Blogs from Transilvania, Romania, Europe

En ce qui a trait à nos bagages, le premier gros défi que je me suis rendu compte qu'on allait avoir souvent est celui d'embarquer dans un train. 2 gros sacs à dos, 2 moyens sacs à dos, Nellie, puis une poussette pliée à transporter dans un petit couloir étroit avec des passagers de chaque côté, c'est pas évident. Je me suis viré de bord après avoir forcé mon passage à travers l'allée, puis j'ai vu un monsieur avec une ''poque'' dans le front, une madame qui se frottait la joue comme si elle venait de recevoir un jab de Lucian Bute, un ado qui était en train de rapiécer ses lunettes, puis une dizaine de personnes qui me regardait d'un air ''mais qu'est ce que tu fous dans mon pays conard?'' Il me semblait avoir ... read more

Wake up refreshed, and the hostel had cereal for breakfast so we went and helped ourselves. I always find it strange to drink milk out of a carton that is stored in a cupboard...just seems wrong. We were booked on a tour to see Bran Castle, Rasnov and Sinaia and our taxi arrived at around 9:30 to take us and an aussie boy Jacob around to the sites (80Lei each). Our first stop was Sinaia. Now it was Good Friday for us but not in Romanian so there were lots of school kids visiting everywhere. AT Sinaia it was mainly teenagers. We hiked up the hill and Sinaia was beautiful!. We paid 20Lei to go on a tour, but you aren't allowed to take photos. They have someone join your tour who is in non descript ... read more

So Rachel and I got up at 5:45am to head to Heathrow airport for our 820am flight. Had breakfast at the airport and then got served the same breakfast on the flight, which Rachel woke me up for so I started the trip grumpy. No problems at immigration both entering on our NZ passports - no need for a visa Now we wanted to go to Brasov. So we asked at information but because my Romanian accent is shit they didn't know where we wanted to go (its pronounced Brashov sort of) so they said get the bus downstairs to the main train station. We bought tickets (around 30 Lie each) and the driver kindly helped us validated them. Which was fortunate because 3 stops later a ticket inspector got on. We were fine but there ... read more

Well it's been a few weeks since I updated this, and mercifully, Robbie's much better at uploading Fotos than I am, so now I've got about a million pictures to pull on for this update. Anyways, the past few weeks have been idly spent in Belgium, which is mercifully less interesting, and therefore less taxing on my writing skills. Short answer? I wrote a paper, and slept in sunlight for a weeks, it's been pretty good. So after Bulgaria, what happened (I know you're all keen to ? Well: Welcome to Romania! Say goodbye to your passport! Romania and Bulgaria rest outside the Schengen zone, and are accorded a special status in the EU slightly higher than "leper" but this meant we had to actually get our passes stamped when we crossed the Danube by train. ... read more

We went into Vlad Tepes house where he was born and is now a restaurant. We ate there. We went up a bell tower and I found my name. - Sofia On the way to our next destination, Sighisoara, we stopped by 2 small towns on the way to our next stop Sighisoara. The towns were Prejmer and Harman and both had really cool fortified churches. These were Saxon churches that were surrounded by huge walls to protect them. They were more like fortresses. Really cool looking. It was now time to go to Sighisoara, the birth place of Vlad Tepes aka "Dracula". This was another medieval town. We stayed right in the center of the old town at Burg Hostel. We had planned to stay 2 nights here, but daddy heard there were a lot ... read more

The historical figure Vlad the Impaler was a prince from Wallachia in the 15th century, and gained a reputation as the stuff of nightmares for his hideous method of executions. He was the inspiration for Bram Stoker's famous novel Dracula set in Transylvania. The book features terrifying creatures of the night, and continues to fascinate readers and moviegoers all over the world. In fact, the very thought of a vampire swooping down to sink their fangs into the tender skin of my neck leaves me close to panic. So it was with some degree of trepidation that our hostel group headed out to Transylvania, a mere two and a half hours on the train from Bucharest. We drew some comfort from the fact we were travelling during the day, but a fierce snowstorm meant a night ... read more