Hanul Cu Jar Busteni

... some souveneirs and then moved on. I arrived at Rasnov on my way back. I stopped and it turns out that the way up to the fortress is straight up the side of the mountain. It was about a 20 minute walk and I was huffing and puffing but finally made it. It was incredible!! a 15th century fortress built on top of the hill to protect ...

... I saw in the countryside and from what the ROmanians told me, ROmania has a lot of beautiful landscapes. I am unfortunately tight on time and will have to experience it at a later time. I am still happy I got a taste of Romania though. I said my goodbyes and took a night train to Budapest where I am now. TOmorrow night i go to Vienna to stay with a family and after that hopefully get to meet up with the Aussie i was bumming around with before, Russel.

... admision fee!! so i didn't get any photos :( ... from Brasov i went to Sibui for just one nite with the same people... it is another lovely little town full of character... we had a great nite on the town, walked the city walls, played giant chess in the park, Nehemiah totally kicked my ass... we drew quite a good crowd... even the security guard was watching for a while... good fun.. we went out to this open air museum thing just out of town ...

... Thx dad, I guess I'll stick to IT then. Well, I'm not sure I'll get another chance to blog before I leave. I have a full day planned tomorrow and then we're having a dinner for my last night. I'm leaving Brasov at 3.30am so I'm planning to stay out until then. I may be writing my final entry from the US and I'll load up the rest of my photos then. And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Mark. Friday is his birthday and I wont even be there to celebrate with him. Sorry Honey. See you soon!! xxx

Well i guess it was inevitable really. Yes, i drank lots of beer and ended up singing at the karaoke bar last night. Let's see, where do I start.. After coming up here and doing that quick little entry (which was titled 'some pics' but you may notice that there were none. I couldnt load them up from here, have to do that monday at the office) I went to the pub on the way home. I had a couple of beers and started preparing for bingo with the kids. I wrote it all up and then ...

Brasov (population 350K), located right in the middle of Transylvania, was my base to explore Romania. Bran Castle, also called by some as the Dracula Castle, was my first stop. Vlad Dracula, a ruling prince in the region in mid 15th century, did not cause bite marks on people's neck. Instead, he punished people by carefully driving a wooden stake though their backbone without touching any vital nerve ...

... was a trade center, mining town, and now a monument to the former German presence in Eastern Europe. Most Germans were either expelled after WWII, were 'sold' (freigekauft) by the Romanian's Communist regime, or fled en masse after 1989 to W. Germany. Nestled in the carpathians, it is a wonderful place that is not terribly touristy, yet feels comfortable with travelers. I tried to speak Romanian, although this ...

... bus apart (literally) and search for drugs. We were scared, because if they had found anything (which they did not) they could have held us for at least 2 days....so back on the bus, the Romanian couple took care of us the rest of the way and ordered dinner for us in Bulgaria (we would have been ****ed on our own). At the Romaina border they have to literally go through all of your luggage and scan you with a metal detector, however, when it came to be our turn it went quite ...

Brasov is where all the tourists go in Romania, in the heart of Transylvania, Dracula country. So I spend a day doing that, walking through the old castle and all. But the real attraction for me was just seeing a country in the heart of Europe that is still village-based and peasant-based, with lots of arts and crafts ...

I went by myself to Busteni to take the cable car to the top of the mountains there. It was simply magical. I could have spent a long time in these mountains, but I only had the afternoon. The cable car ride was a little hairy. At one point it felt like we were going straight up, through a narrow crack in the mountain. If I ever comeback to Romania, WHEN I come back I should say, I'm going to spend a lot more time in these mountains.