M-whY

Confused, I took back my card and looked for a money changer. Several were around the station. And yes, they were at 30,000 lei to the dollar. I exchanged a US$50 note received about 1,500,000 lei. When I bought my bus ticket though, I was thrown another curveball. A ride cost 20,000 lei, and when I paid with a 100,000 lei note, my change came back in 1 lei and 5 lei notes. What the heck?!

Bus number 4 took me to the only hostel I knew of in Brasov, and I asked the girl at reception just what was up.

"Oh, the government issued new currency a few months ago in July. Basically, take away four zero's, so 10,000 lei is now 1 lei, 50,000 lei is now 5 lei..." I suppose it's a good idea, and many stores have begun labling prices in new lei, but with the majority of notes in circulation being of the old variety, I may have to brush up my math skills.

Walking to the town square cost 0 lei, a figure I could convert without any trouble. Piata Sfatului would remain empty until after church, when Romanians parents assembled to gossip while their children ran around. I've seen about a million public squares (in Romanian math) so far, but Brasov's stands out for being one of the few where I felt like the only one with a camera. I knew there had to be other tourists around - there were at least ten of us staying at the hostel - but I wouldn't run into any all day. A good portion of the town rested in the shadow of a nearby peak, scalable by either cable car or a serpentine path. I had nothing better to do, so I hiked up the forested face, doing my best to avoid the slippery ice that covered much of the trail. A patch still caught me by surprise though, and I ended sitting in the mud. Shit, and I just washed my jeans not too long ago.

The views from the top made it all worth it. The buildings below looked like a detailed scale model, the farmlands in the distance reminded me of a hastily patched quilt. The snow capped Carpathian ranges formed the horizon. I shared it all with only a few picnicking Romanians seated under trees in the meadow. Not a bad way to spend a sunday afternoon.

The trail continued down the sunny side of the mountain. There wasn't as much ice here, but the grass was just as slick and once more, I found myself on the seat of my pants. (I blame the traction on my boots, which I bet aren't what they used to be.) At the bottom, I realized I no longer knew where I was.

Maybe I should've thought this through a little more. Because now, an entire mountain stood between me and town. Rather than backtrack the way I came, I turned onto another trail, hoping this one would take me around the base and back to where I wanted to be. It seemed to go on forever, past someone's backyard full of chickens, across a crude metal bridge, and thankfully, dropping me off where I started. By now, I was starving - I hadn't eaten anything all day - and returned to town square for food.

A pizza and coke cost me 14.5 lei. Such a small figure, it must mean the new lei. Multiply that by 10,000... so I need to come up with 145,000 in old lei. Divide that by 30,000 to find the dollar equivalent... a little less than US$5... And I did that all without a calculator!

Thanks to everyone for their support and comments! Knowing people are reading keeps me motivated to continue the updates!