Blogs from Transilvania, Romania, Europe - page 7

Leanne’s assessment of Romanian train travel: “Romanian trains SUCK!” … and I concur. This post begins in another fortified medieval town on top of a hill, Sighisoara. We learnt here that there were seven of them known as seibenbergen, a German name owing to the region's Saxon heritage. We have now seen 4 of them without meaning to tick them of the Romanian tourist list. Sighisoara’s old town has 14 towers, each one built and controlled by a guild and used for defence when under attack. We stayed just inside the tailors’ gate/tower and one of the other towers is still inhabited by a grave keeper and his family. It overlooks the Saxon cemetery outside the walls. There is also an impressive clock tower that puts on a show every hour, when a clockwork drummer lets ... read more

August 3, 2015 – Everyone got up around the same time today too, at 7:30. I had some breakfast and then left to take a few pictures in town. I ended up spending the time mostly making sure I knew how to walk back to the train station, so I wouldn’t be late. I came back, finished packing up, and then headed out, more confident I knew where I was going. It was a different, but more direct route than Erick and I had taken to get to the hostel, which was good for me. The train station was small, and there was no electronic board to see if the train was on time. I asked the woman working and she said it was 10 minutes late. Everyone went out to the platform at the same ... read more

After waking up and mastering the shower in our ensuite – there was no curtain and the water sprayed out from every angle, it was seriously impossible not to completely saturate the floor and walls – I headed off to find the bus to take me to Bran Castle. I made it to the station with 3 minutes to spare, paid for my ticket and managed to clamber aboard the already over-packed bus. It was a 45 minute journey to the Castle. Stopping in at a few towns along the way. There was a small child sitting on his mother’s lap in front of me. Absolutely adorable with the biggest blue eyes. Cluck cluck cluck haha. He was periodically crying though I noticed that he stopped crying and became quite fanscinated when he saw the band-aid ... read more

Today is day 8! First off let me begin by saying that the mountains here are BEAUTIFUL!! Anyways, we began today with taking the train four hours to Fagaras. While on the train we got to experience several amazing views. My favorite thing about the views was being down in the valley and looking up at all the villages with their red clay roofs. Also along the way something I thought was beautiful were several patches of Black Eyed Susan’s scattered across the prairies. Once we made to Fagaras we were met by two cars that drove us through several small towns. Once at the hotel we had to wait for our rooms to be ready so we sat outside and talked, at this time Alex and I found a stream behind the hotel. Once our ... read more

So just when I was getting use to Bucharest it was time to say goodbye and head off to Brasov. I took one final look around my hostel – Villa 11 – and headed over to the station. I managed to find my platform and my train, getting on 40 minutes early so that I could secure a seat for myself, and a place for my luggage. It was all very informal, there was no checks done of tickets until the train was on its way to Brasov, so I was able to just sit back, read my book, and enjoy 3 hours worth of forest scenery. It was incredibly relaxing and definitely reassured me that I have made the right choice to do the majority of my travels by rail. It was all so lush ... read more