Germany!

23rd November.
Dresden! We arrived "just in time!" to meet who turned out be a friend of a friend
of a friend of our last couchsurfer.  She was happy to have us, as she'd surfed a lot herself.
I knew she was well travelled tout suit, because I was instantly comfortable with her.  No
bulshit, she was practical and fun and saw things clearly.  Since it was already dark,
and David and I planned to leave the next day, we began to discuss the evening's plans over
'Club Matte' - a German drink, made from an African spice, highly renowned in Berlin which
gives you a high the equivalent of four coffees.  Its dangerously delicious!! And, it turns
out, addictive.
  So Katya's girlfriend arrived with beer and peppers (I think Australia is the only place who
knows the word capsicum) and I made a delicious pumpkin pasta dish!! I made a huge quantity,
cooking all of the pumpkin, and this turned out fortunate.  For soon, another friend turned up,
then a housemate, then - OMG! - A surprize, Katya and her girlfriend's childhood friend who
they havent seen in forever - and who was starving.  So we ate, and drunk, and soon a bunch of
boys - friends of a friend of Katya's housemate, join us too.  And a few more of Katya's friends.
By the time it's 12, we decide that we'll go to Amin's beloved hiphop gig (it was more jazzy funk,
in the end) if Mary can convince the bouncers to let us all in for the price of two people.
And she did it! So in the freeezing cold night we boogeyed down with our new, wonderful friends.
The best thing about Dresden is that everything is sooo close. Its tiny.  We got to the first
club about a minute after leaving the house, and when we were leaving Katya said that wherever
we go next, all the clubs are on our way home anyway so we can pick as we walk.  In the freezing
cold, this was the best news.
 It was a late night, and a late morning, but this wonderful thing is popular throughout the
countries we've been travelling.  It's organized car pooling, and everyone does it.  The website
lists numerous profiles of people who say where they're travelling to, at what time, how many
people they can take with them for what price.  So we arranged for a late ride to Berlin, and
spent the day getting a tour of Dresden from Katya.
  Its a beautiful city, very spacious, as big squares for people to walk in (no cars) take up
most of the space, in between big, Ottoman inspired (but still quite Baroque) town buildings
(and the infamous opera house).  It turned out the city had infact been bombed, and the big
spaces had never been fully rebuilt.

  The man who drove us to Berlin had a "Saxony" accent, being from the West, so not even Katya
could understand him well.  We were unsure if he wondered whether we wanted to stop for coffee.
  We arrived in Berlin safely, and he gave us chocolates :)

A Bohemian Birthday

  We took an early morning bus to the Bohemian city of Prague on my birthday.
  After eating Mamalinka (the delicious Armenian  honeynut cake) all night, I wasn't too fussed about spoilng
 myself any more.  The bus ride took us through the beautiful countrysides of colourful fields, glazed over
 with a gray fog, diffusing the horizon with the sky.  Further from Slovakia, and closer to Germany, this
 lanscape changes to undulating hills, layering various colours and textures, of deep greens reds and blowns,
 blotchy and blues and grays.
  We arrive in Prague with directions to a hostel! Rather than our usual phone number of a supposed, soon-
to-be friend.  We havent stayed in one since Jordan, keep in mind, so althought couchsurfing is awesome
  I just couldn't wait to have my own space to not entertain anyone.  To catch up on my blog, my painting,
wash my bloody clothes and replenish my spirit.
  We drop off our bags, grab a key, and leave toute suite, like puppys released from their leads, to explore
 the regal city.  Prague!! It's Regal indeed.
  We meandered down the streets, aligned with really tall building of various pastle shades - pinks and blues
and pretty attic windows.  Stone borders doors and windows, and randomly you'll find some
stunning gargoyle or Art Nouveau design trimming your average little street building.
  We found the new city centre by sun set, where the huge building's light flicket themselves on.
The tourists gather like mosquitos around the lights of the shops - books, saloons, botiques, bars,
casinos casinos casinos - the new city screams money.
  As we walk to the old city, we discover that we can now quiz eachother about countries. How to say
thankoyou, to swear, to say 'cheers' or 'health' etc in at least 12 different countries.
We can also play guess who, concerning different people we've met along the road.  I guessed three
by the time David guessed one. :)
  The old city of Prague stands tall and proud by the sparkling river.  It knows its beautiful.
We danced down Charles bridge to the jazz of the buskers, and picked up delicious indian curry for dinner.

