http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Romania/Transylvania/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Romania , Transylvania en-us Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:29:12 BST Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:29:12 BST Whenever I went to a Hallowe'en party as a kid I always went as Dracula. And not just because my widow's peak and pasty complexion meant I barely had to do any preparation. The legendary tale of the bloodsucking vamp from Transylvania was one of my favourite books so I jumped at the chance to visit the spooky territory where the story was based.Of course Bram Stoker's work of fiction was at leas http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Brasov/blog-329406.html Bran Castle was totally d305fferent to how I expected 305t to be but st305ll very very cool. I was 305n a buoyant mood all day because I'd thought we were just camping near it not actually go305ng there. The castle was not what 304 expected fairly obv305ously 305n retrospect s305nce what I expected was for 305t to be very dark and creepy but I loved every m305 http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Brasov/blog-328159.html We set off from Cluj at nine which meant I had time for a shower despite the late night last night. It feels very nice to have clean hair after all the days of dodgy showers andor it being too cold to go to bed or anywhere really with wet hair. We stopped in a pretty town called Sighisoara in which we saw the beginnings of the Dracula franchise which is really exciting too me anyway. There http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Brasov/blog-326402.html Today was exactly one week from the day we left the Enbankment. James one of the tour leaders pointed this out at the exact GB time and so I felt a bit homesick at first. This abated pretty soon as there was plenty to distract me although I'm still missing everyone and lookijng forward to seeing them even though I don't want the trip to be over too soon. Obviously with the four hours spent http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Cluj-Napoca/blog-326397.html BrasovFriday 15th February 2008This would be our last full day in Transylvania and our last full day of the trip. Due to unforeseen financial problems wersquod been forced to terminate the trip early and had booked a flight back to Liverpool out of Bucharest.We spent the first portion of the day returning and booking into the hotel wersquod visited the day before. Yes it was expensive but we http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Brasov/blog-323784.html BrasovThursday 14th February 2008Valentinersquos day in Transylvania with a hangover and an incredibly punishing one at that. The kind of hangover that persuaded the 3 of us to miss the early train to Brasov in order to sleep it off. When we eventually arrived at the train station the sheer amount of people waiting to get onboard the train was ridiculous we were sure wersquod be without a http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Brasov/blog-323776.html SighisoaraWednesday 13th February 20081 week into our adventure and wersquod already travelled through Italy Slovenia Croatia Hungary and Romania. Our second day in Sighisoara was rather relaxed. well some of it We spent the morning exploring the town seeking out medieval watchtowers and churches. Rob and I posed for a photograph in Vladrsquos house and visited an underground internet ca http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Sighisoara/blog-323775.html SighisoaraTuesday 12th February 2008Ecstatic we were as the night train pulled into Budapest Keleti station ready and willing to take us to Romania. The 3birth sleeper carriage was fantastic we were like children excitably claiming our bunks. Unbelievably we managed to sleep through the entire journey bar the odd bang on the door from passport control as we crossed the border.Transylvania gre http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Sighisoara/blog-322755.html Ok as I already thought things never go exactly as you plan them.Due to technical problems this pc of mine seems to be older than I am and I am not getting any younger either I couldnt upload my pics from the last days of travel around Sibiu.Finally here I am hoping that I ll finish what I've started a few weeks ago.Although the plan was to visit most of the saxon fortified churches aro http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Sibiu/blog-317878.html 28082008 Whorsquos house Bramrsquos HouseWell it wasnrsquot really Bram Stokerrsquos house but Bran castle was what gave Bram the inspiration to write his famous book. Apparently Vlad never lived here he just ldquodropped in for a visitrdquo at some point in the 1500s. Jen as a vampire enthusiast was thrilled to see the castle but disappointed by the setting. She expected the ca http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Brasov/blog-317462.html 270808 A day in the life and Ceausescursquos Mad RoadToday we set out to drive along one of the highest roads in Europe the Transfagarasan which borders on southern Transalvania.ldquoThe road was constructed between 1970 and 1974 as a northsouth crossing at the historical border between Transylvania and Wallachia. It came as a response to the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Sov http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Sighisoara/blog-317341.html 260808 Vladrsquos House has chocolate cakeWe are in Sighisoara at present we travelled across the north of Romania yesterday to arrive here late last night. It was a 12 hr day on the bike for only 400 miles we saw some incredible winding roads little villages lots more horse power on the roads and lots of traffic. Back on to the subject of driving Romania has another style all toge http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Sighisoara/blog-317334.html Caitlin and I spent the last three days in Bucharest Romania.Bucharest was...uneventful. Its a pretty run down city with not much to speak for it besides a nice garden sculpture of a man playing a piano.We trained up to Brasov today in Transylvania which is a much nicer place to be. Its kind of like the skitown of Romania. It sports cobble stone streets and wellaged buildings with more cafes http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Brasov/blog-316511.html Today was the last day for me here in Cluj... Camp was bittersweet as the kids loved the activities but didn't want to leave. We exchanged contact information so hopefully I will be able to stay in touch with them a bit.. Yay emailIoana and I celebrated our last girls night by making french fries from scratch here at the school. We then went to visit her cousin and her cousin's son who just got http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Cluj-Napoca/blog-312189.html Well Well Well...Tomorrow Thursday is my last day in Cluj. I'll be taking the train to Timisoara on Friday and starting the last 2 weeks of my