Romania

Brasov Old Town Gate

After riding for a half an hour to the outskirts of Chisinau, we were informed that our 11am bus had been canceled, but we were placed on the noon bus. Nice of the bus folks to send someone out to the station to find us. I needed to inform our Romanian landlord that we were going to be late and the girl in the cell card office was kind enough to let me use her mobile hotspot. Traveling without a SIM card has been a bit of a hassle, yet every time we need help, someone steps up and lets us use their phone. Makes little sense to buy SIM cards for short stays and though an EU SIM card works all over the EU, we’ve been jumping in and out of EU countries. Trust that I’ll be buying data in Doha to enjoy while watching the World’s.

Rasnov Castle

We pretty much hopped about to the major tourist sites in Romania, beginning with Brasov which might be called the capital of Transylvania. The bus ride was a brutal 9.5 hours, with hour long delays at the border, mostly as a result of Romanian inefficiency. We arrived close to 10pm and once again got help from a local who called our AirBnb landlord who was kind enough to pick us up at the bus station for the short ride to the apartment. Not a bad place, nice city views, but the bed wasn’t the best and our backs continue to suffer. Proximity to the bus station a real plus since most people come to Brasov to visit Bran Castle which has been widely touted as Dracula’s home. Bit of a crock since Bram Stoker never visited Romania and simply used Transylvania as Dracula’s home since it seemed pretty exotic. Others have tried to link Vlad the Impaler with Dracula; again, a bunch of tourist BS, complete with tons of Dracula/Vlad T-shirts and other Chinese made bric-a-brac; the sort of stuff people buy, take home and then wonder why they bought such stupid junk. On the way out to Bran, we also visited Rasnov Castle which looks great from the road, but turns out to be a bunch of crumbled down ruins mainly populated by souvenir shops. Pretty close to a complete waste of time.

Bran Castle, Home of Dracula

Bran Castle was very cool, has a great history and good audio tours in English. We were smart enough to get out there late, thus weren’t too bothered by the hordes of tour buses, most of which had already left. The tourist gauntlet of gift shops on the walk to the castle was something to behold; they market the place like Disneyland and it’s surely Romania’s most-visited destination. Dinner was at an excellent spot near the apartment, Casa Tudor, where we enjoyed some typical foods of the region, while staying out of the tourist zone a mile or so away.

The next day we took an excellent free city tour within the old town, above which stands a huge “Hollywood” sign and a popular ski resort. Really lovely area of mountains coupled with a super clean city.

Sighisoara

Then it was onto Sighisoara for a night followed by Sibui. Both places offered a lot of “old town” vibe, with Sighisoara being most famous for its brightly colored pastel buildings as well as being the birthplace of Vlad the Impaler; yeah, more Dracula stuff. In addition, almost every other building seemed to host a second hand store. We ate a terrific rabbit dinner at an Italian place just a bit out of the tourist zone and prepared for the train ride to Sibui the next morning.

Sibui Near the Apartment

After the short walk to the train station, disaster struck. We caught the train, but missed the connection and had to backtrack. Only a two hour mistake and the AirBnb people were very accommodating. Checked into a lovely place with balcony and nice décor then walked the short distance to old town where a food and music festival were happening. Lucky us! Most of the bands played in English and the town seemed to really be jumping. Lots of nice sidewalk cafes, good food and good spirits. Sorry we only had about 24 hours there before catching the train to Bucharest.

All in all, Romanians have been great, friendly people. Met a guy on the train who was deciding whether to teach in Poland, Romania or Bulgaria and he’d pretty much decided on Romania because the people were so friendly.

Bucharest Street Art

Ceausescu Mansion in Bucharest

We arrived in Bucharest quite late and were shocked to find that the hotel we booked had no reception after 8PM and the doors were locked! Fortunately, a guest with a key showed up and our room key was sitting in the reception area, so no big deal. The highlight of Bucharest was a tour of Ceausescu’s old mansion. He ruled Romania with an iron fist for decades before revolution brought him down and in front of a firing squad on Christmas Day in 1989 after a one hour trial for genocidal acts, none of which were ever proven. Bottom line was they wanted to get rid of the guy and his wife and had the execution squad on hand before the short trial began. According to the guide, many older Romanians still miss Ceausescu and there are some claims that he really didn’t know what was going on as his ministers handled all the dirty work. Well, the buck stopped with Nikolai. Anyways, the palace was incredibly lavish and might be called a mini-Versailles. I found it the highlight of our trip to Romania.

Having seen enough of old towns, we were happy to just bop around the city the following day, checking out a music festival and having drinks and dinner in a trendy part of what used to be old town, but has morphed into a bit of a hipster district; in spite of that, we liked the area anyways :).  All in all, a fun city to visit.  Next stop, Bulgaria.