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The Road to Sinaia
Generally getting on a train and moving to the next town means a lot of hassle. I thought today might be different somehow because we were just taking a daytrip to the next town without any of our gear or any accommodations to worry about. However, because of station mishaps, it was still a bit of a pain. I didn't think we were going to get on the morning train, but it turned out to be an hour late. Then in the evening we almost missed our return along with a bunch of other day-trippers. You see, you have to buy your ticket from the one little ticket window in the station because it is not possible on the train. Well, there were some people that took a good ten minutes at the window while all these other people from Bucharest were getting irate behind me. We ran onto our train at just the last minute, but I don't know if the others made it.
Tourism
Sinaia is more or less a ski tour which tries to rent a few mountain bikes in the summer. We took the cable car up to 1400m and had a look at the surroundings. Given more time, it is possible to hike all over, but most people were just hanging out.
I felt like I had caught a bit of a bug from either the water or the food, so I spent most of the day walking from one bench to the next. I tried to drink lots of liquids and hoped that it wouldn't get any worse. Back down in the town we made the walk out to the Castle back in the trees. Since it was closed when we arrived, I don't really know who lived there, but they were definitely pretty special.
Communist Equality
Earlier in the day we had asked Joniko about his opinions on the old political systems versus the new game. Like many people in the former eastern block, he doesn't have a lot of faith in the new system. I don't know who ever thought that it would be easy to shift from a 80-20 government-private split to a 30-70 one. Prices have gone up a lot while wages have not. People now have to pay for their houses, doctors and other things that were previously "free." All they see in return is some freedom and
democracy which people like Bill Clinton come and applaud, but the majority don't get any better off. Sure there were problems under the old system where the government subsidized everything and tried to make everyone equal. However, Joniko said the under the old system everyone cheated a little and so it was somehow even. Now, under capitalism, only the rich people can cheat or steal and they just get richer. Watching the cars go by (my favorite way to judge income distribution in a country) in Sinaia, I can see what he means. Eighty percent of the cars are these Renault-engineered Dacia Romanian cars. Once in a while, though, you see some rich punk from Bucharest cruising in his Benz, Land Rover, or BMW. Something isn't right there.
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