Blogs from Romania, Europe - page 10

After a late night of dancing, we were thankful to have a free morning to sleep in as we weren't scheduled to leave Sighisoara until 1:00pm. We had a delicious buffet breakfast in the hotel dining room before venturing back up to the Old Town to explore in the morning daylight. Shea and I bundled up as the morning was blisteringly cold and made our way to do some morning exploring. We basically retraced the same steps we took last night during our walking tour but this time with the advantage of daylight. During last night's tour, we missed just how colorful the Old Town is. Along every street that we walked on, the structures were painted various shades of blue, green, yellow, and orange. We passed small outdoor cafes with inviting terraces which would have ... read more

It was still dark outside when our bus set out to begin our tour of Romania. The weather was cold and rainy as we headed west out of Bucharest. Hopefully this morning's weather wasn't a sign of bad weather to come. We were headed to Poenari Castle and thankfully by the time we had arrived a few hours later, the skies had cleared to reveal a cool and sunny October day. What remains of Poenari Castle is located at the top of a hill and we had to climb approximately 1500 steps in order to get there. We all made our way up to the top and eventually it was Gabo, Margaret, and myself leading the pack. Once at the top, we were rewarded with fantastic views of the surrounding mountains whose trees have all dropped ... read more

We left Braşov behind and headed for Sighisoara about 1.5 hours northwest-ish. Their claim to fame is their meticulously preserved medieval citadel and the house of Vlad Tepes who the town info says was the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s character Dracula (Dracula means “son of Dracul”...Vlad’s dad (Vlad Sr.’s) name was Vlad Dracul, so that makes junior...you see where I’m going). Junior did his fair share of impaling, apparently. Our hotel was inside the walls of the citadel and was very quaint. We could drive in to drop off our luggage, but had to park outside the citadel walls (parking is super cheap - 5 RON ($1.61 CAD) for 24hrs. The historic citadel area is extremely compact and we walked up and down every street and saw all the sights, including the room where Vlad Tepes ... read more

We started our day with breakfast at what is quickly becoming our favourite spot: Paul. Very popular cafe about a block away from our hotel with magnificent pastries and gorgeous sammiches. Also, the ladies who work there are the friendliest in Bucharest! It’s nice to start your day with a smile (a rare enough commodity that we notice when we get one). Gold star, Paul. You are excellent. My must for Bucharest was the Village Museum (an open air museum with historic homes and structures from different parts of Romania that were relocated to Bucharest and restored). To get there we took a lacklustre HOHO which took us by the Parliament (ridiculously huge) before swinging northward to take us to the museum. The museum was Ah-Mah-Zing. We spent 4 hours there (including lunch at a cafe ... read more

Day 6 was a long slog (15 hours) on the train from Budapest to Bucharest. We had tried to figure out about the train, amenities, etc. before we left, but left things a little too late and couldn't get the info we needed about our train by looking online. Like: Is there wifi on the train? (No) Are there plugs to charge your devices (Yes) Is there a dining car? (No) is there a bar (No) and probably the most important one for a 15hr trip - Can you buy food on the train (yes, but you won't know that until after you start thinking maybe there won't be any snacks and you won't be able to have anything until after you arrive at 11pm and by then you'll be "hangry" and that's no fun for ... read more