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The Comfort Hotel said we could have room service for breakfast (aka, there's no where to eat, please eat in the room :)). We had pancakes (aka crepes) for breakfast. They were pretty good. The "suite" we were staying in was booked tonight, so we had to leave. We were happy to leave, the room was a bit grotty. Despite A/C included, there was no air. I went downstairs to ask about the A/C, as I couldn't find anywhere to turn it on. The front desk lady said, "oh, all rooms in the hotel but 2 have AC. Yours is one of them". She didn't feel bad, apologize, or anything. It was very annoying - it seems to be consistent here, that their biggest concern is how much money they can get from you rather than the service they can provide. While it was 55 degrees outside, the room was slightly warm for some reason. Since our room was facing one of the major roads in Bucharest, if we opened the window, it was incredibly loud. Oh well.
We walked the one block to the hotel that has almost exactly the same name (Hotel Relax Comfort Suites, as opposed to Hotel Comfort Suites). They had a room that was a little smaller (not a suite) for $90. After viewing the room, we made sure we got a room that wasn't facing the major street so we could get some sleep tonight (although the new room did have AC :).
We took the subway to near the largest park in Bucharest. From there, we walked for about 15 minutes, passing the Arcul di Triumf (Triumphant Arch). The arch commemorates the reunification of Romania in 1918, and also its relations to France (named after and similar looking to the one in Paris). Jaimie saw some minibuses, and after walking over to them, she asked just one person who directed us onto a minibus nearby. The price was a bit difficult to determine. The book said about $1, but when we asked, one of the English drivers smoking a cigarette said the equivalent of $3.25. We got on the right bus, and asked around (in Bulgarian). What we learned was no one knew the price, it depended on what the driver wanted to charge! Crazy. Oddly enough, we ended up just paying about $1.50 each.
We had learned that Lake is Lak, so we started asking around for Lak Snagov. A few people pointed us in the right direction (of course Bulgarian only). After walking through a residential neighborhood for 10 minutes, and as we neared the end the current road, we asked a local woman tending to her garden. From her Bulgarian, we learned that there was a hotel nearby that could help us. We walked another 10 minutes, and came to the Villa 23. We walked through the "lobby", and saw a lake. We walked down, excited to catch a glimpse of the monastery. Instead, just a small lake. We went back inside, and started our attempt to explain that we wanted to go to the monastery on Lake Snagov. After our difficult exchange, we learned we were 2 miles away from the part of the lake that we needed to be at. We had an offer for $100 to take us by boat to the monastery, or otherwise, walk back to where we started, catch another 2 buses, and a long walk. There were no taxis which served this area. Needless to say, we were a bit frustrated.
After the hour of waiting, we got on the bus with the older woman and the 2 girls. The girls were getting off at our stop, so that made things easy. We got off with them, and the English speaking one said that if we were waiting for a car, than her other friend could take us. About 2 minutes later, the girl's father showed up, and after explaining the situation to the father, she motioned for us to get in. We were pretty happy about how nice everyone was being to help us. The father drove 65 mph down residential streets. Besides the fear for our lives with the driving, we were getting pretty worried about how far down the road we were going. Then we started adding a few turns here and there, and we were getting really worried! How would we make it back from this adventure!? We finally came to a stop, the girl got out, and the father said in Bulgarian, to stay in, and he would take us to the lake. Nice!
While we had passed a wooden "grave" of a boat, we were waiting at the end of the dock for the boy to show up with a real boat to cross the lake. Instead, he slid the boat forward, and motioned to get in. The boat was a little wet on the inside, you could tell that it had a leak. It was very unstable, we had to sit in the middle, and all the time, I was wondering how fast that water was coming in the boat. Luckily, it was a only about a 3 minute row to the other side. We got out, and began walking down the path leading to the monastery.
