CANCELLEDTRAINIA

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The pervy family wagon driver didnt drop us at the bus station but just randomly in the centre of Bucharest somewhere. J and I managed to work out roughly where we were on our lonely planet map but our YMCA hostel wasnt on it. We walked in the direction that we thought was correct and decided to show defeat and asked a kind taxi driver who ended up taking us and it only cost just over a pound. The hostel was ok but very basic and a bit grubby, our first impressions of Bucharest were not great so we decided to stay only one night. We got a much better map from the hostel lady and headed into the city. Bucharest was described in the lonely planet as the Paris of the East, they may have copied the Arch de Triumph but we thought it was just on par with Bratislava as a city. We went past the big University square and to the Cismigiu Garden which is a big nice city park with a lake. It was packed as it was the weekend and so hot so we enjoyed a spot of people watching whilst eating an ice lolly. The Romanian ladies certainly like to dress up so we got to see some interesting outfits. We walked from there to the old part of the city, it wasnt that appealing but they have tried to improve it with lots of alfresco bars and restaurants. J and I chose somewhere cheap for dinner, we should have known better as my 3 pound salad was pretty sad and J's chicken in white sauce was just that with no pasta, rice etc. just one lettuce leaf. We decided to call it a night and head back to the hostel and catch the early train to Sinaia the next day.
The train trip to Transylvania and Sinaia was really beautiful, we followed a river and passed through some massive mountains and lush green countryside, it was going so slow due to train works but it meant we could enjoy the scenery even more. We arrived in Sinaia mapless as the lonely planet didnt include one. We decided to wing getting accommodation and luckily not like in Varna on a Sunday there were actually room touts. We snubbed the old dude that couldnt speak English but J got harrassed by another guy. I wasnt too keen as his flies were undone but he said that he had rooms for 7 Euro a night. I just imagined some dirty room in his house but we thought what the heck and took a look . To get to the town centre it was all uphill. The guy just stormed off leaving J and I to try and chase him carrying our massive backpacks. When we got to the top of the steep steps the guy had the cheek to say to J maybe we should do some sport!! I would have smacked him round the head with the skateboard if he had said that to me. We were happy to discover the pension was actually quite a nice hotel right smack bang in the centre of town. We were only staying one night so we dropped off our bags and went to get lunch before going to visit Peles castle. There wasnt much in the way of restaurants in town so we decided to eat at the Irish bar for lunch and the restaurant at our hotel for dinner. There always seem to be an Irish pub however small the town is. After lunch we walked up to the castle. You walk up a windy path through pine trees and next to a river until you suddenly see this marvelous castle like out of a fairy tale perched on a hill. It was just magical with its turrets and it was a beautiful sunny hot day making it shine even more. We walked around the grounds, took some pictures and decided to do a tour of the inside. The castle has 160 rooms in total, we chose the cheaper option of the one floor tour. It was just so lavish with an amazing intricate hand carved spiral staircase, ebony and ivory statues, lots of gold and silver and porcelian. Our guide was cool but a bit spooky, he was very small in a suit that didnt seem to fit properly. What made him more spooky was his one big fang, J checked out that he had a reflection in one of the many crystal mirrors, but we were fine!! One the walk back down to the city we passed stall after stall of souvenirs and junk. We always seem to find treasure in amongst the trash and got some cool virgin mary candle holders. J is contemplating having to get a bigger hand luggage bag to carry all of his religious artefacts back on the plane. In sinaia you can normally catch the chair lift up the mountain to the ski fieds but just our luck it was closed for a couple of weeks, I was pretty gutted so instead we chilled out in the sun. We went for dinner at our hotel and had some traditional Romanian grub. I got the pork neck thinking back to the pork knuckle in Chesky, it certainly wasnt such a feast or treat. It was a chewy dried old bit of meat, J got the mixed grill and his was a bit better.
