train to
briefly browse Constanta, AND to see if I could find a
connection to the Bulgarian resorts of VARNA and BURGAZ on
the Black Sea.  I was told there are NO buses, trains, or
ships to those destinations.  So I took Bus 40 to the
MAMAYA Beach to browse that area for an hour, came back to
the station, and took the 2:21pm 3-hour fast train back to
Bucharest to catch the 7:35pm train to Sofia.  Except for
the northern parts of Romania, where the Carpathian Range
and Transylvanian Alps dominate, Romania is very flat.  The
entire distance to Constanta was so with large fields
devoted to sunflower, which presumably the Romanians use
for cooking instead of the corn oil we use in USA.

NOTE: Constanta, returning to Bucharest, make sure you see
on the Departures board Bucharest N (NOT O) after
Bucharest, to return to the NORTH Station, which is the
main one.


2. Bulgaria ($=1.57 Lev).  Bulgaria is VERY green, very
mountaneous, and very scenic.  The 7:30pm train from
Bucharest to Sofia (coming from Moscow) was delayed 5
hours.  (1st class sleeper is 1,270,000 Lei or about $45,
2nd class 1,200,000, seat 900,000.)  Actually during those
5 hours the bazaar-like atmospere at the train station grew
on me, for there is everything at the station, including
McDonald's.  (By the way, at Bucharest Station, look for
the ads for IBIS Hotel, charging 59Euro on weekends, 79E on
weekdays, IF Hotel Helga is full.) The train left at
11:36pm.

a) The DANUBE.  We crossed the Danube, separating Romania
from Bulgaria, at 2am, over a long bridge, on one side
GIURGIU, Romania, on the other RUSE, Bulgaria.  With lights
glowing on both sides, the Danube, the largest river in
Europe (of course smaller than our Mississippi, which
together with Missouri is even longer than the Nile), was
impressive.

b) The Balkan Mountains.  The mountains accompanied our
train ride from the time we entered Bulgaria.  By morning,
they grew larger and got closer, the trip as if a train
ride in Eastern USA.  About 2 hours to Sofia, the Balkans
became the largest so far, with rugged rocky peaks.  This
part was especially scenic.

c) Sofia.  Sofia too is an old city, with some new and some
old parts.  I took a taxi to the center, browsed around the
Aleksander Nevski Church, and 3 others in that vicinity,
took the pulse of the city, and returned to the station to
catch the 4pm bus to Skopje (for 24Lev, about $16). (Buses
at 4pm, 7pm, and 9:30pm) for the 5 to 6-hour ride, incl. 1
hour ritual at the border.)

d) The Rhodope Mountains.  Coming southwest from Sofia to
Skopje, the road crosses the Rhodope Mountain range which
end just before Skopje, again some of the most scenic
mountain road anywhere, very much like traveling thru the
Blue Ridge Mountains in Southern West Virginia, the
mountains lush-green.


3. Macedonia ($=51 Dinar).  There is not much to either
Skopje or Macedonia.  The train station is right next to
the new bus station, the latter is much more active and
much cleaner.  (Apparently the train traffic--and so the
station--is suffering from the competition from the many
international buses that leave from here to every
destination.) However, there is a 12:30pm daily train to
Athens and 12:50pm daily train to Belgrade.  Unless you
have something specific you want to see here, go to
Bulgaria; it is much more scenic.

NOTE: Beware of illegal taxi drivers with taxi signs on
their cars.  For $1 or $1.50 drive to the HI Hostel here
mine wanted 8 Euros after we arrived.  It took me 30 min.
to get rid of him with just $3--since he also took me to a
bank ATM to get money, as there are NO ATMs at the station,
or a bank for that matter.

a) HI Hostel.  Exit the Bus Station and walk toward the
mountain with the large lit cross visible on the highest
peak.  You will reach the hostel after about 300m to your
left across the street.  Ask someone around if you do not
see it.  The hostel is more like a hotel with TV and bath. 
2-bed dorm costs 1000D, or about $22 with breakfast.

b) Internet.  There is an Internet cafe at the 1st floor of
the train station, but it was closed when I wanted to use
it at noon, why I came to this one.  (Here too the
connection was lost for 2 hours, so I waited not to lose
what I typed; then I saved it as text and asked the person
in charge to email it to me when the connection came on.)
And so I had my city tour too...

c) Time.  Skopje is 1 hour behind Sofia.  From Warsaw to
Sofia I was +7 hours vis-a-vis EST in USA.


4. Interesting People.  1) ANA CHELU (pronounced KHELU), a
21-year-old Romanian girl studying religion, intent on
helping out poor kids in China, who became my afternoon
companion at Pieta Uruinii in Bucharest, after (by chance)
I asked her directions;  2) ANDY Frankie Echevarria, a
Puerto-Rican American from Bronx, now Miami Beach (who is
bi-polar) who is fluent in 7 languages, including
Romanian, at HI Hostel in bucharest, on his way to
Moldova;  3) GARETH CRORY, an elderly and sociable Irish
traveler with 85 countries on his list, who was my cabin
partner on the train from Bucharest to Sofia;  4) NICCO &
TRACY, two spunky Welsh girls, on their way to Bulgaria, in
the same wagon. 

Sirman