The Morning After The Night Before

Buna ziua

Had a lovely 15th July evening - after many failed attempts on behalf of H, trying to call home (phonecards are cheap, but run out incredibly quickly; the Romanian operator is inoperable; mobile phones cost the earth), we made our way into Brasov centre to find nourishment in the form of food and copious drink.

Found a lovely Irish pub called Deane's, run by an Irishman (!) who came to Romania 6 years ago after meeting a Romanian lady. Had incredibly unhealthy food in the form of the 'Ulster Fry' and bottles of beer to wash it down, while listening to the live Romanian band downstairs play covers of 'Every Breath You Take' and other 80s hits..

We then had a visit from the man himself, Haydn Deane, who came over and chatted to us for a while (with the true Irish opener of 'Have I met you before? No? Ah, bejeesus, must have been in my dreams...'). He was going to sing with the band later in the evening, (he has his own band which play old Sinatra hits) but we missed out as it seemed half of Romania decided to pack inside the downstairs bar, hence no room at the inn for us. We also had a nice chat with his nephew, who came over just over a year ago to help his uncle run the pub, and he seemed relieved to be able to have a conversation with someone who didn't speak pidgin english.

After beer, we made our way back to a pub near the hostel called the 'For Sale' pub. It has a great atmosphere, dark and dingy, with candles on every table and broken shells from the free peanuts they provide, crunched into the wooden floorboards. We decided to have Black Russians (vodka, coffee liqueur and, usually, coke), which the bartenders didn't know how to make. So they spent the next 15 minutes poring over how-to cocktail books, gathering ingredients from here, there and everywhere (at one point, they got espressos from the machine and poured them in) - we weren't quite sure what to expect.

The drinks arrived in front of us in whisky glasses with two enormous slices of orange on the side, and we had a large gulp. They were very very strong. But very delicious. But as we're both lightweights, and are too old to take alcohol in great quantities any more, we ordered a bottle of coke to help the drinks go down. (Surreptitiously poured the coke into our drinks without the bartenders noticing - they were so proud of their concoction, we couldn't offend them)

After receiving the very expensive bill (as they went to so much trouble, they charged what they liked...) we made our weaving way back to the hostel. Trying to turn the key in the lock (it's a tricky one, and gets stuck easily, not just because we were tipsy), we were confronted with Eugene on the other side of the door, who had heard our efforts. Very chirpy as usual, asking us if we had had a good night and apologised for not having seen us during the day as he had 'got lost in the foggy'.

Admitted that we had been out celebrating due to H's birthday, and he got very animated - 'so sorry, so sorry I did no realise (went to check on passport details) so sorry, yes, 15 July, so sorry...' Had a bit of chat, he apologised profusely again for not noticing, and we went to bed.

Woke up this morning, Eugene popped his head round the bedroom door and presented two pastries 'for her majesty's birthday' (H is 'her majesty' due to English roots and living in Berkshire...), which was incredibly sweet of him.

Had a lazy morning and ventured into town around midday, where we found ourselves in the middle of a beer festival, advertising the local brew 'Ciucas'. There was a main stage, with a strange girl singing Romanian songs which were scarily out-of-tune (still, the locals seemed to like it, and were bopping away), and hundreds of benches with people drinking beer from plastic cups and eating home-made sausages with mustard.

It was lunchtime so we made our way to one of the many sausage-sellers, and asked for the whole package (4 sausages, dollop of mustard and 3 pieces of bread on paper plates) which costs just over 1 pound. The sausages are a local delicacy, called Mici, or 'little ones', and are made from ground beef and pork. We chose the stall that had the least understanding of english, or hand signals, so it proved hard work.

We managed to order, but when it came to money, they dragged a scary, animated woman across who knew some english. In fact, she knew the word 'thank you', which she kept repeating, but which didn't really help. There was, however, a man behind us who spoke good english and who translated so we managed to pay - but the scary lady got into a hushed conversation with him as we started to walk away, and startled us by shouting her newly learned word, 'ENJOY' in a particularly menacing way. 'Thank you' we said. 'Thank you' she said. We ran.

On our way back, we walked through the main park and saw FOUR wedding parties, all within metres of each other, having their photos taken with other brides and grooms as a backdrop. Also another procession where a wedding party had rented a taxi firm, and they drove down the main road, hooting and flashing their hazards. The taxis, not the bride and groom. So Sunday is a good day to get married in Brasov!

We're not planning much this afternoon, just having a lazy day and a rest, before going to Bran tomorrow on the bus, to visit Dracula's Castle. May buy some phonecards to phone home if we can, if not, we will probably wait until Bucharest, where we will be able to call cheaply from an internet cafe/hostel.

Hope you're all doing ok, thinking of you, wish you were here!!

Lots of love

Axxxxx and Hxxxx