The weather was pretty nice while I was there so I thought I would take in all that DTS had to offer for the day. If I'm honest, there wasn't a whole lot. Yes, the area is beautiful and it has a nice centre, but it doesn't appear to be a particularly bumping' city, though I always tend to build these things up in my mind. What I did learn was that there used to be an island in the Danube that was essentially a fortress between the Turkish and whatever empire currently occupied Romania (which…was the Turkish Empire? I'm really uncertain about the details of this anecdote and I'm not willing to research it further) and it ended up becoming a "smugglers' nest" or some such thing. It sounded fascinating. Like, an island fortress made up of winding streets and cubbies and passageways. Anyway, in the 1970s the Ceausescu regime shut that shit down by building a dam and flooding the entire island. I've never been more angry at Ceausescu than I was when I learned that. I would have had so much fun on that island.
There was also a tower north of the centre that cars had to drive around. I went into the ground level of it (which…was apparently a mechanic's shop, or the administrative component of a mechanic's shop) and they told me flat out that no, I could not go up the tower. Why do they get to control the tower? They weren't enjoying it at all.
The next adventure involved walking around the old part of town and seeing a beautiful courtyard with an old crone tilling the garden. She sweetly said hello and I told her that the garden and house were beautiful. She seemed happy and invited me into the house, which had been chopped up into apartments. We reached the top of the stairs and three men came out, one on crutches. One was rather large and surly and asked me a question in Romanian. I gestured that I didn't understand and he said, "Passport." Just imagine the range of emotions coursing through me at this point. I immediately responded with "Oh, F*&K no. This is not happening" and as soon as he lunged at me I kept down the stairs, one landing at a time, and burst out of the house. After all the wonderful experiences I have had in Romania involving kindly old women, this one turned out to be a real downer. What a cow.
Anyway, by this time I was ready to gtfo of DTS and catch my afternoon train so I went back to the hotel to collect my bag and make my way toward the train station. Outside the hotel I saw a taxi and decided that it would be worth it to take it. Trust me, I don't know what's wrong with me either. Hotels, taxis--Romania was like opposite world for me. In any case, the taxi ended up costing me like 30 cents. Taxis are so cheap in Romania! I was actually losing money by not taking them.
In the centre, I had a pizza. Or else I didn't. No, I didn't. I had something with meat and french fries and the outrageous woman next to me had a pizza. And she was brought ketchup without asking for it, and I got a look of serious disgust when I asked the waiter for some. She got hers in a bottle (which she squirted greedily all over the pizza and proceeded to devour with a knife and fork) and I got mine in a silver gravy dish with a tiny ladle and what I believe was a $2 markup. You're killing me, Romania.
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