my nose is red and it itches..so are my arms and the back of my neck. my throat is a little swollen, my head is heavy. almost all my clothes are hung to dry and i have a botle filled with sand siting on my desk. this is the epilogue.
prologue.
a short explanatian for non romanian readers (hello roo). the 1st of may is celebrated throughout the world but romanians vahe their own traditions. one of them is to go the seaside and may 1st is considered the oppening of the warm season. it usualy isnât very warm but that doesn't stop people from going by the thousands on the beaches. normaly i would go to the seaside when it's allright to take a bath, to get a tan adn that would mean june up until the start of september but this year i decided i will go to because i saw a window of oportunity. i had people to go with, had a tent. i had no money, but i was confident i would get some and i finally did. we weren't sure when we'd leave. there was a train early in the morning but all the tickets were allready sold out. there was another train that left at 1:30 p.m. and we were considering that one. finally i went to cosmin's dorm altough still we weren't decided when to leave. i met his friends of whom i've heard lots of stories. most of them involving lots of alcohool and a fair amount of light drugs. ramona, florin, gică and papi, ramona's boyfriend.
and it begins.
i arived at about 11 at the dorm and it was setled we would take the train that night. we went on foot to the station because it was close, and because there is no public transportation after midnight. we could already tell we would have a good time from the stupid jokes we made on the way. we were ready for the trip. we had beer, wine and a healthy stash of hash. after securing tickets we went on the platform which was packed with people going the same way. television reporters and cameramen sniffed around forinterview. of course, they came to us :p. the same stupid questions they always ask : "are you going to the seaside?" "Why are you going to the seaside?" "What are you going to do at the seaside?".
papi went ahead and jumped in while the train was still moving and ocupied seats for us. the train wasn't too packed but still it was crowded. seven hours lay ahead before we got to mangalia. the heat, ehaustion and alcohool claimed it's first victim only 2-3 hours after we left. that victim was puking his guts out in the bathroom...namely me :p. damn, the wine i brought was really strong stuff. i couldn't sleep because of all the chatter on the halway so i decided to stay outside to recover from the drinking. my mind was blurry but i knew i had to keep talking in order to be allright. something really funny happened on the way. the doors on our side of the cart were blocked so we climbed in through the next one. but at one station a lady started pulling on the door and screaming to the ones inside to open it. she didn't give even though they ttold her it is stuck so she kept hanging on as the train started moving. we were shocked and amused at the same time. that lady was hanging on for dear life while the train was speeding ahead. some even took pictures and filmed her. our bellies were aching from all the laughter. it's a good thing the next station was only 10 minutes or so away and she got off safe and sound. then the unbelievable happened. another person, this time a dude who probably got off to pee or something did the same thing. he was wearing only a t-shirt and it was very cold outside. this guy was braver and he was looking ahead showing no fear :)))))))) we found the strength to laugh our heads off again :)))). we were wondering how many daredevils he had missed while we weren't paying attention.
when we finaly arrived in mangalia we were barely standing either from exhaustion, too much drinking, or both. we had to get to vama veche by vans which are taking both tourist and locals to the nearby villages. after almost an hour of waiting in the now blazing sun we finally made it to one and in twenty minutes we were în vama veche.
we got to the camping spot and unpacked our tents. this task was not without laughing and stuff because some were drunk and stuborn :p. after a short strawl through vama veche we decided to sleep for a few hours.
the chain of events is a little blurry for me especialy during the day. anyway after we all woke up we had "business" to attend to. well, they had, but we all squeezed in one tent. the joint was lit and all of us, inluding me, took a puff out of it.
i have never smoked anything in my life, not even pretended to smoke. this was the first time ever i smoked (or tried to because apparently there is a certain technique to proper smoking which i havent mastered it seems). because i don't know how to moke the hash pretty much did nothing to me, or if it did i coouldn't tell because of all the alcohol :p.
the wind was almost a constant presence and that made it cold altough the sun was shining. the water was very cold but papi was brave enough to take a bath. i didn't say stupid enough, because to my knowledge he didn't catch a cold.
that night two bands were playing. o.c.s. (omul cu şobolani=man with rats, apparently freud wrote a book called something like that) and travka which is one of my favourite bands. problem is they were playing in different spots. i wante to go at travka but all the others wanted o.c.s. i didn't want to go alone so we decided to see o.c.s. and then go to travka because they were slightly delayed. we drank two or three botles of vodka plus some beer and considering that everybody else smoked and took some pills we were all ready to party :p. we danced, jumped, sang. we had fun. as for travka, only four of us made at the last three or four songs and two were off into the night pretty soon. we regrouped after that and went to club expirat on the beach. by then we had yet another botle of vodka. i met with some people i knew. they were all wasted. at some point everybody went to sleep except me, cos and other two people from our group but who came separately. more boose and some dancing to keep warm. it was a strange feeling.it was like a part of my mind held on for dear life while it was smuthered by alcohool. was aware of everything i was doing but i knew that it will all be blank in the morning. tried to call deni but she had the morning shift and was sleeping. wanted to talk to someone sobre so i could remember everything from that night later. kept the sms so my tactics worked :p
at one point i met with a girl. she was in highschool with fungus and we had allready met once. we were both wasted and pretty soon we were rolling in the sand, kissing, hands all over the place. we went to my tent..:D... :-".. and after that i took her to where she was staying. i was supposed to sleep with cos in the tent but he wasn't there. i figured he was sleeping with the guys in the other tent so i took advantage of the fact that his sleeping bag and blanket were there. it was 4:30 a.m. at about 6:30 cos woke me up. he wanted the sleeping bag. i was confused,. i asked him if he slept in the next tent and he said no. then i asked him where was he until then and he simply replied "i don't know". i was left with only the blanket and it got very cold in the morning. i stood there shivering until the sun rose.
