So. All the guidebooks (and a lot of fellow travelers) warn you about Romania before you visit, telling you to look out for scams on taxis and trains and pretty much everywhere else. Little did I think that the biggest scam would be from my tour group.
I don't know what made me sign up for a group tour of Romania...maybe I was afriad to go to the country myself, maybe before setting off to travel alone I didn't think I could make it by myself for 2 straight weeks after Croatia. Whatever it was, it was a bad idea. First of all, the country is dirt cheap, so I have no idea where my exorbitant (for Romania) tour fee is going. My tour mates are: 2 middle-aged friends from Australia, a Kiwi couple in their 30s, and a mildly boring Belgian girl about my age. (Our tour guide is another matter altogether - she's Polish and in her 20s and fantastic, but she really can't make up for everyone). Everyone is perfectly nice, and we've had some good dinners out, but there's no one I've really connected with. I met SO many people at the hostel in Bucharest - maybe it was a fluke, but I had someone to go out with every night. Here I feel more isolated than I did traveling alone, because I'm alone in a group, which is far worse.
We're visiting lovely little Transylvania villages, which is nice, but ultimately boring, because there's not much else to do besides hiking and walking around - both of which are pretty undesirable in temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius and above. I just want something to swim in SO BADLY - I was right about thinking I should have ended my trip on the coast. I spend a lot of time reading and searching for shade. It's exciting, let me tell you.
It's not all bad. Oue first day in Sinaia, a little mountain resort, we took a cable car up 2,000 feet and then hiked down the mountain - for 6 hours. It was tiring, but really exhilarating - every turn offered a new view down the mountain, and we ran into herds of sheep and cows on the plains on top of the mountain. We also visited Peles Castle, which is absolutely gorgeous. It's just the dead time like now that's hard...I find myself trying to kill time a lot in between meeting up with other tour group members. If I were by myself, I would be on the move every day - or most likely, I would have given up and headed for the Black Sea by now. At this point, I'm looking forward to England being cold!
I don't know what I expected...maybe I thought the other people would be younger, or we would have a more interesting, less relazed tour. All I know is: no more tours. Ever. I don't care if I'm going to Cambodia, I'm doing it by myself. Or only on highly recommended tours (by people I know). I could have saved so much money! Eh. You live, you learn.
Sorry for the depressing news...I'm a little down because this is the last part of my trip and I was really looking forward to it. Oh well, there's still Scotland. Will write again soon (probably very soon, considering there's nothing else better to do). Boo.
= :(
1 comment:
i don't know how much time you have left on the tour, but you should ditch it! the cost is already sunk, travelling by yourself wouldn't be all that much more b/c romania is cheap, and it sounds like you would be a lot happier.
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