Bucharest

Brasov was a great place to visit. We decided that someday we might go back there, in spring or fall, rent a car and explore more of Transylvania. With lots of garlic in the back seat.

The snow was really pretty. The hotel woman in Brasov said this was the first snow fall this year, so we were lucky to be there when we were. Lucky indeed. Look at the pictures again - the snow just makes everything even better!

We had a 2 1/2 hour train ride from Brasov to Bucharest through the Carpathian mountains, as you can see in a couple of the photos, some of these mountains were tall enough to be above the tree line. Sorry the train windows weren't cleaner.

Hotel Dracula

Look!! Blue sky!! We've not seen very much of that for the whole trip.

 And then we arrived in Bucharest. Actually the train station here (and the one in Brasov) were the nicest stations we have seen during the whole trip. Clean, well laid out, lots of places to sit and wait (all the other stations had limited seating - we just had to stand around and wait, or go sit by the train platform in the cold).

We are staying in the Hello Hotel (don't you love the name?) a block from the train station.

Here is the lovely view from our window:

We thought about taking the Metro to the heart of Bucharest and walking around a bit, but we decided we are just too tired. And in the hotel they said there have been demonstrations there so it might not be so safe. I wondered what they are demonstrating so I googled it - it sounds like the "Occupy Wall Street" movement - everyone is protesting something different and some people just show up for the fun.  http://english.hotnews.ro/stiri-top_news-11269255-bucharest-braces-for-opposition-protest-demonstrations-continue.htm

 We did go out and walk around the neighborhood a little. Of course the area around the train station is never the best, but we did find a nice residential neighborhood nearby.

And this is the closest we could find to a lion. Actually this is the first cat we've seen - very different from Turkey where they were everywhere!

We always have a "last supper" picture taken the last night of vacation. We should have had our camera last night in Brasov at the neat restaurant, because around here there is no where to eat. I mean no where. Here is where we had our last supper:

Generally we have a "no American chain rule" - although in the Athens airport we did have a McBeer!  But tonight we are so tired, and there is no place else to eat so we went to the train station and had a Big Mac and fries. At least it was a fancy McDonalds!!

I know some of you think we are crazy. How do I know this? Because you have said "You guys are crazy!!" And I know others of you think so too. You haven't actually said it, but you say things like - "You don't plan your trip before you go???" and I know what you're thinking... "Are you crazy??"  And then there are some others of you who I know are thinking - "I'm not brave enough to travel like that, but I wish I was crazy like them."  My friend Mary says we're like "The Amazing Race" without the roadblocks!

Yes, we admit it, we are crazy travelers. When we started these crazy travels in 1997 on a trip to Mexico, I planned and booked and mapped out every minute of the first 10 days. And it turned out we ended up staying in one place too long and another not long enough. So the second 10 days we just went where the wind blew us, finding hotels along the way. Much better.  And that's pretty much how we've traveled ever since. If we had planned ahead we'd never have seen that neat little town in Spain. Or the mosaics in Ravenna. The church in Orvieto. Our favorite little hotel in San Miguel. The millennium New Years Eve spent next to a 2000 year old coliseum in Verona, Italy. Or that little place in Greece high up in the mountains where the goatherds live, the whole town made of slate and where we were the only guests in the hotel.

And I figure, the more you plan, it just means the more things that can go wrong.

I must admit that having our laptop makes life easier. The first few trips there weren't even internet cafes. We'd come into a town, find a hotel listed in our guide book, look at the room, if we liked it we'd book it, if not we'd go to the next one. That took some time, walking around toting our luggage. But we were younger then. When internet cafes started to blossom it was easier.... when we decided to move on to the next place we could look up hotels online. Now with the laptop I can book a hotel for tomorrow night and get walking/ tram / metro directions of how to get from the train to the hotel.   So you see, we actually ARE planning a lot more than we used to.

See, here I am in Brasov yesterday, booking a hotel in Bucharest for today. That's planning ahead, right? 

Some of you have been trying to talk us into going on a cruise. We've never been on one and still aren't sure we want to. What if this trip had been a cruise. We'd get 8 hours in Vienna, 8 hours in Prague, 8 hours to explore Budapest, maybe lunch in Brasov? We can't do a city in 8 hours. We have to be somewhere for at least a few days, to walk around and soak up the culture, the people, the food. How can you do that in a few hours from a cruise ship? Can't travel that way. Maybe some day we'll try a cruise. And maybe not.

But now it's time to head home, we admit we are worn out. We've been gone three weeks and it seems like three months. It's amazing what all we've seen. Five different countries. It's time to go home, do laundry, pay the bills, be with our friends again.........

.....and then get out the atlas and start "planning" the next adventure!

So until the next one......Ciao!!!

Brasov - Day 2

We've noticed that we can read a lot of the signs and things here - they look a lot like Spanish and Italian words. So I did some reading and it turns out that Romania was a Roman outpost and their language is based on Latin, unlike most of their Slavic neighbors. So tonight we wanted a good place to eat, Armando starts trying to talk to the hotel keepers - the older guy turns out speaks Italian and his daughter (?) speaks Spanish so suddenly it was old home week here. They ended up sending us to this really great restaurant - Sergiana (Sergio in Romanian??). It was through a little door, down a staircase, into this HUGE basement restaurant filled with room after room of diners. We had a great meal, one of the best we've had. Unfortunately we forgot the camera.  But of course, everything is on the 'net... so look here for some pictures-
http://sergianagrup.ro/restaurante/restaurantul-sergiana-brasov.aspx

Here's the front of our hotel - our apartment is the 2 windows on the bottom left.

We woke up to snow again today. But it wasn't cold, so we went walking. Lots of people out - families out walking on Sunday after church with their kids with sleds. We didn't see many people who looked like tourists, they probably don't get many of those this time of year. Mostly locals.

The synagogue

A gate to the city

 We walked around by the old city walls on the south side past ice skaters and just followed the path around....

This is supposedly the narrowest street in Europe. It reminds me of the kissing balcony in Guanajuato, Mexico, where the street gets so narrow that lovers on balconies on opposite sides of the street can lean over and kiss.

 Later we walked on the north side next to a little stream. Those are still the city walls on the right.

 More photos of the town

 Michael Weiss Street looking north toward the Catholic Church....

 ....and south toward our hotel.

 This is the Schei district, where for centuries Romanians were forced  to live, since only Saxons were allowed to live inside the city walls.

 This is St. Nicolas church. The sign said cathedral.

It snowed most of the day, but wasn't really cold. This is really a neat little town. Actually not that little, but the old town is small. I think being here in the spring or fall and renting a car so we could go to many little medieval towns that are scattered all over this area, and visiting the castles including Dracula's, would be really fun. Originally we were going to spend several days here and rent a car, but with the snow we decided not such a good idea. This town is way more interesting that Bratislava where we were last weekend. In fact, wherever we've been on this trip, the cities have been clean, except for Bratislava.

Not a lion in sight anywhere in Brasov, but the guide book does say that bears (real ones) occasionally come down from the hills.