Around mid-day, we hopped a local train from Sinia to Brashov. From the main train station in Brashov we had to take a taxi ($2 USD) to the center of Brashov to the railway ticket office. There we bought tickets to Budapest on a first class sleeper train (#R346? departing Brashov at 19:11 and arriving Budapest at about 09:00 the next day). My notes indicate that the tickets for the two of us cost a total of only 572,000 Romanian lei or about $77 USD which is very inexpensive for a long, international sleeper ride. From the center of Brashov back to the railway station via taxi. We didn't understand why we could not buy these tickets at the railway station.

The sleeper car, which was owned by the Hungarian railroad system, was very clean and comfortable. It had its own steward who set up our bunks and sold us snacks and drinks. There were only a few passengers on the car so we had one compartment all to ourselves. At max, individual compartments can accomodate up to six people on fold-down bunks. I judge that a full compartment would feel a little crowded.

For me, there are few travel experiences so conducive to wild thoughts as a night ride through a strange land. The following are excerpts from my rough log:

...As we speed through the countryside I notice from the angle of the setting sun that we have been heading well northeast... rather than west toward Budapest! Since the compartment is so comfortable and we are practically assured of a good night's sleep, this does not bother me all that much...

...the sun has set in the west and a full moon is rising over dark, forested mountains to the east... In Transylvania, is there any special significance associated with the appearance of a full moon in late September?

... I caught the names of some of the little towns as we swept past... From my map, I now understand that the mountains now rising around us are the Carpathians,... heavily timbered and mostly roadless, still home to ... wolves. A relatively short distance across those ridges is the infamous Borgo Pass where, at a long ago midnight, the horse-drawn passenger coach from Bistritz to Bucovina was scheduled to deliver Jonathan Harker into the hands of Count Dracula's footman. But according to the book, as the coach approached the pass the driver says to Harker...

"There is no carriage here. The Herr is not expected after all. He will now come on to Bukovina, and return tomorrow or the next day; better the next day." Whilst he was speaking the horses began to neigh and snort and plunge wildly, so that the driver had to hold them up. Then, amongst a chorus of screams from the peasants and a universal crossing of themselves, a caleche, with four horses, drove up behind us, overtook us and drew up beside the coach. I could see from the flash of our lamps, as the rays fell on them, that the horses were coal black and splendid animals. They were driven by a tall man, with a long brown beard and a great black hat, which seemed to hide his face from us. I could only see the gleam of a pair of very bright eyes, which seemed red in the lamplight, as the turned to us.

Ahh...an idea! We had very much wanted to visit the painted monasteries of Bucovina, but there are no rail lines which cross the Carpathians from the south to the north, and we couldn't find convenient connections on trains which skirt the range on the west or east. But my map shows a couple of small roads, probably passable, which come down from Bucovina and meet our rail line at Gheorgheni or Toplita. Had we thought ahead, Teddy from Bucovina Estur could be waiting for us at the next station. I wonder if Teddy is tall with a long brown beard and wears a great black hat...