Blogs from Transilvania, Romania, Europe - page 25

Ever since I know Monica she was telling us stories about her summer vacantions spent in Borsec and promising us that someday she ll take us there just to have a taste of her paradise. First thing that comes in my mind when you say Borsec is the bottled mineral water winner of a gold medal for carbonated waters. I also knew that Borsec was a great tourist destination 20 years ago because of the natural mineral water springs and I might have been with my parents when I was 3-4 years old.... little have I known! Last week was her birthday and instead of partying in a club or dinner in a restaurant, we packed our bags and Friday morning we were on our way to Borsec. Borsec is located in North-Eastern part of Romania ... read more

Brasov Friday 15th February 2008 This would be our last full day in Transylvania, and our last full day of the trip. Due to unforeseen financial problems we’d been forced to terminate the trip early and had booked a flight back to Liverpool out of Bucharest. We spent the first portion of the day returning and booking into the hotel we’d visited the day before. Yes it was expensive but we wanted to go out on a high! The hotel was centrally located, immaculate and I managed to get a room of my own! Our waistcoat-wearing, excitable host was more than a little eccentric; his energy and enthusiasm was greatly appreciated after the previous night’s questionable experience in The Rolling Stone hostel. Snow was beginning to fall, and as this was the first time we’d seen ... read more

Sighisoara Wednesday 13th February 2008 One week into our adventure and we’d already travelled through Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary and Romania. Our second day in Sighisoara was rather quiet... well some of it. We spent the morning exploring the town, seeking out medieval watchtowers and churches. Rob and I posed for a photograph outside Vlad’s house and visited an underground internet café, whilst John caught up on some much needed sleep. For tea, we ate in the Casa Vlad Dracul Restaurant, conveniently located within Vlad the Impaler’s house. I had my first experience of frog’s legs, and the tomato soup was to die for! Little did we know at this point that within a matter of hours we’d be extraordinarily drunk, singing, dancing, and talking absolute rubbish with a group of British teachers. Jo Pub is ... read more

28-08-2008 Who’s house? Bram’s House Well it wasn’t really Bram Stoker’s house but Bran castle was what gave Bram the inspiration to write his famous book. Apparently Vlad never lived here, he just “dropped in for a visit” at some point in the 1500s. Jen, as a vampire enthusiast was thrilled to see the castle, but disappointed by the setting. She expected the castle to be on a ragged hill in the middle of the Transylvanian alps, not in a village with market stalls selling tacky vampire gimmicks and serving bloody vampire steaks with fangs. It’s as pity because the village and the castle itself is really scenic, if they just cleared out all of the tacky souvenirs and got rid of tourists it would be a lovely place - I know probably sounds familiar to ... read more

26-08-08 Vlad’s House has chocolate cake We are in Sighisoara at present, we travelled across the north of Romania yesterday to arrive here late last night. It was a 12 hr day on the bike (for only 400 miles!), we saw some incredible winding roads, little villages, lots more horse power on the roads and lots of traffic. Back on to the subject of driving, Romania has another style all together, rules are guidelines, and guidelines only suggestions. They don’t see many motorcycles on the road here - mainly scooters and bicycles, from what I can make out a motorcycle is generally viewed as a bicycle so we were able to cut up past stationary traffic in cycle lanes with the encouragement of the locals - who where trying to fit small cars along the lanes ... read more