Hotel Ambient Brasov

... of her parents to slave labour in the Soviet Union after the second world war, return and expropriations in the fifties, life under Ceaucescu's regime while the community was dwindling and about the sudden exodus to Germany of all but a few ones, after the wall fell in 1989. Now 110 still use a church which could hold hundreds and almost all of them are beyond 60. Twenty years from now this chapter of history will be nothing but a legacy and she ...

... just didn't expect much but when I got there... My Hotel was very nice and between the station and the center. Very convenient. Look up Hotel Brasov!!! I was travel weary and jet lagged so I just checked in and took a breath. The room was very nice and the hotel staff was superb. (More on them later) I was anxious to see TRANSILVANIA and take some shots so I walked the ...

... bypasses or dual carriageway. Then picture driving along a valley at the edge of a high mountain range, with mountain streams ( no doubt torrents in spring) going under the road every mile or so. The decision has now been made to upgrade the road, so how do we go about it? Some bright spark decides that new bridges are required along the whole stretch and being used to the economies of scale decides to pull them all down ...

... the night, I made one last ditch effort to find my card. I hiked all the way up that slippery snowy hill by myself and where I though I might have dropped the card, got on my hands and knees and pushed the snow and dirt aside in hopes of finding that card - instead on that hill I found nothing but a path of empty dreams. It looks like I wont by catching my train after all, I have no money. On the bottom of the hill, I slid down the slide... twice, to raise my ...

... my footprint. I apologised profusely but he just laughed and said it was ok. I have some photos of the village but i will post them up here tomorrow when im at the office. Im becoming aware that my time here is coming to an end. Dave has already scheduled a demo for me the week after I get back! Im looking forward to getting back to Mark and California... although Im not yet looking forward to working again. :-) All good things must come to an end i guess, its back to the real world soon.

... the whole group. They were very open about what they wanted. I was just generally chatting to the guy who was first sitting beside me about Romania and stuff in general. And then he said hed like some musha and would i like some. i said ahhhh i dont think so. i figured that meant sex and asked if thats what he meant. it was, so i said, yeah definatley not thanks. So he was cool with that and then continued chatting and then gradually moved on to the next girl at the table ...

... Bought some little wild strawberries from a lady on the side of the street before we all piled back onto the minbus. Next stop was the Infamous Bran Castle which was the castle Dracula was based in. Had a tour of the (rather cute??) castle. It turns out Vlad the Impaler was thought to have been held prisoner in the castle for one night, but other than that, the two elements of the Dracula story were never combined in real life. One of the girls with us had a GPS and a ...

... ago. We were sitting at a sidewalk table of a Scottish pub eating meat pies and sipping a Belgian beer, Brazilian singer Shakira was playing on the radio, and through the widows of the community center across the street we could see about a dozen Romanian couples taking swing dance lessons. It really is becoming a globalized world, isn't it! Yesterday we took a day trip to the nearby town of Bran, known for its historic castle. The place was once inhabited by none other than Vlad ...

... The very obvious presence of poverty, etc. and especially in the guise of Romnanian gypsies was a bit unnerving. We had very positive experiences with the Romanian's however from "Vlad" in Budapest (I'd read the Romnanians deal with hardship and the memories of their hardships through biting humor and it seems to be true) and also from ...

... time, as opposed to the "express" Timisoara-Iasi run, which we took twice, which was 1/2 hour late both times -- and made our way to Elvis! The name's changed now, so it's Elvis's Villa no longer, but they still give you free beer and free internet, so who cares? Brasov is an actual city, but the centre is another one of those well-preserved city squares from a few hundred years ago. Not as pretty as Sighisoara, I think, but there's ...