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Romania 6.7 - 18.7 2005

Day 30: Oradea - Sighisoara

Oradea seemed like a nice city, but with those hostel prices I couldn`t afford to stay. I actually spend 43 euros yesterday! And my budget can`t take too many days like that...So I hopped in a train to Sighisoara and once again scenery was breathtakingly beautiful while we were passing through Apuseni mountains. Did a short walk around Sighisoara in a evening. This town is looking great!

Day 31: Sighisoara

Yesterday we had a small party in our hostel and I didn`t make it to bed untill early morning, so I slept `till 2 PM. This was the day they made those terrorist attacks in London so I spend rest of the day checking out BBC. But I did manage to do my laundry in a evening, so this day wasn`t complete waste.

Day 32: Sighisoara

Sighisoara is known as birthplace of Vlad Tepes, man which Bram Stoker based his most famous character, so as you probably guessed, these people have every imaginable Dracula souvenir for sale. But who am I to judge, after I bought myself a cool Dracula postcard... I was plannig on having lunch on "Draculas" birthplace, but they had pretty inflated prices, so had to forget about that. Exchanged some cash later on evening and for a while I was a millionaire: I had four million leu`s, baby!

Day 33: Sighisoara

Last night we went out to celebrate my new millionaire status (among other things) and I didn`t make it back to hostel untill last bar in Sighisoara was closing after 5AM. But Romanian beer is so great that I didn`t even had a hangover, so I could continue my sightseeing tour: After visiting clock tower and local german graveyard I headed to one of those surrounding hills to get a view over the town.

Day 34: Sighisoara - Brasov

On my way to Brasov I thought I could save some money and bought ticket to localtrain, but accidentally boarded to IC train. So conductor inspects my ticket and says i`m in a wrong train and I have to pay for the price difference which is 200 000 leu`s. When I`m handing the money over to him, that guy winks at me and says "50/50", pockets 100 000 and gives me 100 000 back! So I guess everybody wins? (well, except Romanian railroad company)

Day 35: Brasov

I was planning on doing some hiking on Bucegi mountains, but weather was foggy and there was almost constant rain, so I postponed my hiking trip and went to see Brasov`s sights instead. Gypsy market was quite interesting and my beard seemed to have some special meaning to those gypsies? Or maybe they just thought it was funny looking? I was planning on early start on my hiking trip for tomorrow, so this time I went to bed early.

Day 37: Brasov - Bran - Brasov

It was still a lousy weather, so I thought I might as well visit Bran castle, which locals are touting as Draculas castle, when in fact Vlad Tepes never set his feet on that place. Even so, castle is still impressive and there`s also interesting outdoor museum, which you can visit with same ticket. I thought I saw every possible dracula souvenir in Sighisoara, but these guys had even wider selection: Everything from Dracula-wine to Dracula-ashtrays...

Day 37: Brasov - Bucharest

Weather forecast said it`s gonna rain few more days, so I had forget that hiking trip and I decided to move on to Bucharest. By the way: Elvis villa in Bucharest isn`t anymore owned by "dynamic australian couple" but greedy asian guy with serious overbooking problem. I made reservation from Brasov and paid deposit, but had to sleep in a floor. And same thing happened to various people during my stay.

Day 38: Bucharest

Everybody I met along the way here, was telling me how I should skip Bucharest "cause it`s so ugly". Well, this place ain`t gonna win any most beautiful city in a world - awards, but I kinda liked it: Mix between chic western boutiques on brand new buildings and wide boulevards lined with never-ending russian-style apartment buildings. And there was beer festival on Piata Unirii: Pint of beer for less than 30 cents!

Day 39: Bucharest

My plan for today was to see Ceausescu`s house of the people, second largest building in a world after pentagon. I won`t get into any statistics, but I`m just gonna say that this guy was out of his mind. Interesting enough, guide kept using frase "after he died" instead of "after we executed him" every time she talked about Ceausescu?

Day 40: Bucharest - Vama Veche

In Sighisoara, I got inside tip for this local "hippie hangout" near Bulgarian border, so I decided to check that place out. First I had to take a train to Constanta and from there a bus to Mangalia and from there a minibus to Vama Veche... It was getting late when I arrived there, but managed to find a room for myself. Whole village was like a big outdoor party with hundreds of people getting drunk and having a good time. I got stuck in one beachbar, were local band called Urma was playing a killer set.

Day 41: Vama Veche

I drank all my money last night and since Vama Veche is such a one-horse town it doesn`t even have ATM, I had to go all the way to Mangalia to withdrew some cash. Did some swimming in black sea and later on the evening bumped into few friends I`ve met along the way, which, of course was good excuse to party all night. Urma kicked ass second night in a row and I just had to buy their CD.

Day 42: Vama Veche

Got pretty bad hangover after couple days of hard drinking and just kicked back whole day. Although, this is a nice place, I`m not much of a beach person and there is nothing else to do in here except get drunk, so I decided to move along to Bulgaria with couple friends I`ve met here. Oh, and we`re gonna walk there...

Somewhere in Romania

Sighisoara

"Dracula`s" birthplace

View from Clock Tower

Old Time Charm

Piata Stafului, Brasov

Gypsy Market, Brasov

Bran Castle

Bucharest

Bulevard Unirii

Old Princely Court

No Camping?

Vama Veche Beach

Walking To Bulgaria