  Back at the hostel, we shared our bottle of wine with two German/french students with whom we shared
our dorm.  Did I say I wanted alone time? I didn't make any effort to get it.
  Our plans for the night were going to a kareoke event we'd read about online, and they agreed to come
with us, along with two travellers; a Polish girl and Australian man.
  It was fun.  But I made the mistake of thinking I had to do a song since it was my birthday and my
first kareoke event.  David was chivalarous enough to jin me on stage, so I got to embarrassed us both.
  I was thankful to find my bed.

20th November
 I few days earlier David and I had sent off an 'urgent' couchsurfing request, meaning anyone could
read it and offer us a bed.  This is because Prague, and the Czech Republic in general is really
hard to find willing hosts.  People are reserved and need a lot of space; understandably.  But we'd
receieved one lvely reply from a girl called Elena, who was in fact German, had travelled to Australia,
loved Melbourners (lived in Brunswick) and wanted to get to know the city with us as she hadn't done
much travelling around herself.
  We were grateful for her reply, but were so comfortable in our cheap cheap hostel which was offering
a freeee dinner that night....
  But first things first, we ate free hostel breakfast (woo) and sat up drinking nescafe with other tourists.
I've discovered this new theme of conversation, based on travel experiences.  It's awesome, the conversation
is passed around like this 'I know, this one time in Amsterdam...' 'tell me about it!! Once I was in
this little villiage in Denizli and the same thing happened...'.  It's really fun.  Two other cool Aussies
 were going to Kutna Hora - a villiage just an hour away from Prague which features a church fully decorated
with bones.  I'd read about it and was desperate to visit.  So David and I tagged along!
  The villiage in spread across pokey little mountains and streams, with little arched bridges and cutesy
little homes.  First we went to the Church of Bones.  It had been a burial place origionaly, and the monks
in the 12th century had decided to use their bones, in utter respect to the dead, to make something beautiful.
  In the centre of the ittle church is a huge chandelier, made out of bones.  It was interesting to see
so many skulls beside each other - particularly as each one held a unique expression.  Some appeared to be
more sensitive than others, some more sympathetic, and others more mathematic and business-like.  Curiously,
the skulls were generally left without a bottom jaw.  In its place was, what I imagine to be, the forearm.
It's as though when theyre dead they loose ability to express themselves.  We're held back by ourselves, our
own forearms, and thus death is a part of us, inevitable with our life, and this church really celebrated this.
It was pretty, and you'd be surprized how many curly or wavy bones our bodies have !!
  After the church we popped by the first cathedral in eastern Europe.  The gothic style ribs seemed to drip
like honey down the building, the whole thing being a lit up yellow.
  The last stop was a gothic church, past a medieval old city at the tip of the cliff overlooking a creek.
It was blossoming with gargoyles, sprouting out of every stretch of stone imaginable.  You felt safe beside
it, that's for sure, though not all the gargoygles were as viscious as others, they certainly held unique
individuality.

  We just made the last train, and decided that we'd meet up with our new host Elena, but with a day bag,
leaving our luggage with the hostel.
  Elena was lovely.  She took us to an expensive restaurant (we shared a basic pizza) and then to a
bar where we met some of her friends, who, too, are German erasmus students.  They all use maps to orient
themselves around the city, and told me all about Erasmus.  It seems that such students can easily
detatch themselves from the rest of the world, as the erasmus network organizes all aspects of their life.
  We stayed a Elena's for two nights, and spent the day wandering the old city.  We saw Salvador Dali and
mucha exhibitions, which were awesome; full of excitement. Went to a french film festival.  Visited another
gothic cathedral, and a few churches.... I made an awesome curry.  Prague is particularly beautifull at night.
And one of Elena's friends said that we could stay with their friends in Dresden (south of Berlin, Germany)
a city which everyone cliams is so beautifull.  Since my friend Gianna couldn't host us until the

22nd, Dresden suddenly became our next stop!

