Blogs from Bucharest, Muntenia, Romania, Europe - page 17

The night train was....HOT....with MOSQUITOs!!!!!! Did manage to get some sleep though...^^" I forgot Romania was an hour ahead!!!! so I lost an hour sleep!!! and almost didn't have enough time to get off the train!! " Got off and went straight to the hostel..and it was NOT OPENED.. sat outside for an hour or so before I manage to get in....-___-" Anyways, Bucharest.........VERY BIG BOOOOMING CITY..... There are constructions EVERYWHERE and dust flying all over the place!!!!! You can really feel the communism style here..... The city people are really....cold...the city is very...cold. Like, it feels soooooo Grey! and well, I also came on a Sunday, so many things were closed. I did manage to see people around the shopping areas and stuff.....but still...with the lively people....its still ....COLD. The HUGE parliament building was ... read more

Lonely Planet said 'Travel no further - you have found what you are looking for' about the Maramures region of Romania. This surprised me because I hadn't emailed them about my love affair with Romania rural, peasant, horse and cart culture, but somehow they knew that this was exactly what I was looking for in Romania. They described the Maramures region as having a thriving peasant community, shit loads of horses and carts and a remarkable isolation from 20th and in fact 19th century practices, technology and fashion, due to the Carpathian mountain range that surrounded it. Modernity hadn't even touched a skerrif of hay there (still kept in traditional haystacks, put there with pitchforks which are wooden and handmade - its true - we saw them being sold.) An overnight train saw us pulling into ... read more

Ok, Ok, so that's Count Dracula from Sesame Street, not the Bram Stoker's creation, but it's as close as I could get as I haven't got round to reading it as yet. So the trip into Romania was a long one (22 hours of trains), and included stops at Timisoara, Teius, Sighisoara and finally Brasov. The plan was to spend several hours at Sighisoara and check out the sights, but fog obscured them for most of the day, so I cut short my visit there, and headed down to Brasov, which was alot better anyway. Brasov is another in the line of European medieval towns, but what this one has is mountains that surround it and provide some of the best views I have seen. It also has the red roof thing that seems to ... read more

J’aurais dû me douter de quelque chose lorsque la dame de la cabine voisine a fait sa prière avant que le train ne quitte la gare. Le Bosphorus Express était lancé. Sommairement installé dans ma cabine (qui s est avérée deux rangés de bancs plutôt qu’une couchette comme me l’avait promis le préposé à la gare, d’un anglais évidement déficient) j’ai réalisé assez rapidement que le trajet de train n’allait pas être de tout repos. J’avais insisté à la gare en répétant à de nombreuses reprises ''cheapest ticket please''. Hé bien l’expression ''you get what you pay for'' s’est avérée juste. Un beau wagon datant de toute évidence de l’époque de la guerre froide. Je confirme que même à l’état neuf, il y a au moins 30 ans, ce wagon ne valait pas grand-chose, comme à ... read more

Because I did the thing of saving money on accomodation by using overnight bus and train... two days in a row. But First, Two days in Sarajevo. Sarajevo was... fascinating. I have never been in a country that scarred from it's wars. Ok. It was the hardest hit in the Balkan wars. I know. Yes, Sarajevo was under siege for nearly four years, relieved only by UN Air support and a tiny tunnel. Yes, The town of Srebrenica is in Bosnia. This atrocity and all others were ten years ago, and yet, it feels like yesterday. This is the only country in which there are still landmines in it's cities (only in the outer suburbs but still). This country is so poor that even it's national library (direct hit, burnt for days, thousands of priceless records ... read more