Dracula's Domain

Monica and I went to Romania to visit, Alex, one of the old Istanbul trainees. The 12 hour bus ride was a great experience but also a bit sketchy. There is some kind of weird trafficking going on betweenthe two countries. So being from North America, and having never made this trip before, we were completely out of place. Aside from the little Turkish we know, we could not understand any of the languages (BTW, Romanian has the same type of sounds as Italian and belongs to the same family as Spanish and Portuguese. We were expecting it to sound a bit more like Russian than anything. Romanian is the only romance language to be developed in eastern Europe). The bus attendant understood our vulnerability and pointed to a woman and told us she would help us out along the way.

The woman seemed to be very fashionable with her black stiletto boots and black jacket decorated with rhinestones and fur lined hood. At the first check point between Turkey and Bulgaria we got out of the bus and weren’t exactly sure what we were supposed to do so we followed everyone else down the road to the boarder patrol. Along the way the women started showing us the whole checkpoint routine and asking where we were from and what we were doing. Then she started taking out all of this gold jewelry and putting rings on my fingers and braceletes on my writsts. Monica and I weren’t sure if she was giving them to us or if she was trying to sell them or what. Then I looked up noticed we were walking towards the boarder. I freaked out and rememberedwhat happened to Bridget Jones on the sequel when her friend gave Bridget something to take home from Thailand because it wouldn't fit in her own suitcase. I started having thoughts of being thrown in prison with a bunch of prostitutes with no bras who didn't speaka lick of English except for random songs by Madonna. I was struggling to get all the jewelry off and back to her before we got to the boarder. I felt bad because she looked offended.

When I described the women to my Romanian friends they instantly started laughing. Turns out she was a gypsy trying to get me to smuggle the gold jewelry from Turkey through Bulgaria into Romania.

Thank youBridget! Now I don't feel quite as bad having paid 8 Million TurkishLira to see such a horrible sequel. If it wasn't for "Bridget Jones,The End of Reason" being the only movie in English at the theaters inIstanbul I could have been stuck in some freezing cold Bulgarian prison and raped by the guards until the U.S. Foreign Service Officer would come to save me.

Bucharest was just as I expected it. Cold, dirty, grey, and bleak.We stayed in a one room apartment with only two pull out couches for Monica, me, and three other guys. Two of whom seemed to be an exact replica of Doug and Steve Butabi from "A Night at the Roxbury." It was hilarious!! Their quest to pick up chicks and their mating dances were just as ridiculous if not worse. They ended up to be pretty cool guys and were wonderful hosts for picking us up from the bus station at 5 AM and letting us chill at their pad for three nights.

There wasn't really much to see in Bucharest, one historical building and a few churches. The biggest deal seemed to be the shopping mall. To us it was pretty cool since they actually had something different than every single store in Turkey. Ahh…the feeling of variety, how wonderful.

At night the guys took us out on the town for some fun and drinks. Again the feeling of having the ability to choose from a list of more than two beers was overwhelming. This made the decision much more difficult but definitelywell worth it. I never appreciated the taste of a semi-decent beer so much as I had then. The clubs were cool, pretty much reminded me of the bars from home. We actually couldn’t get in to a few of them because of the dress code. Monica and I didn’t realize we had to pack our big boots and hot pants.

The women in Bucharest were super fashionable. They all wore stilettos and super cute jeans (folded up one time to see the boots), tight shirts and full make-up. The girls were pimped out and played the game better than anyone. It was interesting to watch male-female interaction at the clubs and bars. It’s completely opposite of Turkey. The women seemed so much freer. It makes me realize once again how restricted women are in Turkey. It seems so weird that even I have adapted to the Turkish culture and felt a little uncomfortable seeing the way the girls were dressed and the way they were acting in Bucharest.

The last day we went ice skating, drank hot wine with cinnamon, and were served a delicous dinner. We couldn’t believe the guys were able to make such good food using such an old bent up electric burner. But it was wonderful. We had chicken, super yummy fries, and some pickled red peppers.

We took some great pictures including one with us petting a lamb that a small gypsy girl was carrying as we were leaving the one of the bars. Unfortunately I didn’t get one of the Roxbury brothers or our romantic candle-lit dinner before the battery died. Even more unfortunately my camera went missing. I must have left it at the apartment because I couldn't find it anywhere in our luggage. I really hope to gypsy women didn’t take it as we were preparing our passports for one of the eight check points on the way home.

The ride home was quite nice aside from our being late for the bus and having to be taxied to catch up to it. We knew now who to lookout for and what to do at every check point. Plus we got to sit up in front in the no smoking section and could see out the front windshield like we were sitting in an omni theater watching some documentary on the villages of Bulgaria or the trafficking of goods between Turkey and Romania.

I still don’t understand how the bus driver found the way to Istanbul. He took all these turns on tiny little roads through tiny little ghost towns in the back country without any signs directing us where to go. It seemed as if he was driving in the general direction just hoping to make it to our final destination. Even though we had such a great time in Romania, seeing the first mosque in Turkey all lit up at night was the most wonderful feeling. We were home. Hearing Turkish music and the Turkish language (each time the bus was pulled over by the police) seemed surprisingly soothing. The whole trip really made me appreciate Turkey for its beauty, mystery, and its warm and friendly people. I love Turkey!