Blogs from Muntenia, Romania, Europe - page 10

Late June 2007 Days of the Ancestors and Obor Market My journey back to the UK started on Sunday evening so I had a couple of days to spare in Bucharest. One evening I went to the Athenaeum, Bucharest’s most revered concert hall. It seats only 800 people and is a beautiful little palace with slender marble columns and sweeping stairways. I was greeting with much warmth by my friends there. I however, felt tired and stressed and unable to fit back into my old life again so easily. One of the features of Romanian life is that traditions are still very strong. Something known as a Ziua Moşilor (roughly translated “day of the ancestors”) occurs periodically throughout the year. The one just before Easter is characterized by people bringing willow branches to church. That weekend ... read more

SUNDAY 10 OCTOBER - Part 6 Alarm set for 0700 hours Mileage 30766 - 320 miles yesterday - 1374 overall Breakfast was a mini brioche, plain omelette, toast, coffee and water. We talked with Neal over breakfast. We left the hotel at approximately 0830 hours. I started the driving to get out of the town, then Pat took over at 0900 hours on the motorway. It was only a short drive from the hotel to the motorway, so we must have negotiated most of Bucharest last night, which was very convenient. The weather was gloomy and 8°C. By 0930 hours we were driving along the motorway with the Carpathian mountain range to our right, capped with snow. Lots of stray dogs around and at 0932 hours Arad was 443 kilometres. We were now travelling towards Sibiu, ... read more

Dusting the Rust from the Iron Curtain Day One Most of my friends can easily remember the Cold War. At times it was scary with the Cuban Missile Crisis and drills of hiding under your desk at school to protect against atom bombs! Slowly, and thankfully, the Cold War ended. Can you believe that it has been 21 years since the Soviet Union collapsed? We are coming to see what it was like behind the curtain. Who do you know that started life in East Point, attended Russell High School and found themselves in Russia? Or at least behind the Iron Curtain. I may be one of the first. So today I went from R to R in 24 hours. See the photos. Sadly, this trip came up on the same week as my 45th year ... read more

We travelled from Dubrovnik by bus and taxi to Belgrade where we spent three days exploring both the old and new towns and visiting Tito's grave. We could feel Tito still rolling over following the break up of Yugoslavia. We celebrated our wedding anniversary aboard the overnight train to Bucherest. However the romantic images of the Orient Express were erased by the graffiti on the original? railway car, the lack of air conditioning and dining facilities (or even so much as a cold drink), and the barely adequate toilet. Bucharest has turned out to be a pleasant surprise as it is much cleaner and nicer than the travel guides would have you believe. A trip to Romania would not be complete without a trip to Transylvania to visit the castle of Vlad the Impaler (named because ... read more

Welcome to Bucharest famous for its dark past and bleak present: brutalist architecture, glue sniffing junkies, 200,000 stray dogs and pick pockets everywhere. The main tourist attraction is the train to Istanbul/Budapest. It made sense to stop here for a night. I was not expecting much. The city’s not without its problems but the reality is nowhere near as bad as preconceptions. Although the point about the dogs is unfortunately true I really didn’t encounter any problems (which is impressive because I literally cannot walk down the street without being mugged). I had one full day to explore which is about enough. This is my first time in Eastern Europe so although the communist grey monstrosities everywhere may be aesthetically horrendous it’s interesting to see them. Following an earthquake in the 1970s and a visit to ... read more