Beginning in Timisoara, a city near the Serbian border, it ended in Iasi, mere kilometers from the former Soviet Union. The trip lasts about 14 hours. I had it easy, relatively speaking, as I got on the train in the Transylvanian city of Cluj, a more manageable nine hours from Iasi.

We passed through some of the most beautiful country I'd ever seen: rolling green hills covered with forests which were beginning to break out in their fall colors, streams cutting through quiet valleys, and views of time-forgotten villages and farmers working their land without any help from modern machinery. Such stunning scenery made me wonder why most Romanian postcards contained photos of concrete hotels built during the 1970s.

"He took it, regarded it with a connoisseur's eye, and then took a bigger drink than the average connoisseur would allow himself."

Probably looking out the window alone would have been enough to keep my mind off of any gnawing hunger pains, but in the end such diversions weren't even necessary.

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