trip. I've loved Cluj and totally admire the kids I met. They're so amazing and wonderful and I cannot thank everyone here in Cluj enough for making my stay so great. A few of the kids even brought me traditionaltype Romanian gifts... One is a hand size http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Cluj-Napoca/blog-311867.html Greetings FriendsAlecia and I have now officially finished Peace Corps and so thought it might be time to fill you all in on the big lsquowhatrsquos nextrsquo Alecia and I have decided to stay in this beautiful part of the world for at least 3 more years. Alecia is working on a small company that will collect dry and export the regionrsquos delicious natural bounty i.e. wild blueberr http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/blog-310849.html Well I 'just' got back from my trip to Brasov. That's the main city that is closest to Bran where the tourist version of Dracula's castle is. It's really not his castle he only speant a summer or two there bit they say it is where the king was bitten by a warewolf or something hairy in the night that caused him to drink the blood of those he had conquered....Anyways the trip started with a 5 hou http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Brasov/blog-310563.html Well today is my Friday as I've planned to see Brasov tomorrow. Thaty's where Dracula's Castle is. It's a 3.5 hour train ride if I take the 5am...or a 5 hour train ride if I leave at 1030. I'll do my best to hop on that 5am short trip. Camp was fun today... not much to report. Some kids are starting to go on holiday so I think the numbers should even out and possibly even decline. The kitchen st http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Cluj-Napoca/blog-309318.html Today staerted out with news that athere would be a prayer service held to commemorate the day when Jesus cleaned his face or something like that. It wasn't a typical holiday for us back home so I wasn't to sure what the Priest was saying. and b I would be interviewed by reporters for the local paper. Both very exciting ways to mix things up a bit and keep the body guessing. The kids were fun http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Cluj-Napoca/blog-309010.html So Tuesday we had another heard of kids join us at camp. It's now growing really fast as the news spreads of juist how much fun camp is. the children from the prison fellowship joined us and it was very interesting They were all of gyspy blood and you could see the differences right away. They all had super dark skin and carried themselved much different than the other kids. Also they were re http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Cluj-Napoca/blog-309001.html Well another day another experience. Camp started out normal but I guess because week one wet so well life decided to test me a bit. First we get about 5 more kids. Then I find out two of them have mental problemsdisabilities one of the kids isn't anywhwere close to as old as the others and the last two think they know everything. Oye. So I managed that and for a good 90 minutes I was the onl http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Cluj-Napoca/blog-308476.html I certainly got a taste of life today as I visited the 'villages' or the Romanian suburbs. I started the day out feeling determined to find that history museum from yesterday. I hopped a bus in the morning and started the search. After some time I finally found what looked to be very familiar from the website. At last I had finally found the building that had plagued me for all of 24 hours. I als http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Cluj-Napoca/blog-308107.html The next day we were planning to take the bus to Medias then from there the bus to Biertan and after visiting the village we would have walked 5 km till the next village Richis... but because the night before we arrived at the hotel after 11 PM waking up early in the morning wasnt so easy.Actually we've missed the 11 AM bus to Medias only by 5 minutes. So we decided to take the 1257 train but http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Sibiu/blog-307901.html HalloIoana her cusin and I went out to the center of town to see a movie and go to a club. When we got into town the movie theater ticket person told us the movie we went there to see was still in Bucharest. So we decided to stroll along the open mall area. After a bit we were all starved so we went to a cafe called Coffice. I liked that name. It was cool they served coffee and drinks So I http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Cluj-Napoca/blog-307799.html Perfect timing for a short summer holiday. We had the greatest weather although the last month it has been raining all over the country.For a long time I was planning to visit the saxons fortified churches. In Transylvania there are a lot of them some very well preserved and famous others very close to become ruins.After I've done some research I printed the maps and tried to establish an itin http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Sibiu/blog-307619.html Happy SaturdayIoana had to go into her other office today for a bit so I hopped a bus to the downtown area and gave myself a tour. It's really interesting what you can do when personal survival is of a concern. I managed to come out unscathed and much more informed so I'd say it was successful. Where to startI bought my bus pass in Romanian thank you very much and waited for the 27 train whic http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Cluj-Napoca/blog-307491.html Greetings. I just got back from my trip to the Orthodox service. TOTALLY different than I expected on every level. First I thought Orthodox gt Dress nicer then regular church gt no sneakers or open toed shoes so I wore my 25 inch heels.... BIG mistake The service was outside on a hill. Mind you this was outside in the middle of nowhere meaning they didn't pave any kind of road or maint http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Cluj-Napoca/blog-307260.html Those were my exact words today at lunch when I was talking to Ioana about weekend plans. My first week with the kids came to an end with lots of smiles and fun times. We started to play hangman or spanzuratoare try saying that 10 times fast. The kids had a great time with that and I learned that the same techniques to get kids to shut up in America work on kids in Romania. Give them a stuf http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Cluj-Napoca/blog-307086.html To start off I'm just going to apologize in advance if the next few entries are a bit blah.. i feel like I've been up forrrrever Anywhoos I got my first real taste of how the Romanians do the nightlife. After my nap I awoke in the nick of time to join the brother of one of the workers here to met his colleagues at a local hangout spot. We met many of his friends and even his boss for drinks http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Romania/Transylvania/Cluj-Napoca/blog-307081.html