We had a long drive planned from Hungary over the border, and once again, Jane the GPS routed us some goofy way --- we had no idea where we were! Finally, we saw the border and all of the guards, there were about 4 car pull-ins, but only one was open, and so we sat in line with the rest of the group, all of whom had EU or Romanian license plates. Of course, having the leased car meant we would be asked questions about taking our car over the border (many car rental companies do not allow you to do so), but we had all paperwork in order, along with our passports. Easy. So, 10 minutes later, we were over, and breathed a sigh of relief. No sooner than we had crossed the border than we saw a stray dog. We had read that there were packs of dogs that run wild and loose, especially in Bucharest. Jane the GPS then took us off of the main road, and so we were a bit concerned about where we actually were, as the map book that we have only includes a real basic map of Romania and Bulgaria. There seemed to be higher concentrations of gypsies living along the border area… these were weathered women and men all of whom had horse and carts. Of course, all the horses left their mark of the road, and we tried to avoid having a car that stunk as best we could. So when there was not a horse and cart, there were other obstacles to avoid on the road – rippled asphalt, potholes the size of Texas, tractors, farm equipment, weird pavement junctions in between roads…. It was a real interesting drive. The land was gorgeous, though, we went through rolling hills, green rolling hillocks, and clear blue skies. It was all beautiful, and rough…. There were no billboards on the side of the roads, nor many other cars on the road. Luckily, we pulled into our hotel with not too much effort, although since Jane the GPS does not know Romanian cities, we did have to stop and ask for directions.
Our full da
y there, we took a stroll downtown which was a very short walk down the hill and across a bridge which spanned a small river. The first thing that struck us was the old houses/ buildings that looked like haunted houses, similar to a cartoon or a Disney type happy horror film. They were grand, beautiful and run down with huge overgrown grounds. The main street kept the same theme with multi level buildings with large pointed turrets like witch hats. The shops were nice and the town had a good feel to it, even though it needed a lot of re
storation work to bring it back to its former glory. At the end of the pedestrian street we found the opera house, a large fountain and a stunning Orthodox Church. We stopped in the church to admire the interior, and found there was a wedding going on! It was remarkable, and soon we felt guilty for watching, although, there were plenty of other people doing other things in the church. We noticed th
at people show up at any time for the wedding, and also bring their own flowers. Do you not have to be on time for an Orthodox wedding? Outisde the church, there was an animated fountain moving to the classical music playing through the speakers around the park. There were quite a few people sitting on the park benches around the fountain watching it, and a few children playing. Lovely way to spend the day, especially once we found a great pizza place called Gente Pizza down the street from our hotel - that was where all the locals were eating!Sighiosoara
We decided to tackle our drive to Sighisoara as an early morning drive, thinking that it would deter traffic. For 8am, there seemed to be quite a bit of traffic on the road! We also saw the first working lady on the side of the road! The driving that morning,
while challenging given the state of the road conditions (ripped up, mixed asphalt) and the traffic, was interesting. The scenery was always changing – from plains to hills to mountains. The clouds seemed to hug the top of the hills, and always kept moving. Additionally, the buildings are better kept than in Hungary --- many buildings seem to be colorful, modern and bright with metal banisters or gorgeous balustrades. Additionally, unlike in a few other countries, there seemed to be plenty of small roadside pensions/hotels, all complete with small restaurants and cafes.Sighiosoara is famous for being the birthplace of Dracula, AKA Vlad Tepes, and for being one of the “big three” of famous medieval towns in Transylvania. The walk up to the medieval town was pretty steep, cobblestoned and sunny… so it was quite a workout! However, as soon as you stepped through the main gate near the citadel, you were rewarded with quite a fine view! The Clock Tower was right there, and was a fine sight to behold. The Clock Tower (from 1648) is quite famous in Romania for the small figurines located in the tower, and is a source of local pride in Sighiosara. The cool
figurines in the clock represent characters from the Greek pantheon - peace bears an olive branch, law yields a sword, and figurines represent the days of the week. We also noticed that the clock was ahead one hour…. Hm. This was a little perplexing to us, and we started checking out people’s wrists. We finally found a tourist who looked like he could speak English (we did guess well as it turned out), and confirmed it was indeed one hour ahead. Oooops. At this point in time, we had been traveling in Romania for three full days and never noticed the difference, since we stayed at small pensions and hotels, which had no alarm clocks. Suddenly, a lot began to make sense … too many odd things with time had happened in the last few days. We kept walking through the gates, and found our way to the main plaza, which is where the original house of Dracula is located. It is has been remodeled and is now a fancier café restaurant. The plaza is also where the House with the Stag is located, named for obvious reasons, and is one of the best preserved houses in the town. We continued our way down small cobblestoned lanes, walking by homes that were hundreds of years o