We took our boat ride back, and got in the car with the 3 boys. Being in situations like this before, I said I wouldn't pay them until we had arrived in Bucharest. The guy said he needed the money for gas, so I gave him the money (mistake). We rode for about 30 minutes, having a very friendly conversation with the one guy - it was great to have a conversation with him. He was a university student studying tourism, and his family had really sacrificed to send him to the American University in Bucharest. The girl who's father took us to the lake is his girlfriend (he had told us this right when we met him). She even called during our ride, and we said to really thank her for her help, for calling him, and his help as well. Incidentally, he mentioned that many people in the town are upset about the priest at the church - that he has a very bad temper and no one is happy about him being the watchman of the monastery.
We took the subway to the old district, and, not having enough Dracula yet, went to view Dracula's palace that was built in Bucharest. For just $0.30, we were able to enter the ruins of Curtea Veche (Princely Court). While most of the structure above ground was demolished, the hallways below were still intact. The area here flourished with traders and vendors after Dracula built a palace next to it and inside the complex walls. Possibly going along with the legend of Dracula (depending on how you look at it :)), just next to the Curtea Veche was the Biserica Curtea Veche (old Court Church), which was built in 1559 (a century after Dracula ruled). This is the oldest church in Bucharest, and had a very gothic feel on the inside. We have found Romania and Bulgaria to be very religious countries, with many young people visiting churches and praying. Many people were passing through, saying prayers, and kissing the religious icons. After this, we saw the hotel we had considered staying at. Unfortunately, our guide book didn't have the best write up, but we found it to be a very nice hotel. The hotel Naul Lui Manuc, or Manuc's Inn, is one of Bucharest's oldest hotels, from the 19th century. It had such a special medieval character to it, with wooden staircases on the outside of a beautiful center courtyard. We decided, now 3pm, that it was time to have lunch, and decided to eat. It started to rain just a few minutes later, confirming this was a smart choice (as the outdoor courtyard tables had umbrellas :).
We walked back and called our late lunch an early dinner. We were considering going to Curtes de Arges, where Vlad Tepes true castle (in ruins) lies. But after this experience, and how remote that town sounds (very little tourists), and after a confirmation from our English speaking friend that we should expect difficulty there as well, we have now decided against it. We're going to "try" to make it to Brasov, close to Bran castle - the commercial Dracula castle. All in all, it was a day of mixed experiences. Some unforgettably kind acts, and some "give me all your money" greedy actions as well. Seems like a mixed bag here! Day 167 - Bucharest < | Index | Photo Galleries | > Day 169 - Brasov © 2007 Blue Ocean Studios, LTD. All rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Services | About | Contact Prints | Return Policy | View Cart World Travel Galleries | World Travel Blog | Links |
Ok - today was just too crazy to not detail the craziness. Sorry about the length!
Of course, the hotel attempts to take advantage of you with the exchange rate too. All list their price in Euros, and mark up the price to the local currency by a 5% exchange rate error in their favor. Funny though, as we could pay in Euro, and there was an Exchange booth on the way into the hotel (so we didn't have to have the 5% added on for no reason). Also, while they accept credit cards, they do add an additional 5% as well. 
Our destination for the day was Snagov, just 20 miles north of Bucharest. In Snagov, there's a lake, with a monastery in the center. It is legend that Vlad Tepes, aka Dracula, was buried there. Vlad was the son of Vlad Dracul, who was a member of the order of the dragon. Dracula means son of the dragon, which is how Vlad got the name. He became a prince of Wallachia, southern Romania. He was well known for fighting the Ottomans, and preventing them from expanding their empire in souther Romania. He implemented torture techniques, such as impaling his foes through the chest with a wooden stake, where they wood stay awake for at least 48 hours before passing away. Not the nicest guy :), but hey, it was medieval times (I'm sure a lot worse things happened!).
There were no announcements of where we were stopping. After 45 minutes of driving, and most recently seeing a bunch of signs and already 2 stops in what we believed to be Snagov, we asked a few people where the stop for Lake Snagov (Lak Snagovvv) was. They said to get off at the next stop. We got off, and were basically on a small town street in a mostly residential neighborhood in the middle of nowhere. Yikes. We knew this was going to be very difficult to find.
