Romania to Greece, the train ride – 08/11

(Michelle) Things that made me laugh on the train ride to Greece from Romania:

1. TJ’s supermarket sweep – we had less than 5 minutes to buy groceries for a very long train ride and they wouldn’t let us both in the store because of the bags so TJ had to handle the supermarket sweep on his own in record speed. I think he is ready for the game show now.
2. Train doesn’t take Romania money – TJ didn’t have time to completely spend the rest of our Romania Lei during the supermarket sweep, so we tried to buy snacks on the train. The train originated in Romania and was still IN Romania and they wouldn’t accept their own currency, only Euros. WTF?
3. “You can sit up just fine” – We were in a 6 bunk sleeper car (3 bunks on each side) and we had the two middle bunks. The train left at 10am and we were to be on it until 6am the next morning. The normal etiquette is that during the day, all 6 people sit on the bottom two bunks as 3 people fit comfortably sitting up on each bottom bunk when the middle bunks are folded up. Our roommates, a couple from France, had already scared off the little old Romanian couple in the top bunks by telling them that they intended to sleep all day. If the people in the bottom bunk sleep all day, then everyone is forced to lie down all day because there is not room in the middle and upper to sit up properly. Since the Romanian couple found alternative seating in another room, we figured we could do the same. We did find something, but were immediately booted and told (in Romanian) to go back to our seats. We tried to show the conductor why we were looking for other seats by pointing to the French couple laying across the whole bottom bunk and he slammed his hand down on the middle bunks as a means to tell us that those were our “seats”. The little old Romanian couple apparently did not have to return because they used their Romanian language skills and perhaps a jedi mind trick to convince the conductor that they weren’t having it, but the conductor was not going to take that from two foreigners who don’t speak Romanian. So we then asked the French couple very nicely (they spoke English) if they wouldn’t mind switching one bunk on the bottom for one on the middle, so they could both lie down and we could sit up, since we weren’t allowed to sit elsewhere on the train. The girl said something to her boyfriend in French, and then she pretended to sit up in the bunk and said to us. “You can sit up just fine”. Are you kidding me?? You can only sit up in the middle seats if you are training for the role of Hunchback of Notre Dame. TJ and I decided to go up to the top bunk thinking that the Romanian couple wouldn’t be returning for their seats, since there was a slight rise in the ceiling where we could almost sit up (if we slouched) to play cards. Of course, there is no air flow up there, so it was really hot. We felt like we were banished to the attic like naughty children. While we were annoyed, we also immediately found the humor in the situation and managed to have some fun up in the attic (see photo of TJ holding his cards). We also used pretzels to make various mean animal faces, mainly a walrus, to give our sleeping roommates dirty looks with.
4. How rare it is to get to actually witness the karmic justice – After I schooled TJ in cards for a couple of hours, we decided to just read while laying down on our middle bunks. At about 4 or 5 in the evening, the French couple finally rose from their slumber. Out of the corner of my eye, with my book in front of my face, I saw the French girl trying to get comfortable sitting up in her bunk to no avail (as I mentioned, you can only sit up comfortably on the bottom if the middle is folded up, but we are laying on the middle at this point). I don’t speak French, but I am pretty sure they were trying to decide if they should ask us to come down because THEY were ready to sit up now. I purposely avoided eye contact because there was no way in hell that was happening. From then until they got off in Sophia at 9pm, the girl hit her head hard on my bunk 3 times. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing out loud each time, while hiding my face behind my book.