My second Romanian destination was Brașov, a mid-sized city in the middle of the country.
The city itself is nice enough, but really it’s the surrounding areas that bring people here. Probably the most famous attraction is Bran Castle, aka Dracula’s Castle, as it is the place that was used as inspiration for the Dracula character, but there are also several other castles, fortresses, pretty wee towns, and a mountain range. There’s lots of tours set up to explore these places, but they were pretty expensive, so I thought I would draw on my Argentina experience and rent a car to go and see a few things. Unfortunately, it turns out Romania doesn’t recognise New Zealand drivers licences, so that plan didn’t go far, and instead I joined Jamie (who I met in Cluj) and a couple of German guys (Marius and Patrick) for the day as they were able to drive with their fancy European licences…
Our first stop was a town called Făgăraș, where we stopped for a wee break from driving and to get a coffee. While there, we saw a shiny bright golden church and also visited the fortress in town. The most interesting part was definitely the prison tower of the fortress, where they displayed torture instruments alongside images of how they were used on the prisoners – it didn’t look pleasant!! The rest of the fortress was more typical museum things, but was still interesting enough to look around and imagine what it was like in medieval times.
After Făgăraș, we headed on to the main attraction of the day, the Transfăgărașan road, which winds through the Făgăraș mountain range. All along the road are warnings not to feed the bears, and on the way back down the other side of the road, we saw why. Bears are pretty common throughout this region of Romania, but here they have obviously learnt that by hanging out by the roads they get fed by people in the passing cars. We saw quite a few on the way down, and while that was exciting, it was also quite sad to see them there looking for food, and also to see people throwing junk like loaves of bread at them – obviously not a particularly natural diet for them.
We didn’t get home until pretty late that night, so I had a relaxed day the next day, having a wee explore around town, but also sleeping late and having some downtime. It’s hard to remember than in normal life I wouldn’t be out doing something every day, and so it wouldn’t be sustainable to try to be having full days every day while here either. I have to tell myself not to feel guilty for taking a rest day!
My last day in Brasov, I took the train an hour south to a town called Sinaia. The main attraction here is Peleș Castle, one of the most famous buildings in the country, but I also very much enjoyed the park in the middle of town, the monastery on the way to the castle, and the wee wander through the forest that I found myself on as I made my way through the town. Peleș Castle and nearby Pelișor Castle are both closed on a Monday, when I went, but it was still nice to wander around them from the outside.
After Brașov, I caught the train down to Bucharest for my last couple of days in Romania. It’s funny, it was actually a film we watched at university about Bucharest during the Industrial Revolution that made me want to visit this country in the first place. I’m not sure what exactly it was that appealed to me in that video, but here we are, 15 odd years later!
My first impressions of Bucharest weren’t all that exciting. There are impressive buildings and whatnot, but nothing really jumped out at me. One highlight was visiting the Romanian Atheneum, and meeting an Italian couple who I had a good chat with. Afterwards, I had a wander through the old town, but found it just full of bars and touts… I don’t know, I found it a bit meh overall. Luckily for my second day I had booked a walking / food tour, which gave my day a bit more structure and interest. We started with a wander around a few of the neighbourhoods of the city, learning about their past and the evolution of Bucharest as a city. Later, we headed to the city’s largest market for a look around, stopping at various places to try different traditional foods. It was an interesting few hours, and I met some lovely people, so I’m glad I did it!
While here I’ve also meet some lovely people, not at my hostel, but at a more social one a few minutes walk away. I’ve been hanging out there in the evenings, as it’s where Jamie is staying, and when my hostel didn’t have a freezer that I could use for my meds, he suggested I ask whether his hostel could keep it for me, and they did! That hostel held an open mic night, games night, and a quiz night over the few days that I was in town, and I met people from Romania, the Netherlands, Egypt, France, the UK, the US, and various other places. It’s interesting, it turns out I might be more social than I ever believed myself to be… I just need someone to give me a wee push in the right direction every now and then so that I don’t just never leave the house!
And with that, my time in Romania is over. Next up is a very brief stop in Bulgaria, before heading to Istanbul to catch my flight to Turkmenistan. My letter of invitation that I need for my Turkmenistan visa still hasn’t come through yet, so that is making me plenty nervous, but I guess it’s a good lesson in patience! And deep breathing!!
emilyonearth 
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