Continental Tirgu Mures

well I left Jacksonville on the 7th of july to JFK... 1 overnight due to cancelled flight, then onto Budapest, Hungary where the wife picked me up... spent a relaxing day at a wellness spa, then drove to Oradea, Romania to attend a college friend of my wife's wedding.. then onto Tirgu-Mures... now comes the stress with prepping for our own day in Church...

... Bucuresti looked very good. Not the architecture, because they are all ugly communist buildings. But i mean Life. Modern, fast and well developed. Even the metro looked way better than the one we have in Amsterdam. I read some stories about Bucuresti not being safe and other bad things, but that is not the case. I haven't noticed anything. Neither at the station, metro or out on the streets. Little note: At the station they have 24hr luggage store for just 6 LEI. (which ...

... the pizza I was ordering as "cheese, sauce, ham, oregano". Pretty simple right? Well to my surprise, the sauce they refer to is actually barbecue sauce. Later we would research this and find that it's the same throughout the city. I don't know if there is a country-wide tomato paste shortage or if BBQ sauce is the preferred base for a pizza. After our unique meal we returned to our room for a short siesta and some Discovery Civilizations while a storm passed over the city. Six ...

... Romanian and going home to Bucharest, but couldn't figure out anything else they were saying. The best I could make out is that the bags were full of groceries and supplies since I saw 6 2-liter bottles of pop peaking out of one bag and laundry detergent in another. The only explanation I could come up with is that it must be cheaper to buy these things in Hungary and then bring them to Romania, though with the cost of the train tickets added in I can ...

... s said only one couple went through with a divorce in all the time it was in place! The church has lovely grounds and inside, a lock with actually 19 locks in 1. The lock is such a marvel of engineering, it won first prize at the Paris World Expo in 1900. Our final stop is Atel, whose church is closed. Our taxi driver locates the caretaker who unlocks the big wooden doors for us, pushing them open with a massive shove. A cheery, older man ...

Relaxed in town for the day and was delighted to find the sun shining brightly when we emerged from our hostel. Ended up in a double share facilities room which was just fine...and much better than the prospects of a couch! I climbed the stairs to the clock tower in town and then up the stairs to the church on the hill. Around 4:20pm our transport picked us up to take us to Viscri...the first part of the trip on paved roads but near the end we turned off onto a ...

... then, it would surely have turned up by now. I thank her and then hustle back to the apartment. By this time though, it's clear that I have next to no chance of making my train. Brândusa has no answer to the question "what do I do about my train?" so I rush back out the door and down the way to the CFR office once more. Without any certainty that it would work, I'm desperate to change my ticket for the next day. Fortunately, it does work, and I manage to get it rearranged ...

Stopped in Sighisoara for a day on the way back to Hungary to break up the long train ride and to see a famous hillside cathedral there. After going to Brasov and Bran Castle I wasn't overhelmed but it was nice. I really liked the trip to Romania. Timisoara, Bucharest, and Transylvania were all unique and I liked it all. Nothing stolen, not ripped off, it was a complete success.

... guy dressed like a Renaissance page has been wandering the town and welcoming people in every language imaginable. I have been hearing his spiel non-stop; he stops in the square and says "Welcome to Sighisoara" in at least 30 languages, announcing the country before he says it. Of interesting note, he has welcomed people as far as Singapore and Hong Kong and as close as Bulgaria and Croatia, but never ...

... city with only a couple of hours left before dark. Sighisoara is the birthplace of Romania's favourite son, Vlad Tepes, so our first stop in town had to be the house where Vlad spent his formative years. This is actually now a slightly cheesy, mock gothic style restaurant, and really a bit unremarkable. Not to mention expensive. All we saw of Sighisoara was the citadel area, though I'm not sure if there is much else worht visiting here. I can ...