ld, marveling at the small bars located beneath the streets. At that time, (ok, early lunch now…), we still had the streets mainly to ourselves. We walked counter-clockwise around the area’s 14th century fortified walls on the hill, and began to find the various towers around the walls. Each of the towers is named for the old guilds (tinkers, blacksmiths, tailors, shoemakers…) that were responsible for their upkeep and fortifications ---- which existed until 1875. In the Tinker’s Tower you could even see the remains of cannonballs and bullets in the walls. We continued our way around the walls, and walked up to the covered stairway, which had 175 sloped, old, uneven and worn stairs to the top. Call that an ortho nightmare, especially with the stair landings that were all smooth rocks of different sizes. As soon as we got to the top, there was a small gypsy girl begging and touching people as they went by. An American guy gave her money – we wanted to tell him no – everyone says that encourages them! We walked by the 1345 gothic church on the hill, which is meant to be the prettiest Gothic church in Romania, and was built wit
h the supervision of St. Nicholas. Probably what impressed us more was the really amazing German cemetery, which is covered with many old – and new – gravestones. We enjoyed walking around the somewhat overgrown and forested cemetery, reading the names and years. We kept hearing rustling in the weeds, and finally figured out that the area was also the home to tiny lizards which we did not expect to see!Brasov
We had high hopes for Brasov and were excited to see the town of Dracula. We had woken up early (at the right time!) and wanted to get all the driving under our belt. As it turned out, it was a relatively “quiet” stretch of road, and took us about 2.5 hours. We
were also meeting our friends Stu and Sarah in Brasov, we were excited to have friends to meet up with. Old Brasov is encircled by a 12m high wall and a one km long 15th century wall, which defended the city against the Turks. Bastions along the side of the wall were defended by a guild, whose members, pending danger, would ring the warning bells. Despite the impending looking storm clouds, we walked to the White Tower and the Black Tower, which offered nice views of the city. The view from the top of the hill was impressive, as you looked down the hill, all you could see was the center of the plaza, and a sea of orange tiled roofs. The rain did start to pelt down, but we were lucky and stayed pretty dry, since we walked through the thicker forest. We then decided to walk to the Mt. Tampa Park and see if we could find the cable car, which took you to the top. We pulled up to an antiquated small house, and purchased tickets - $3 USD apiece. What a bargain. A few minutes later, we hopped into a rusty rolling cable car that bounced and jiggled from side to side. We hoped it still functioned! The car worked, and soon we were at the top of the mountain, which was actually the site of Brasov’s initial fortress, and where Vlad Tepes actually impaled many fine folks. Now it holds a large Hollywood-like sign “Brasov” which has a viewing platform over the city b
elow. Outside of some large mosquitoes dwelling up there, it was a fine place to spend some time. We wished we would have had a little longer – we would have hiked to the top! Having no agenda and since it was very late afternoon, we decided to pick up a two litre container of local wine and some beers and hang out outside our guesthouse. We all finished our beverages, and took up the owner’s recommendation and went to the Tudor restaurant, which was about two blocks away. The owner told us that all the locals ate there, and we would later see the restaurant advertised on a billboard. It had a lovely alfresco area, and was crowded, even when we arrived later in the evening. The meals were also delicious - we had chicken schnitzel, local sausages and local wine… $1.50 USD for a massive glass. Sarah even had venison (most expensive thing on the menu) which only cost about $8 USD!The next day we had a late start, and headed out to Bran castle, which was an easy
day trip away. Bran Castle is 60 m tall and is absolutely impressive; we wished we could be there in the winter or fog, it would have been scary and impending. Instead, we shared the view with hundreds of others in the sweltering heat! We paid our $7 USD to enter, and climbed the hill to enter the castle. Bran is famous for the setting of Dracula’s Castle, but in fact, has only an inkling of a connection. It was actually built by the Saxons in 1382 to defend Bran against the Turks, and may have housed Vlad for a few nights as he sought shelter from the Turks in 1462. The castle itself was pretty impressive, with a ton of rabbit warren-like passages and rooms, many of them built fo
r very short people! Apparently the fountain in the courtyard also is above many secret underground passages. An English tour might have been nice – but none were offered. In any case, we might not have been interested, as the castle was so crowded, you could barely move. Christy had some big guy brush off his sweat onto her, and kept breathing down her neck; on the way out, Sarah found a booger on her calf. Too close quarters!After the castle, we were eager to see less people and decided to take a drive into
the country to find a picnic bench! We ended up at a gorgeous pull off and had an amazing simple DIY lunch, with possibly the best vista we have had in weeks!We were pleasantly surprised by Romania; it is a contrast in both old and modern times. The scenery was stunning, and the country is still very “raw” for tourism. We were hampered by the slow driving, which makes going anywhere a small challenge. (For those of you wondering, our car is not allowed to go through Serbia due to insurance, so we had to drive that way and back in order to hit Greece!) We loved the foods, and will quite look forwards to passing through again!
Next Up: Bulgaria
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