Blogs from Transilvania, Romania, Europe - page 13

There are plenty of summer holiday destinations to choose from and tourists are spoiled for choice. However, for history and culture-lovers and those of you who love to go sightseeing, Transylvania is without a shadow of a doubt, one of the top summer destinations! My boyfriend and I decided on the spur of the moment to go on a city break and picked some of the most renowned places in Transylvania and went ahead and booked a night at Ibis Hotel in Sibiu and a second one at a small, lovely pension - Citadela Pension in Sighisoara. To our delight, the pictures of the pension posted on the website heralded not only an impressive interior design of the pension, but also the atmosphere and the feel of the 1820s. Indeed the owner went to great lengths ... read more

I am on the train to Sibiu, Romania. I left the apartment in Brasov, Romania giving myself 40 minutes to make a 6:00 am train. A taxi came by within 60 seconds--travel karma. Me: Train Station please. Taxi: Gara, gara? Blah, blah, blah, gara? Me: Hmmmm. Chug-a, chug, chug, ... chug-a, chug, chug .... woow a woow. Taxi: Ah. Gara! Gara! He drove straight to the train station. Some sounds are international. He knew exactly what I meant and drove with confidence. I suspect there are many more languages than countries. If my memory serves me, India has 16 spoken languages? The USA has English and many languages spoken by the original people of America, like the Navajo, Cherokee, etc. So my guess is probably right. I have noticed some common sounds and motions across regions. ... read more

The jury was still out on Romania after the 2010 trip to Bucharest. As described in Red Dogs & Englishmen and the very worthwhile book on all things football in Eastern Europe, Romania is not a very easy country to like - a cross between the appalling and the appealing. The five days in Bucharest elevated it’s status in our minds, so we thought we’d give it another go for the "special occasion". There would be no football this time anyway to bring us into contact with the less sophisticated members of society and the Henri Coanda Airport at Otopeni is a step up in class from the less than luxurious cousin down the road at Banesa. The EU funds had been well spent and the bag pick up was swift and efficient. Terminal 4 had ... read more

The train to Sighisoara cost $18 and going back only cost $6. The expensive train was 30 minutes faster. It also had AC but the windows are all down on the cheap train and a good breeze is blowing through, so that doesn’t seem to make a difference at this time of year. But the people in the cheap train are an order of magnitude different. They are not as visually appealing and several are missing a tooth or two. They had to throw a couple of guys off who apparently boarded without tickets. When I opened my computer to work on the cheap train, people sat and stared at me, like I was from outer-space. Nobody looked twice this morning on the expensive train. A woman I met in Bucharest told me that I had ... read more

When I arrived in Bucharest Romania, I started asking locals what to see in Romania. I asked the landlord of the furnished 1 bedroom apartment I rented on airbnb.com. She gave me the name of Brasov and Sibiu. Then a few others I met confirmed Brasov and Sibiu and added Sighisoara. Another mentioned Dracula’s Castle, and added that the idea of Vampires is not known in Romania. Historically, Romanians did not create the myth of Vampires, but they are happy to have us import our tourist dollars, pounds, and euros, to celebrate the myth. That probably means there are no Vampires, kids. You really thought that an extraordinarily strong character that throws people through the air like rag dolls, sucks your blood out of your neck with sharp teeth, and leaves you for dead, with bite ... read more