K+K Elisabeta Bucharest

The story begins on a rainy April afternoon...

And since then, everything revolves around this dusty town.

Welcome to the balkans! (please read all)



They say "Romania, land of choice", we say " Romania - Land of jokes"

OR should it be: "Come to Romania, your car is already here!" ?



Enough with this mean comments!

I'm going to set things right, since that guy from "No ...

... go, but I didn’t think I’d live to see it. It’s the old Irish guy; I know it. He cl*ims to be buying timber, but seems to be drinking the profits. Why else would he be st*ying in * hostel? At le*st it helps *llevi*te *ny feelings th*t I’m * loser. He *nd Hern*ndo both *re fumbling *round p*tching de*ls together just like I used to. But for the gr*ce of God, there go I. It’s time to go c*tch my bus.

... Gardens. I have to admit it is idyllic and relaxing. I bought some popcorn from a vendor to snack on while I went through a small part of the park before heading back to the hotel as it was starting to get dark. Based on advice from the receptionist, I was able to find a Romania restaurant for dinner and enjoyed a traditional meal of sarmale (basically cabbage rolls). This may become my staple meal here... Then it was back to the hotel for an early night and some much needed sleep.

... was the day of "how can one avoid obsticles on the road whilst flying down the mountain trying to hold on to the handle bars and clicking around 60kms per hour". We were warned but it was like a comic show, every corner we turned somethin else appeared on the road from a horse to a pack of dogs (quite angry this tme) to an old chap with a huge radio on his shoulder, to goats, children, carts..and then a convertible full of screaming young beautiful romanian women ...

... research, changed and went to buy my ticket to Budapest, decided I would take a 2 person couchette for not much more than a 3 person which happened to be a great decision. Went on a strange mission to try and change some Russian, Bulgarian and Moldovan cash at many money changers and banks eventually having to change some of my many dollars. Walked around taking in the sites - monastery, university library, communist party building where Ceausescu ...

... motel and restaurant. Any port in a storm, cheapest place we've stayed, but not that bad all things considered. After the hellish bike out of Budapest, we had planned to avoid, if at all possible, biking into Bucuresti, but here we were, at Emma's fish motel, just 30k from the center of Bucuresti, on the highway, so oh well, off we go. For biking on a "highway" it really wasn't bad; the drivers were actually very considerate, and the traffic was never moving that fast. In fact ...

... unlike the wild dogs of Athens, these are large dogs- thigh high or higher- German Shepherd mixes- they roam together and the guide book gives advice on how to frighten them away when you are cornered (by pretending to stoop and pick up a big rock)- and this is all serious. As time passed and I walked I simply saw more and more that worried me- I also had a growing feeling of unease and just didn't feel safe. When I finally found an internet café that was working, I explored routes ...

... to Prague would give us the scenic beauty our guidebook gushed so much about. We found this a bit disappointing, but the guidebook had it right again. From Bucharest to the Romania-Hungary boarder we were struck by the depth of natural beauty and by the first hour or so in particular. The winding roads up the nearby Carpathian mountains on the way to Brasov qualifies as one of the most impressive stretches of road we have yet seen. Who knew that a country with such a dark and grey ...

... and his crazy Parliament building -Romanias replica of Paris' Arc de Triumph -the grave of Vlad Tepes, a.k.a. Vlad the Impaler, a.k.a. Dracula grave -a nice little city park we were able to stroll through -taking an overnight train to Sofai and being placed in the same car as Will and Tyler and the other Canadians

... read our blogs) because we can lie, oh yes we can lie...so give us feed back, all of you!!!!! Moving on, we are still in Romania and loving it, we are in Sighisoara now and we miss our spicy Romanian couple, they were so much fun!!!! We hung out with them twice, and, apparently, I (kelly) now have a Romanian boyfriend named Alex, hell maybe we are engaged, I dont know....and let me tell you folks I did not see that one coming. We are all sitting at a restaurant ...