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Published: February 23rd 2007
Peles Castle
This former royal palace dates from 1883A cheap flight from Budapest saw us fly into Bucharest, Romania, at midnight. We had for once pre-booked a hostel and had noticed that they offered an airport pickup service for E6. Being the adventurous types we decided to make our own way to the hostel; that's when the fun began! After collecting our bags we ran the gauntlet of the taxi drivers and made our way to the buses. We had been told that you have to purchase your ticket from a booth before you get on the bus but try as as we might we couldn't find a booth that was open. Too late we saw the last bus of the day disappear into the night! We didn't feel like going back to the taxi drivers and admitting defeat so we started walking!! We soon met up with another half dozen backpackers in the same predicament and so we stood at the side of the road and pondered our predicament. A couple of empty off-duty buses went by but none stopped. This was when George entered the scene. He wandered over and he soon had persuaded an empty bus to stop. The driver took pity
The Transylvanian Mountains
Taken from the train as we travelled through the Prahov Valley. They are very impressive! on us and offered to drop us all at a taxi rank closer to the city centre. George hopped on the bus and came with us and while the other backpackers took two taxis he negotiated with a driver for us. We got into the taxi and so did George!! We told him we would be fine but he insisted and off we sped. We had NO idea of directions or distances and I became increasingly certain that we were driving around in a circle. We had been warned about taxi scams and just when I was about to say something the taxi drew up outside Butterfly Villa, our hostel. George negotiated a good price for us and then assured that we were fine sped off into the night with the taxi driver. Talk about angels in disguise! So began our five days in Romania.
Bucharest Bucharest is a sprawling city of 2 million and according to legend was founded by a shepherd called Bucur who built a settlement in the Vslasla forest. It is far from being a beautiful city; rather it is chaotic jumble of traffic-choked streets lined by ugly unfinished Communist development projects. Bucharest used
Welcome to Bran Castle :)
Michael makes a new friend. to be know as the Little Paris of the East before the Communists demolished most of the quaint buildings in the older suburbs. There is even a miniature 25m high Arc of Triumph (Arcul de Triumf) where six boulevards meet. Stray dogs roam all over the place and in fact can be a menace. We heard from two different sources that a Japanese tourist had been killed by a pack of these dogs but this could be an urban myth. Lonely Planet advises you to WALK confidently and NOT run!! We fortunately didn't encounter any problems but we are all dog lovers! Maybe that helped! Romania is not overrun by tourists and you often feel you are the only foreigner in the place. In fact there is no Tourist Office in Romania at all. It is believed that 1.8 million Roma Gypses live in Romania, making it the largest such community in the world. We saw quite a few of them wandering the streets.
Ceausescu and the Palace of Parliament Nicolae Ceausescu, a despote dictator in the 1980's is blamed for much of the poverty and unfinished building projects in the city. His redevelopment project in 1984 demolished
a huge part of the historic centre of the town. Thousands of houses and religious buildings as well as a hospital were razed so that he coud build a new Centru Civic. The crowning glory of this area was the Palace of Parliament. It is said to be the second largest building for surface area in the world after The Pentagon. It is 270m by 240m and 86m high. It has 12 storeys with 4 underground levels including a nuclear bunker. Its 1100 rooms are decorated with marble and gold leaf and 4,500 chandeliers of the planned 11,000 adorn the rooms. Ceausescu called the place The Palace of the People while the people call it The Madman's House. We went on a very interesting tour of 10 of the rooms. One day we walked all the way around the walled complex. Peeping over the walls and through gates along the way we could see neglected gardens and areas of wasteland. At the back we saw a pack of dogs and at one gate there was a dead dog lying on the ground. In 1989 one of the most violent revolutions took place in the city and nearly 300 were killed
The balcony from which Ceaucescu gave his last speech.
It was from here that he gave his famous speech. Soon after this, he died of 'lead poisoning', as our guide explained with a dry smile, (he was shot).This building that used to be the Central Committee of the Communist Party is now the Senate Building. in the uprising. Ceausescu and his wife died at the hands of a firing squad on Christmas day the same year.
