Best. Souvenir. Ever??

After about three days meandering around Transylvania, trying to avoid more tacky Dracula-themed tourist shit than any self-respecting tourist should be forced to avoid (although yes, I did indeed purchase the above…  but it’s adorable!), it occured to us that our hostel offered something much more amazing sounding.  You know how you roll into hostels all over the world, and there’s invariably a notice board with stupid signs for “amazing” deals, used / abused camping gear, and package excursions that surely would show you amazing sights un-dreamed-of by any previous traveler while never EVER ripping you off?  And it doesn’t matter if you’re in Abu Dhabi or Paris or Idaho, everything up there always sucks?  Well, the Rolling Stone Hostel in Brasov, Romania, is the glaring exception.  (This hostel is fabulous, btw, fairlyy adorable, fairly fun, and really fucking cheap.  Also it’s purple:  http://www.rollingstone.ro/). They offer the regular Dracula Tourism crap, yeah, but they also have an add for their famous Transylvanian Bear-Watching Night, which clearly could not be passed up.  And that’s basically how I found myself in a stranger’s car with a couple crazy Romanians and my perfect travelling buddy (I love you, Chris!), drunk on crappy Romanian beer, faced with the choice of getting: a) pepper-sprayed in the face or b) mauled by a Carpathian brown bear.  Read the rest of this entry →