Transiting Through Transylvania

Arrival

The knock on the compartment door came just as I had started washing my face in an attempt to wake up after a night on the sleeper train from Budapest. Trying not to wake my cabin mate, a friendly engineer from Spain also on a solo rail trip, I bent over the tiny sink just inches from our bunks and splashed the cool water over the suds on my face.

“We’re here,” said the door knocker. The twenty-minute warning the attendant had given me at 5:50 am had actually woken me from a deep sleep after I had spent most of the night tossing and turning. I quickly grabbed my sweatshirts, backpacks, and tried to quietly squeeze through the cabin door with my bulky gear, though I was secretly hoping my Spanish friend would wake up so I could say goodbye.

Seconds later I was on the platform, face still wet and soapy, still in my short-sleeved pajama shirt; the dim light of the dawn and still zombie-like feeling from having woken up so abruptly made it all surreal. There was just one other person on the platform, a tattooed burly-looking guy carrying two heavy duffle bags and another strung on his back. It was 33 degrees in Alba Iulia, Romania. My bed from the previous night rolled down the tracks leaving me wondering if I should have rushed off the train after all.

Once I got my two sweatshirts on and unfurled my puffy jacket, I was warm enough. The cool air on my slowly drying face helped wake me up enough to notice a railway official standing by the stairs. “Train to Sibiu?” I asked, hoping he would at least understand the name of the town I was heading to. I thought I might have missed my connection since we had left Budapest a little late and there were only a few minutes to spare.

“Follow me!” said the duffle bag man (who I’ll now refer to as Andrei though I did not get his name) as he somehow sped past me with his heavy load and descended into the dark stairway leading under the platform. The rail official did respond in halting English and informed me that I should go down the stairs to find platform 3 – so I ran after Andrei hoping for the best.

Up on platform 3, I learned that my new acquaintance was also going to Sibiu since his family lived nearby. He had spent the last three months working in Belgium and the last three nights making his way back to Romania to be with his family which included three sons. He hadn’t slept at all during his journey.

He spoke of racism experienced in Belgium and France, and he asked me how I liked Romania, even though I had literally just arrived moments ago with him. He told me Romanians are friendly and will treat me well, and he seemed eager to be back with his family after working away from home for so many months.

At one point, he opened up one of the duffel bags and I could see it was filled with chocolates, cigarettes, and what I imagined to be gifts for family and friends (or maybe items to sell back at home). Suddenly, he yelled (in Romanian) across to another man who I assumed he knew based on the friendly way he was speaking. Soon that man joined us on platform three and was offered a pack of cigarettes.

I quickly realized that this man was just as much a stranger to Andrei as he was to me. I also noticed that the older man was clearly not in a good state of mind. He was hesitant to take the cigarettes and seemed to be asking for something else.

“Droga? No Droga!” Andrei abruptly shouted (technically not Romanian, but that’s how I heard it). I guess the older man was high and needed more drugs. Though it was all in another language, I witnessed the interaction go from anger to compassion and counseling in a matter of seconds.

When the drug addict started pointing toward me while asking something, Andrei raised his voice again and sent him on his way, cigarettes in hand. He never translated the conversation for me, but it was clear he was protecting me.

So why has this brief interaction stood out after spending several days in Romania? It’s because I realized this sleep-deprived hard-working devoted father took the time out to help two strangers, welcoming a foreigner to his country and seeing that he knew where to go while protecting him from potential danger; and offering a gift to another man standing two platforms away just because he thought he was someone who needed it, while also showing him compassion and maybe even giving him hope.

He’ll never see either one of us again. Anyone in his position could easily come up with reasons to resent a carefree backpacking tourist who has the time and money to live a life he might never be able to; he could also easily look down on a drug addict who is probably not contributing much to society while he toils away to provide for his family. Yet, he offered us both kindness without expecting anything in return.

The least I could do is share his example of how we truly can make the world a better place.

Departure

On my last morning in Sibiu, I enjoyed a second breakfast conversation with my host, Adriana, mother of two boys and museum curator. It’s great to stay with actual hosts and get to know them while receiving fantastic insider tips on what to see, do, and eat in the area. With Home Exchange, it’s very easy to connect on a personal level with hosts and Adriana was no exception. We had long conversations about parenting/grandparenting, travel before the internet, the great experiences we’ve had opening our homes to strangers, her childhood under communism, and more.

Our final breakfast conversation was a perfect bookend to my abrupt-but-warm arrival in Romania. Now I start a two-day/night journey to Istanbul. Five daytime trains, one overnight in a room in Bucharest, another overnight on a train to Turkey. The long journeys are a great time to reflect, catch up on writing and photo downloading, and admire the views.

In-Between

What happened in between my arrival and departure from Romania? Visits to small villages, dozens of fortified churches, climbing towers, the outdoor ethnographic museum where Adriana works, and more. Here is a sampling.

Click on the first image to open the gallery.