so a lot (actually, a TON) has happened since i last posted..and i'm trying to think of where to even start. i guess i'll go with the most entertaining, just to keep your attention for a bit..because i feel like this is going to be one long post! so buckle up, and get ready for me to knock your socks off. :)
so. let's talk romania.
i dont even know when, i think it was the weekend of march 8-11 we had a break from teaching (finally) so we decided that we were going to go on a tour...of romania. it was kind of decided for me...i had 20 minutes to decide if i wanted to go. everyone else was going, and i didnt want to be stuck in kiev by my lonesome with nothing to do and nobody to hang out with for four looong days (and trust me, when you are alone and have no money, and nothing to do..those days are LONG). so i agreed to go on this vacation.
time went by. i paid all my money for the trip. and i was ready to go! once i had decided and paid, i talked to locals here..and every time i told them i was going to romania i would always get the same exact response. a disgustingly baffled look on their face, and just continuously asking why i choose THERE. i didnt have an answer. i still dont...and i am right there with them with the disgusting look and baffled brains. worst decision of my life. (kinda...you'll see why) luckily, for you all, i kept up on my journal writing on this trip..making sure i recorded every painful experience and memory of this trip, so i would never forget..and be able to warn others to NEVER do what i did on that weekend from hell.
thusday, march 7. i have a passage from my journal stating "honestly i dont know what day it is, where i am, or where i'm going. i might have been sold into sex slavery for all i know. that's how horrible i feel. that might even be better than what i'm going through right now"
wednesday...we boarded a sleeper train at 4 in the morning. being told that we would have our own cabins..and something somewhat sanitary...we were sorely disappointed when we boarded the train only to realize, we were not in our own cabin, but in the open train from the 1800's that hasnt been cleaned since. it was the dirtyest nastiest thing i've ever seen. the set up was four beds (bunckbed style) all in an area, with a table in between...and then on the other side of the 1 foot aisle was two beds (bunkbeds..yet again) so we were in for a treat. everyone in our group was spread around the train, but luckily i had becki and lisa and john in my little area...so we sat there in awe of our situation for a minute. i examined the table and i'm pretty sure there was left over cocaine from the people before us...and the beds in jail would have been more sanitary and comfortable than these.
but dont worry, i survived. i braved those disgusting beasts and actually got good sleep (shout out to ibuprofen pm.....thanks for working wonders!!)
so our 11 hour train ride left at 4 in the morning, so we were able to sit there for a while and laugh about the situation we were in, and then we made our flea infested beds..and then slept. i slept for a good 9 hours...woke up just in time to want to DIE from feeling so disgusting..and to take down my bed and pack everything back up.
our train dropped us off in lyviv (ukraine) and it's such a cute little city! it was much more friendly and euopean.and a lot more low key than kiev. i really enjoyed it there. so we had about 2 hours until we needed to be back at the train station to board our bus to head on over to romania! so me and lisa and becki ate our snacks and found the tourist center, so we asked the girl for free things we could do to see the city....and she gave us a few booklets and maps to do some self guided walking tours of the city. it was PERFECT! we got to walk around the city, see all the cool things the city had to offer, and actually get out and stretch our legs for a minute. it was a good time.
while walking around, we stumbled upon this huge group of people standing in this little area singing, and people were passing out papers and whatever...it was weird. so we stood there with the group of people just trying to figure out what in the world was going on. then we walked around, and saw that there were nun's leading the group..and they were protesting...something. i wish i could tell you what...but we protested with the nun's for a while....then we got scared and ran away.
so after we were done, we had to rush back and meet the rest of the group at the train station to board our bus. there were about 25 of us, and so we all got on and were ready to take on romania! we were sooo excited...because we were only "6 hours" away from our destination! so we thought. our tour guide was evil. she hated us, and refused to tell us how long the bus ride REALLY was. so we were all under the impression t hat it was only going to take 6 hours to get there. WELLLL...funny story. we sit on the bus for 6 hours. and let me tell you, they dont have freeways here. no fast cut through roads. nope. we were hitting up all the neighborhoods and city streets, it was AWFUL. so 6 hours into it we were READY to get off that bus and sleep in an actual bed...but no. that wasnt the case at.all.
