Precarious Travel Tales #1

Last night on ‘The Amazing Race’ the racers went to Brasov in Romania, it took me back to when I backpacked on my own through Eastern Europe, and the troubles I had. Being vampire obsessed Brasov and Transylvania were my main reasons for going to Romania.

Back then, the Iron Curtain had just been raised and tourism was only beginning in these former Soviet countries. There were no backpackers or cheap hotels in Romania, staying in people’s spare rooms near the train station was flavour of the day. There were lots of people vying for your attention at the train station. I got robbed! I was angry with myself for not being more alert. No-one spoke English, and there was nothing really that could be done. It was at this point I really felt alone. I’d been on my own for nearly 2 weeks in Czechoslovakia and Hungary, I wanted to talk to my mum, there was no internet or mobiles back then and to book a call to Australia would take 4 days.

To top this off the transport police harassed me for my passport and money at some point of my Bucharest stay for not punching a hole in my tram ticket with the hole punch hanging from the roof of the tram by the door! Who was to know you were supposed to punch a hole??? After harassing me for an eternity (thankfully my money and passport were hiding safely in a secret compartment of my bum bag), and lots of tears from me they let me go.

I ventured on my travels through Romania, and Bulgaria and arrived in Istanbul, Turkey where I had a fabulous time. I stayed longer than I planned. I had a date with The Cure in London and needed to find a faster route than my loosely planned itinerary allowed. Air travel was not an option due to the previous robbing in Romania!!! I decided on the train through Yugoslavia, back into Hungary, on to Austria and a nice fast modern train all the way back to France and another seasick filled Channel crossing (remember we are talking pre-Chunnel).

I procured the necessary visas, and hoped a train trip through Yugoslavia would be non-eventful (there was a war on after all). There were 3 of us who boarded the train for Belgrade, two men and me. The train carriages did not lock (they were all broken). I spent about 24 hours moving carriages to escape the sleazy conductor.

Eventually we reached the Yugoslavian border post entering into Hungary. The customs official came to see my passport, he disappeared with it, and the sleazy conductor was milling about while I was stuck in the same carriage hoping and praying that my passport would be returned.  After what seemed like an hour and the train was already in motion my passport was returned to me with an explanation that the boys back at border control had never seen an Australian passport!!! Sheesh…

I found a carriage with a lock that semi-worked and managed to get a little bit of a sleep before we hit the border post of Hungary

To be continued (because there is still more precarious adventures to be had)