Time travelling in the wild west

On the train from budapest to Sighişoara, trying to sleep — with no success at all — I look over the window every now and then. I can assure you that Romania looks like you travelled in time kind of a century. In the past!

My camera battery is empty so I can't take pictures, thus you somehow has to believe me.

Apart of breath-taking landscapes — like moving 19th-century paintings — my attention is captured by farm workers.


An elder man is picking up with his hands the hay he just cut using a sickle. The most used transport — at least in Transilvania — seems to be the horse-driven cart, and crossing the countryside your sight may stumble upon semi-demolished warehouses, 18th-century houses and haylofts, women wearing traditional costumes for their daily life as well as some luxury-SUV waiting side by side with a horse cart at the rail-road crossing.

This really is the wild-west of Europe.


I'm now writing this notes sitting in front of my 0.71 EUR half liter of Ciuc beer (pronounced as in Italian) in a small deserted cafe in Braşov, listening to traditional music.

And no, I'm not in the 3rd stage cantos regionales!

Oh, and by the way, don't ask me about Sighişoara, because — not having sleeped all night — I fell asleep just during my station stop, proceeding happily to Braşov!

Notes to self

1. always have the camera batteries fully charged.


2. be aware of time-zone changing when setting the alarm to your scheduled train stop.


3. don't try to write about farm life, hay and the like, because you don't know this kind of words in English!