Traveling by Bus

We had our first experience with the local bus this past week! In our attempt to see the countryside, we decided to travel about 25 miles from the city to a town called Snagov where a beautiful monastery supposedly exists. We took a taxi to the bus station, or so we thought. It turned out to be the wrong place but do to the kindness of strangers, we eventually discovered our destination amid a bunch of trees in a park. With the assistance of about three non-English speaking Romanians, we bought our go/return tickets to Snagov. (Just as a side note, these tickets are not checked by anyone, that we have seen. You simply insert them into a plastic, white contraption mounted on the bus poles and manually punch them. It appears it is almost like the honor system in using them) We waited at our stop for roughly 45 minutes and then quickly boarded the bus as seats are a cherished possession on these things. The 25 mile journey took us about an hour and with the help of two non-Englishers, we once again found our next location. Unfortunately, our dropping spot was simply a spot in the road with hardly any markings. A green bench sitting by a landmark was our landmark for our return journey. Looking around a bit we eventually found a bus station with no attendant and a handwritten schedule not containing the bus number given to us earlier. Shortening this story up a bit, I will say we explored the area a bit, never finding the monastery. We did, however, locate about four bars, one closed restaurant and a mini-mart. At this point, we thought it best to cut our losses, find some snacks and wait for the returning bus. According to the handwritten schedule, we would be people watching for at least two hours. We resigned ourselves for the long wait when, at the bend in the road, a bus suddenly appeared. Not wanting to miss a traveling opportunity, we jumped aboard! By chance alone, we ended up back at our starting point, the bus station in the trees!