1999 Biking East Europe

Thursday, September 9 – Sighisoara, Romania – pvt room, 160 000l

We had a really tough night. We had anticipated a fairly rough time with an 11-hour train journey from Budapest to Brasov sitting in second class, but we had no idea what we were in for. We cycled to Keleti after doing our laundry and left our luggage in a locker and confirmed our bikes at information who said we just had to speak to the conductor. We returned from the cemetery and shopping to the station with plenty of time to board our 18h30 train. Our train arrived timeously and we wandered down to let the conductor know we needed to get our bikes on board. Not possible, said he. But MAV said no problem, said we. No baggage car, said he. And no possible to take the bikes by train across the border. Somewhat panic stricken we dashed back to information, to the luggage check-in counter, to the international ticket-purchase window. Everyone essentially said the conductor was right! So back to the conductor to say we had purchased an expensive ticket in good faith and had been told the bikes were OK and to ask if he could make a plan. He said the 19h30 train to Bucaresti had a baggage car and that we could take that one instead. He promised and with humour when I asked Scout’s Honour? assured us that our ticket would be valid on the next train too pointing out that it was valid for two months on our chosen route. We went back to the international ticket office to find out if we could convert our reserved seats to the 19h30 train and to confirm that it would be OK to take the bikes. NO reservation necessary, she said; no bikes possible! We told her the conductor had said it would be OK to take the bikes, she made a phone call and agreed that there was after all a baggage car but that this only went as far as the border and that at that point we would need to make another plan. I asked about buying a ticket for the bike and she said this could be done on the train if necessary. When the train arrived we found the conductor to ask a) if we had the right train (this one going to Bucharest not Brasov) and b) if we could put our bikes on, and received a simple gestured affirmation – much to our delight.

We shared a compartment with a young man called Ferenc (Francis) who was very pleased to have someone to try his English on and who at one point told us he had not particularly liked Romania when he visited it as the people still seemed to “be afraid of Ceucescu”! (Our pretty waitress in Budapest had also expressed some disdain for Romania saying that we should beware of thieves. The country is quite clearly regarded as the poor cousin of eastern Europe.) Soon after the train pulled out a female conductor came to check tickets and she told us through Ferenc that we would have to pay about 4 000Ft for the bikes and our seat reservations. We began to show that we had booked and paid for reserved seats already (albeit on another train) and to explain the bicycle fiasco. She had only just begun her rounds and stopped our tale saying she would return later. We discussed with Francis how best to handle the fact that the baggage compartment would not be going over the border and he said that he just put his bike at the end of the carriage or in his compartment. We also discovered at this point that it was not possible to take the bikes off, cycle across the border and get another train as there was no road border crossing. And that the train was unreserved – this was told to us by an Hungarian couple with whom we ended sharing a compartment after we discovered we were inadvertently sitting in first class (I had been pleasantly surprised by the quality of the train) and had to move with Ferenc to second. The couple said that under no circumstances should we pay a reservation fee. All three our companions disembarked at Bekescsaba – at which point we still had not seen either of the conductors – and I lay down to get some sleep.

But was soon awakened by a male conductor demanding 6 000Ft for us and our bikes. No said I. NO cross border until pay, said he. I don’t really know what happened then but the entire incident escalated into unmanageable proportions with raised voices and threats and anger and storming off with our ticket and passports and eventually, once the no-horse-before-border-station of Lokoshaza was reached, the calling of the police. Of the two men who returned with the conductor, one spoke good English and was very simpatico (and rather sexy) – and more inclined to take our side than that of the conductor although he said he could not dispute with the man as he was the chief of the train. He did act, however, as mediator. At our insistence that the conductor had no right to hold our passports, the police took the passports and held them in his stead. We relayed our entire history of the train and ticket and bike fiasco to the police – who were much surprised at the amount we had paid for the tickets. In the meantime the conductor disappeared and Charl found him trying to throw our bikes off the train, but these were luckily locked onto a pipe in the baggage car. The police, however, told Charl to move the bikes as the baggage car was going no further and in the meantime the conductor came back and began to manhandle both the luggage and me off the train and onto the 02h00 platform. Through all this madness the policeman was trying to negotiate with the out-of-control official from whom I was demanding a name and number – at which point he raised the price to 8 000Ft. He finally defaced our tickets (which subsequently gave us endless hassles), wrote out an official complaint which he made Charl sign, and washed his hands of us. Our friendly policeman said we should reboard the train, but I was in tears and very nervous about what the conductor might get up to once we had left the safety of the police. But he gently insisted, saying there was nowhere to go from Lokoshaza and no-one knew when the next train was due. So we had our passports stamped by the Hungarian officials and reboarded with me still essentially in tears – unusual for me. Before seeing us off the policeman apologised that this should happen to us in Hungary!

