We arrived in Bucharest at 6am and were a little overwhelmed by the train station. It was packed with people and no sooner than leaving the platform we had tiny Romanian people asking for money. The first ATM we came across had a scruffy looking little man studying a scruffy little bit of paper (looked dodgy) so we went in search of another one. It wasn’t fun negotiating the crowd with a wheely bag that has a mind of it’s own. I was also trying to make sure Damien was no more than two steps behind to watch the day pack on my back full of all our valuables.
Finally we got money, got train tickets and were on the way to Brasov. The journey was nice. We passed through the city and entered the picturesque Transylvanian countryside. Romania is amazing in the sense that it has cars and espresso machines whilst people still use the horse and cart and stack hat bales by hand. The farmland gave way to rolling hills which in turn became beautiful rugged mountains.
We arrived in Brasov and were surprised at how flat the area was, as we had been told it was in the middle of some mountains, we couldn’t see any! After a 10 minute bus ride we arrived at the happy hostel and collapsed, until hunger woke us around 5pm. The 15min walk into town took us around 40mins and we finally arrived at the suggested restaurant Sergiana. We had a beautiful meal but were both extremely full on the waddle around the old town and back to the hostel. I’ve asked Damien to remind me not to eat a full days food in one sitting.
Thurs 19th
A girl we met in Nis (Connie) Serbia, told us about the hostel and how she went paragliding. This sounded like a good idea so we got ourselves organized and were picked up early to head to the mountains. It was a 10 minute chair lift ride up the mountain then we got geared up. I had a very sexy jump suit and hot pink helmet whist Damien got a more subdued purple helmet. We looked very pretty. Then it was time to run, quite literally. The slope we were on was very steep so the instructor told me to run when the breeze was just right then before I knew it we were airborne. It is an amazing feeling. I expected the wind to be ripping past but it is really quite gentle. That is until you hit a thermal and spiral up a couple of meters a second, that felt more like a rollercoaster, especially with an upset stomach. The view was wonderful and it was fun to watch Damien’s progress as he glided down gently, then spiraled up in a thermal. All too soon it was over and we were dropped off at the hostel where I am ashamed to say we collapsed into bed again. When we woke we headed into towards old town again, walked along the old city wall and found a nice viewing point. We listened to the old church bells chiming over the valley, checked out some old towers and then called it a night.
Fri 20th
We will blame it on the fact that we have both had upset stomachs, we think it’s viral, but we slept in. By the time we were ready to head out it was
quite late. We had hoped to travel to some mountains but the bus was full so we headed to Bran Castle instead. We were both pleasantly surprised by how much we liked it. This is the setting for much of Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula. We wandered through the castle, stopping every now and again to let the hordes of pushy tourists past. Bran Castel was built in 1378 and is a maze of rooms, passages and windows overlooking the countryside and courtyard. Finally we left the Castel but went for a walk to try to get a better view of the Castel from the outside. Up a mountain we were rewarded with great views. 
Sat 21st
Our agenda today was to get up early, head to the mountains, get back to Brasov in the afternoon and then travel the 3hours to Bucharest where we stay the night before heading back to London on Sunday. We did get up early, made it to the bus station at 8:40 in time for the 9:10 bus, only to discover that it’s a Saturday timetable and the next bus is not until 10:10. Bugger!
We finally got on the bus, but only just. The Romanians pack onto the coaches so that the aisle was crowded with people. One lady even bought a beer crate to sit on, we stood. The hour and a half to Fagaras was eventful with people getting on a off and one woman fainting. Luckily her children were sitting on strangers laps, the Romanian children are very friendly and climb all over you at the slightest invitation.
When we arrived at Fagaras we discovered another blunder in our planning, or lack of. The bus into the mountains from the town did not run on Saturdays. Very annoyed we found a nice park to eat our packed lunch. Silently we watched to locals passing by. Our park bench was on the bank of a river and on the opposite bank was a large impressive building. When we finished eating we decided to have a walk around it as the next bus back to Brasov was not for 2 hours.
Th
e building turned out to be Castle with a moat which happened to be open to the public for a medieval festival. We did a lap of the stalls then discovered that we could do a tour by following some arrows. This led us through a series of hallways, huge rooms with vaulted ceilings and exposed beams, spiraling staircases and basement tunnels. This was very cool, as there were not really any tourist, so we could pretend we had the place to ourselves.
Feeling a lot better about our trip, we headed back to Brasov, happy to have seats for the whole of the journey. We collected our bags from the hostel, said goodbye to Si
mona the lady who runs the hostel and headed to the bus station. We were very happy to get the first bus to Bucharest and arrived in the city around 9pm. This didn’t leave much time to see the city which was disappointing but you can’t do everything, something we are slowly coming to terms with.
