I used to work for a company here in Cologne, Germany. The IT section of said company is located in Romania, and we had always discussed going there to visit, see the office, and just to say hi.

It then happened that someone spotted some really cheap tickets on Ryanair. We went there for about 4 days, and the flight to Romania was a measly 3€, and the return was something like 15€, which was still unbelievably cheap. (We spent more on beer while we were there than we did on the flights!)

After seeing who could go, 4 of us plus one partner went. The day came, and the 5 of us met at the train station. We had to fly out of Düsseldorf Weeze, which was actually about 3 hours away from us since the trains and bus were all slow. We were waiting for the first train in Cologne, at the right platform, and as the train was supposed to depart, it still hadn’t even arrived…

We got a little confused, and at the last second, I noticed that they had changed the gates and it was actually behind us. We tried to make it, but the doors closed in front of our outstretched hands.

An excellent start…

Slightly panicked at missing our 3€ flight, we looked up possibilities and found another train we could take. In the end, it worked out, but it was certainly not a smooth start.

We got to Romania and checked into our B&B, and then we went to the office. We have known a lot of the IT guys for quite a while, but we had not met most of them before. It was pretty nice to actually see them face to face and chat with them. We spent the rest of the day “working” before going out for the evening.

2 Jesuses united

Bank of Transylvania!

And no, it wasn’t a blood bank. Transylvania is just a region within Romania, and there was a bank named after it. We thought it was funny, but the locals didn’t even think twice about it.

We were actually staying in the town of Timișoara since the airport and B&B were there. The office was in Arad, which is about an hour away. Our coworkers were kind enough to drive us back and forth as needed, and we spent a few evening hanging out and going out for beers.

On the last night there, our coworkers were going to a party in Arad. We had a relatively early flight, so we just wanted to stay in Timișoara and maybe go to a bar. I can’t remember exactly, but it was either Friday or Saturday night, and nothing was happening! Timișoara is a bit bigger than Arad, so we thought there would be some bar or something, but the city was as dead as a graveyard. We were quite shocked.

We eventually decided to get picked up again and go hang out with them in Arad, and we had to get some taxis late in the night before getting a few hours of sleep before getting on the plane and flying back to Germany.

It was just a weekend, but I had a lot of fun. The Romanian guys were a lot of fun, and I would like to go back someday.