the next day we went to the beach where we joked about the day before and the fact that certain people had memory blanks. we said that during those hours a cure for cancer was discovered. i bought three rom chocolates and won two rum shots a the concert in shire that night. i also got a temporary tattoo with a hammer and sickle on my hand. (rom is a chocolate with rum in it that uses the image of the communists for advertising. it was a very ppular brand during those times and it is still pretty good now). me and cos had bandanas an the others went and bought some too. we were the bandana group :))). after we ate something and we had some "business" again we went on the beach for the concerts. mărgineanu in shire and luna amară in stuf. once again we went from a concert to another. i called irina (the girl from the night before) and agreed to meet later. papi got sick so he and ramona had to go. the one left wandered on the beach for a while but then we went to the tents for some business. it was dark and the only light was provided by two nokia 1100 and their flashlight is not permanent. they went off at the same time and so the messed up several times before getting things right. we got through to the firts joint then i went on the beach to meet with irina. she was prety tired so we didnât stay very much. when i got back to the tent the others were still awake and laughing so i joined in the fun. cos and gică went to sleep so i and florin started talking all kinds of stuff. we said jokes, talked about girls. at one point we became very macabre. after an houror two of talking florin decided he was hungry and nagged me to go with him to eat something. it was about 5 a.m in the morning. finally i gave in and armed with a botle of vodka and all dressed up we went in search of food. we opted for shaorma. it was pretty delicious and it's good becuase we waited quite a while for it. we wanted to catch the sunrise but the steely wind quicly drove us away from the beach and into the tent.
monday. the last day there. we got up and went to eat something. after that we packed our tents and took our stuff to the beach. i spent some more time with irina talking and stuff.
it finaly came the time to leave vama veche. we had a train to catch at 17:07. just before we left some guy got in the van. we was sooo wasted. too much grass for him. he laughed like an idiot and talked rubbish all the way to mangalia. the dude was pretty funny.
at the station thre were lots of peopl in line to get tickets so we missed our train. no problem, we said, there is another one at 18:26. well, there was a problem. on that day that certain train didn't go all the way to bucharest but stopped in constanţa. the next train for bucharest was leaving from constanţa at 4a.m. cursing our luck we went to constanţa. on the way we were thinking of the incredible bad luck we had. we were about to spend 8 hours in the station. we decided that our luck would change if something really nasty happened to one of us. since florin is the smallest and he always gets picked on we thought it would be best to cut his arm or leg :p we came up with all sorts of gruesome techniques, the bloodier the more chance for good luck we thought. we were going insane allready and those eight hours didn't even start. just before we enetered constanţa we were all singing stephen lynch songs :p
we didn't know how to pass the time. the waiting room was to depressing. we stood on the platform for a while but we got away from there pretty fast because there was a large group of thieves plannig and stuff. damn, that one never happend to me, to see thieves discussing how much they will steal... we took our stuff and went to a fast food in the station building. we each bought a beer so they wouldn't kick us out:p . we read the newspaper, did crosswords, played poker, whist up until midnight. then we wnet down, sat on our luggage to sleep. i couldnât sleep because my feet were freezing. everyone else was covered by a blanket. so i spent the next hours walking in circles, sometimes humming a tune so as not to get too bored.
it finally was time for the train to leave. my mom worked for the railways so i got my ticket for free but the others decided to bribe the ticket guy. ramona was pessimistic about this and i foresaw it would be a she not a he. it was a she and ramona was right. she wouldn't hear of it and wanted to get them off the train. i kind of panicked. i had a ticket and was ok. both situations, me going to bucharest alone, or getting off with them seemed absurd. then the miracle happend. the ticket lady asked me if i was with them and i said yes. then she said something like :" why didn't you say so before? you're all ok" phew.
it was all pretty uneventful from now on. we got to bucharest a few minutes early then we all went our separate ways back home.
at about 10 a.m. i arrived at my house and i took a long shower. man, i nened that. i wanted it to last for days..just warm water on my body..
and that pretty much was it. it may not sound like this when i say it, but if you were there you would know it is something to remember