Our third day in Romania we caught the train to Brasov. We should have known our train was going to be late after our slow train the day before. Nearly an hour after it was supposed to arrive it rolled up and we chugged our way to Brasov slowly. Again it was a nice train ride the funniest thing was seeing all the random sun bathers, there was a large woman in an industrial park naked apart from her knickers sun bathing on the tin roof of a building and then as we came into Brasov there were lots of people dotted around in any grassy area they could find even if it was between the train tracks and the highway. We booked our hostel this time, I didnt really take much notice of what it had to offer just that it was in budget and had received a really good rating. We arrived in Brasov and knew how to get to the hostel but it was about 1km so instead of walking with our bags in the heat we decided to catch a cab. We thought it would be really cheap but the cheeky guy put 10 lie on the meter before we left so it came to 16 instead of the 6 it should have been. The hostel, Ladespani was so nice and we would recommend it to anyone coming to visit Brasov. The family who run it have built a house in their back yard and it is so nicely done. The rooms are massive and have a huge corner bath in the ensuite, a massive kitchen living area in the basement and a pool in the garden. It is like staying in your mates house and the owners are really friendly so we spent loads of time chilling in the garden and pool area. They have certainly put something into J and my head and like the idea of doing something similar if we ever got the chance. The walk from the hostel to town isnt too far, J and I did manage to get lost but Brasov have a big 'Hollywood' style sign on the hill behind the town so we just headed in that direction and found the centre. The old town and centre of Brasov is really nice, with lots of little cobbled streets leading to the square and the Black Church. Once we had exhausted the streets we caught the cable car up the side of the hill to the look out next to the sign. Its much higher that we first thought and got an awesome view over the city and surrounding hills. We decided to walk back down, im glad we didnt walk up as it took forever as it was a gentle incline down the edge of the hill. We did get to see a red squirrel, a termite nest and a cuckoo, or thats what we thought that they were. It was pretty late once we got to the bottom so we decided to walk back and go to the restaurant that the hostel had recommended. It was a nice local place with good prices and even better traditional Romanian food.
The next day we got up earlyish to walk to the bus station and catch the bus to Bran. The bus follows the huge mountains and went through some small Romanian villages until you suddenly see the big Bran castle on top of a rocky outcrop. The castle is commonly known as Draculas castle, I think that the Romanians have just used this to boost tourism as it isnt linked to Dracula legend but Vlad the Impaler did use the castle. It is a cool castle but unfortunately it is surrounded by trees so you couldnt get a decent picture of it. The castle is swamped by so many stalls of Dracula and Vlad souvenirs, J and I bought a few bits but were dissapointed that there wasnt more cool Dracula stuff. We caught the bus back to Brasov and spent the afternoon chilling out by the pool at the hostel as it has been so hot. We decided to take some extra days in Brasov instead of moving on to the next town so our next day we just got up late, walked around town and wrote a round of postcards. The following day we decided to take the train to Sighisoara, it said it was only a two hour train ride so we caught the 8.30am train. As usual with the Romanian train service it was late but only by about ten minutes. We arrived in Sighisoara and headed to the old town, we discovered it was really quite a small place but very pretty. Again there was a link to the infamous Vlad the Impaler and had the usual touristy crap involved. The best part of the town was the clock tower that was huge, 60m high and really striking. We walked to the church on the top of the hill like the lonely planet suggested but it wasnt very good and you didnt get a view down on the town. We wandered around the streets and then had lunch. We decided that we would catch the earlier train back to Brasov as we had seen all the sights and would enjoy the afternoon sun in the garden at the hostel. We got to the train station and 1.30 came and went, the train was an hour late. We finally got on the train and instead of taking two hours somehow it took three, we just couldnt beleive it. We both liked Sighisoara but we arent sure it was worth the mega train trip.
We booked our over night train to Suceava whilst at the station, it doesnt go until 11pm tonight so we have checked out of our room and have been hanging out in town. The hostel said we could go back there and chill so we will do that later and watch the football. Our train arrives in Suceava tomorrow at 7am and then we hope to catch a bus over the border into Ukraine.

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Comments

[laura]

Wow
Dude I love your dress!!! You look beautiful. Hope you guys are havng the best time on your travels. Lots of lov skatty.xxx