This past weekend, Taylor, Matt V., Emma, Matthew G. and I decided to venture out of Lupeni and take a trip to Constanta, Romania, which is a city right near the Black Sea, and pretty much to sum it up in one phrase: It was an adventure!! We packed our things last Thursday night, and Daniel was wonderful enough to take us all to the train station in Petrosani at about 11:00pm that night. Our first obstacle to overcome was to get the actual train tickets. We had a few "train station" vocabulary words written down, and I was going to be the brave one and try to communicate with the lady. Yep, I bombed that one and ended up getting us tickets for leaving two days later than that night! It was a bit of a mess, so Daniel called Janelle, and thankfully she was able to talk to the lady and clear up the confusion. We finally had our tickets for a train leaving in about 5 minutes, so we rushed out to the tracks, found our "wagon" and finally, our seats. Yes...we thought. We were on the train, it was moving, we had plenty of food, and we were now 11 hours away from Constanta. It was about 12:30am, and we were tired, so we attempted to get comfortable, which was a bit of a challenge. I think I slept about 4 hours that night, but soon enough we arrived at the train station in Constanta.
Now, we had met a friend, Razvan, at Viata camp who is from Constanta, so he met us at the train station and right away showed us how to use the public bus system. I think we were all very thankful that Razvan was there to help us because Constanta is not a small city; it is actually quite large, and not knowing the language can always make the simplest things a bit more of a challenge. So Razvan actually hung out with us the whole weekend, and it was a blast.
On Friday, we visited a historical museum, saw both an Orthodox and Catholic Cathedral, and of course, gazed at the Black Sea. It is not black, but rather a darker blue, and it really reminded me of the North shore of Lake Superior. It was beautiful, and it was so wonderful and refreshing to see a large body of water again. I did not think I would miss that so much! That night for supper we had Shoarmas, which were delicious. I guess they are more of a turkish food? It was chicken with peppers, tomatoes, pickles, cabbage, and a garlic sauce all wrapped up in pita-like bread. After supper we walked around the town and went to a part called Tomas, which had many more stores, shops, and a McDonalds! Now, apparently, McDonalds is considered a nicer place to eat in Romania than it is in the West and is actually more expensive. So we gladly stopped in and drank good coffee and had soft-serve ice cream! (This was the first time we had found soft-serve ice cream in Romania, so we were excited.) It was a beautiful evening and we were just able sit and relax.
Another part of our adventure was finding a place to stay for the night. It was such a blessing because Razvan knew a friend who had a cousin that rented an apartment, and they were willing to rent us the apartment for the night. The only problem; no electricity! However, we were totally ok with this and were thankful to even have a place to stay. So we stopped in a supermarket, bought some little tea light candles, and used them to light up the apartment. It was very cozy and fun.
Saturday was much more rainy and cold. However, we still wanted to go to the beach, so we actually went to a part of Constanta called Mamaia. Apparantly, it is like a resort town where all the locals go to in the summer. It was beautiful to see the beach and the Black Sea, but no one was there, and it was like a ghost town. So we didn't stay there for long and instead headed back into town to the "City Park Mall". Now I think for me, this place was the biggest surprise, or unexpected thing to see in Constanta. This mall was huge, and it had everything you could ever need or want. It was nicer than the mall in Sioux Falls or the one in Sioux City. I guess it just surprised me to see such a structure in any part of Romania, and it made me a bit sad because it reminded me too much of the West. We found out that the mall was just built about six months ago. I just hope that countries do not think development can only occur through big malls and restaurants, like it appears in the West, but rather through other ways of developing a community such as more youth activities, organizations, churches, parks, and other services for the people. Sometimes I think the West has got it all wrong with its massive malls that promote consumerism and materialism.
For supper that night we went to a Turkish restaurant, which was so much fun! We all ordered different things and tried each others as well. It was all so delicious and tasty. Matthew and I had a few bad spells with some fiery hot peppers, but it made for some good laughs! After supper, we needed to head back to the train station to make sure we were ready when our train left at 12:20am, but little did we know, there was no train leaving at 12:20am. When we began talking to the lady, again with our very limited Romanian vocabulary, she explained to us that the soonest train leaving for Bucharest was not until 5:45am the next morning, and then it would have a layover in Bucharest until 5:45pm that night, which would mean arriving in Petrosani at about midnight Sunday night. What?! This was NOT part of our plans. We thought we had our return tickets figured out and would be returning to Lupeni by noon the next day. Turns out we were wrong, and we had made a mistake. So, we spent the night in the Constanta train station.
At first, I was frustrated, but there was nothing we could do about it. We were together, and we were safe, so we made the best of it. We played a lot of Phase 10 and Hearts. I only slept for about 2 hours I think. Then we spent our 8 hour layover in Bucharest hanging out at McDonalds and then at a coffee shop in the train station. We played more cards, walked around, ate food, and talked. By this time we were very tired, needed showers, and just wanted to go home. However, we made it together, and it was an adventure for sure.
I am so thankful to have gone on this weekend getaway. It was very relaxing, full of memories and laughter, and we all learned things along the way. I feel that our group is closer because of the time we spent together, and we also experienced amazing hospitality by everyone we met in Constanta. Razvan was so willing to show us things and make sure we were ok and well taken care of. He was a wonderful tour guide, and we were blessed to have him.
Sometimes you just have to take risks in life. We headed out on this adventure not knowing what we were going to do, not knowing where we were going to stay, and not understanding the language very well at all. Yet, we were fine, and we had an awesome time. I feel we were blessed because we took the risk. I really hope there will be more opportunities such as this one to discover, experience, and learn more about the culture and people of Romania.
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