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Published: September 22nd 2007
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Hey there readers!!
Its been a while since I sent an update I know, but I've been a bit busy... now where was I?
Ah, last time I posted an update we had just arrived in Bucharest and had a big night out.
We've moved on a couple of times since then, first to Mamaia, then on towards Transylvania (though its not really dark and stormy).
Mamaia is a small beach resort on the Black Sea Coast. Its made unique by the fact that roughly 100 m from the beach running parallel to the coast is a large Lake. Between the two bodies of water becomes a huge party over the summer months. Unfortunately by the time we arrived there the "tourist season" had just finished, and literally 90% of shops, hotels and restauraunts had shut up shop for the season. Almost all the hotels are in big communist era rectangular buildings. The only change they appear to have made is the odd garish lick of paint.
By the time we arrived there the whole place was deserted... there were very few people walking around on the streets, which made Mamaia just a little bit eerie.
To make matters worse the weather turned a little nasty on us and became windy and overcast. On the second night the heavens opened making the place seem even more miserable (though how miserable can you be when beer is $3 for 2L and food is $20 each for a sumptuous feast including a bottle of wine). Fortunately, by the time the weather turned bad it was time for us to move on. Our lasting impressions of Mamaia were puzzlement over how an entire resort town can close down for so many months of the year, even when the weather is (usually) still nice.
After leaving the beach resort of Mamaia we headed for the hills, moving towards the alpine resort of Sinaia.
The first thing we noticed getting off the train in Sinaia was (shock horror) it was getting colder! We spent our first cool rainy night in Sinaia getting to know the area in preparation for a full on day the next day. We awoke to discover overnight the rain had all but disappeared and we could now see the mountains!! We started off by heading up a couple of gondolas to the top of the
nearest mountain at 2000 m. At the top it was misty and seriously cold for a bunch of people coming from the mid 20s of Bucharest and Mamaia. The view was nice when we could see past the clouds. We had entertained thoughts of walking down from the first gondola stop at 1400 m but when we asked at the information desk she told us to watch out for bears (and she wasn't kidding). She went on to explain there were about 800 living in the patch of forest between the top and bottom, and the larger forest area was home to half the bears in Europe!! She said we would probably be ok, but make sure we stay strictly on the road... Needless to say that, in combination with the cold, was enough to pour (very) cold water on the idea!
We followed our trip up the hill with a tour of the Peles (pronounced Pelesh) Castle. The "castle was the summer home of the first Romanian King in the late 19th century. It was very pretty, but the title castle was a bit grandiose for what is in reality a very large manor home. Many of the
furnishings were very rich, like mirrors made in Venice that were over 5m high and covered an entire wall. The castle even had a built in central heating system, a central vacuum system and was the first European palace to be fully lit by electricity.
Matt and Andrae discovered that new skis in Romania were less than half the cost of new skis in NZ so now have the added ignomy of transporting two new pairs of skis (at under $500 a pair).
Moving on from Sinaia we are now in Brasov. Brasov is a beautiful wee town (of 300,000 people) just down the railway line from Sinaia, but still in the mountains. If anything last night was even colder than the previous night. We had pretty much every item of warm clothing out of our packs... the polar fleece hoodie I had lugged through the heat of Istanbul all the way to Romania finally stopped taking up space in my pack and was gladly worn by Jo for the evening. Needless to say the Icebreaker T my workmates gave me has barely come off for the last three days (and true to its word, it doesn't smell either).
Today, we took a day trip to a village named Bran (no muffin jokes please, we've used them all ourselves). Bran is famous for Draculas Castle... the problem is Vlad Teppes (the real inspiration for Dracula) didn't actually live there... The castle is still large and impressive, and very picturesque. Annoyingly, most Romanian tourist venues charge you extra to take photos inside. The "camera fee" is often higher than the entry fee. I have a few photos from Bran that I will share at a later date (we're just on our way to dinner so I don't have my camera).
Last night we had the most amazing dinner... we ate at a place called Keller Steak House (as recommended by Lonely Planet), below ground level. I had a huge plate of pasta with chicken, mushrooms and garlic (more than enough to fill me), Jo had a marinated chicken breast, Matt had a swordfish salad, and Andrae had beef stroganhoff, complete with some soup and a bottle of wine, all for under 200 lei ($120 NZ). We're going back tonight because we discovered they do a whole eye fillet flambed at your table... plus dinner was so good last night we couldn't even sample their extensive and tasty sounding dessert menu...
Tomorrow we set off on another bunch of adventures... Jo heads home to London (she's glad to get away from the cold and back to a comfy bed after last night left a little to be desired), and we head on to the fortress city of Sighsoara and then on to Hungary a day or so later.
Until next time everyone, stay safe!
Nick
(PS Mel, I promise to upload some photos next time, promise!)
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Haish
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Sounds like you're having fun
Will you be a regular visitor to Bran?