Romania

The last two places we visited were Timişoara and Bucharest.

We nearly didn't go to Timişoara, which would have been a real pity because it turned out to be one of our favorite places. We caught a day train into Timişoara and arrived late in the evening. We got a brilliant hotel/guesthouse (Tim House) close to the station and on the edge of the spectacular old town.

We spent a couple of days exploring this beautiful town, history and beautiful buildings everywhere you look:

Timişoara is the only Romanian city with canal public transport

Then we caught the night train to Bucharest. The train was the oldest we had yet caught. It really could have been in a TV period drama (think Orient Express). But it was in immaculate condition. It still had the beautiful old fashion light shades, big, bouncy leather seats, a little antique wash basin in the compartment. Heaps of fun for the train buff (Mike).

Bucharest was better than expected. It is known as a boring city, but it had enough old Soviet architecture and history to keep us interested for a couple of days.

Not sure what this is

No we have not jumped countries! This is the Arc de Triumph in Bucharest!

The most beautiful building in Romania - National opera house

The dismal Bucharest metro

The second biggest government building in the world (after the Pentagon), built by the crazy communist leader/dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu. Its now called the Palace of the Parliament. Daily tours take visitors through some of the opulence. Ceaușescu was ultimately captured and shot by his people as he tried to escape this building by helicopter.

The open air Village Museum located in the King Michael park, showcasing traditional Romanian village life. We spent half the day here and still didn't get to see everything.

From Northern Romania, we headed into the heart of "Dracula country", trying hard to avoid the touristic tat associated with the Dracula legend.

Highlights were:

Braşov Old Town, we went on a free walking tour and learned a bit about this medieval Saxon town. It was the first rainy day we struck this holiday.

Raşnov Fortress was an impressive stop over for an hour or two.

We weren't expecting the tourist town of Sinaia to be so nice. We stayed in Le Petit Chateu, a historic home in the center of town. It was really interesting to meet the owner who explained how the house was taken from her family by the Communists, and she was slowly trying to restore it after a 15 year court battle to regain ownership.

We visited the royal Peleş Castle. We were reticent at first having visited so many royal households but this was something different and special. So much timber!!!

We then went up the gondola to one of the highest points of the Transylvania Carpathian mountains (2100m).

Up the top was the biggest bbq ever. A great selection of meat and more meat. No sign of greenery here!

We ate kürtőskalács, a traditional sweet like a massive spiral doughnut barbecued and covered in sugar. Margaret ate most of it; I thought it tasted like a burnt doughnut.

Sigişoara was another impressive medieval town built on a surrounded by a fortress. It's where a lot of iconic photos are taken, but we didn't have great weather for photography.

This how it looks on a nice day (and a bit of Photoshop)

Our next stop was Sebeş, a tiny one street rural village about 20km south of Făgăraş. We wanted a base to explore the Bâlea glacier lake (2000m) and the awesome Transfagaraş Highway rated by TopGear as the best road in the world. 

When we arrived at the lake, the fog rolled in. We nearly lost Margaret in the lake!

But only about 30 minutes later it cleared to a beautiful sight

One of the great aspects of hiring a car, is the ability to staying in unusual accomodation of the main tourist drag.
Casa Macarina was a monastery and religious retreat also open to the public. It had a haunted feeling with a seriously scary castle.

We also stayed at the stately home of Conac Polizu. We slept in the room previously stayed in by Queen Maria of Romania!

Driving the countryside was a bit stressful at times; the Romanians (like most East Europeans) are crazy drivers. The roads are pretty bad so it is slow going most of the time. The Romanian method is to drive as fast as possible on any part of the road, while avoiding potholes, pedestrians, cattle, horse and cart and other obstructions.

But it was in the countryside that we saw the real Romania and we were so glad we hired the car.

Wells are still commonly used for fresh water and they come in all shapes and sizes

Well, well, well....that's it until the next blog - Western and Southern Romania (Wallacia)

"Bună Ziua" Romania and Europe. That's Romanian for hello.

We crossed the border from Ukraine to Romania by foot. Off the train at Solotvyno, a 1km walk, across the bridge, and into the small Romania town of Sighetu Marmaţiei and the EU.

Bye bye Ukraine, we have such mixed feelings about you!

Across the river Tisa

Hello Europe!

In Sighetu Marmaţiei we stayed at the lovely hotel Casa Royal. Romanians speak a Latin language similar to Spanish, so thankful we can now read signs! However getting our tongue around some of the pronunciation is proving impossible. But we have already discovered that many Romanians can speak English, so it's pretty easy going with communicating.

The town of Sighet

Tried the regional speciality - polenta with melted cheese and bacon. The one on the internet looked a bit better than the one we got.

Romanian Gypsies. A fascinating people, with many problems very similar to indigenous Australians. We encountered them in most small towns of southern Ukraine and northern Romania.

Got a share car out to Sapanţa for the day to see two major attractions of the region - Merry Cemetery, and the amazing Peri-Săpânţa Monastery with it's wooden churches.

Merry Cemetery, very ornate painted timber tombstones that tell a story of the persons life and death.
Read more here

Most tell stories of rural life - women weaving, men working, etc....

Some are wacky...

Some show pretty clearly how the person died...

All the paintings are accompanied by a story, apparently many are humorous. But some poignant.

More translations here but it's a bit of a depressing read.

A short walk from the cemetery is the famous monastery of timber churches.

Margaret crossing a bit of a scary bridge

A lot of the construction does not use nails or bolts. It is carved and fitted together.

Next stop Vişeu de Sus. A train ride from Sighet along the Ukrainian border.

Stayed in the friendly guesthouse Casa Doce, small but nice pensione,  The highlight of Vişeu de Sus is the historic Mocanita Steam train - a 5hr journey up into a mountain valley.

We had an exciting adventure when the train derailed on the return!

By this time, we had picked up a hire car in Cluj Napoca (Romania's second city) and driven to the North East district of Bukovina. The highlights included the Painted Monasteries of Bukovina and Mănăstirea (monastery) Nouă Zosin.

Finally, we haded west to the city of Iaşi (pronounced 'yash') near the Moldovan border to see the impressive Palace of Culture and other interesting architecture.

Saw some funky VW beetles decorated with tiles outside an art gallery

Next part of the journey takes us to Central Romania and Transylvania!