Troubles, Troubles!

Thursday, Aug. 13, 2009--Varna (Cont.)

After shopping for snacks and spending the rest of my money, I stopped at the hotel and picked up my luggage I had left. It was still 5 hours before the train would depart, so I went to a park near the station and read in my current book.

They turned on the lights and opened the doors to the train car at 21:00. I was there and entered. I found my compartment and determined which was my bed. I stored my suitcase on the floor and my backpack in the overhead area near my top bunk. It was difficult getting into that top bunk since it was so high and there was no ladder. In this case, India has a better designed product than these cars which were Russian, I think.

A problem developed when a Russian couple arrived and seemed to think they were supposed to have the whole compartment. The attendant took our tickets and went to see her superior. Since I was the first one there and the couple didn't need all four beds, I decided I would stay no matter what.

The attendant came back and a Russian lady in the next-door compartment who spoke English translated to me. Apparently, 8 tickets had been sold for the 4 beds. The Russian couple had paid for all 4 beds to have the compartment for themselves. And 4 others of us had been sold tickets, too. I had only seen one other person who seemed to try to come to the compartment; it was a young blond man. The Russian woman, as he approached, said, "Nyet, nyet, nyet!" She was blocking the doorway and very upset.

I pushed myself into the compartment and jumped up into the bed that my ticket showed I had reserved. The woman became very upset and obviously did not want to compromise. She even tried to remove my suitcase where where I had stored it. She was surprised, I guess, when she found that it was chained and locked to the heater and could not be moved! Thank goodness I do that naturally anytime I am taking a night train. And thank goodness I was on the train car before she and her husband arrived. She was being a real B***h (with a capital B).

While keeping to my bed and thinking about it all, I figured out what had to be the problem, and it was confirmed when the conductor came to match tickets to the computer print-out. I had noticed that the couple had a handwritten paper ticket. The blond guy and I had computer-generated tickets. The only way the computer could have allowed the beds to each be sold twice was if the handwritten ticket for all four beds had never been processed in the computer. Sure enough, the couple's reservation, made at a Russian travel agency, had not been placed in the computer! For that reason, the conductor let me stay in the bed I had claimed even though the woman was throwing a really hissy fit. Unfortunately, I do not know what happened to the blond or to the other two who had tickets. The conductor did not place one of them in there, although he should have. He caved in and let the couple stay there only with me. Since the couple is going all the way to Moscow--two nights and two days--there will probably be more of these occurrences all along the way since their reservation is not in the computer. What a mess.

Friday, Aug. 14, 2009--Bucharest

I didn't sleep much on the train. It wasn't comfortable being where I obviously wasn't wanted. The Russian woman never settled down. She was obviously bothered until I left the car this morning when I am sure she probably blocked the door to make sure that no one else could enter. Also the border check took a long time and broke into the normal sleeping hours.

We finally arrived in Bucharest at 6:30--about 25 minutes later than scheduled. It was so nice to get out of the train and away from the Russians. In trying to avoid placing my foot on the woman's bed as I came down from mine, I twisted my waist which has remained a bit sore all day.

As I waited to get off the train at the station, the female attendant signed and put her hand over her heart while looking at me. She did this at least twice. I'm sure she was exasperated and trying to apologize for the situation with the Russians. I just smiled and thanked her.

There was a pleasant surprise when I arrived. Romania uses the Roman alphabet!! I did not know that and had assumed that I would have to continue trying to translate from the Cyrillic alphabet the way I have been doing in Macedonia and Bulgaria. Hurray for not having to worry about that!

The Roma people live here. Many are on the streets begging. I saw some domed tents along the railroad tracks that looked like patchwork. I imagine they were housing for some of the local Roma people (commonly called gypsies).

My guidebook warns about packs of stray dogs here in town. Well, there were some at the train station. It was too early to try to go to my hotel and check in, so I sat at the station and read for a while. I also ate some brown bread and cheese that I had in my bag. I kept hearing barking and looked that direction. Dogs were chasing the trains and barking at them. I'll need to watch out for them. I would hate to be bitten while here.

I thought that my problems with the Russian people should be the end of my troubles, but they were only the beginning. When I finally did leave the station to go to my hotel, I watched for an ATM and tried to use my card. I got a notice saying that my request was refused by my bank. I tried at another bank. Then I tried getting a lower amount of money in case the amount I wanted was over the limit allowed. But I kept getting the same message saying that my bank had denied the request. It was between midnight and 1:00 in Texas, so I hoped that it might just be the time that the credit union closes down their operations to update the records for the previous day. Just to see what would happen, I tried paying the hotel with my other card (the one I use for charge purchases vs. the one I use for withdrawing cash). They got the same message for that card. So, it had to either be what I suspected, or they were denying service because they thought this happening in Romania would be someone trying to illegally get into my account. However, I had told the bank I would be in Romania before leaving for my travels.

I got a phone call at the hotel from Gabby, a heart specialist here who has communicated with me. He had the morning off and asked if he could come pick me up and walk me around the center of town. By the time he arrived, I had bathed, shaved, and dressed. We went out walking. Soon, we passed an ATM, so I tried again. I got the same message. He loaned me his phone to call the number on the back of my card. The person there suggested that I go inside the bank and try to make a withdrawal. He also gave me a 24-hour emergency number for contacting my credit union. I called the emergency number first, and it did not go to my credit union and went to someplace that is open only 12 hours per day. We went inside the bank and waited and waited. Then the lady there, having seen my passport tried to process a payment. Again, it was refused by my bank! By that time of the day, I knew it could not be the hours they update accounts.

Gabby took me walking for about 2 more hours, then it was 14:00--6:00 in Texas. So I did three things. I paid the hotel for my first night with some Euros I had on me. Then I went to a nearby bank and exchanged $100 for money to allow me to eat and be on the Internet. I went to an Internet cafe nearby and wrote an e-mail to the credit card office of the credit union in which I explained the problem, gave them a new list of the countries I will be visiting for the rest of my trip, gave them a list of the last 7-8 cash withdrawals I have made (bank names, city location, and approximate amount in dollars), and asked them to reactivate my accounts so I can use the Visa cards this weekend. I hope they get the message and act on it. I don't know that I can trust them to be that fast due to how long it took them to deal with a problem I had with them in June when they did something specifically against my written instructions related to one of these accounts. I put an urgent message in the title of the e-mail, so I hope it will be cleared before the weekend.

It's mid afternoon now, and I am tired, since I didn't get much sleep last night and I have had such a stressful day. I will go to my room and relax for a while.