Warning: This text is still growing, so if you drop in in some time, there will we the next version. The truth is, I just don't feel like writing the whole story at once ;-)
When we gathered at the railway station Warsaw Wschodnia (East) on August 5th 1999, it appeared that there were 11 of us: the guides: Maciek Szreter, Maciek Kubacki, Ada¶ Panasik and 9 ordinary participants - girls: Agata, Aneta, I¶ka, Karolina and Ola and boys: Jêdrek, Grze¶ and me. The last one - Šwiatosław - was supposed to join us in Przemy¶l. We bought the tickets to Przemy¶l for 20 PLN and we got in an evening train from Warsaw to Zagórz.
6.8. We got off in Przeworsk - the train actually
didn't stop at the station, but in a plain field, so we had to
walk a few kilometres in the middle of the night. We skipped over
some railway tracks and we reached the station. Despite the early
hour (about 3 a.m.) the station bakery was open and full of
tasteful cakes. Unfortunately the waiting-room was so stinking,
that it was much better to sleep outside, on a lawn by the
locomotive. The sleep couldn't be long - a train to Przemy¶l
would leave an hour and a half later. In Przemy¶l we met
Šwiatosław and made some shopping. I was disappointed with my
credit card - I wasn't able to take any cash from a bank
automate, so I was still in debts on Grze¶'s behalf. The coach
was pretty comfortable (Scania), and ran from Przemy¶l to
Suceava (in Romania) daily. The remarkable majority of passengers
were Polish students who wanted to see the TSE'99 and hike in the
Carpathes. Some of them were real globetrotters - they have
trekked in Nepal and had a lot to tell. The driver was also an
interesting person - he smuggled hundreds of Polish bags, as well
as chocolate bars, cocoa "Puchatek" and faked Viagra
called "Vigora". He was also used to bribing custom
officers at borders - he knew whom to bribe and how much to give.
Przemy¶l, as you might know, is not far away from the Ukrainian
border, so we reached it quickly. A Polish custom officer made no
problems, but on the Ukrainian side of the crossing the problems
began - we had to fill up the declarations specifying the amount
of various currencies we had and any valuable electronics
equipment. Although we filled them, some of them using Cyrilic
alphabet, some Latin, no one collected them. We had to pay USD 4
for the insurance.
The travel through Ukraine was boring - rare stops at dirty
parkings where a few locals sell their home-made products (mostly
food). We passed Drohobitch, Striy, Tchernovtsi (sorry, I don't
know what are their name in proper English). We saw some cows
walking in the road and ordinary poverty, although there were
many new churches and houses being built.
The driver was a bit angry, because he had hoped to be in Siret
(Ukrainian-Romanian border) before 6 p.m., as his brother - a
custom officer - finished his duty. We didn't arrive on time and
the penalty was a 4-hour stay at the border. The custom officers
needed to demonstrate their superiority - they told us to take
our bags out and tell which belongs to whom.
7.8. Some of our participants made some tea and
sandwiches, but I was too sleepy both to help them and to eat
anything. I fell asleep and slept surprisingly comfortably. At 5
a.m. a train to Punta arrived and we got into it. The train was
very slow, so the guides decided to get off in Rădăuți
(Radowce is its Polish name) to visit a monastery (there was
accidentally a holy mess) and a local museum where you can see
some folk machines producing butter, etc. and local clothes. You
can buy some of the works if you like. We played planowanie
(planning) and I looked around at a local bazar (market
square).
8.8. Very early in the morning we got off at the
Simeria station. Despite the middle of the night, the station was
thriving. I drank a beer (6500 leu - 1/2 litre) and ate a dish of
bean soup (7500 leu - ciorba de fasole). There were a few elder
women eating pork and then sleeping with their faces on the
table. Grze¶ liked them so much that he asked them if he could
take them a photo, but they refused. Anyway we took a photo of
some village men in regional hats, but he had to pay them a
little. They were very talkative - what a pity that no one of us
spoke Romanian well enough.
In the morning we got off in Petroșani, bought some bread and
began to look around for a mean of transort to Cabana (hostel).
We succeded and soon afterwards we sat in a car packed to the
limits going towards the hostel. The hostel appeared to be the
lower station of a cable railway, and going up cost 20000 ROL
(1,25 USD). During the way up we had a chance to admire beautiful
views of the area.
We were finally in the Paring Mountains! (Parâng according to
the new Romanian spelling).
9.8. Where we were packing our things to backpacks, a
shepherd with his herd came, but we just ignored him. The
climbing up the ridge took us approximately two hours and two
shorter stops.
When we were at the ridge there was nothing tiring in walking - a
bit up, a bit down, but generally we kept the altitude - around
2500 m a.s.l. When we finally reached the highest peak of those
mountains - Parângul Mare 2516, we had a stop and ate
sandwiches.
10.8. That was a very hot day - just single clouds
skimming through the sky. At first we had to climbed the ridge
again and it was remarkably harder than the day before. Jêdrek
and me climbed first and immediately tried to screen the blowing
wind. Later we walked on a ridge path (płaj in Polish) and we
met a herd of horses.
