GOM-ROMANIA

BRAN – DRACULA 'S CASTLE

2007-08-23T10:40:38Z

BRAN – DRACULA 'S CASTLE

In our way to Bran we found lots of troubles on the road cause of a previous devastating storm. Once there you can easily realize is the most tourist place of a non-tourist country. The castle is on the top of a hill in the middle of the beautiful mountains of Transylvania, a fantastic place indeed.

I imagined the castle was bigger though, once inside, I realized there was tons of rooms, saloons, etc. Inside is bigger than it looks outside.

Nowadays it is too tourist to feel the magic castle that everyone hopes to find but nobody can leave Romania without being there. Romania is Dracula and in each part of the country you feel it, all related to Dracula, they know that if they are in the map is cause of Dracula’s legend and try to take as profit as they can.

Romania is not the nicest, funniest and most interesting country worldwide but I can tell you that I'm glad of my vacations there and I'll be back in a few years just to feel the difference because the country is going to change a lot in coming years.

BRAN – DRACULA 'S CASTLE remains copyright of the author gom, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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SIBIU

2007-08-23T10:25:53Z

SIBIU
In this region close to Sibiu roads are much better thanks to EU help, you can see lots of panels with a short explanation of the project and the amount given by EU.
Once in Sibiu the first was t find a place to stay, it was not easy at all! Cause of being the Capital of European Culture 2007 all the hotels were fully booked, fortunately our Sibiu's friends (ILA) helped us a lot and we found a room for 4 in the house of an old, friendly and curious man. We rested there for 2 nights.

Finally we got ready to enjoy the fantastic city of Sibiu with our friends and it's what we did. You can not imagine the nice atmosphere of the city with lots of people and activities everywhere.

The city has been fully rebuilt cause of such event and I promise has became a great city to have fun and enjoy yourself just having a drink in any terrace or taking part of any activity. The gorgeous main square, catholic and ortodox churches, town hall, central street … a great city!

On Friday we woke up a little bit late, we toke the car and went to Paltinis sky resort

(the difference with more developed countries sky resorts is noticeable) before meeting our friends again and have an amazing experience in the salty lakes of Ocna. Incredible!! Cause of the high salt concentration in water we were flouting!! No efforts are necessary to stay up.

Later we had a fantastic time eating a barbecue in our wonderful friends house. Unfortunately, time was going away and we had to get up very early on Saturday, Bran – Dracula 's castle was waiting for us before driving to Bucarest and flying back to Barcelona.
We would have liked to spend more time in Sibiu with our friends: ILA – thanks so much for your help, your time and your friendship!!

SIBIU remains copyright of the author gom, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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CLUJ

2007-08-23T10:15:20Z

CLUJ
On Thursday, we drove towards Cluj tfat is 2h far from Bistrita. We didn't expect a lot about the city but we were quite surprised because is nice, rich and dynamic cause of the university which attracts tons of youth, in consequence, is easy to find good parties all year, specially in summer and weekends.
We stayed there for 5-6h but we enjoyed the city, mainly because we met two fantastic friends with who shared a few drinks before continue our trip towards Sibiu – Capital European Culture 2007.

CLUJ remains copyright of the author gom, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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PAINTED MONASTERIES

2007-08-23T10:05:17Z

PAINTED MONASTERIES

On Wednesday we woke up quite early (8.30 h) because we had to drive for a few hours. We took our Skoda Octavia and… we arrived in Moldovita's Monastery (the first painted monastery we wanted to visit) at 13.30h !!! 5 h of driving in the worst roads you can imagine!!! Tons of road works, incredible bad asphalt, pot holes, carriages… I guess in 3-4 years they will have a good road and you'll be able to get the monasteries easily… however, by now isn't advisable at all !!! However, we enjoyed a fantastic crossing between mountains.

Moldovita's monastery was our first destination (we planned visit Moldovita, Suceavita and Voronet, the most famous painted monasteries). The location of the monastery is fantastic and also the monastery, it was nicer than I imagined!! Paints on the walls are extremely nice as well as the garden and the building around. There are monks still living there and taking care of the monastery. A worthwhile visit in a peaceful and lovely place in the middle of nowhere.

