Many months ago; a good friend of mine who absolutely loved to travel; was invited on a long stag weekend. This was no ordinary pub crawl typical stag weekend but a short holiday to Romania. He had never visited Romania before and with five other males, including one soon to be groom, he did not anticipate any problems whatsoever.
The flight was relatively smooth, the hotel was small, family run and a little dingy and worn down but fine for a few days. The owners were a little strange and spoke very little English, an eccentric old couple with grown up children who all did their share in running the hotel. My friend did remark on how the male wore what can only be described as a Scrooge hat to bed which I found quite amusing.
They arrived in Bucharest on the Friday with the intention of returning home on the Monday. The Friday went well, after unpacking the stag party headed for a few popular bars and clubs in the capital. Being typical Brits and arriving back to their hotel in the early hours. Saturday day was spent around the hotel pool. The men had arranged a party bus for the Saturday night to take them to a club a little further out of town.
This club I’m told is one of those exclusive venues that not many people know about, kind of a secret, invite only place. However I’m told that it was extremely busy, and packed full. My friend and his party had what you could call a wild night, lots of vodka and other drinks flowing.
He had taken the majority of his money out with him due to the dodgy door locks at the hotel and lack of safe (but left his bank cards behind) My friend recalls speaking to a few other gentlemen who bought them a round of drinks, he then recalls going to the gents and returning minutes later to find the rest of his friends had gone; as had the other gentlemen who got him the round of drinks. His last memories of that night seem to be walking round the busy nightclub in search of his friends. But there was no sign.
It’s rather unclear what happened next as the next thing my friend remembers is waking up next to some garbage containers with a very sore head alone. Not only was he alone but he was also missing his mobile phone, hotel keys and his wallet. He had no idea what had happened! Had he been robbed? Had he had his drink spiked? He just could not remember and nor was he sure where he even was. He could not recall the name of the hotel he was staying at either.
After managing to stand and compose his self better, he emerged from the back streets to find he was outside the front entrance to the nightclub where he had previously been. Only the doors were firmly shut and no one was there. It was almost like it had been shut for years.
With no phone and no money and zero understanding of the Romanian language or street signs; he decided to try to find help. He walked the 3 mile into the nearest town. After stopping several passers by who had no idea what he was trying to ask, he finally found someone who spoke a little English and was kind enough to direct him to the local police station.
The police took his details and some information, but without knowing the hotel he was staying at, were unable to help him locate his friends. What they suggested was to contact someone back home in the UK to possibly arrange a fast Money transfer to Romania. This sounded the best idea and although my friend had no phone; he did remember his mother’s house number as it had stayed the same for years. He called his mother from the police station and she was able to transfer a few hundred pounds. His mother was also able to tell him the name and location of the hotel. The police kindly drove him back to the hotel and he was able to access the transferred funds.
His friends could not believe there eyes when they saw him as they had been frantically searching for him. Apparently after going off to the toilet at the club, he had not been a few minutes at all. His friends were searching the club for over an hour and could not find him so returned back to the hotel. They had no idea where he was but were glad he had returned. This story of course is now one of their most popular jokes.
(This story is entirely fictional but may help should you become stranded in Romania)