Brno ! (Mauravia - not yet Bohemia!)

  A funny thing about couchsurfing is that you learn so many different ways one can live.  Shared houses, living
with Mum, or the family, living in a dorm, living with your boyfriend, living alone, living everywhere and treating home
 merely as a bed and shower.  Different jobs, or studies, incomes (or lack of incomes) and ways to live off such incomes.
Different hours of work and play, different hobbies and past times.
  It seems so easy to become stuck with a job for the "security" of it, working for some boss with a boss from dusk till
dawn just so you can afford to live close to work, arriving home too exhausted to cook, going on the computer ...
theres no life in such a life. Guess I better go to Uni.

  Our hosts Roxanna and Alex were great people. I'm not talking about them.  The two were unfamilair with couchsurfing
but (as I've mentioned) said they'd love to have us for a night after a mutual friend had asked them.
  Many Romanians live in Hungary for work, and they stick together. Our hosts as an example.  So many of our
questions of the new country and culture went unanswered (though it was lovely to be with the warm company of Romanians,
once again).
  Traditional Chzech-Slovakian food is similar to that of its neighbouring, wintery countries.  Meat.  Pork, chicken;
 whatever, just serve them with some rich sauce and maybe some dumplings and your set.
From the beginning, I should have started listing all the famous castles and historical sites I've seen, for my own
memory's sake.  Since I havent I wont start boring you now.  Moreover, Ive already forgotten their names...

  The Chzech people are reserved.  They generally seem to drink a lot, and you can smell marijuiana as you stroll past
 most park benches.  The police here are just like regular people, who hang around to help, rather than accuse.
Here, its decriminalized to carry drugs like marijiana or speed as long as it's a small amount.  In the hostel we
staying in in Prague, (two nights later) the police came by due to a noise complaint.  There were plenty of joints
being smoked, and drunk tourists continuing to abuse their livers (I wasn't one of those, though, believe it or not).
  The police said to keep the noise down, and kept on their way.
  In Brno, we awoke early to check out the city.  The people are so reserved, I could start singing as I strolled
the streets and assume no one could hear me... and those that would hear me didn't seem to judge.
  We went into the underground city, and the man working there seemed to love Australians so we scored a free tour.
The underground city was actually just little ccaves originally, made by the merchants so that they could illegally store
 their goods.  If one merchant was to find someone else's hidey hole they'd dig elsewhere and everyone would pretend
they weren't aware of the other person (as it was illegal.) Now, all the hidey holes are ajoined as one little city.
  One little fact, is that Brno's walls were the only ones out of many who kept Sweeden from Occupying it, though
they attacked.
  We stayed in the Mauravian city of Brno from the 17th to the 18th, and unlike in Prague we were really living
where the Cjzech people live.  Here, I learnt how active the people are - the families go on bike rides to the forests,
rollerblade thrugh the city, visit the beautiful countryside a few km out from the city...
as for in the main (and beautiful) city of Prague, you mostly just see students, tourists, and chzech people working in
the tourism (or artsy) industries.  Overall, though, it was a shame we didn't stay with chzech people (or locals, as we
had in all the other countries thus far.)  With Roxanna and Alex, we went out for Mamalinka - a delicious traditional
cake (which was taken actually from an Armenian family) made of honey soaked layers of sponge cake and nuts.  Theres
also a chocolate version - simililarly honey soaked and spongey.  We tried beer brewed fresh in the restaurent
(as cheap as water :))

Our hosts welcomed us to a second night in Brno, which we spent discussing history and economy and remembering
our Romanian (a wonderful language).  The gave me my second birthday present (not sure If I mentioned the first -
the painting by the artist in Budapest??? Its really beautiful. I'm carrying a canvas around the world, hehe)

  A woolly set of beanie, scarf and gloves as well as some woolly leggings to pad up my jeans!!  I'm set for Berlin.

