Vila Iris Sinaia

... Romanians like to pass you on single lane highways with oncoming traffic, even though there is no room in front of your car for them to get in. So you spend a lot of time getting cut off and slowing down so its a good thing we're not in a hurry.

We did eventually get to Peles Castle in Sinaia with little help from our **** GPS we paid an extra 10 euro/day for! Our car is this tiny little Chevy Spark. Somehow they have managed to put 4 doors on it and there ...

... mountain town at the bottom of Bucegi mountains.  I couldn`t help but wonder why this place was described as `highly unpleasant` by Lonely Planet. True that there was absolutely nothing to do in it except skiing or visiting the church but it was so beautiful. Of course because of the 900 metres altitude it was about 2 degrees in the city. After Busteni, i went to Sinaia.Here was kind of unpleasant. The rustic texture of the town was ...

... style. Construction started in 1875 and it took almost 40 years to finish it....quite believable when you see the design and the intricately carved wood everywhere...even had a nargile room with some small old pipes. It was used as a hotel during Ceausescu's time and apparently there were a few US presidents who stayed there. The photo fee or 'tax' as they like to say it was extortion so I snapped over a 100 ...

After a sixth terrible breakfast (stale bread and hot dogs), we were looking forward to heading back to camp. Of course, it started raining again, but after two stinky hotels, we don't mind. We spent the morning in Bucharest on foot. The shopping there was good, so Brit and I bought a couple of shirts (because four really isn't enough when you can only do laundry once every two weeks! At least when you turn your ...

... prepared for being open. I think I'm going to love this place. Breakfast is rather sad, just toasted bread (with 'almost' jam), tea, or coffee. Today's agenda involves my getting things shipped at the post office. There's a post office really close to our hostel but it doesn't ship packages, so we walked downtown to the next one. I was able to buy boxes but she said they also don't ship boxes, I told her Statile Unite but she said no and gave us the ...

... Lesbian and Gay Association in Brussels. At the beginning of this year a local English language magazine in Brussels described him as the Doyen of the Brussels gay community. I dub today the Day of the Doyen. Our walking tour begins with a visit to the main square. I can barely pay attention to our guide, being distracted by the scene of a precious little boy in a train conductor's hat chasing after pigeons. I manage to get some great photos. We visit ...

... the first room and then follow a roped off path up, down and around the castle. I continually tried to get off the beaten track so I could locate Dracula's crypt and say 'g'day mate' but all to no avail, this place was setup with some serious electronic countermeasures that would make the CIA proud. Seems Drac's joined the wired age. Damn him.. Essentially the whole experience is a big tourist trap, outside the castle there's stall after stall ...

... moved to the top of the hill to protect it from foreign invaders. In the centre of town is a 150m deep well that the people ordered two Turkish prisoners to dig in exchange for their freedom when they finished. It took 17 years to dig and the prisoners were never released. Our guide as a little girl used to drop lighted paper down the well to see how deep it went but always got in trouble. They built a mesh as a result. But that was not enough to stop her as she ...

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 ...

... have liked to share them with you! I saw many people transporting themselves and goods around in horse-drawn carts (among cars and trucks on the highways!), people working their fields by hand, farmers using pitchforks to build massive haystacks, and the best was two cute little old men herding their sheep - it would have been a great shot. However, since most of the time I was praying I would make it to the next destination, we were clearly driving ...