As we were a little bit hungry we stopped for a good meal in a local restaurant between Moldovita and our next step: Suceavita's monastery.
Suceavita's monastery is the biggest one and also great with lots of monks living there as in 18th century. As the other one was fantastic inside and outside, maybe with the pictures you can imagine how beautiful it is but I promise is much better to be there.

After Suceavita we went to Voronet. This one is also nice but not as much as Moldovita and Suceavita though is very famous for a paint that show you 30 steps to get heaven. Something funny was that 2 of my mates had to wear a kind of skirt cause they shorts were too short.

We drive back to Bistrita where we slept again through the same bad road.

PAINTED MONASTERIES remains copyright of the author gom, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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SIGHISOARA

2007-07-31T18:14:05Z

SIGHISOARA
Sighisoara is a medieval city where you can still feel such atmosphere. Easily, you can imagine how people lived (and in some case are still living) there a few centuries ago.

Vlad Tepes was born there, in one of the central houses (today is a restaurant),

however the main touristy attraction is its old medieval tower from which you have a good sight of Sighisoara.

To be honest, Sighisoara was a little bit disappointing… the city, streets, houses, all was nice but, maybe after my readings about it, I expected a little bit more (I don't know how to explain). Anyway, it not a bad place at all and I'm fully happy of my visit.

Once finished our sightseeing in Sighisoara, we drove again with painted monasteries of Moldova in our mind. After several hours driving crossing lots of towns and also Targu Mures (we didn't stop but I can explain that suburbs were incredibly sad, I guess downtown is better) we arrived at Bistrita where we stayed on Tuesday night just to sleep a little and continue our voyage towards painted monasteries on Wednesday morning. I can remember how dangerous was to drive at night in those roads full of surprises (carriage without lights, people, animals, big pot holes, road works…) , fortunately nothing bad happened!!
BISTRITA: Nothing to do. Nobody between 20-40 because everybody is working abroad!! After 11pm only a few gipsy youngs (10-15) cleaning the streets. Generally speaking, they are not friendly, however we found a nice owner of a doner-kebap (argentinian-speaker) who explained us tons of things about Romania and Bistrita's region.

SIGHISOARA remains copyright of the author gom, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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BRASOV

2007-07-31T16:33:55Z

BRASOV
After Risnov we drove to Brasov (30 min), Bran Castle is really close to Risnov (20 min) but it's closed on Monday so we planned to go on Saturday.
Once in Brasov we bought something for dinner in a Carrefour (Carrefour is for rich there because is not cheap at all for Romania) before seeking for a hotel to stay, we found 2 quite expensive and finally we rested in a centric hotel not expensive at all but old.
Brasov's downtown is nice, clean and modern with the famous Black Church (not as nice as I imagined) and the beautiful central square.

As soon as you are in Brasov you can feel the young atmosphere of the city, it was Monday night (traditionally quite everywhere) and terraces were full of youth. Unfortunately, once we got ready to go out was too late and most of people had left terraces to go home. Despite the low number of people we enjoyed ourselves playing billiards in an Irish pub with friendly stuff. For sure during the weekend you can have fun easily.
During night Brasov is nice (with the name floating illuminated on the top of the mountain) but is even better during a sunny day like that!! It's a dynamic a city closer to the western side than the eastern one.

Black and white towers, piata unirii, protection walls, Black Church…

but the most amazing attraction is to take the telepheric and up the mountain towards the letters BRASOV (Hollywood's style).

The view is fantastic from there… spectacular photos were taken from the terrace.

Definitely, Brasov is a lovely city, it was a surprise for me!

BRASOV remains copyright of the author gom, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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RISNOV

2007-07-26T12:55:19Z

RISNOV
When you are getting in from Sinaia side you can realize Risnov is a very poor city, what is a little bit strange because it's located between Brasov and Bran in Transylvania which isn't the poorest region in Romania.