Vienna waited for me :)

From hungary (on the 14th) we head off to Vienna (which I still keep calling Venice. I'm so confused.)  We met two people in Romania, one guy we travelled with was from Venice and one girl we met in a music venue was working there and invited us to a charity party.  They both offered us there homes.
  So we were to stay at Stevie's home, I think David assumed he had a big TV and a private room for us form the way he talked it up, but (like most places we stayed) we slept in the living room and had to pack up our things when everyone else was up, and leave as they, too, left.  This was a sharp change from our dorm days of doing as we pleased with our very own key!  Vienna sparkles.  It's rich and fancy and so damn expensive I felt like I'd been photoshopped there.  =|
We ate our lunch/dinner in the supermarket or the cheap asian noodle stores (our eyes were peeled for the cheapest food).
  We went to the opera.  It's embarrassing but Ill tell the story anyway.  So we were exploring the city; getting lost and finding treasures, and fell into conversation with someone selling tickets to the opera.  We found tickets to see a big opera production - la traviatta - for thirty euro.  The way it all happened made this price seem really good, and so we bought the tickets and went. Its a special thing to see the opera, especially in Vienna the home of classical music and orchestras.  moreover, we've been couchsurfing and should utilise the money we save on accomodation on truly experiencing the city.  It might sound obvious to you, but when your as stingy as me you forget.
 When we arrived, it turned out you can get standing tickets for just 3 to 5 euro, and after
intermission you find a better seat anyway.  We decided not to let it get to us and went looking for our seats, and simply exploring the magnificent building.  From the top of the arena, David asked which seats I'd want, and (after the VIP seats) we decided on one of the private little rooms along the walls.  we found our seats and laughed and laughed because we'd wound up IN one of the little privtae rooms along the side !!!! It was very exciting, I got David to take a photo, until a man came and told us we were in his seats, and we were sitting behind him in this room where we couldnt actually view the stage without standing up.  We were ripped off by the black market opera ticket sellers. dont let it happen to you.


  The opera was incredible!!! By Verdi, The story was cheesy, and dramatic, and took me into its world, captivating all of my senses with the enchanting music, song and dance.
  I'm also embarrassed to say that I went to see Verdi in Vienna wearing Jeans (which I still havent washed since buying them in Romania), muddy boots and my inuit jacket.  FIrstly, I forgot that I might want to go home first and change, and then I realized even if I had, I had nothing more appropriate I could change into.

  Anyway so one night we went to a circus party, raising money for Burmese children (very interesting, look it up) which a girl we met in Timisoara had invited us to.  We invited Stevie, our host.  The circus was awesome and the people were really cool and creative. we'd found the underbelly of Vienna.  So that night we said thanks to Stevie and moved in with Flavia, our Romanian friend, who lived with a bunch of Germans (who move to Vienna so that they can get into uni easier).  The shared house was so inspiring.  The friends worked like a real team, a real family.  Firstly, they (we) utilised a little thing called dumpster diving.  If your unfamiliar, its where you take the (good as new) food from supermarket dumpsters illegally.  These guys had the key for every dumpster in the city (easy enough to get a hold of if you need it) and by this they got dish washing detergent, fruit, vegetables, soap, chocolate, sweets, everything you could need - all for free.  The reason why its thrown out can be to make room for new and improved stock, or because the use by date is about to finish, or one product from the batch was dodgy and theyre cautious not to be sued.
  So this guys cooked big healthy meals and always ate together, cooked for everyone rather than themselves.  They were also just fun people.  We borrowed bicycles from them and spent the next day riding around the city - first to a yoga class; pay by donation, then to the 'critical mass'.
  Once a month in Vienna, hundreds or thousands of people gather to ride around the city, stop the cars, and encourage the use of bicycles.  The route changes every time so that the police can't find you and there are often themes.
Tonights theme was lanterns, and the long ribbon of bicyclists sparkled as it weaving spontaneously through the busy streets.  Boom boxes were everywhere, playing different types of music, so we sung and David and I saw all the tourist attractions we'd failed to visit.  The after party was at a paybydonation bar, with loads of delicous food and cake and drinks.  You feel so good there (even before the drink) that I'm sure most people were also paying more than usual, thankful for the positive vibes in the bar.

