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Exploring Romania: Transylvania to Bucharest

poweredbytofu — Tue, 19 May 2009 19:20:02 +0000

It’s practically Travel Tuesday around here! I wrote several posts this week about my travels through Romania last August. I really enjoyed Romania, and now is a great time to experience the Eastern European countries of Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary since you have the ease of travel from being in the EU, but the cheaper prices since they use their own currencies still (HUF, RON, & BGN) instead of the Euro. I loved Romania for the history, meeting local Romanians and the opportunities to get outside. Customer service is a relatively new concept in Eastern Europe this doesn’t mean that you’ll be treated badly, just that you have to adjust your expectations. Romania is just about the polar opposite from Thailand, the land of smiles. And while smiles are universal, you might just have to work harder in order to receive one. I kind of enjoyed that aspect, it seemed genuine. From chatting with people in more rural areas, it seems like a different country than being in the capital city, although this is always true, it seems as if many Romanians still view Bucharest as a part of Communism and the city that most of their youth have migrated to for work. But those workers in turn spend their vacations out of the city, and they seem to have such an optimism when they talk about rural Romania.

Adventures in Romania:

Eger Hungary to Maramures, Romania – Welcome to Romania! & More Palinka, Anyone?
Viscri, Romania – Eating Potatoes Until the Cows Come Home
Sighisoara, Romania – Transylvania & Vlad the Impaler & Why No Trumpets?
Sibiu, Romania – Trouble in Transylvania
Brasov, Romania – A Little Bit of Hollywood in Brasov & A Visit to Dracula’s Castle
Sinaia – Telegondola? Telegondola?
Bucharest – Olympic Games from Bucharest

If Romania is on your list of places to visit, try finding a cheap flight to Paris or London and then take a local carrier (Blue Air) into Bucharest for about 45 euros or go overland by train.

Next up, Bulgaria! [Shakes head as "Yes!"]

A Little Bit of Hollywood in Brasov, Romania

poweredbytofu — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:43:15 +0000

We took the train to Brasov this morning. After a tour of the Black Church, the largest Gothic church in Eastern Europe, we walked through town to the “Skinniest Street in Eastern Europe”, and then walked to the cable car to visit the other thing Brasov is well-known for. A quick lesson in politics. How do you get people to vote for you? Well, in Brasov, the politician said, “Vote for me and I’ll build a Brasov “Hollywood sign” on the hillside”. So, the people voted for him and he built a very large, tacky looking Hollywood sign. Quite simple, really. ;) Oh and in other news, a local was eaten by a bear last week. So we took the cable car instead of hiking. After dragging a bit more of the story out of our guide, he said it was a homeless person who was sleeping on a bench in the woods, and he probably smelled like food. Note to self: don’t sleep on a bench in the woods in bear country.

Trouble in Transylvania

poweredbytofu — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:03:46 +0000

We took the train to Sibiu yesterday morning. There was a Zorro spotting at the train station, but I wasn’t able to take a picture. Maybe it was Antonio Banderas.

Sibiu is the cutest little town! Full of plazas and churches and a river and it’s all quite sweet. So sweet, that it was awarded the European Capital of Culture in 2007. Forget Italy, if you want a cheap vacation, while still catching some culture, I’d definitely put Sibiu on the list. And their Italian food is pretty good. And… the Romanian language even has an Italian root. Which simply means I can pick out a very occasional word in Romanian, from the Italian, from the Spanish.

So I was planning on renting a bike today, but for the lack of a proper map, helmet, bike lane, and cycling pals, I’ve decided to skip it. My travel insurance thanks me. So I spent the day touring the town. I started with climbing the bell tower in the Evangelical Church. It was actually kind of scary, and I’m not generally afraid of heights. The 2nd half of the climb was on exposed stairs open to below. In the States, you would have had to sign a waiver! It was all fine, until I was nearly to the top and the bell rang. So among the flying birds and expletives, I waited out the ringing bell and finally made it to the top, for a pretty awesome view of the town and countryside.

