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Published: August 2nd 2008
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Hello
So our Intrepid tour of Eastern Europe started in Budapest, Hungary. Sarah and I arrived in Budapest one day before the tour started in a semi exhausted state after catching the 2am train from Ljubljana. The train went via Croatia, so with the 4 passport checks and 3 ticket checks, neither of us had much sleep. Budapest is made up of three cities, Buda (the old part of the city) and Pest (newer part, but includes the Heroes square). Sarah and I had ample time to explore both before the tour began.
Our tour group was a lovely group of people and lots of fun to be around. Although there was one slight problem - they were all Aussies. All ten of them - including our tour leader Erin. So Sarah and I were labelled "The Kiwis" for the duration of the trip.
First stop was Eger, a region of Hungary famous for its wine and beautiful women. We didn't see much in the way of beautiful women, rather more seedy old men, and I wasn't convinced about the wine either. But it was fun tasting the numerous (and some times rather generous) samplers and you could
fill up a one litre bottle of with wine directly from the barrel for about NZ$5.
From Eger we crossed the border into Romania and stayed in a B&B in the Maramures region, not far from the Ukrainian border. A local tour guide, Nickolai, showed us a really neat cemetery where a local artist painted pictures on the headstone of the deceased representing their life or death - including if they were a drunk, a bossy mother in law or died by roller-skating on train tracks or decapitation. The next stop was Sighisoara. Sighisoara is a UNESCO listed township and the birth place of Vlad Tepis (otherwise known as Vlad the impaler and also the inspiration for Dracula). The town is very picturesque and the clock tower had awesome views of the town.
Romanians haven't quite caught up with modern technology yet. The hay making in particular amused me as it is still entirely done by hand. Each house at our home stay in the Saxon village of Viscri had at least one cow which would walk itself out to the fields in the morning and back home again at night. Horse and cart is still a common
form of transport in these villages. The village itself was awesome to explore on foot, the house were old and crumbling, most of the houses had rather crooked roofs, and the villagers themselves looked like they had warped from the 1900's.
Both Sibiu and Brasov had lovely town centres, with old buildings, churches, and clock towers to explore. Bran castle is located near Brasov, and is famous for supposedly being Dracula's castle. The castle itself was a little disappointing, but the fortress nearby was definitely worth the visit. Including the 400 year old skeleton on display, which still gives me the shivers. From Brasov, another train transported us to Sinaia, a ski town. The hiking is supposed to be great here, but unfortunately the weather wasn't, and I spotted bear scat on one of the trails, so we gave up on the hiking and ambled around the palaces and monastries instead.
The next train transported us to Bucharest - the capital of Romania and home to 10,000 odd stray dogs. Bucharest isn't the prettiest of cities, the fountains in the centre are nice and the Government building, the Peoples Palace is the second largest administrative building in the
world (behind the Pentagon. Otherwise the city was a little on the dirty side.
From Bucharest it was a 6 hour train journey through to Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria. It was quite a relief to arrive in Bulgaria, the food in particularly in Romania had got a bit repetitive (diet of chicken schnitzel, potatoes and cabbage and a lack of other veges and fruit). Bulgaria on the other hand had 10 page menus to choose from. Veliko Tarnovo was a pretty township situated on the S bend of the river, with houses built up the cliff side. The citadel runs a nightly sound and light show, which was actually quite cool and surprisingly not tacky.
From Veliko Tarnovo it was to the capital of Bulgaria - Sofia. The massive gold domed Aleksander Nevski chuch was the main site to see. The earthquake battered Sveta Sofia chuch was also quite interesting. The changing of the guards in front of the presidents palace is a bit of a laugh as they do the whole sole slapping march and gun salute thing. We stopped at Rila Monstary on the way to Bankso. The Monastery helped keep Bulgarian culture and language arrive
during the Ottman rule. It is surrounded by mountains. The whole thing is quite a sight. We had a chance to explore the Bulgarian Mountains in Bankso, as we went for a day hike up the mountains where in winter people ski.
Plovdiv is an old city and contains Bulgaria's best set of Roman ruins. The old town is set above the city and the streets are windy and cobble-stoned. The 35 degree heat made touring a little difficult, but made the ice creams taste so good. Sarah and I found the best vege lasgana too. From Plovdiv we caught the night train into Istanbul, Turkey. The border crossing was at 4am, but yay for Kiwi passport not needing visa, which made the crossing a little less of an ordeal.
Istanbul is an awesome city. Mosques dot the city and the calls to prayer echo accross the city. As Sarah and I had limited time there, we scampered about the major sites - the blue mosque, Aya Soyfa, and the Cistern (with Medusa heads). Our final group dinner ended in a hashi bar, were others smoked (and I dabbled) in the flavoured smokes (apple, banana etc) on offer.
Lovely end to an awesome tour.
The next blogs will be Beligum with Phillipe, the Alaskan reunion and Germany with Slyvia.
Hope everyone is well and those back in NZ are surviving the winter storms.
Cheers
Cielle
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Michael Escher
non-member comment
Tour information?
Hi, This sounds like just the tour that a friend of mine and I would like to take. Can you tell me who you booked your tour with? Thanks, Michael