  It was sad to be leaving the next day.  We had not recieved any responses yet for couches in Chzech republic but Flavia arranged for us to stay with one of her childhood friends in Brno, so we felt our fate awaiting us.

  SO far, out of all the people we've met (we meet locals remember, since we havent stayed in any hostels) its the germans who I can relate to the most.  I say this mainly because the young people travel.  Possibly also because their economy is similar to Australias.  This is a generalization but many of them might travel a lot also because since after the second world war, they lack a patriotism and dont feel so warmly towards their own country as other European countries.

Anyway, I hadnt been to Germany at this stage yet, David and I were headed to Brno ! (On the 17th)

The deep hearted Hungary

So much has happenned,
we've seen so much, felt so much and learnt so much.  The highlights have really been made by the amazing people we've met on the road, and travelling to a new city means saying goodbye to a new found friend.
In Timisoara we were housed by an architect student and her Maldavian mother.  This is still in Romania, by the way.
The mother cooked us home cooked romanian cusine - spicy meat cabbage rolls, spiced palenta, eggs, bread, creamy sauces, all piled on plates on top of plates.  Timisoara is full of young, creative people and the little city has so many nooks and crannys where people can come and express themselves creatively.  We were lucky to meet such awesome people who each took us to a new place.  I spent a few hours drawing with some amazing comic artists at an animation festival.  We walked past one building, and in each window (there were maybe seven) you could see the silhouette of a person, and hear the amazing music of different instruments.  I'm convinced that all people in Timisoara are gifted.

with Diana :)

It was sad to leave Diana, her spirit has so much energy (or perhaps it was the coffee she replaced food and water with?) but she's one I'm sure we'll meet again somewhere somehow.

  From Timisoara we went to Szeged, a city at the bottom of Hungary.  There, we stayed with a young woman studying Russian, with a vast knowledge of literature films and all sorts of intellectual stuff which highly excited David.  While the Romanian people were talkative and bubbling with friendliness, the mountains alight with autumn colours and the streets wild with activity, Hungary holds a contasting sense of calmness.  The landscape is flat, wisping across earth like the wind, which, too, is so calm its as though it is listening to you.  The people reflect the feel of the land, with their reserved character, and calm take on things.  If you ask a Hungarian if they speak English they say 'No, sorry' rather shyly and walk away, because they're eductaion system with english is lacking.  Though if you ask 'where does this bus go?' or 'how do you get to the station?' they will reply carefully and clearly, and are happy to help.
  It was a meditiation simply being there, as though my consciousness was more present.
  I mentioned this to a Hungarian girl I met,
  Hungarian is a great language, and though some people think it evolved from Finnish I think it evolved rather by itself, by cave warriors or something, because the first Hungarians were tribal people and they fought for land and grew strongly (though the country has made some weak political descisions more recently).
  From Szeged we head off to Pecs, where we were welcomed by two architect students (tehy tend to all stick together, its a study of its own and theyre all so proud to study it and to teach others about it).
  The boys were lovley, and shared with me some good Hugarian music. From Pecs we went to Budapest, the city, the capital and oh my goodness its the life.  It is gorgeous.  First (after a buffet of all you can eat traditional hungarian food for like 4 dollars) we met up with Eni, a girl who wanted to help us from couchsurfing.  she said we could stay at her girlfriend's shared house until saturday, when her housemates brother and sister would come and take our beds.  But first, mulled wine.  Wulled Wine is about a dollar a glass, and it's addictive, warming you inside out on the frosty, winter days.
  Eni studies art, and english, and her friends were all learning english too.  But we all felt so comfortable together so instantly that I dont even remember language being a barrier of our expression.  They were intelligent girls.  It was interesting to learn that homosexuaity isn't quite as accepted in Budapest as in melbourne (the girls are lesbians): their parents dont accept it and people during protests there are eggs thrown.  Hungary has a large catholic population, and most people live in villiages (which are usually more conservative) and move out to the big cities for tertiary education.  So conservative or close minded attitudes are apparently common (though couchsurfing helps you avoid meeting such people).

