Romania
Trip Start
May 24, 2005
1
18
25
Trip End
Ongoing
Bucharest,
Romania
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Or visit a few towns of medieaval Saxon origin and climb a few hundred feet before exhaustion sets in and go back down to the town square for a glass of sweet Moldovan wine?
Mmmm....Tough call...
Loads of surprises here - "The People's Palace" built by the mad dictator Ceaucescu in the pre-1989 years is the 2nd biggest building in the world (after the Pentagon) and stands on the rubble of one-sixth of Bucharest which was bulldozed to make room for this wacko's dream.
There are more tasteful palaces in Romania and none more so then the Royal Summer Castle at Sinaia. This gets our vote as one of the must-sees of our trip thus far!! A true fairy-tale with turrets, secret passage-ways and rooms themed and crammed with treasures from Japan to Iran (furniture which took 100 years to carve and a stair-case so ornate it was never used!).
On hearing that Moldova houses the largest wine cellar in the world (kilometres upon kilometres of the stuff) I nearly turned giddy although, because this little gem was a little too far out of our way - reason enough to return - we headed to Brasov and walked around the Saxon church before settling in for another Moldovan wine-a-thon.
Sighisoara was full of German tourists and porn-watching local lads, so got 'nul points' depsite it being Vlad Dracula's birthplace. Top marks, however, for the apple cake baked by the team of Christians who run a cafe at the foot of the creepy staircase to the spookiest church in Romania.
Cluj-Napoca is a gem - a real student town (always guaranteed to make Helen smile). We went for a walk to one of the gorges about an hour's drive and a few kilometers on foot out of town. On the return leg the guide asked if we wanted to go via the river or head straight back. We picked the road less travelled - well, it wasn't exactly a 'road' but talk of waterfalls persuaded us. A few HOURS later we found ourselves STILL wading through the winding river, jumping round cow/sheep/rabbit poo and/or water snakes (delete as appropriate) and hopping from rock to rock. Sure the first time we took off our shoes to go in it was "ahh, sweet". By #20 it was more "bleeem'n 'ek ouch!" But it was a class act of a hike, wild mint growing by a river not a road or any sign of life for miles, sweet bliss. Just a pity about the stones in the shoes...
