Rain, but no snow, in Romania

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Our first stop on Spring Break '07 was Bucharest, Romania. We left Alexandria at 9:00pm, drove to Cairo, took a 4:00am flight to Milan to catch a connection to Bucharest. We were exhausted and nearly incoherent by the time we arrived at 1:30 in the afternoon. After much ado, we rented a car, sat in rush hour traffic and finally made it into the city to look for a hotel room. Unfortunately, every hotel we had bookmarked in our Lonely Planet was either full or closed down! By 7:00 in the evening with the rain pouring down, we must have looked desperate because a kind Romanian pedestrian we had stopped to ask for directions hopped in our car and led us to a vacant hotel. All's well that ends well! With only a few days in Romania, we divided our time between Bucharest and Transylvania. I vant to suck your blood! And of course, we had to visit the grave of the famous Count Dracula (really named Vlad Tepes)... Even though it meant paying an exorbitant amount of money to have two boys row a canoe 100 feet to the island where he's reportedly buried AND having our tires flattened by the gypsies who stayed behind! It's just one story after another in Romania...

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Photos

Bran Castle
Also called Count Dracula's Castle, although Vlad probably never set foot here.

Palace of Parliament
To build this 12 story "House of the People" communist dictator Ceausescu bulldozed 26 churches, 2 synagogues and a monastery in the city's most historic quarter and made 70,000 people homeless. A real people's president!

Museum of the Romanian Peasant
Cool outdoor museum of homes from different areas and time periods throughout Romania

Romanian Peasant museum
Bryan and Al were glad there was an old merry-go-round to play on!

Snagov Lake
The yacht that carried us to Count Dracula!

1512 Church
Vlad Tepes' headless torso is said to be buried under the dome of this church on Snagov Lake. Vlad is considered the founder of the church after he supported the re-builidng and restoration of much of the church and island.

Vlad the Impaler
Count Dracula himself!

Transylvania skiing?
Our hopes were high for skiing in the Carpathaian mountains, but the week of rain before we arrived dashed our hopes.

Transylvanian lion?
Instead of snow on the ski slopes, we found this lion. Kind of random...

Transylvanian mountains
View from the roadside between Brasov and Sinaia.