I confessed that I had never erected a Chinese-style tent on a
slope. Ada¶ and Maciek heard it and promised that they will give
me a chance to do so. They kept the promise - we had no
alternative, so Maciek Szreter found a relatively even place, so
that we set a camp. I erected the tent, but I didn't feel like
sleeping in there. Grze¶ took the chance and turned his tent
into a stock and slept in my tent, while I slept under the stars.
We watched the setting sun and it was something abnormal in it -
it wasn't red, but just pale yellow. Maciek Kubacki foretold it
would be a three-day rain soon.
11.8. The day of the eclipse - it didn't indulge us with the weather. There was a little shower in the morning, so we were very nervous about the weather. First we walked up to full our bottles with water. Maciek decided we would be watching the eclipse on the Mioca 2146 peak.
The moment when the Moon finally was covering the Sun, and the corona appearing from its side was really breathtaking.
12.8. We had to split in two groups - some of us didn't have enough time to hike more, on the other hand - on the 15th there would be a special feast in Cozia Monastery. Grze¶ decided to go down, so I join that group. There were now six of us: Aneta, Ada¶, Maciek Kubacki, Šwiatosław, Grze¶ and me. We were pleasantly impressed by the amount of mushroom in the wood. Each of us found some and they were cooked later on for the dinner. Luckily there were no poisonous ones among those that we ate.
Finally we reached the valley and we saw some cottages and beehives. About 500 m further we found a perfect place for camping. We were quite indecisive in the matter whether to stop or not, so a voting was needed. So we stopped. I said I wished I had an even ground under my matress, even if slopy. The guides laughed and stated that it's completely of their style of tourism. Anyway I would have the opportunity to experience a very slopy ground...
13.8. Water mattress under the tent.
There was even a donkey standing in the middle of the road and he
just didn't care.
We got into a train to Brașov. There was a school excursion
singing songs that I liked, but some of my friend had different
opinions. I memorised one word that appeared quite frequently:
frumoasă - later I learned it means beautiful (she - e.g. sing.
fem.).
14.8. We spent the whole day in Sighișoara. At 2 a.m.
Šwiatosław and me were woken up by Grze¶ who cried we had
finally arrived in Sighișoara. Ada¶ and Maciek seemed to be a
little disoriented, but finally they decided that we sleep on the
platform just next to the station hall. 
In the photos you can see the renaissance clock tower of Sighișoara
- in my opinion it's the most impressive building of that town.
Apart from that, there's a house when Dracula (Vlad Tepeș) was
born. The most visited restaurant was a pizzeria "Perla
Cetății" (The pearl of the castle) in 1 dicembrie 1918
street - Grze¶ claims they serve the best pizza in the world and
I must say it is possible.
15.8. At 4 a.m. as we passed the Romanian-Hungarian border (Curtici-Lökösháza) Maciek tried to buy some tickets, but he wasn't able to get through with a lady in the ticket office. We hadn't enough forints (Hungarian currency), so the point was to persuade the lady to accept the dollars. Maciek managed to do it but as you might guess, the exchange rate was a robbery. We also met a hysterical Polish student who behaved desperately - he cried: "Countrymen, please don't leave me alone, help me to get back to Poland". We hadn't enough forints to help him, so he had to buy some from Hungarians. It's a pity that almost no one spoke English there. We had to use a paper sheet accompanied with a pen. We missed the train, but we had foreseen that and waited for Karpaty (a train from Bucharest to Warsaw).
16.8. In the morning I simply woke up, phoned home, ate
breakfast and got in a train to Sopot.
At the end, I'd like to present the costs:
Railway tickets:
Suceava Nord - Rădăuți: 8900 ROL
Suceava - Petroșani: 101700 ROL (ticket: 74100, extra free for
accelerated train: 23400, reservation: 4200); you could go
cheaper, but much longer for 79200 ROL
Sighișoara - Curtici: 96000 ROL (with a seat reservation)
Curtici - Lökösháza: 46524 ROL
Note: You can find the timetable of Romanian railways and
their prices at www.cfr.ro.
Lökösháza - Hidasnémeti: 2126 HUF
Hidasnémeti - Kočice: 1000 HUF
Kočice - Plaveè: 76 SKK
Plaveè - Muszyna - Plaveè (return ticket - cheaper!): 72 SKK
Muszyna - Warsaw: 29,86 PLN
ROL = Romanian Leu
HUF = Hungarian Forint
SKK = Slovakian Koruna
PLN = Polish Złoty
Bus:
Przemy¶l - Suceava: 60 PLN
Food:
Real dinner in a fancy restaurant: 50000-60000 ROL
Soup (my favourite was bean soup - ciorbă de fasole): 5000-9000
ROL
Beer 1/2 litre in a bar: 6500 - 13500 ROL
Carbonated mineral water 1 litre: 6000 ROL
Soft drink 1/3 litre in a shop: 4000 ROL
Other:
Taxi: from Suceava centre to the main railway station: 2 USD
(0,80 USD/km)
Internet café: 5000 ROL/15 min in Brașov (7 a.m.-11 p.m.), 5000
ROL/30 min in Sighișoara
Exchange rates:
1 USD = 16000 ROL (it was a good rate, at which we exchanged
without hesitation)
1 USD = 4 PLN
Tickets:
(C) Mateusz Lipczyński, 1999