Romania - Dracula Country

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Greetings from Romania.

Our time in Romania began in Bucharest. We arrived early in the morning off an overnight to find our hostel receptionist shagging his girlfriend in what was to be our room. Trust me Stephen and I weren't pleased as we had seats on the train with some weird Bulgarian family and not alot of sleep.

We later realised that the receptionist issue worked in our favour as he spent the rest of stay trying to suck up to us, so that we wouldn't tell his boss. It was funny.

We hit the sights of Bucharest, firstly making our way through the "urban wasteland" of B-dul Unirii, it was basically a place for the homeless and Romas to hang out. It was very ugly. We were actually on our way to see the Palace of Parliament which is the second largest building in the world, only to the US Pentagon. It was concieved by a communist leader in the 80's and it is presently used as a conference centre. It wasn't particularly nice as it looked very dated, but was very big. The best thing about the Palace was the view from the balcony, over looking a copy of the Champs Elysees (but about 600m longer just to stick it to the French).

Since we make lunch everyday, rather than sitting in a gutter like usual, we decided to head to Cismigiu Lake to sit amongst the homeless and eat lunch on a bench instead. The garden was really beautiful with lots of children and mothers playing in the sun and having fun. From there we walked, because we ALWAYS walk - so much that we've both lost heaps of weight - to the Museum of the Romanian Peasant. It was a fantastic museum, they had a church, a homestead, and a wind mill from the traditional villages actually inside the building. There was also a collection of the different clothing they used to wear. There was one weird room that had a collection of busts of communist icons; it seemed a little out of place, in the basement with all the walls painted red.

As we continued to walk the city of Bucharest, we went to the Triumphal Arch devoted to WW1 and the reunionification of Romania in 1918. We also stumbled across a garden for Charles de Gaulle, which was lovely. That's certainly something Romania has above Bulgaria, the gardens are so beautiful and there are so many.

Another highlight of the trip was heading to Carrefour Bucharest, it was the biggest supermarket I have ever seen!! You could get everything and anything you needed, like food shopping in Bunnings. We did a good shop and got everything we needed for our onward journey to Brasov.

Transylvania was a region obsessed with "hollywood" signs. Both Brasov and Rasnov had them which was certainly a strange sight to see on the city hills. The city of Brasov is fairly small but it certainly a pretty city; they just keep getting better as we keep travelling. We were able to see the main sights in an afternoon, the Black and White Churches, the Black and White Towers, the narrowest street in Europe and the Panaromic views from the Brasov sign.

Our second day in the area was certainly the higlight of our time in Romania. We went on a unguided tour with the hostel to the three castles in the area, Peles Palace, Bran Castle and Rasnov Castle. Located in Sinia, Peles Palace was our first stop. It was the summer palace of the first king and queen of Romania. It was one of the most amazing places we have ever seen. Each room was breathtaking. The craftmanship is outstanding, the detail in each feature was fanastic; it was certainly fit for a king. The palace was laiden with crystal, glass, brass doors, wooden floors, and a staircase which were never used (purely for decoration). The other impressive thing was a secret passage from the library to the king's bedroom. That was very cool but as we aren't royalty we couldn't use it - we had to use the tradesman's entrance which meant ringing the doorbell and wait to be invited in. Plus we had to wear special slippers to protect the floors from our shoes. The gardens were also amazing, lots of statues and no-one was allowed on the grass - just like in China people had whistiles to keep us off the grass.

From the Peles Palace we then head to the Bran Castle also know as the "Dracula Castle". Unfortunately we can report back that this castle is really nothing to do with Dracula and it's a kinda crappy castle. We were hoping for a very tracky Dracula Castle, but got nothing. So disappointing - no fake blood or bats anywhere.

From there we moved onto the Rasnov Castle or Citadel. Now this was a fantastic place, the suspence was built with a long walk up the hill. The street was lined with cobblestone, all we could see was the wall. Once we got there we went through the museum where they exhibit ancient instruments of torture and pictures on how to cut someone in half LONG ways! We could also learn how to do archery if we wanted and children could have donkey rides. The citadel was owned by an English couple, who with some help of friends, are restoring it without any help from the Romanian Government. It was a great place to visit and much better than Bran Castle. In a couple of years the Citadel will be fantastic and we would definately go back to check it out.

From there it was back to our hostel from a free beer and some soccer on the TV. We decided to head out for dinner, rash I know. But we had some traditional Romanian food, beers and shots. We also met some ladies who where from Richmond and had just completed a 500 km trek in Spain. Now they had light bags, unlike ours which continue to get heavier.

The next day was a domestic day. As we had booked ourselves on a day train to Budapest, Hungry, we were going to need some food. We adventured out to Carrefour Brasov; it wasn't as good as Bucharest, but still big. We managed to spend all our money on everything we needed except the 3 Lei needed to get to the train station the next day. Our budgeting has became a fine art, being left with little or no foreign currency.

We're having a great time and keeping safe. Missing Everyone.

Lots of Love,
Michelle and Stephen.
xoxox

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Photos

The Palace of Parliament
This is just a side view but you can get an idea of how big it is.

The Balcony at the Palace of Parliament
Michelle on the balcony overlooking Bucharest.

Hollywood comes to Brasov
The hollywood styled sign in the Brasov hills.

The Narrowest Street In Europe
Michelle can reach from one side to the other on this very narrow street. She must have really long arms.

Peles Palace
The outside can only give you a little glimpse of the detail on the inside. Unfortunately we had to pay double the entry cost to take photos so we don't have any of the inside.

Bran Castle
The view of Bran Castle from the village at the bottom of the hill.

Us inside Bran Castle
After not paying to take photos in Peles Palace we thought we wouldn't make that mistake again. Unfortunately this time it was a mistake to pay the extra as the best photos were of us.

The Rasnov Citadel
The view as we walked up the hill.

Cage of Torture at Rasnov
One of the many devices at the castle used to torture people.

Stephen on a Torture Rack
If this was in the middle ages Stephen would be hanging upside down and being sawn in half starting at the top.

The Mountains from Rasnov Citadel
Apparently the movie 'Cold Mountain' was filmed here but neither of us have seen it.