Day 119: To Timișoara

During the past few days in Bucharest I had better fleshed out my Europe itinerary, and even bought a ticket back to the US. I decided to skip Sofia after hearing so many non-recommendations of the city and instead go to Belgrade, spend roughly a week there, go south to see my friend in Skopje, and from Skopje fly to Budapest. Once I landed in Budapest, I would have a month and four days to see Budapest, Vienna, Prague, and finally Berlin, before flying to NYC on June 28th. I had initially only planned to spend three or four days in NYC, but the idea of spending the Fourth of July in the Big Apple was too much to resist, and I was able to book a 6-bed male-only dorm in a decently located hostel for "only" 37 USD a night, which is actually not too bad for America.

I couldn't figure out how to take a bus directly to Belgrade, but I knew I could do it over the course of 13 hours by train. Instead, I only bought a ticket for the first leg of the trip, to Timișoara, which would get me most of the way there in 8 hours. Then I could spend a few days seeing a new town in Romania -- one that doesn't have as extreme a profile as Bucharest, the capital and largest city, or Vama Veche, a town nearly void of life but full of bars, clubs, and beach.

I got to the station early and had a surprisingly good latte at one of the nearby pub/cafes before entering the station to find my train. As soon as I found the correct car and had boarded my train, I was promptly scammed.

Photo of the back of our train, moments before I was... gasp... scammed

Here's how the scam works. Someone will pose as a train employee and check your ticket as you enter to guide you to your seat. They give you back your ticket, then introduce themselves and explain that "all the people" make a payment upon boarding to cover the costs of the  "train inspector". They show you a very psuedo-authentic looking ID card clipped to their clipboard, which also contains other administrative looking papers -- all written in Romanian. They even subtly keep pressed with their thumb against the clipboard a stack of 10 lei notes, as if to suggest that these are the payments of previous passengers. They will ask you to pay in either Lei, Euro, or USD an amount equivalent to about 35 USD (scam bells should be going off at that point). Even the train ticket doesn't cost this much. I had to ask the man ("Hello, my name is George") to explain what the payment was for multiple times because he had not yet shown me how much he was asking for -- or in what currencies -- and I still thought he might be authentic. I knew I didn't have much money to give, so to get him off my back I pull out all the money I have in my pocket (15 lei, less than 4 USD), ask how much I need to pay, he hits me with the numbers very clearly printed in the bottom-right hand corner of one of his administrative papers (144 lei), I tell him I only have 1/10th of what he requires, he says that's perfectly okay, takes my money, and disappears into the station, never to be seen again.

I immediately looked for the scam online, but could only find an even scarier Romanian train scam where someone poses as a train employee and takes your passport, not giving it back until you pay the ransom. In conclusion, it could have been a lot worse, and I got off easy. At the least, I had the foresight not to tell the man about the roughly 120 USD in Lei, USD, and AED I had tucked away in my money belt.

The rest of the train ride went smoothly, though slowly. At one of the stops an old, decrepit Romanian lady came aboard our car and pretended to cry while giving a sob story that I can only presume was about her sick, handicapped baby who owed money to the mafia, but she couldn't help pay off because she had been fired from her teaching post after 30 years of service due to budget cuts. Moments before her performance I had seen the same beak-nosed lady outside my window on the side of the train opposite the platform -- hidden from the view of the red-hatted station master -- with a malicious glint in her eye, naturally.

Virgin Romanian countryside

Rape is only a lovely flower in the country of Romania.

The train very slowly gains in elevation, before dropping back down to near sea level relatively quickly, a few hours from Timișoara. Once in Timișoara, I had to bum a ride off the tram because I couldn't figure out how to buy a ticket. Around 9pm I made it to my hostel, having left Bucharest at 10:45am.