Day 22: Just a few notes on Romania in general that we haven't had time to write anywhere else so far firstly!! Romania is desperate to join the EU and is doing all it can to convince the powers that be that it is ready for such an "honour." We're sure all the economic conditions, once satisfied will be fantastic for all the people in Romania who have actually got some money. Unfortunately there are millions of people - mainly the gypsies (who the government refuses to even acknowledge as far as we can tell) - who have none whatsoever. It's a sad state of affairs but hopefully people like Marian can help make a bit of a difference. The gap between rich and poor is very very obvious - people either way designer gear and drive four by fours or can barely afford shoes and get around by horse and cart. It's like Victorian England here sometimes!! Another important thing; the traffic lights here are great. They have a countdown so you know exactly how long you have left of the green light! Simple, yet brilliant!! That goes for the pedestrians crossing the road too. Why can't we have that in the UK!! Another thing that we could learn from the Romanians is how to run a train on time (to the minute) on a 400km journey. They seem to have no problems whatsoever, this despite the fact that large distances of the network is just a single track!! The trains coming the other way are held in stations (with two platforms obviously) until the other one gets there. This is all built in to the timetable and works perfectly - great for us!!! Anyway - day 22: We were supposed to get the train this morning at 11:15 but missed it so ended up killing an hour or so at Brasov station before getting on a little two carriage train that resembled a mini TGV. We found seats and off we set. The train was rammed but we thought it was going straight to Bucharest so weren't worried. Alas, at the next stop (all of ten minutes down the track) two people got in with reservations exactly where we were sat. There was no way of telling as no tickets were on the seats or anything but we were stuck with it. We sat on the steps that were nearby and stuck it out for three hours or so as more and more people got on to what now resembled a cattle truck - London rush hour basically - but with lots less people having washed that morning :o( We found the hostel near the station pretty easily and took a badly needed pair of showers. The room itself was bizzarre, it was on two levels and contained three beds, a model classic car collection and the ugliest doll in history!! We set off to explore the old town but were disappointed with what Bucharest had to offer. We had dinner at a great Italian (traditional Romanian food is not Veggie friendly!!) and stocked up on food from local patisseries. We had a ten hour journey to Varna to look forward to and previous experience had told us to get food and water the day before as we usually got to the station with minutes to spare hehe!! I don't think we'll come back to Bucharest as it is similar to Warsaw: mainly a business town, full of tourists yet not tourist friendly - no real attractions to speak of except the odd nice church. Never mind. We were sad to be leaving Romania but looking forward to hitting the Black Sea coast with it's sandy beaches! YAY!!!! James and Ellie