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Published: July 24th 2008
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Our first impressions of Bucharest, capital of the former Eastern European state of Romania, on walking out of the airport terminal was that it was a bleak, foreboding place where you had to watch out for yourself and your belongings at all times. Having been warned about airport taxis preying on new arrivals, we decided to take our chances on the public bus. Once on board, the locals regarded us and our backpacks with attitudes ranging from complete indifference to mild amusement.
About halfway through the long trip into town, it began to pour with rain - not ideal considering that we had to walk some distance to our hostel once we arrived in the town centre. Sensing our concern, a friendly, twenty something year old woman struck up a conversation with me and helped us figure out how to get to the hostel and provided us with some insight into what to see in the capital. This is where our impressions of the place began to become more positive.
Luckily, by the time we arrived at our stop the rain had eased off and we were able to get off and unfurl the map to determine how to
get to the hostel. Walking around the bleak streets of Bucharest in the darkening night with no clue where we were going was a slightly worrying experience, as we had to walk through dark alleys with dim or no streetlights for a distance much further than we originally anticipated.
Nevertheless, after about a 25 minute walk we finally reached the hotel and were pleasantly surprised to find a modern, well equipped establishment - a few minutes later we headed out again for dinner to a restaurant recommended by the guy at the desk where I had one of the best pork meals of my life (certainly one of the best during our time in Europe so far).
As we had only planned to stay in Bucharest for one night, we arose early the next day to set off and explore the city. Unfortunately we grossly underestimated just how long it takes to walk from point A to point B in this sprawling metropolis filled with long boulevards, flanked by characterless communist style apartment blocks so by the time we arrived at the Palace of Parliament it was already after noon. The second largest building in the world (only
the Pentagon is larger), the Palace of Parliament was built by Nicolae Ceausescu at the height of his communist rampage when he had entire suburbs demolished to build the Boulevard Unirii in an attempt to rival the Champs Elysees in Paris.
While the building itself is impressive (10% of it still remains unfinished, not that I could tell), today it feels somewhat empty and dated although it is only a couple of decades old - similarly the grand boulevard now looks poorly maintained with plenty of homeless and other dodgy characters hanging around the park benches - there also seems to be a huge vacancy rate in the many office and apartment buildings that line the edge of the Boulevard.
After a guided tour of the palace, we set off to get some lunch and take a quick walk through the old part of town spared from the Communist's wrecking balls. Then it was back to the hostel to grab our bags and get to the train station to board the train that would take us north through the Carpathian Mountains to the medieval town of Brasov.
Riding the train in Romania was one of the highlights
Me at the 2nd Largest
Building in the world of our time there as you can sit back and just watch the beautiful scenery unfold in front of you. Once the over industrialized suburbs of Bucharest vanish and you begin to climb into the Carpathian mountains the vista changes and you begin to see rich, verdant forests punctuated by green rolling fields and small villages where people still live in much the same way as they have since the middle ages.
Luckily, in Bucharest I had managed to find wifi on the Boulevard near the Parliament and had been able to book a place called Casa Rozelor (highly recommended) near the heart of Brasov's old town. A bit more expensive than we usually paid, we were suitably impressed when on arrival we were shown to a loft style apartment in the top floor of an old medieval building complete with kitchen, fantastic bathroom, flat screen TV and free wifi.
After a bit of a rest, we headed out for a look around and found ourselves in a quaint, cobble-stoned, medieval village, full of restaurants, but with no Romanian food in sight. Apparently Romanians do not eat out very often, so when they do it is an event
and they prefer to have other cuisines (mostly Italian from what we could tell). As it was quite cool in Brasov, we had dinner and a few drinks before heading back to the hotel to plan out our activities for the following day.
While not huge, Brasov has plenty of sights to see so we spent a relaxing day wandering around the old town and saw the Biserica Neagra (Black Church) built in 1384, the Black and White Towers (which are both actually white) - ancient watchtowers outside the town's fortifications that could warn of approaching Turks, Catherine's Gate (a fairy tale looking entrance to the old city walls) and checked out the panoramic views from the Hollywood style "Brasov" sign.
The next day we visited Bran and Rasnov; Bran Castle is apparently the most visited tourist attraction in Romania, which is surprising as it wasn't really that good as Castles go - it really tries to stretch its association with Dracula, even though Vlad Tepes "The Impaler" probably only spent a night or two here as a Turkish prisoner on his way back to Wallachia. On the other hand, the 13th century fortress sitting atop the hill
in the nearby village of Rasnov was excellent. Even though we had to clamber up a steep, muddy path in the driving rain it was worth the effort as the ruined fortress is quite well preserved and offers fantastic views of the surrounding countryside and the Carpathian Mountains.
The fortress, built in 1331 by the Teutonic Knights, was only taken once by force around 1600 and has a well built by two Turkish prisoners who were promised their freedom upon completion - it took them 17 years, is 143 metres deep and yes, they were killed once they were finished.
After leaving the castle we wandered downhill towards the sound of some music and walked into a field where a traditional Romanian festival was taking place - stalls were set up selling grilled sausages and meats, men were drinking beer and the children and women were performing songs and dances in traditional dress - it was great as only us and one other tourist had managed to stumble into the place. We then walked to the main road where we took "local" transport back to Brasov - basically someone pulls up in a private car and waits for
Gypsy Woman and Child
We saw this mother and child at the train station and gave her a stuffed toy Janice had. several people to show up going in the same direction and he leaves charging each person a small fee; at first we were a bit uncertain about it, but after seeing several groups of locals do it we figured it was safe enough.
The next day we left for Sighisoara, a small medieval citadel that still retains much of its old charms. A UNESCO world heritage site, Sighisoara was built in the 12th Century by Saxons from Germany and is considered to be one of the most beautiful and well preserved citadels in Europe, with its authentic medieval architecture and fortifications. Arriving at the station, we encountered a Romanian Gypsy and her young daughter so we decided to give her a stuffed toy that Janice had been carrying around since Sydney.
Soon after, we found our way to our hostel and took a walk around the cobblestoned streets of the old town. The birthplace of Vlad Tepes, "The Impaler", potentially the inspiration for Bram Stoker's 'Count Dracula', Sighisoara contains a number of interesting sights including the clock tower, the fortified walls and the "haunted" covered staircase.
After exploring Sighisoara we set out for the fortified church of
Biertan - built by the Saxons as a defence against the Turks, the fortified churches were designed to house the entire inhabitants of the village when an attack was imminent. After wandering through the quaint countryside for a while it was time to head back and get ready to catch the train to our next destination; Hungary.
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Amy
non-member comment
Vlad the bad
Hey Janice and Dan, You must be just about home now. What a journey you guys have had. If you were into learning about Vlad Dracula there is a novel I read on my trip (think I picked it up in the Singapore airport) called "The Historian". Really interesting combo of history and fiction. Most of the history is about Dracula and how he was connected to the Ottoman empire and many other places in Europe - France, Romania, Bulgaria, etc. A good read especially if you are familiar with some of the places I would imagine. ciao, Amy