Pensiunea Andy Brasov

... Unfortunately their were far to few trucks for all the
guys in the square and when we took off at about 1:30, over half of
them were still waiting.

The rest of the bus ride home and the
journey to Bucharest wasn't anywhere as eventful. The only other
interesting thing that happened was walking around Bucharest looking
for food, we got adopted by two stray dogs who we ended up naming Rufus
and Jessy. Unfortunately we couldn't bring them into ...

We leave in the morning from Brasov to the Castle, situated about 25km away.. We pass the saxon village of Cristian, where a 1711 fortified church salutes us with its yellow surveillance tower in the sun... Getting to Rasnov makes us turn to left from the main road in order to visit the ...

... by King Pele, who ruled over Romania but was actually German. Took a tour of the castle but unfortunately they did not allow any pictures inside. Everything inside the castle had been imported from the Italian marble fireplaces to the German crystal chandeliers. The castle was decorated with many intricate wood carvings and massive oil paintings. There was even a secret passageway hidden behind a bookcase in the library! On the tour I met a group of other ...

... absolutely gorgeous medieval Transylvanian town about two hours by train from Brasov. I saw the home in which he was born, now a tacky tourist restaurant next to the clock tower on the highest point in town and near a beautiful square with a number of excellent little cafes. One of them, the International Café, served up one of the best grilled ham and cheese sandwiches I've had in months. You only need ...

... cool to be in the heart of transylvnania, but to check out a town called bran. bran is the home to wats been famed as draculas castle, which in truth was a fort built in the 14th century to watch for enemy troops in the valley below. the castle was great to see, and even tho the whole dracula thing is ******** it still felt pretty eerie to be wanderin around it. the dracula that is associated with the place comes from bram stokers book which is said to be based ...

... to me to :-) She's had her own business which she just closed down and has decided to do something completely different for a while. She's doing 1 month at the bear sanctuary and then 2 months working with kids. There's another 2 girls from the UK who have also just finished high school. Oh, and i have a new roommate. Amelie is French and just arrived last night. She's just finished uni and is 23. I was quite disappointed last night. As if it isnt hard enough trying to ...

... side. Still no timeboard for Sfântu Gheorghe buses though. Incredibly, the woman manning the small ticket counter in the back piped up at me, very friendly, in English! And she quickly confirmed what I'd already suspected - there were indeed no buses on to Sfântu Gheorghe. Quite unexpectedly, she tried hard to help me out and locate some sort of onward transport. She wasn't sure about the maxitaxi route, so she made a call out to another contact to find out. I had found a few ...

... or maybe I have just been in Romania too long to notice.... We Said: A few observations on travel in Bulgaria and Romania: As with much of the world, the small towns in these countries are far more pleasant than the big cities. Although there are some really great sights and food in these places, don't stay in Sofia or Bucharest for more than a night or two. Both nations are quite inexpensive by American and European standards. Food is of especially good quality and is ...

... in here we decided we would try and head up to the top of the local mountain (by telecabina thank god!!) and then hike back down because "apparently" there was a safe track that was a reasonable 45 min walk back down. Yet again, I failed to recall that the Romanian idea of a "safe" track is more in tune with the idea that there is a track in existence than the Austrailian equivalent and so was all for the idea. Unfortunately this meant that although the views ...

... but refrained from asking the girls if they were named after Ceaucescu's wife! Corruption and rampant social discontent, such is the general theme of the downfall of Communism. Brasov was a bit of a shock after the slow pace of Sighisoara. Elvis Villa have the market in Romania, running three hostels along the main tourist route - Sighi, Brasov and Bucharest. Brasov is famous for its bears that come into the town to eat from the garbage bins (bear hunting is ...