Blogs from Brasov, Brasov, Transilvania, Romania, Europe - page 2

16 -17 juillet " Qui est-ce qui m'a jeté un sort? J'perds tout c'que j'aime et même le nord Hé! On a volé mon contrôle! Y'a mon corps et y'a ma tête qui oh oh Je ne veux plus m'endormir non non non non non " Laurence Jalbert .... Ma recherche pour trouver des vampires est un lamentable échec. Je n'ai trouvé aucun de ces monstres, ni dans les bars de la capitale, ni dans les châteaux visités jusqu'à présent en Transylvanie. On en voit pourtant partout sur les tasses à café, les t-shirts et les aimants à frigo dans les boutiques de souvenirs. Ils doivent bien se cacher à quelque part que je me dis. Bon, recommençons du début... ...Oh! Mais... je n'ai qu'à retrouver la maison qui a vu naître Dracula voyons! Voilà! Tout ... read more

On first impression Bucharest reminds me of Paris without the dog poo on the pavement and the people here are able and willing to speak to you in English. The cobblestone streets are not as narrow as in Paris and wind though the old quarter creating a setting for tourists and locals to enjoy the balmy summer evenings and we did exactly that, making ourselves known at one wine bar in particular, where we sampled some very good Romanian wines of varieties that were mostly unknown to me. The two waitresses there adored Nathan and he had a ball playing with them. We didn’t realise that our drinks came with free babysitting! At the same bar we met Daniel and Hillary, a couple from Brisbane, also travelling through Romania. It is amazing how far we go ... read more

After waking up and mastering the shower in our ensuite – there was no curtain and the water sprayed out from every angle, it was seriously impossible not to completely saturate the floor and walls – I headed off to find the bus to take me to Bran Castle. I made it to the station with 3 minutes to spare, paid for my ticket and managed to clamber aboard the already over-packed bus. It was a 45 minute journey to the Castle. Stopping in at a few towns along the way. There was a small child sitting on his mother’s lap in front of me. Absolutely adorable with the biggest blue eyes. Cluck cluck cluck haha. He was periodically crying though I noticed that he stopped crying and became quite fanscinated when he saw the band-aid ... read more

July 31, 2015 - (afternoon) - I took the 3:30pm train to Brasov, and it took an hour. At the train station I had to get a bus to town, and when I arrived in town, I met Markus, a Swedish guy also trying to find our location on the map. We found it and walked together to my hostel. He had nowhere to stay yet, so he tried my place. It was just starting to rain. The woman told him there were no places left so he headed out. She also told me she had no record of my reservation and that there were no beds free. I showed her the emails I had from her colleague to the contrary. It was the first of many disappointments in Boemia hostel. She talked to her boss ... read more

I've made it as far east as I'll be going on this trip, and now I'm 7 hours ahead of all my friends on the East Coast. I've wanted to go to Romania for a long time, and to be honest, this part of the trip came down to a choice between Romania and the Baltic States. I initially chose the Baltic states because flights from Prague were cheaper there. Then when I decided to stay grounded, Romania became the ultimate winner for my tourist bucks. Since leaving Prague yesterday morning, I've spent 22 hours on trains. The train to Budapest was 7 hours, of which 4 were spent with the same 5 people in the 6-person cabin until we got to Bratislava, where they all got off. The remainder of the trip to Budapest was ... read more