six hours later, wanna know where we were? the ukraine romania boarder. not even IN romania yet. i was going to flip out. and i mean, you are probably all thinking the same thing "who is this crazy girl..six hours on a bus is NOT that big of a deal...get over it!" but dont you all forget that i just spent 11 hours on a train. and that sucked. and then i'm sitting on this bus? no. not cool. i was not happy. i guess mostly all i wanted was an answer "WHAT TIME AM I GOING TO GET TO THE HOTEL IN ROMAINA!?!?!?!!??!?!"
that's all i wanted to know. but by this time, i'm PISSED beyond belief.
i think at one point i stood on my chair, ripped all my clothes off, and yelled "GET ME A DAMN AIRPLANE BEFORE I JUMP OUT OF THE WINDOW!!"
that was a joke. i did that. but all my clothes stayed on. :)
but seriously, i was going crazy. so then we continued on our merry way, because we HAD to be close. i mean, we've been traveling for seven zillion hours...romania couldnt be THAT far away...right?
wrong.
we sat on that bus. and we sat. and sat. and sat. six hours turned into 17. SEVENTEEN. i dont think you understand the pain that comes with sitting on a bus for 17 hours. i wanted to die. literally. i didnt care how much money it was, i wanted to get on an airplane and fly home. i refused to get on that bus for one more second.
so. we left thursday morning. got there friday afternoon...and got to spend the rest of friday, and half of saturday, then we had to be back on the road to get back to the great ukraine. but i dont want to focus any more of my feelings towards that bus ride. i just want you all to understand the pain i went through...but i'm over it (even thought i'm still kinda bitter about it)
so friday...ROMANIA! we had assigned rooms from the evil tour guide..and she put me with one of the ukranian women that was on the our with us and i was like..umm you have GOT to be kidding me. the last thing i need right now is to be in an awkward hotel room. NO. let me stay with who I want to stay with. you will not tell me what to do! and i was so tired and so just over the whole trip, that tears started welling up in my eyes. but i got over it, and headed up to the room with the girl. so we got to the room, and i started opening my bad, and a girl came in and said "if you wanna go with lisa, i'll take your spot in here" so i was like YES PRAISE JESUS I LOVE YOU! so i got to room with lisa, which was perfect !
but we had an hour to shower and get ready before we were going to head out on our excursions. so lisa hopped in, and i hurried and got in and we got ready and were feelin good! we finally got to shower after 32 hours of traveling, so it was perfect! then we all met and hopped on the bus to head to our first castle. it was preeettttyyyy cool. i mean, it was a castle. how can you go wrong with a castle?
where we were staying was so beautiful..it reminded me a lot of park city. it was a small town in the mountains...and i feel like it was mostly just a ski destination..nothing else much to it.
so we headed to this castle...which was awesome. it was the castle of the first king of romania...and it had a ton of really cool weapons from all the different centuries. it still trips me out that people lived that long ago! it was from like the 1300's! CAN YOU EVEN IMAGINE!? it still freaks me out. the castle reminded me a lot of the castle in beauty and the beast. i loved it! i wanted to move there and sing and dance aroundand live my secret fairytale life :)
also, i cant help but wonder what in the world people were thinking living in those mountains. 1. it was impossible to get to 2. it was cold 3. the massive amounts of snow
but i will give them the beauty. it was amazing <3 i just couldnt get enough!!
so after that, we piled back into the bus to go to the one and only dracula's castle!!! pretty much, that was the only reason i went to romania. so i was so excited.
it took about an hour to get there, so i passed out asleep on our way there. and then i woke up right on time to open my eyes and see the beauty! the castle was so pretty! i mean, it was a normal stone castle..but it was in between the two mountains, and it was just a wonderful sight :)
so we went right up to the castle to go get our tour, and i was super stoked. i had watched the movie about the impailer guy...and i wanted to learn lots and see tons of super cool things. but guess what? it was a DISAPPOINTMENT. i mean, dont get me wrong it was beautiful..outside. but inside alll the walls were painted white..and there was little to nothing inside the castle. i was sorely disappointed. but we got a kick out of our tour guide. he told us a bit of the history, some stories, and then just let us roam around the castle. it was bigger than it looked. and they had this secret stairwell that "dracula" used all the time i guesss. it kinda gave me the heebeejebies. but it was cool!