Finally we got money, got train tickets and were on the way to Brasov. The journey was nice. We passed through the city and entered the picturesque Transylvanian countryside. Romania is amazing in the sense that it has cars and espresso machines whilst people still use the horse and cart and stack hat bales by hand. The farmland gave way to rolling hills which in turn became beautiful rugged mountains.
We arrived in Brasov and were surprised at how flat the area was, as we had been told it was in the middle of some mountains, we couldn’t see any! After a 10 minute bus ride we arrived at the happy hostel and collapsed, until hunger woke us around 5pm. The 15min walk into town took us around 40mins and we finally arrived at the suggested restaurant Sergiana. We had a beautiful meal but were both extremely full on the waddle around the old town and back to the hostel. I’ve asked Damien to remind me not to eat a full days food in one sitting.
Thurs 19thA girl we met in Nis (Connie) Serbia, told us about the hostel and how she went paragliding. This sounded like a good idea so we got ourselves organized and were picked up early to head to the mountains. It was a 10 minute chair lift ride up the mountain then we got geared up. I had a very sexy jump suit and hot pink helmet whist Damien got a more subdued purple helmet. We looked very pretty. Then it was time to run, quite literally. The slope we were on was very steep so the instructor told me to run when the breeze was just right then before I knew it we were airborne. It is an amazing feeling. I expected the wind to be ripping past but it is really quite gentle. That is until you hit a thermal and spiral up a couple of meters a second, that felt more like a rollercoaster, especially with an upset stomach. The view was wonderful and it was fun to watch Damien’s progress as he glided down gently, then spiraled up in a thermal. All too soon it was over and we were dropped off at the hostel where I am ashamed to say we collapsed into bed again. When we woke we headed into towards old town again, walked along the old city wall and found a nice viewing point. We listened to the old church bells chiming over the valley, checked out some old towers and then called it a night.
Fri 20th
We will blame it on the fact that we have both had upset stomachs, we think it’s viral, but we slept in. By the time we were ready to head out it was
quite late. We had hoped to travel to some mountains but the bus was full so we headed to Bran Castle instead. We were both pleasantly surprised by how much we liked it. This is the setting for much of Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula. We wandered through the castle, stopping every now and again to let the hordes of pushy tourists past. Bran Castel was built in 1378 and is a maze of rooms, passages and windows overlooking the countryside and courtyard. Finally we left the Castel but went for a walk to try to get a better view of the Castel from the outside. Up a mountain we were rewarded with great views. Sat 21st
Our agenda today was to get up early, head to the mountains, get back to Brasov in the afternoon and then travel the 3hours to Bucharest where we stay the night before heading back to London on Sunday. We did get up early, made it to the bus station at 8:40 in time for the 9:10 bus, only to discover that it’s a Saturday timetable and the next bus is not until 10:10. Bugger!
We finally got on the bus, but only just. The Romanians pack onto the coaches so that the aisle was crowded with people. One lady even bought a beer crate to sit on, we stood. The hour and a half to Fagaras was eventful with people getting on a off and one woman fainting. Luckily her children were sitting on strangers laps, the Romanian children are very friendly and climb all over you at the slightest invitation.
When we arrived at Fagaras we discovered another blunder in our planning, or lack of. The bus into the mountains from the town did not run on Saturdays. Very annoyed we found a nice park to eat our packed lunch. Silently we watched to locals passing by. Our park bench was on the bank of a river and on the opposite bank was a large impressive building. When we finished eating we decided to have a walk around it as the next bus back to Brasov was not for 2 hours.
Th
e building turned out to be Castle with a moat which happened to be open to the public for a medieval festival. We did a lap of the stalls then discovered that we could do a tour by following some arrows. This led us through a series of hallways, huge rooms with vaulted ceilings and exposed beams, spiraling staircases and basement tunnels. This was very cool, as there were not really any tourist, so we could pretend we had the place to ourselves.Feeling a lot better about our trip, we headed back to Brasov, happy to have seats for the whole of the journey. We collected our bags from the hostel, said goodbye to Si
mona the lady who runs the hostel and headed to the bus station. We were very happy to get the first bus to Bucharest and arrived in the city around 9pm. This didn’t leave much time to see the city which was disappointing but you can’t do everything, something we are slowly coming to terms with. (Note, our bus was full when they let another guy on, no seats, no problem, heres a fishing stool mate, ahhh... Romania!)
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