  We spent five days in Budapest, spending romantic evenings with the girls, climbing up to hill points with amazing views of the big city, sipping mulled wine and feeling the heat relax down our spines.  The city is spread across the magical Danube river (which Ive now seen in 4 countries), separating Buda from Pest.  Buda is alive with old fortress castle walls, basilicas and caves, while Pest is packed with more Baroque, Neo-Gothic architecture.  Its awesome.


Incase you didnt know (i didnt) the AustroHunarian empire controlled Romania and Chzechslovakia.  Todya, there are sitill many hungarians in btoh countries who in fact wish to conquer again.  The girls we stayed with were in fact Slovakian, but spoke hungarian in Slovakia, and was fully accepted in neither country being neither only SLovakian or Hungarian.
  In Hungary they drnk Palinka, and in Slovakia they drink Tetratea.  Tetratea is alchohol which tastes like tea !
  After we left the shared house of Aggy (Eni's girlfriend), we moved into a dorm at art univercity's dorm house.
  It was so cool! We made hot wine! and Eni played the guitar! And we danced.  I was a dorm person!!!

  We also got a tour of the art college, which inspired me greatly.  I look forward to painting and drawing always.

We wanted to stay with our friends, and they wished us to stay too (which makes it so much harder).  It's funny, David said to me after we met Aggy that he swears he already knows her, and it turned out that she'd said the said to Eni. Eni, too, said that before I messaged her on couchsurfing that she'd had a vision of "sofia" come to her.  It was all too strange, and the memories heat me up inside like hot wine.

Wandering into a fairy tale!

David and I arrive in Sibiu with red noses and sleepy fish eyes.  We haven't had the space to look after ourselves, being dependant on our host who tells us when we can or can't go home. Big days, long nights and early mornings scuttting out of people's houses.
  Our new host welcomes us warmly with herbal 'bless you' tea which we drink with honey and lemon and we settle down foran early(ish) night.  We're on the cold gray street at 8am, blowing our noses in between sniffling them, and blinking at the little streets.  Sibiu is a little doll's villiage.  It's all too cute and perfect, with windy streets which duck and twist amongst each other, each lined with pokey houses, each with a little chimney and pointy red roof which have little attic windows.  The houses are exactly like the houses I would draw as a little girl; basic shapes in little boxes. Simple.  Dolly. And as I consider it - they don't exist like this in Australia.

  We stroll around oddly; our feeling too realistic for this fairy tale land.  The next day we visited Sighisoara, and amongst these two days we shared many interesting, educational and simply fun experiences, but frankly its all so fantasical to be true.

  Travelling Europe has always been such a dream for me - because it seemed so far away I made it all the more fantastical in my mind.  Travelling here (after not planning to, for one) is trippy.  Surreal.  Of-coarse, life is life and my reality strings the two different worlds together making my dream real.  So amongst my wandering fascination and curiosity, I'm annoyed that my socks are wet inside my boots, and slightly craving some sugarry goodness.

Sighisoara turned me on.

The little villiage climbing up a hill is bordered (once again) by forests.  Scattered along the forest edge are graves.  I imagine that in certain seasons (or perspectives) the forests appear dark and gloomy - the types which no one enters in fairy tales.  The type of forest which keep the villiage a tight community, as parents warn their children not to wander too far from home.
  However, these forests have a perculiar spirit.  Unlike other forests - or bushes - I've come across.  They seem friendly, and well loved, and I can now say that Romania doesn't have the money (or facilities) to start cutting them down in the first place (even if it will make them richer).  On this topic, Romania in fact has a few mountains stuffed with gold and other rich minerals, but as the country hasn't the ability to access them, they've been sold to America in order to recieve 10 percent of it's profits.  True little fact,
  But this helps to explain just one reason why its such an awesome place to travel - it hasn't the money to truly destroy it's beauty via capitalistic methods.

