Brasov, Romania

I was very excited to leave Belgrade. Don't get me wrong, it's a cool city and there are tons of things to do there. I just wanted to put many miles between myself and those nocturnal blood-sucking creatures. The next destination was Brasov, Romania. I hopped on the train at four p.m. and settled myself down for an eighteen-hour trip.

I shared my compartment with a guy from Romania. After a brief exchange (brief because I knew two words in Romanian and he knew five in English), I laid down on my pack and went to sleep. When I woke up, I found my new friend sprawled across the other half of my bag, snoring away.

Fortunately, I was able to learn a bit about Romanian travel etiquette: namely no-smoking signs should always be ignored, and it is bad form to place your trash in the bin; it should always be thrown out of the window.

Border crossings are insane in Romania. At least five people will stop by your compartment to ask a variety of questions. One of the border guards really started grilling me. Why was I traveling alone? Who was I visiting? Where was my boyfriend? After looking at my passport for a bit, he finally he shook his head, sighed, and said, "A pretty girl like you, traveling alone..."

Was the border guard...flirting with me? And if so, was he insane? I was sweaty, disheveled, covered in hideous red blotches, and coated with approximately eighteen layers of Hipergel, the magical anti-itch ointment that molted off my skin in thick black sheets. Definitely not "pretty" by any stretch of the imagination.

The ride into Transylvania was absolutely gorgeous. The train I caught out of Bucharest was packed. I was stuffed into a compartment with a bunch of people; we looked a bit like cows headed to the slaughterhouse. I opted to stand in the aisle and stick my head out of the window à la
Weewoll style. (For those of you who wonder what a "Weewoll" is, it was the name of my first [deceased] dog. If you are wondering why he was named Weewoll, keep wondering because it's a long story, and I don't feel like explaining it right now.)

I lost my tweezers. This is a colossal problem. Will purchase new ones today, averting the possibility of a full-on eyebrow disaster.