In 1995 I graduated from university and had decided to celebrate my slightly disappointing 2:2 in History by going on holiday and for some reason and opted for a holiday in Romania at a resort on the Black sea coast called Mamaia.
The hotel was fine; basic shall we say. The room was clean and the food was indifferent. The staff though were friendly enough but unfortunately their limited English and my non existent Romanian meant I found it hard to communicate and get any answers to my questions like; where can I change money? Are there any taxi's around here? And where can I buy toothpaste? And so on. But it was cheap and the weather hot and the Black sea was warm.
One day satisfied with my tan I decided it was time to strike out and explore the environs a bit. Standing at the central bus station I mentally tossed a coin and settled on taking a coach to Brasov which was a good distance away in the foothills of the Carpathian mountains and thought that might be interesting. According to the timetable we should arrive at about noon so I planned to spend the afternoon exploring the countryside get some decent photographs and then at about 5 or 6pm take the bus back.
It was a hot sunny day and I tramped through the forest up the hills and walked along the riverbank taking lots of pictures and by about 3:30 I started to get really hungry and I slowly walked back to the town and found a place to eat. The meal in the cafe was terrible, so was the coffee and the beer was warm. Very disappointing.
But worse was to come. When I tried to find out what the times were for the coach going back to my resort I eventually discovered from one local, who had a smattering of English, that there would be no coach back today! I would have to wait until the morning. That was a hell of a shock I can tell you and the news left me nonplussed. I had obviously not read the timetable carefully enough (that asterisk had clearly mention something!) Tomorrow morning! Shit! I went back to sit at the cafe and tried to think about what I was going to do and by late afternoon I still hadn't managed to come up with a plan and so I was at my wits end.