  It was great though - in SIghisoara as I walked down a street, someone came up to me, "Sofia ?" He said.  It turned out to be someone I'd messaged on couch surfing, but with whom I couldn't stay with (you can't travel north easily form Sighisoara).  This awesome guy gave us (Me David and a lovely Austrian we met and will meet again in Austria) a tour of the villiage as well as a tour of his art gallery.  Was rather fortunate.

  Papanash: a Romanian desert.  It's like a dough nut, but crispier on the outside and berrys and cream oh my goodness. youjusthavetotryit

houses made to suit the streets

brothers grimm grave yard

the eyes on the rooves!!

we miss the last train, and get home really late by night bus

romanian gypsys

So David and I head off to Timisoara after Sibiu.  Again, we arrived unsure of accommodation, save for one friend who said she'd help us out.  On our way to her (on the tram - which runs on the first tram line ever made in Europe) we ran into the tram inspectors.
  Now this was the third time they had got on our bus or tram whilst we hadn't any ticket.
The first time, we instantly grew big eyes and open mouths and played the innocent tourist 'we didn't know - ohhh it goes in that way! Thankyou so much for showing us! We were so worried about not having a ticket ... etc etc '.  We had an old ticket which was unvalid, so we pretended it was new and we didn't know how to validate it.  We got away without paying the fee.
  The second time inspectors got onto our bus we had no old ticket.  David starts talking to me in Hebrew. 'Shalom, Todda, Shalom shalom, todda' (but with normal words forming real sentences).  I reply in arabic and for a while the inspectors are in our hands since they cannot understand us and we them.  But the ticket lady had me cornered, and her big evil eyes bore into mine 'Ticket' she kept repeating.  Then 'passport'.  "Passport passport' she was coming closer and closer and her eyes just didn't blink! Meanwhile David was waving his arms in the air yelling furious words in Hebrew I didn't understand and then the locals got involved in Romanian.  All this noise on top of the monotonous 'ticket' 'ticket' from the officer.
  And then a litttttttle bit of english slipped out.
I was scared.  David became louder and more furious, and the inspectors suddenly more alert and insistant and and and then the bus doors opened and we were at the train station and we were late so had to get off the bus to make the train in order to get to Sibiu that night.  Meanwhile, I felt like I was in a netbal game being defended into the corner of the goal circle by this inspector.
  David grabbed my arm in the nick of time and swung me off the bus, bags in hand, and we made a run for it.
  I thought the locals had been saying 'they speak english' (after hearing our previous discussions on the bus) butin fact they'd been defending us, and telling the inspectors to let it pass.

  So this evening in Timisoara, David and I got on the tram (again, with all of our luggage - heading towards our new couch host Diana who awaited us).  We were speaking in english when the inspector pulled out his badge. 'Shalom, Todda Shalom?' David began the act and I followed through - determined not to break the act as I'd done last time.  'Aiwa, Salam, Shukrun'.  The inspector wasn't fooled and the three blokes wheeled us off the tram and onto the street.
 "I heard them speaking english!" The inspector said while David and I rambled and rambled in our opposing languages, as though we were shocked that the inspectors were accusing us of something.  They mentioned the police. We signalled 'bring it on.  Bring the police."  The first officer was staring into my eyes.  "I know you speak english, why were you speaking english on the tram before"
  My eyes displayed understanding.  I understood him.  "Ang...leesi ..?" "Ingleeesh??" I repeated his words dumbly.
Meanwhile David said we were from Israel (they certainly wouldn't have believed we were arabic.  I've learnt that much while travelling).  At first they said they didn't like Israel.  Where in Israel, they tested, and while David said Tel Aviv I really tested them and said Ramallah.  They weren't too smart.  but then they started mentioning the soccer, and singing some Haifa national anthem.
  So they told us to go, and we wave eachother goodbye, our calm expressions denying the dance our hearts were pumping.

Timisoara was awesome ...