I can still remember a tennis court for posh Risnov citizens… unfortunately I didn't take a photo to show you how posh it was…
The main attraction in Risnov is its castle located at the top of the mountain.

We had problems to find it cause of the deficient signs and the bad road but, finally, we found it!! We were disappointed because as every Monday it was closed though we found a freaky man who allowed us to take a few photos from the castle.

The castle is an old fortification with the typical protection walls and a privileged view of Risnov plain and Transylvanian mountains.

RISNOV remains copyright of the author gom, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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SINAIA

2007-07-26T12:53:57Z

SINAIA
On Monday 2007/06/18 we rented our car : Skoda Octavia Wagon diesel 1.9 (40 €/day – 150 € deposit). Good deal considering that to rent a car in Romania is not as cheap as you can imagine, roads are bad and cars are broken quickly.
Comment: Lei is the Romanian currency (1 € = 3.25 lei). They changed recently, 2 years ago 1 € = 325000 lei !!

Well we took the car and started driving towards Sinaia. Driving in Romania is an adventure… roads are full of obstacles : thousands of carriages (they only have a few tractors , of course very old), lots of people just walking, selling, working… whatever. Roads are full of life and there are also lots of crazy drivers driving too fast in dangerous roads with lots of pot holes and irregular asphalt. However it's funny because you find a surprise every 100 m.

We drove for 2h and a half towards Sinaia. Just there we eat in a posh restaurant lost in the mountain where we found more Catalans!! It was a surprise because it was a remote place. They knew Romania really well and gave us good advices for our trip, a curious advice: 'take care with bears in Moldova', they had found a bear in the middle of the road two nights ago. Fortunately (or unfortunately) we didn't find bears during our trip. Bears and wolves are still living in Transylvania mountains. Some restaurants offer bear meat.
Sinaia is a famous sky resort with tourist and an occidental atmosphere. It's specially famous for Peles Castle.
Such castle was used by Romanian kings to have fun with their guests. Located in the middle of Transylvania is a really nice place.

The castle is big and very nice, a worthwhile visit in Romania. Unfortunately it's closed on Monday and we couldn't enter.
Another interesting visit in Sinaia is its monastery where you can find traditional monks.

After a few hours we left Sinai on Monday afternoon. Next step: Risnov.
SINAIA remains copyright of the author gom, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.
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ROMANIA-BUCHAREST

2007-07-26T12:51:24Z

BUCHAREST
Travelling with 3 more friends (Zack, Roger and Stephane), we left Barcelona on 2007 june 17th at 2 am. (with wizzair)
After 2h 15 min flying we arrived in Bucharest at 5 am (Romania is +1h) at Otopeni airport. there is another airport in Bucharest - Baneasa, but it's old and... dangerous! it looks really bad.
We took Bus 783 towards downtown and we arrrived finally at 7 am at Comfort Traian Hotel. the hotel is really good, comfortable and good price (25 €/night)( also with ac, really apreciated such hot days +- ) moreover we were allowed to enter on Sunday 7am until monday 12 pm paying only 1 night. The location could be better but wasn't so bad.
we slept for 5-6h and afterwards we took a taxi for a sightseeing because there isn't turistic bus in Bucharest (15€/each for 3h). with such taxi we visited the main buildings (old and dirty most of them) including people's house (2n largest building after pentagon built by Ceausescu between 1984-1989).
Is as big as ugly, well maybe not exatly ugly... but nothing special.

Musuem of tipical romanian houses was our next destination. Close to a park is nice.

... and nothing else, only the arc of triumph.

Generally speaking Bucuresti is ugly and sad. Lots of poor people but also new rich with money. Decadent buildings and more or less good cars (big contrast) but also with lots of Dacia (the national car).
I didn't like people in Bucuresti some of them were nice but most tried to hassle you all day, specially taxi drivers: advice- deal the price before the trip.
the fact was that we were looking forward leaving Bucharest as soon as possible to explore other parts.
Sunday night, we went out but we didn't find any local to have fun . Definitely, Bucharest is not a funny-nice place.
ROMANIA-BUCHAREST remains copyright of the author gom, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.
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