Bulgaria…Romania

I entered Bulgaria on the 25th of June, my plan was to look for hostel to work at while I was there (I had emailed many, but found that they only give work if you walk in). I still had not made up my mind about where I should head from Sofia, Bulgaria, I had one job offer in Slovenia, at Lake Bled, and one offer in Bucharest, Romania. One was in the Schengen Area, the other, outside of the Schengen, which, if you look up the issues relating to being an American and entering the Schengen Area, you may understand my wanting to put it off for a bit. The rule goes like this: As a U.S. citizen, you can only be in the countries that have signed the Schengen Agreement for a total of 90 days within 180 days…meaning you can only travel between those 26 countries for 90 days before you have to leave.

So here’s my issue…I chose Romania because of the history, I was fascinated by Vlad Tepes, as many people are, and decided that working in Bucharest should give me a chance to see areas of Romania, like Brasov and Sibiu, thus making working in Romania worth it. I was wrong.

I made an agreement with a certain hostel that I would be working on the beach in Vama Veche, instead, when I got to the hostel, they decided to bounce me between two different hostels, meaning i would work at the hostel I slept at in the morning, then jump on the metro to the other hostel to work until 10:30 PM, or until some ungodly hour if someone hadn’t shown up yet. What I get in exchange for this work is crap, pretty useless…

My attitude has changed, I haven’t felt free, and if I am supposed to have time off, and the owner walks into the hostel I am at, I have to start cleaning because I get yelled at, so, no time off for me, I have been here a month, and only three days ago had my first full day off. This hostel is a quiet one, no hope for a party, no hope for fun, no excitement, just frustration, and no time to myself, so here I am, one month into this, and I still haven’t seen the historical things that would have made this worth while. I have only stayed in Bucharest, which most people bypass as there is nothing worth staying for here.

I am ready to leave, and as of now, am currently looking for my next hostel…my next party hostel. It looks as though I will be entering the Schengen Area much sooner than I had wanted, but you don’t always get what you want, and I am a firm believer in “everything happens for a reason.” I will stay the 90 days in the Schengen, between three different countries (which countries, I have no idea of) then hopefully will be able to crack into the UK…which also has an iffy entrance situation for me!