Another one of those travel days

I keep on thinking of the expression: "Fool Me Once, Shame on You, Fool Me Twice, Shame on Me". The first time was in Siauli. If you didn't read my blog entry, check it out.
It wasn't really my fault back there, but I should have done my research, and known. This time, thinking that "Iasi Days" doesn't mean much for accommodations in Romania's second largest city was my fault.

The day started out nice... a tour of "Milestii Mici" in the morning, including a nice meal and some good wine at 11am. Got to the bus station at 1pm. And got a minibus to Iasi at 2pm. Bus started out empty but we picked up people as we went along... getting full by the time we hit the border. The Moldavian border crossing was easy... maybe 20 minutes. The Romanian side was a different story. The customs officers all but stripped the minibus... looking for god knows what. And then searched all of our bags. The locals have never seen this before, but I guess I'm lucky to have been part of this "drill". Then the bus driver took some of the passengers that didn't have clearance to go to Romania back to the other border. Then the bus driver drove about 150km/h to make up for time... on very curvy roads... all the babushkas on the bus were quite scared... and at one point grabbed my hand in fright... and said something... maybe a prayer? Anyway... I got to Iasi in one piece.

Now I went to the hostel in my guide book first, got lost. I realized that there were a lot of people partying in this town... a big parade (on Tuesday afternoon), and of course... the hostel was booked full. So I went to the expensive hotel close by... same. So I was a little smarter this time... I went to the train station (got lost again) and booked an over night sleeper train to Bucharest. I wasn't intending to go there, but it's the only logical choice if I want to get some sleep... everything else would get me to the middle of nowhere at 2am! So I guess I'll see Bucharest after all... I hope I get some sleep... and the beds aren't that bad... because my back really hurts from carrying my large pack all day.