so we took TONS of pictures, and had a lot of fun there, and then we had about an hour to hang out, look at all the souvenirs, and just kinda do whatever we wanted. so we walked around the shops, bought some postcards and what not...and ate our dinner and then went back to the hotel. we had big plans to go out and walk around the city and do whatever..all this fun stuff. but then once we got to the hotel..and sat in our comfortable beds..we were soo tired we just passed out. me and lisa found an english channel on the t.v. that was playing SNL and we were in HEAVEN!
so the next day..we had big big plans.
you better be ready for this, because i am about to blow you away with what happened.
it was me, becki, lisa, and denay. we didnt just wanna sit around all day, or walk around the town. we wanted to DO something with our time in romania. so..what's better than renting some skis and heading up the mountain for a little fun? and honestly, i cant think of anything more perfect to do than that!
the gondala tram thing was only a 5 minute walk from our hotel to take us up the mountain to the ski resort, so we grabbed our skis, and hopped right on...and then it started to settle in. the wind was blowing the gondala from the 50's back and forth, and we were elevated literally one million miles in the air. and then lets not mention the fact that i remembered how terrified i was of skiing. i was NOT ready to take this on. and actually out of all honestly, i wanted to jump straight out of that gondala and never look back. but we just laughed it off and made it to the top.
to our dismay, the gondala ride only took us up to the ski resort, and we had to continue to buy lift tickets to actually get to the hill to ride down.
now, i am not going to actually disclose any information on what happened on that mountain. but just know that i am NOT a skier. and i should not have ever thought that was a good idea.
lots of drama went down on that mountain. and then getting down was worse. we ran out of money, but still had to pay for the gondala ride going DOWN. becki, lisa, and denay had made it...but they used all the money...and I WAS GOING TO BE STUCK ON THAT MOUNTAIN FOREVER AND EVER!! or hike down...or even worse..SKI! tears started swelling in my eyes as i stood at the gate thinking of all the awful things that were going to happen to me....and then this cute old man let me go through the gate without paying. i wanted to give him the biggest hug in the entire world!
so we rode the gondala down, stressing out because it was 12 and checkout at the hotel was at 12. and I WANTED TO SHOWER BEFORE WE GOT ON THAT STUPID BUS!
so we ran ran ran and returned our skis and ran ran ran to the hotel to try and beat out the cleaning ladies...and WE MADE IT!
praise jesus hallelujah! so i lickity split hopped in the shower and got ready before the cleaning lady came back (for the third time...hehe) and we walked downstairs to the SPA to get our MASSAGES
yum. :)
so we got our massages..it was WONDERFUL and got me all relaxed for the next 17 hours worth of bus rides we had ahead of us...killlll me!
so we got on the bus, rode for a bit, i took my sleeping pill and passed out. full on i couldnt even open my eyes. we go to the romania ukraine boarder and the guy came to take our passports. people woke me up when he was getting on the bus, i tried to keep my eyes open for him to make it to me..and i passed out and when i tried to hand it to him i probably looked a drugged fool...i was NOT coherent at alll! but i was happy that i was able to sleep so much, that was REALLY nice. so i slept and slept until we made it to lyviv...and that was awesome. i just woke right up, and had a few hours..then we would get on the train an BAM in 8 hours finally be homeeee!
blah blah blah. mostly this whole trip was a blur..and i probably made it sound extremely boring. maybe i'll add some pictures to jazz it up a bit....
that sounds good.
:)
all in all...it was an exciting trip.
i had...an interesting time. :) you all better be ready because wanna know what? saturday i leave for budapest, vienna, and prague!!! for ten whole days! what what!
:)))))))))))))
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