Brasov, Bran Castle and arrival in Sinaia

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20 OCTOBER - SIBIU, ROMANIA

It was a 'free day' today so woke up at about 8am for breakfast. Discovered that much of our tour group had had a very eventful night. Four people (two rooms) had been moved at about 2am as they couldn't sleep because of the noise from the night club below. I didnt hear a thing. Then when I asked about breakfast I discovered that apparently breakfast wasnt included despite us being told that it was. Hmmm. So I had to go and wake our tour leader to get it sorted out. Felt really bad as he had been up for most of the night dealing with room changes and barely had four hours sleep. So he sorted it out and an hour later breakfast arrived.

After that a few of us headed to the internet cafe and then to a cafe for a morning milkshake. Because it was such a nice sunny day we ended up staying there for a few hours before going and finding food (Romanian kebabs...). Then for dinner a few of us headed out again a few hours later. Very uneventful day all round.

21 OCTOBER - SIBIU TO BRASOV

Got breakfast no problems and left hotel relatively early to get taxis to the train station. Old rickety train followed by a brand new one. Arrived in Brasov in the early afternoon and had a bit of a tour with a local Romanian guide who turned out to be very creepy. Saw the black church and some other important monuments before having a little free time to explore Brasov. Brasov has a 'hollywood-style' sign so we caught a cable car up there to get some photos of the view.

Met back for a group dinner relatively early and caught taxis back to the hotel for an early night.

22 OCTOBER - BRASOV TO SINAIA VIA BRAN CASTLE

Left Brasov with our local creepy Romanian guide relatively early after having eggs and pancakes for breakfast. Was nice to have something to eat for breakfast other than meat and cheese and bread. So over meat at the moment!!

First stop was Rasnov fortress where we were supposed to get our local transport to the top. Turned out the road was closed so we walked instead. Bit of a hill but we went the easy way up s it wasnt too bad. At the top we had a bit of a tour around and saw the old well and the ruins and a great view over the city. Our guide then decided to take us down the hill a different way which wasnt the best idea and probably took us as long as it did to walk the other way anyway.

Our mini bus then took us to Bran Castle which is said to be Dracula's castle but he only ever spent one night in a jail cell there. Our local guide again took us on a tour but it was nothing like how I expected. Saw all of the different rooms and old furniture but there was really nothing 'dracula-esk' there so a little disappointing.

Back into the mini bus where we were taken to this place for lunch where we got the worst service EVER. I had soup and bread followed by a dessert which was supposed to be good but which I actually didsnt like that much. And the soup was full of oil.

Needless to say when we all arrived at our hotel in Sinaia that evening none of us was really up for the group dinner - we didnt have lunch until 3pm. So after dropping off some washing (and playing charades with the laundromat ladies who didnt speak any English!) we sat in the rooms and had a drink before heading to the pub. It was completely empty when we got there but a few hours later it was completely full of Romanian men who watched the football. Hardly any other females in there, our local guide had mentioned that in Romania women dont really drink so it was probably kind of novel for them to see us sitting round a table having a few drinks!! Grabbed a late night snack before going to bed.

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