Roaming Romania

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Brasov


Beck and I arrived in Brasov on the night train and made our way to the hostel where Beck was staying, and promptly fell asleep for a few hours because we were so tired after the train! It took us a while to find the hostel so loads of local people in the main square were helping us, none of them had a clue either! But eventually we found it, no receptionist, a wierd old man let us in the door, where one Australian guy was asleep. He was the only other guest in the place! After our sleep we went to meet my couchsurfer, a bus ride away from the central square.


Mihai met us from the station, he was a surprise because he has a condition which means he can't walk properly, we weren't sure if it was ms or a spinal disorder or something. He took us to his house where his grandmother told us we are beautiful, and later when his mother came home she cooked us some amazing food! What we thought was going to be a salad turned out to be a four course meal, salad, cold soup, some kind of stuffed cabbage leaf, and cake, all traditional Romanian recipes, what a treat! And Mihai was lovely comèany, he is only 19 and wants to go to the UK for university, he wants to go to Lancaster!


Mihai had a meeting to go to so after we ate Beck and I headed back into the town centre, walking over the hill to get a view. The centre of Brasov is so beautiful I enjoyed walking around and stopping to have a drink in a cafe. In the main square there was live music going on on a big stage, it was like opera, so we watched that for a while and then met back up with Mihai and his mother. They took us for a drive up to the hill above the town where we could look down on the town. It was dark by this time so we could see all the lights it was beautiful. We also stopped at one of the towers on the hill where you can see down into the main square. The show had just finished in the square and we were in time to see fireworks go off! It started to rain so we headed home.


Bran and Rasnov


The next day Beck and I went to Bran castle, which is the place where the original Dracula lived. All the tourists go there to see Dracula's castle, which is cool but not really that scary! It's small and compact but very pretty and lovely to walk around. Especially the courtyard in the middle with the mountains behind, it's very picturesque. We walked around for ages in the castle, and then around the small lake and gardens outside. Outside the castle complex was a crazy tourist area with loads of shops and restaurants. We ate in a cheesy vampire restaurant (had to be done) and then got back on the bus.


We stopped at Rasnov fortress on the way back to Brasov. We walked up the hill, it took about half an hour, and when we got to the entrance a schgool party was going in and we got in for the school entry price! But it was only because the school leader fancied Beck and waved us in! He was talking to us for ages inside. There was not that much to see in the fortress except for the views- the mountains behind and the wide farmland below, it was beautiful! Then we watched the rain clouds coming closer and closer, so went back to the town to get on the bus. By the time we got down it was pouring!


That evening we walked a bit more in Brasov in the rain, trying to find a supermarket but failing, but seeing lots of things along the way, like some mosaics of ladies, and a statue of Romulus and Remus and the she-wolf; they seem to be everywhere!!! Then we had some salad in a restaurant and went back to Beck's hostel to organise a hostel for the next day. When I got back to Mihai's house he was already asleep so I went to bed. I was up before him the next morning as well so I left a note for him to say thank you and went to the train station. But before our train turned up, Mihai did! He came to the station to say goodbye to us, and luckily our train was late so we were still there! He is a very sweet guy, I hope he makes it to England!


Bucharest


So Beck and I got on the train and went to Bucharest. A lot of Romanians had told us to avoid Bucharest because it is not a nice place, and even on the train one guy was giving us advice about when we get there, how much to pay for a taxi and not to talk to the men outside the train station. But it is a huge part of the culture in Romania and we wanted to see it to know what the people live with. Our first impressions (although perhaps tainted with other peoples ideas of the place) was a dirty, dodgey city, confirmed when we got out of the train station and the first guy we saw said to us ''can I help you? I won't steal you...'' hmm... moving on!


So we found the hostel which was quite funky and cosy, and headed out for a walk around the town. The area around the hostel was pretty run down but as we got closer to the centre it was more clean and less run down. We saw the parliament building which is the second biggest in the world, after the Pentagon. It was built in communist times by the dictator. He had visions of him standing on the balcony with everyone below him, paying homage. But apparently he died before that could happen and some years later his dream came true, only it wasn't him standing on the balcony but Micheal Jackson! I read an article about it later in National Geographic! You can tell from how big it is and how poor the areas are around it what kind of government must have built it, it dominates the whole area.


We headed into the centre of town and walked along the main street, lined with grand buildings, expensive shops and pretty squares with statues and columns, again in complete contrast to the surrounding area. We ate in a really lovely restaurant, moussaka and chicken with polenta. Then we headed back to the hostel, a bit nervous about going out on the town!


In the morning we got straight on the train and headed for Bulgaria!

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