On the Romanian side of the border we discovered that the night was still young with plenty more time for new and distressing hassles. Firstly, our passports were checked by a youngish man who proved to be a master of his trade – which included the demanding of a bribe. He acted very surprised when he saw we were from Afrika du Sud, asked if we had visas, and when we said yes, said that South Africa was a problem (!) and that in addition to visas we needed an “invitacion” to get into Romania. He said that if we could not produce our “invitacion” we would have to take our luggage off the train and return to Hungary. It took us a while to realise what was going on as everything was said with the hint of a smile and as he seemed to be going about doing his inspection and stamping our passports anyway. After some time (I guess we were proving a little slow) he placed my passport half in his bag and started on Charl’s – pretending in each case that he couldn’t find the visa etc – and simply, and I guess with exasperation at our obtuseness, said ‘how much money’. To which I replied ‘No money’ and he repeated ‘No money?’ and began to insist we take our luggage and go back to Hungary. Just then two women arrived on the scene to whom he made some joke about the “invitacion” and completed his job and left! The two women seemed to be observers of some sort and had clearly saved us from further annoyance by our enterprising immigration official.

After this bit of excitement another official-looking gent came to ask how far we were going and whether or not the bikes were going too and to then say, after taking out a pen and ‘form’, that we had to exchange our forints for lei. He was quite insistent and only went away once I had said we were going back to Hungary and wanted to keep our money. Some sort of scam too, I’m sure. Then the new conductor paid us a visit and took a long time over our defaced tickets and took exception to the fact that our bikes were now parked at the end of our (empty) carriage, but who let both pass in the end.

We arrived at Arad station at about 04h00 – not the best first encounter with Romania. It smells of urine and is inhabited by a motley crew of down-and-out men who stared so unashamedly with deadened eyes when we entered the crowded restaurant there that we turned and went instead to a small coffee bar. It did, however, have an open foreign exchange window (odd). We ended not changing money here, however, but exchanging instead 2 000Ft cash for lei with two Romanian couples en route to Hungary. With our 150 000 lei we bought Romanian cigarettes and beer, coffee and coke. And reserved our seats on the train to Brasov. And then tried as best we could to while away the remaining time in our physically- and emotionally-exhausted state.

We arrived here (in Sighisoara) about an hour ago – now 21h15 – never having gotten as far as Brasov after all. Because of more disastrous incidents. Firstly, through a silly misunderstanding, Charl muddled the departure time of our early-morning train and we missed it (the ticket lady had shown him both the amount needed for the reservation ticket as well as the departure time on her calculator – leading to crossed wires). As the next train was only due at 12h30 we cycled a couple of kilometres to the Hotel Roberto (recommended by a taxi driver) where we paid 4 000Ft (we did not have enough lei, but she was happy to take Hungarian) for a room without bathroom until 12 noon. Slept relatively well, bathed, dressed, cashed money (becoming with $100 an instant millionaire), and returned to the station. To be told by someone on the platform that the 12h30 train did not have a baggage compartment and it would be impossible to load our bikes, therefore, but that the 14h00 train did have a baggage compartment and that if we returned at 13h30 he personally would arrange our reservation tickets and arrange to put the bikes on the train. Of course the train was delayed by 70 minutes and did not have a baggage car. Try the 21h00 train we were told, but this we declined to do deciding to take our chances on the delayed 14h00.

Charl befriended a young engineer (sewage and waste disposal) in the reservation queue while I watched the luggage and bikes. He agreed that we should simply load our bikes and said we might have to “pay a little extra”. So we were not too surprised when the two conductors, having helped us on board and appeared very friendly, called us into an empty compartment once the train had pulled out, and pointed out to us that our bikes were overweight (we later proved this was bullshit) and that the formula in their little book demanded we pay them 390 000 lei (about $25). I followed the advice given by Lonely Planet and said we wanted a receipt. They gestured for me to sit, smiling and friendly. They said no receipt. I said no money. They said they were going all the way to Brasov and that one payment to them would not have to be supplemented by a further payment to a later conductor. I asked again for a receipt. They again said no. I said if no receipt, we would only pay 200 000l. Fine by them. I asked if the money was going straight into their pockets. They said yes. And they did prove to be helpful. Storing our bikes out of the way and helping us off the train with them later – all the while maintaining a friendly attitude. We felt very ambivalent about this episode – the first time either of us has paid a bribe. Angry about having to pay anything at all on an un-full train on which some locals seemed to be carrying bikes un-harassed. But pleased to be on the train. In a way both sides gained – although exclusively at the expense of one. But had they not been “corruptible” we would not have been allowed on board.

We spent what was left of the daylight tiredly observing the passing scene. Very rural; lots of small villages; dozens of churches; horse-drawn carts; hops and sunflowers and corn and cabbage; dead industries and, once, a kilometre of disused tankers standing on a railway siding.

Decided later to get off at Sighisoara instead of Brasov – another two or three hours down the line. And very pleased we are to have done so.