Fun on the Buses On the recommendation of the hostel owner we had lunch at a little restaurant tucked away in the city where it is said conspirators had planned the revolution. They certainly served great pizza there and it was packed with Romanians!
Most of our travelling has been done on public transport and the buses in Bucharest were a challenge at times! They were sometimes extremely crowded and the doors would close on any unsuspecting person. Colin was the last to board one day and just about got wiped out by the door closing. He had to breathe in as he was wedged in tightly! At the next stop he was just about pushed off the bus very roughly by some men who wanted to get off. He had been loathe to get off to let them alight as it was touch and go as to whether he would get on again!
Rural Romania Having had enough of the city we decided to head off on a train to Brasov in the Transylvanian
Mountains. Brasov was built by the medieval Saxons and it guarded the Carpathian passes. Local legend has it that the Pied Piper enticed the children from Hamelin in Germany and they vanished underground only to emerge in Transylvania near the site of Brasov's main square. The trip through the Prahova Valley and the Bucegi Mts was spectacular. It had snowed heavily and when we arrived in Brasov we tried to take the cablecar to the top of the hill near the town but they said it was too windy and unsafe. We contented ourselves with a walk up part of the path where we had fun with some Lord of the Rings-inspired fighting and we even discovered some Ents. See my photo! That evening we had one of the most delicious meals of our trip in a little underground restaurant near the town centre.
Romanian Castles Next morning we took a local bus to Bran Castle which was 23 kms away. It only cost us 3 Lei, about one dollar fifty each! The castle certainly looks like a vampire count's residence perched on the mountain side complete with towers and ramparts. It looked magical in the snow and
Cretulescu Church
We came across this little church one day and it was one of the nicest churches I had come across in our travels. It just had a wonderful feel about it. It was built in 1722 but badly damaged in the 1989 revolution. we had the place to ourselves most of the time which was an added bonus! Apparantly in the summer you can hardly move in the castle. Bran Castle is often referred to as Dracula's Castle but it is a very tenuous link. It is likely that he laid seige to it in 1460 but he probably only lived there for a week or so. Dracula was the name given to Prince Vlad, ruler of Wallachia in the mid 1400's. He gained the name Tepes Impaler after the punishment he used against enemies. He would drive a wooden stake through the victim's backbone without touching any vital nerve ensuring at least 48 hours of suffering before death! He was called Dracula, meaning son of the dragon, after his father, Vlad Dracul.
Our next stop was Sinaia where we had a guided tour of Peles Castle. This is a real fairytale- type castle and our very knowledgeable guide certainly kept us entertained. There were only 4 of us on the English tour! The Castle was built in 1875 to 83 by Carol 1, the German who was appointed as King of Romania. The castle resembles a Bavarian Schloss and the furnishings in
Palace of Parliament
As seen from the middle of Calea Unirii, Bucharest's 'Champs Elysees' ripoff, (which Ceausescu made sure was both longer & wider than its inspiration). the rooms was amaxing. Carol died in 1914 and the castle has not been lived in since!
We returned to Bucharest and the Butterfly Villa to await Joel's arrival. He was flying in from Budapest on the same cheap flight that we had used, after having packed up and saying goodbye to his friends in Vienna. After our arrival capers we recommended the hostel pick-up option and it was great to see him again when he walked through the doors of the hostel at midnight! Now all four of us were together again ready for the next adventure!
At the moment I am sitting in a little internet cafe in Marrakech, Morocco trying to catch up on some blogs. Since travelling through Romania we have been to Turkey and Greece so I have a lot to catch up on! The key boards are often laid out differently in other countries so finding all the symbols I want can be a challenge! Hope you are enjoying the blogs! Thank you to all who have posted a comment. I have really appreciated the contact!
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Joel
Joel Meadows
Great photos!
Your photos look like postcards! Particularly loved the ones of the fights in the forest! :P Hope you are enjoying Morocco and great to hear that you found Axix!!