DAY 132 MONDAY AUGUST 3 - BUCHAREST

For breakfast today we were directed to the Ibis Hotel breakfast room next door,  where we filled up and stocked up with sandwiches and fruit from the buffet, ready for our overnight train tonight.  We fiddled around in our room till noon, then left our bags at reception and walked to the nice looking station.

As usual we wanted to make reservations but there were no signs evident as to which ticket window to buy international tickets and when we got to the top of the queue at one window the lady shrugged and pointed vaguely.  There was a lady at an information window who gave us clear directions to go to window 1.  The lady at no. 1 was sweet and completed our final two train reservations for Europe with only one problem.  She read my Australian 7 as a European 1.  They always cross their 7s which is a good idea.  We gave her a boomerang fridge magnet, which made her smile.

We spent a couple of hours in the nice park opposite the station, reading and watching the young lovers. It was too hot to go sightseeing.

 Then we picked up our luggage and spent some time buying just the right amount of food for our dinner so we had zero Romanian money left.  Why is it that we can never work out the price of anything in MacDonalds?  All they tell you is the meal deal price.

The train we caught yesterday arrived on time today at 5:15pm, in time to connect with today's departure to Budapest at 5:35pm, so our original plan would have worked but Plan B gave us a lovely night's sleep in Bucharest.

This time our cabin was actually a two bed sleeper, first time ever in Europe for us.  We are sick of buses and couchettes overnight.  The ladder was original, the beds were comfortable and we slept all night.

Unfortunately the toilets in our carriage would not flush, so the guard locked them and we had to use the one in the next carriage.

We were in northern Romania by 7pm, so we were not surprised to see a sign advertising the Transylvanian  Bank.  Make your own joke about that one.  We were in the shadow of the Carpathian Mountains as the sun set.

You can tour Dracula's castle up there.