... but first there was Bucharest; given some fairly bad press by some tourists apparently but if you like stark contrasts between old and new 'architecture' then its for you. Actually I kind of liked it. 
Most of the new buildings are courtesy of a giant demolition job by Ceaucescu, who took out 8 blocks at a time to create one crowning 'achievement', the People's Parliament - still unfinished and the second largest building in the world after the Pentagon - it is a monster.
Leaving Bucharest we headed north to Transylvania for some fairly disappointing looking hiking (but a memorable few cable car rides up the mountain and a sleepless night in a mountain "cabana" with drunk Romanians and loud dance music). No sign of Dracula in these mountains: 
and not much in the lowlands either. Actually, despite a couple of Dracula-themed hotels, there isn't much vampire-related stuff in Transylvania at all. Instead there are some beautiful old medieval walled towns, complete with fortified churches - the most popular of which is Brasov, where we stayed for a couple of nights and where Shaun got to enjoy beer served with his KFC.
Apart from its old churches and beautiful squares Brasov has another more unusual tourist attraction - bear watching. Apparently half of Europe's bears live in Romania and now we have seen some. Looking forward to some wildlife adventuring we climbed into the front seat of a tour driver's van late one night to be driven through the streets to a series of inner city rubbish skips - parked across the road from a row of apartments - where massive bears lumber down the hill and flip the skips over each night rummaging for food. Having been warned off these things with all sorts of grisly stories in Alaska it was pretty shocking to be sitting in a van 4 metres away from some massive wild animals looking like they were fairly unfazed by the human population. It won't be long til someone loses an arm.
A blog entry on Romania wouldn't be representative without a mention of some famous Romanian cuisine (the one at the far right is tripe soup, which Shaun volunteered for):
We thought that was bad, then we saw this on the menu:
Leaving Brasov in our 4WD machine "Murray the Matiz" - (Daewoo Matiz that is, an 800cc South Korean manufactured city car and the only rental car left in Brasov) - we drove north to Maramures, not before encountering some slight motoring difficulties. That, however was nothing compared to the cow-size potholes, manic passing on blind corners (by other drivers) and other hazards ever present on Romanian roads:
Leaving Brasov in our 4WD machine "Murray the Matiz" - (Daewoo Matiz that is, an 800cc South Korean manufactured city car and the only rental car left in Brasov) - we drove north to Maramures, not before encountering some slight motoring difficulties. That, however was nothing compared to the cow-size potholes, manic passing on blind corners (by other drivers) and other hazards ever present on Romanian roads:
Maramures is in the north of Romania bordering the Ukraine and is described as the part of Romania that the last 3 centuries have forgotten about. While there are signs of modernisation, driving along the roads we passed scores of women with headscarves and saw men with sickles, haystacks in the fields, horses and carts around almost every corner, and religious icons by the roadside in almost every town to wish travellers safe passage. The Sapanta Cemetery (definitely a tourist spot) was really lovely - with tombstones carved from wood showing the occupation or hobbies of the person who died. However, most of the time we just drove around staring at people out of the window.
M
1 comment:
I think after looking at your comments, I will leave this particular part of the world alone. Cow-sized potholes and a definitely dodgy menu aren't on my agenda for this year. I'll take the safe option of travelling through you. Still, it sounds as if you both had a "different" holiday and that surely is what it is all about. JMB
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