Hotel Miruna Brasov

... The old town lies next to the mountains and you can take a cable car up Tampa mountain and from there enjoy a beautiful view over the town below and the surrounding plains with their intermittent mountains. Another surprisingly nice place. For dinner under umbrellas on the main square I enjoy a rich meal with local specialties while a thunderstorm washes away the serene summer street life before my eyes.

In the villages of this area you find many ...

... You can definitely let your imagination go wild and see Dracula lurking in the woods to suck your blood! We stayed at a great place run by two young snowboarding instructors. The place had a washing machine, and for the first time in almost a year I did my laundry in a washing machine. So exciting. And after smoky Greece, a freshly laundered load of travel clothes was greatly appreciated. We had a long, drawn out dinner with ...

... I arrived at the airport and was surprized that I had an issue with the airline due to Linda's late cancellation. The confusion was regarding the suitcase payment but it was easy to fix. Another quick surprize was that I had to go through passport control. It always makes me nervous. Meanwhile, i got a new stamp in my book. A very short flight, I slept through it too ...

... lorries coming to the U.K. and not even paying fuel tax... Although the scenery in Czech republic and Slovakia was great, and in places superb, neither of us felt very at home there or in Hungary. Whether it was the completely unintelligible languages, which are equally as incomprehensible written as spoken, or whether it was the extremes between rich and poor, or merely the huge cultural difference, we both had an ...

... but 20 minutes to tour inside and out and we were back on our way. The castle had no mention of feeding the myth on the inside, only those who once resided in the castle over the lands hundreds of years ago. Dracula, the myth, lived there - not the real Dracula. That's right, there is a real Dracula. A soldier who said as a torture mechanism knew how to drive a steak through ones spine without tapping the central nerve which keeps the victim alive and in agony ...

... There are a lot of volunteers going to the house of joy at the moment because they are at school in the morning so now there are 4 of us who all go in the afternoon. On the way back down to the bus stop we saw a funeral procession go past. Its a dirt road. The first thing we saw was a bunch of old men playing brass instruments strolling up around the corner. Following them were some people carrying a big cross with the old lady's name on it and some fruits, vegetables and some ...

... I decided that my main lesson today was going to be the memory game... you know where there are pairs of things all laid face down on the table and you keep picking them up 2 at a time until you find the pair. So i wnet and grabbed some cardboard of various colours and then went back to the office to print off some pictures of things they know with the english name. Took me a while to get it all done and then Julia and i headed out to the centre. We ...

Brasov is the second biggest city in Romania but is only about 400k people. Feels more like a small city or big town really which was a nice change of pace. Lots of nice buildings and a large pedestrian area where everyone walks around and hangs out. I really like this place. Took a day trip to Bran Castle which is the "real" Dracula's castle (Brasov and Bran Castle are in the famous Transylvania). This comes either from the idea that Bram ...

... or worse, there was a mysterious fog throughout the day which led to some pretty interesting pictures. The castle tour was part of a package through the hostel and turned out to be a great deal. Again we topped off the day with a 4 star meal before heading to hungary on an overnight.

... I hope, as always you are doing well. I also hope you understand that since arriving to site in Navoi, going thru all the transitions there, and then being kicked out of country and now in a whole new place...that you will cut me some slack in not having written too many personal emails in the last month. I apologize, really I do. Don't take it personally, and by all means, don't stop writing me whenever you have a break in your crazy schedules, too. Much love to all, Amber