I had a picnic lunch and ate by Liar’s Bridge near the square. Liar’s Bridge is the oldest cast-iron bridge in Romania, and legend has it that if you tell a lie over it, the bridge will collapse. But I’m happy to reassure you that it’s lie proof. After walking for hours, I decided to walk over to the Art’s theater that I saw on the map. I finally found it, but no one was at the window. So I went in and walked up some stairs and through another door and then down a hall, and then a lady came out of a door labeled “crime lab”. At which point I proceeded to pee my pant, no not really, but almost, and she assured me that the theater was open and then proceeded to LOCK ME IN the lobby and disappear! At this point, it was beyond a bad movie plot in my imagination, so I knocked on the glass door, for a bit, then looked at pictures in a Romanian magazine for about half an hour, and then some people showed up. I had a hard time explaing to them in why I was locked in there. Anyway, long story short, they only show a movie at this theater if at least 4 people show up. Yep, 4, so since there were only 3 of us, they told us to come back at the next showing. :) I love Romania.

Why No Trumpets?

poweredbytofu — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 00:46:51 +0000

This morning, after breakfast, I wandered back into town. After checking out the Internet place, I walked back up to the Citadel and looked at all the main sights on my map. The covered staircase was especially cool. After circling back down to the Citadel, I sat in the old church and listened to organ music, checked out the Torture museum and had a lunch in the square. I went to find the vegetable/fruit market, but it was already closed for the day. It’s nice to have a day by myself! This afternoon, I did some laundry in my sink, had a cappucino outside, painted my nails and wrote postcards. Such a busy and exciting day. ;) On that note, it’s time for my daily “what did I eat today” time! I’ve been craving vegetables for days. So I ordered a tomato salad for dinner, with maize and sour cream and breaded cheese, and a Ciuc. So when you order a tomato salad in Eastern Europe, you get a tomato sliced on a plate. Salad does not mean lettuce, in fact, I haven’t seen a salad that has included lettuce, yet! But since learning that, I order a tomato “salad” just so I can put tomatoes on everything that I order. Everything else being cheese or… wait for it… potatoes. ;)

Transylvania & Vlad the Impaler

poweredbytofu — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 00:09:39 +0000

I’m out on the porch this morning, surrounded by early morning Romanian village life. A horse-drawn cart just went by and earlier a German shepherd came trotting up, followed by his farmer and a dozen sheep on their way to the field. Now, a big dairy cow is wandering around, grazing, with her bell ringing. I love farm life! In fact, I’ve been told that if I love farm life so much why don’t I just stay here! But I’m already tired of potatoes, so I don’t think it would work out.

After my visit with farm life this morning, we drove to Sighisoara, birthplace of Dracula! Truthfully, Dracula is a work of fiction, but the character was roughly based on Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Tepes. I spent the afternoon wandering around the Citadel area. Transylvania is quite the tourist attraction in Romania, so the city has several greeters that walk around the Citadel and recite a history and welcome in 64 different languages! Neat, but they had a herd of other tourists following them around the Citadel, so I checked out the Vlad the Impaler monument and just walked around. Then, on my way down the stairs into town, I ran into the greeter people, and there was no one following them. I was really excited, lol. They said “German?” and I said “No.” And then he said “American” and I said “Yes” and then they started on their spiel.

So Casa Dracula (the birthplace of Vlad) is of course a total tourist trap, but with all the restaurants around the same price, why wouldn’t you go! The food was alright, but we were there more for the experience, so it was a fun evening.

Eating Potatoes Until The Cows Come Home

poweredbytofu — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 23:44:42 +0000

I woke up at 4:30 this morning! After a quick breakfast of coffee and chocolate cake (I could get used to that, the cake, not the waking up!), we drove to the train station. It’s amazing that the old women are already out on the benches chatting at 5am! After six hours on the train, and then an hour bus ride, we finally arrived in Viscri. This town is really neat. There are just a few gravel streets and traditional houses, and it’s known for it ancient fortified church. As we get farther south, the people are getting darker. There are more Roma people in this area (they are kind of like gypsies). This afternoon we checked out the fortified church. Oh and the Prince of Wales owns a home here. Quite strange.

We ate dinner outside tonight. I’m officially tired of potatoes. How can this be? I love potatoes! Ha! Soup, meat, and potatoes are quite the standard diet here. We tried the local schnapps for dessert and it tasted just like cough syrup. Rather strong. It’s funny how each region and town seems to have their own unique beverage. After dinner we waited for the cows to come. Seriously, they come home at 8:30 every night. They walk as a herd down the main street and each cow and horse walks in the gate of their respective homes. It’s genius really. OK, so there were a few stragglers, but not many. Most of them were verywell behaved and I took lots of pictures of them. And one of the local farmers offered to take my picture with his horse. I was quite pleased!