Brasov, Romania

Transylvania, Count Dracula, Castles, Mountains, Rivers, Black Church, Defense Garrisons around the city  who could ask for more?

Arriving at the Brasov train station late in the afternoon our couch surfers were kind enough to meet us at the train station and immediately took us around the ciry showing us some of the sights of Brasov, they drove us up a big mountain road to where we could see all of the old town the new part of the city, and of course the “Hollywood style” Brasov sign adorning one of the high peaks in the area.  They also took us to the white tower and explained a lot of the history of the city after driving around we went to the  grocery store and headed back to their flat. Similia was nice enough to make us a traditional Romanian meal consisting of “corn – mush” called Mamaliga. It was very tasty. Later we sat around their place drinking red wine with pepsi sharing stories and telling jokes, it was a great evening.

Early the next morning our hosts drove us to a castle a little ways away. It was absolutely breath taking. It was not Dracula’s castle, but it was still amazing. We took a tour of the inside and I was stunned with how ornate everything was. The woodwork and carvings on the interior and attention to detail was absolutely breathtaking. Unfortunately they charged an arm and a leg to take pictures inside, so I refrained.

After spending a beautiful day at the castle we explored the old town, walked all around and ate an amazing pizza. The old town is beautiful, we even visited the narrowest street in Europe.

Black Church

After exploring we headed to the train station to head to Beograd, turns out the internet site we were using to check train schedules was bad (interrail), and we ended up making some changes to our itinerary and headed for Budapest, Hungary after waiting a few hours in the station.

So while we were in Brasov, our couch surfers did a wonderful job explaining who Dracula was, people called him Vlad the impaler, because he had been known to stab people in the back with a wooden stake, making sure he did not sever any nerves causing his victims to die a slow and painful death after a few days. He tried to take over the town of Brasov, by holding the son of  the ruling judge  hostage, saying that if they did not give him the town, that he would impale his son. Turns out that they did not give him the city and his son was found in the foothills of Brasov with a large pole going through his body, entering through his butt and coming out his shoulder somewhere. It took him several days to die. Because of these heinous acts they started calling him Dracula, which has many meanings, Son of Dragon, Satan, Evil etc… He has a castle someplace in Romania in the Transylvania region.

Bucharest, Romania

I arrived early in the morning to Bucarest after a long night train from Varna, Bulgaria. Because I was meeting a friend we decided it would be easiest to meet at a hotel. Well, after getting directions from several people about where the hotel was I got on a metro and headed toward “where it was” I asked taxi drivers and policemen where the street was and the hotel, none of them sounded very sure with their answers and I ended up across town walking in circles trying to find this hotel that no one knew about. I saw a lady on a street corner, she looked like she spoke English I held a picture of the address up to her and asked her where it was. She reconfirmed “hotel” yes I said, then she said something like “pokey poke?” I didn’t understand so I asked “what?” she replied …”sex?” this is when I realized I made a terrible mistake and apparently I had asked a prostitute for directions to a hotel, good work Steven, I quickly scurried away from her and continued roaming the city until I finally decided to call the hotel and get better directions from them, turns out it is a fairly new hotel, hence why taxi drivers and policemen dont know about it.

The hotel was very nice on the inside, I was a little worried when I first got there because there was no real  street in front of the hotel, only mud and a few rocks.  I immediately took a shower and nap and of course washed my clothes in the shower. Speaking of which, they do not use shower curtains in some of these places, water just gets all over the bathroom floor, its pretty silly.

After my much needed nap I headed down the street to see the mall and a few other things in walking distance from my hotel, I was very impressed with the mall, it was about 4 stories with a blowing alley, a movie theater, and all sorts of stores.

I wandered down the street further until I ran into a what looked like, war monument. It had two guards at the front standing near a flame.

Walking back to my hotel I was very hungry and of course wanted to try something the locals were eating and well I didnt speak any Romanian, and the only thing I could pronounce was “hamburger”, it was pretty good, not quite as good as the ones in Bulgaria thou. Across the street from my hotel was a market where I bought a lemon. I just wanted a lemon.

Me and my lemon

The next day we met up with our couch surfers and ate some traditional Romanian food, which was a combination of beef, pork and lamb, and of course french fries, it was amazing! After talking with our new friends for a while they directed us to the bus and ushered us on. I kept asking, “hey what do we do about bus tickets?” he said, ah its Romania and he said hurry get on. Turns out, at the stop we were supposed to get off at, a ticket lady boarded and went directly to us. LAME. I of course fought her for as long as I could and was able to get the ticket reduced from 100 to 50, which after I did some math wasn’t too bad. But still it sucks. So just know that you cant buy tickets on the bus nor at the bus stops, they are spread out who knows where in little shacks. LAME. After we got off we walked around the capital city a bit irked by the poor bus system, but it was great seeing the old buildings and the parks and fountains, the city was really quite nice to explore. We also went to “one of the largest buildings in the world” It was the parliament building of Romania. It was big, but im not sure if it really is in the top 3.

(Arch similar to the one in France)

Parliament

That night our couch surfers took us out on the town where we got to try some of the local brew and food, very good food. In the early afternoon we headed to the train station to hop aboard a train to Brasov, Romania.