New Montana Brasov

... So we hopped in a taxi with the lady, and were soon whisked off at breakneck speed from where we were, into the town, through the heart of the town...and then out the other end, into narrower and narrower streets, that winded in every direction, completely disorienting us. Eventually we stopped, and got out with the lady to walk up yet another street, this one paved with cobblestones and so narrow that no cars could really drive up. We ...

... back to the hotel. I took a different road back, Str. Berzei which was less scenic but gave more of a look into the average life of someone living in Bucharest (not the dreamy world on the other two streets). I was starting to get blisters all over my feet despite my so called comfortable walking shoes. Maybe all the flying or the pregnancy had caused my feet to swell??? But at this point I was limping back to the hotel. I made it back in sufficient time for ...

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... off. Our next stop was Bran Castle. It has absolutely nothing to do with Vlad Tepes, the inspiration for all the Dracula stuff, but it's apparently one of the most popular sights in the area. For me, however, it was a bit dull. It was used as a home by the family of the Romania monarchy but has nothing to do with Vlad. I guess people just want to believe that good ol' Dracula used to prowl around at night looking for fresh blood. But if he did, he must have been either ...

... Bran valley. The Bran castle which was built in 1377 was the setting from Bram Stocker's Dracula. The castle was much smaller than most of us thought, but had beautiful views through the valley! Don't worry though, outside they had plenty of souvenirs that were very CHEESY. We finished the day with a short drive to Sinaia. RANDOM Funnel cakes = dough wrapped around a HUGE rolling pin and ...

... for the return trip (4:38pm vs 3:38pm... hmmm). We were ultimately safely aboard the 12:38 for the return to Brasov - and we noted a slew of other perplexed and slightly ashamed tourists that had been on our same bus out to the site. Our 53 minutes at Bran included ample time for huddling in the police station (the sole place with heating) and waiting for the ticket office to be able to break a 10 RON note on a 6 RON ticket. Brasov is, however, blessed ...

... bashing down the door to see us again. She has had such an interesting life and had so many great stories to share. She's Hungarian Romanian. She speaks 4 langauges.. english, hungarian, romanian and french. She learnt french in only 6 months! She lived in Florida in the US for a couple of years where she met her husband, who funnily enough is also Romanian. She would really like to live over there but the US doesnt recognise any university degrees from eastern europe. You ...

... met een hoofddoek op en een paar Roma in kleurrijke rokken gezien. Voor het echte OostEuropa-gevoel. Zou het straatje omhoog naar de citadel waar nu nog woonhuisjes staan, over een paar jaar ook helemaal overgenomen zijn door souvenirwinkeltjes, net als de straatjes in Praag? Die oude vrouwtjes die er nu op de stoepjes zitten maken het tenslotte niet lang meer... :-) En gezien de vele touringcars is dit stadje wel een toeristische topattractie in de regio.

... for a couple nights to escape the Turks. Maybe. Bran castle was a good pit stop to pick up a Dracula magnet and get some lunch. That's about it. Finally, we made our way [let me rephrase that: we flew down the road mowing over everything in sight and practically killing everybody in the van on multiple occasions] to the Rasnov fortress. The fortress itself was very much still intact after 700 years and has a 146m deep well--the deepest in Romania--that took 2 prisoners 17 ...

... by the Romanian military, along with his wife, after the violent revolution in December of that year. Ceausescu's policies included exporting most of Romania's food and other resources, leaving his own people with empty bellies. He appointed members of his family, including his wife, to all the cushy positions in government and bulldozed thousands of villages, along with one fifth of central Bucharest in order to build his ironically named Palace of the People, a true Soviet ...