HE SAID... Today were travelling southwest from Veliko Tarnovo to Plovdiv. We woke to the sound of the church bell close to our hotel. We were leaving by train for Plovdiv, and it was an early start, so there were no cafes open for breakfast. We’d picked up some bananas and water the night before, but we would have killed for a cup of tea or coffee. We jumped into a taxi outside our hotel and headed to the Veliko Tarnovo railway station on the outskirts of town. We ate our bananas while we waited for the train to arrive, then walked across the tracks and jumped onto the nearest carriage when it finally rolled in about half an hour behind schedule. Unluckily, every eight-seat cabin was full, and those that weren’t full were not very ... read more

HE SAID... Today we were travelling south from Brasov to Bucharest. We were catching an early train to Bucharest, so we had a quick breakfast of muesli, yoghurt, toast, cheese, salami, scrambled eggs and tea. We grabbed our packs, jumped into a taxi and headed to the Brasov railway station. We wandered through the virtually deserted station, found our train and settled in for the two hour trip to Bucharest. The train was not overly comfortable – it was very hot with a strong smell of rotten eggs which we think was fuel-based and coming through the air-conditioning vents. However, once it chugged out of Brasov, the air conditioning kicked in (lightly) and the smell disappeared. We climbed through the Carpathian Mountains, with mist shrouding the tree tops, then sped along lush green agricultural plains which ... read more

HE SAID... Today we were travelling southeast from Sighisoara to Viscri. Our journey took us through the heart of Saxon Land, which many believe to be the real Transylvania. After driving for a short time on the reasonably smooth highway out of Sighisoara, we turned into a barely traversable road, and bumped and rocked our way into Viscri – a small fortified Saxon village surrounded by lush green fields. We dropped our bags in our very basic but comfortable homestay and headed out for a walk around the village. This was a very rural place, and the smell of cow manure hung heavily in the air. We made our way up to the whitewashed and tile-roofed fortified church, which had originally been a Catholic church until Lutheran reformists seized it for their own purposes. In a ... read more

HE SAID... Today we were travelling east from Debrecen in Hungary to Maramures in Romania. We arrived at the Hungarian / Romanian border mid-afternoon, where an austere young policeman came onto the minibus and took our passports. We then waited for an hour, not allowed to get out, until the passports were returned. At one stage we saw the young policeman come outside and have a cigarette, laughing and joking with his fellow police officers only a few metres from where we were trapped inside the minibus. Luckily, our bus driver left the air conditioning on, so we didn’t overheat. Our passports were finally handed over, and we continued our journey east towards Vadu Izei, a village in Maramures. While the landscape didn’t change much in terms of rolling flat agricultural fields stretching to the horizon, ... read more

HE SAID... Today we were travelling northeast from Budapest to Eger. We were wide awake at 5am, and because we were leaving Budapest in the late morning, we were feeling a little flat. However, nothing that a glass of champagne for breakfast couldn’t solve. Along with the champagne, I gathered a selection of muesli, yoghurt, toast, cheese, salami, pink grapefruit juice and tea. It was a great start to the day, despite the grumpy breakfast staff. We organised our packs for our train trip to Eger, then headed to the Basilica of St Stephen to see if we could finally, after numerous attempts, get to see St Stephen’s mummified hand. We walked around the Basilica for about 10 minutes, looking for the mummified hand, but to no avail. It was time to ask, as we had ... read more