Then I was unable to find the bus that goes to the train station (which has a bus station next to it) so I cheated and took a taxi. I located the elusive Maxi-Taxis, and after much poor communication with people who could only speak Romanian, I found a minibus to Sighisoara. It left the station a full two hours after I arrived there, and while I was there, met another Kiwi bloke and his English girlfriend. Chatted to them for a while and they were just as baffled as I was. The station was filled with shady characters. Two men kept coming up to me, one came up three times before I eventually just said, "stop talking to me!".
I got on the bus, paid 26 Lei, and pointed to a phrase in my Romanian phrasebook for "Can you let me know where to get off?", and two hours later, I was dropped off in Sighisoara. Fortunately, there was a young man on the bus who could speak english quite well, and was translating for the bus driver for me. They told me where I could go to flag down a bus back, and when the last one was. I thanked them and went wandering.
The sun was already fading so I decided it would be wise not to stay for too long. I scribbled a map of the path I took so that I could find my way back. I had no idea which way to go so I guessed, and evidently correctly, because I almost immediately found the places I wanted to see. Well it wasn't hard really, Sighisoara is fairly small. Unfortunately, they were doing alot of roadworks and quite a few of the cobbled streets had been torn up and were occupied by diggers and tractors, which did a good job at spoiling the atmosphere. I found Vlad Tepes's birthplace, which is what I had wanted to see the most, I suppose. It's now a café, so I didn't go in, but was sure to take atleast one stupid picture of myself standing infront of it.
I took a wee few pictures, which I will have up soon. I only spent an hour in Sighisoara after all the effort I gad gone to to get there. I was actually rather worried about not being able to get back to Brasov. So I followed my map back and found the spot where a bus might stop. I waited by the roadside for some time, and made myself a little sign reading 'Brasov'. A couple of buses went past, but going to other locations, and I kept trying to stifle the worry I felt about being stranded in this piffling, tiny Medieval township. Luckily, a bus went past with 'Brasov', amongst other locations, written on a sign in the window. I held up my sign and flagged the bus down with my other arm, and it stopped. The driver only spoke Romanian but let me on when I told him where I wanted to go. I couldn't believe it had worked and that I was going to get back, I was so happy, BUT! It was probably the scariest bus trip of all time, the driver drove like a fucking nutter, and at one point, pissed off a guy from a taxi. I had no idea what was going on but there was alot of shouting and police around when the bus pulled over. Then the guy from the taxi got onto the bus for the rest of the trip, and the shouting and arguing continued, and then another man got involved and I really wanted to tell them to shut up, but after ages they finally did. I wasn't sure if he was taking his anger out on his driving, or if he always drove like that badly. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, I got back into Brasov and the driver charged me 15 lei, no idea why the trip back was so much cheaper. Got a bus back to the hostel, and by this point had a splitting headache and thought I might fall over. Hopefully tomorrow will be smoother, whatever I end up doing with it. Something easier, methinks. So now I am watching crappy movies in the hostel, still plagued by the headache caused by the stress of the day, and am very much looking forward to bed!
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