We walked back to where we started (the unlabeled bus stop). We asked an older woman on the corner which began a huge exchange that lasted the entire hour we waited for our bus. While we don't, of course, speak Bulgarian, we learned pretty much all we needed from this lady. However, given our problems already, we wanted to be very sure. We ended up asking 2 young girls also waiting for the bus, to help us translate (one of them spoke English well). The girls ended up discussing the whole situation with the older woman, along with a few other people who joined in the debate. They were all being so helpful. The younger girls told the older woman that the second bus we wanted no longer runs. The girls told us that it was just 2 miles to the lake from the end of the first bus. So we said we could walk that if we had to. 
We arrived at the lake about 30 seconds later, and there were 3 guys hanging out there. He explained what we wanted to the guys. There was a sign with a phone number listed, for those who want to visit the monastery on the island. The father made the phone call, said it was all set up, and we were on our way. One of the boys spoke good English, and explained that one of the boys could row us across, and we could pay a priest to get into the monastery. Oddly, Romania is in the middle of changing currency, where 10,000 old currency = 1 new currency. Doesn't sound odd, but they used to refer to 10,000, as just 10. Thus, sometimes they say 10, and mean 1, and everything in between. When we asked how much, he first told us $100 to row us across. I was flabbergasted. I realized this must be a confusion with this lei issue, and we started talking and figured out he was using the old money, and that he wanted $11. We worked that down to $7. Since our concern about getting back was pretty high, I also asked how we could get back. He said that one of them could drive us to Bucharest if we wanted. They offered $25, and we ended up with $18 to drive us back. It's a bit more than the $3 we paid to get there, but we didn't want to think about the challenges of getting back, and were happy with that. 
As we approached, the "priest" walked from his barn house, with a key. He asked us for $5 each, and showed us a ticket, which had a charge of 3 lei, with a "1" added in front, to make it 13. Annoying. While he also didn't speak English, we negotiated, and ended up just paying the $2.5 each that the boy told us we should have to pay. We walked in the church, and began to look around. We read a sign that was in English, about Dracula. In the center of the back of the church, the grave of Vlad Tepes, or Dracula, was in the center with 3 candles lit above his grave. It was a bit strange, that the church was locked, on an island, yet these candles were lit while it was perfectly light out. Strange strange. Anyways, really saving a full look at the grave for last, I walked back to the board with the writing, and began to read. I then pulled out my camera to take a picture of the writing to remember it by. The "priest" came over quickly, and said no photos. He pulled a sign out which said 20 euros ($25) for pictures!! I was a bit disappointed at that, as there was no way we were paying $25 for a picture of dracula's grave! I started trying to negotiate, but he wouldn't budge on this one. I exchanged communication telling him that we paid to get in, and that should include a picture - and if he wouldn't let us take a picture, that we wanted our money back. He gave us our money, and started yelling at us to get off his island. Some priest. He literally chased us out of the church and off the island. Sad, because I really didn't want the $5 back - I just wanted a picture. Also sad, was that while we saw the grave, we really didn't have a chance to absorb the atmosphere, and see everything in detail. I was disappointed that I argued this point with the guy, but he was obviously a crazy guy.
After the 30 minutes, we stopped. He got out, and we followed. We asked where we were - and he said at the airport. After a long discussion, he said that this was a far as the driver could go, because he didn't have a permit to drive in the city. We were a bit annoyed about this, as we had paid a bit extra to not have to go through any more challenges. There was nothing we could do. He did explain how to get back, and it turned out to be very simple. A simple $0.30 10 minute bus ride took us back to the large park where we had started in the morning. 
While they didn't have an English menu, an English speaking waiter came over and helped us order chicken and a salad. The waiter was just suggesting things to eat, which we did order, but I made it a point to have the waiter show us the prices on the menu. I had been annoyed enough here in Romania to let them win that one. Unfortunately for the London travelers behind us, this wasn't the case. They had ordered items, got the wrong orders, and than were nickeled and dimed on each item on their plate (ie, they were charged for the fries, potatoes, vegetables, and bread that they didn't order). They weren't first time travelers, so they argued half of the items off their check. It wasn't the difference between a $15 lunch and a $20 that they cared about. It was just the trying to take advantage of them that they argued about. Very annoying to have to deal with things like that.