Vienna to Bucharest

Enjoyed the ambiance of the Dacia Express from Vienna to Bucharest.

This was a Romanian train and a different culture. The clean, neat Austrian ambiance had gone, replaced by the laid back ‘take it as it comes’ Romanian approach. We were 20 minutes late leaving, the heating would only do ‘full on’ and the sink in the loos was permanently overflowing as the tap was stuck at ‘on’. Lots of new experiences, including being woken by armed border guards at 2.00 am for extreme vetting. And a restaurant car that only had alcohol, crisps and fortunately good coffee. Glad of our carrier bag of Austrian goodies.

We wound our way slowly and scenically through the Carpathians in wall to wall sunshine. Serious snow in places, at least it looked serious to a Cornishman. The day on the train sped by as we read books and watched the scenery. In Bucharest it was 25degrees as we changed trains for Constanta, all going smoothly to plan. After a bit of haggling at the taxi rank we made the 6 km ride out to the seafront town of Mamaia, just north of Constanta. The apartment was good, and lovely staff in the Tomis Garden Hotel.

Wonderful to sleep in a bed that did not move.

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