Sep 242009

Versiune în română

Today’s picture is also showing the Northern Train Station and I thought I’ll write a few more words about it. To be honest it’s hard for me to appreciate this railway station at its true value. As train stations go, in my travels I’ve seen better and I’ve seen worse. I never felt unsafe here but then I’m Romanian and I speak the language, which helps through all the hassles. It’s not a pretty train station but I believe that it improved a lot in the last ten years. It’s cleaner and it has more facilities but there’s definitely room for improvement. For some reason it feels like an old fashioned railway station rather than a modern one. There are lots of stands and kiosks, selling newspapers, food and drinks as people like to stock up before they board. There are also some fast food places including a Mickey D which is “the place” to go to the bathroom 🙂 so much so that at some point you needed a code to open the door to the bathroom, code which was given to you when you bought something. I don’t know if it helped much because, of course, many people would hold the door open for you. Until some time ago they had this system where, unless you had a valid ticket, you had to pay to enter the train station. It wasn’t much, just a few cents, but it was a hassle if you didn’t have the right change. They did it so they can screen out the beggars and the homeless, which somehow found their way in anyway. I think they gave that system up because I didn’t have to pay the last few times I was at the train station.

  2 Responses to “The Northern Train Station strikes back :)”

  1. Even the newest railway stations have something weird around them. I spent many hours in stations and on train in Eastern Europe in the 90s, without any hassle or trouble. I only tried to blend in and don't show off. Meet many nice and kind people on trains, some unsavory character either.

  2. It looks like a nice, clean station! I like the photo because it reminds me of my train travels in Europe through the years. I never take a train, only a car here in Minnesota. Taking the bullet train in Japan was a lot of fun, too!
    Bon voyage!

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