Blogs

Romania

June 17, 2018

We’re leaving Bulgaria the country is beautiful and every road or corner has something interesting to photograph like a land time forgot.

We’ve been a little surprised by the weather usually a heavy thunderstorm with very loud thunder and torrential rain in the afternoons or overnight no wonder the country is so green.

Not a lot of English is spoken here and Keith has learnt to say hello, thank you and ask for bread in his best Bulgarian accent and has tried to make some sort of conversation in Bulgarian to people we meet but we get absolutely no response from anyone it’s difficult to know if we’re welcome or not.

With all the road signs being in Bulgarian (no English translation like other countries) we don’t know if we’re missing something good to see in the area as we pass through which is a real shame, but the things we have seen have been unusual and a little different.

One thing that is really, really strange. We went to a carpark and asked if we could park, the attendant shook his head and said “yes”, WHAT, “can we park here” again he shook his head and said yes, seeing the confused look on our faces gives us the thumbs up!. Apparently a nod means No and a shake of the head means Yes, bizarre and very confusing lol.

Although Bulgaria is cheap it turns out to be the most expensive country for us at at whopping £59.96 a day. Staying only 7 days we’ve moved on everyday the miles have racked up and we’ve had to take on board more fuel which is cheap but it all adds up. We’ve stocked up with cheap vodka, beer and wine and with the fridge defrosting we’ve had to stock up.

Monday 18 June

The campsite at Veliko Tărnovo was the most expensive we’ve stayed in for a while and to be honest wasn’t that great. We did treat ourselves to a full English before we left which was very tasty.

We use the last of our Bulgarian money to fill up with diesel and a bit of shopping with more cheap vodka before we head to the border crossing at Ruse. It’s a fairly easy drive and the roads are not too bad.

IMG_9325.JPG

The entry road to the border control is chaos, cars and and lorries all channelled on to a roundabout, some heading to the border control some just want to get by and get on with their day. Some poor guy is standing in the pouring rain trying to get some order from the horn honking impatient drivers, some coming the wrong way around the roundabout to get into or out of the queue, it’s mad.

20 minutes later we’re at the entry to the bridge the New Europe Bridge, previously known as the Danube Bridge. I get out to show our registration book for our ticket to cross over the bridge, our number plate causes an issue to the girl in the ticket booth who is talking to me with a fag hanging out her mouth, our letters are missing apparently, did we know! She eventually takes my money and gives me the ticket.

We pass the half way point on the bridge, we’re in Romania.

The only thing we know about Romania is Dracula and the Cheeky Girls were created/live here, Top Gear raced around the basement of the Palace of Parliament Building in Bucharest and considered the Transfagarasan Highway as the best road in the world.

As usual our registration number causes issues at the border and at the garage where we have to by the vignette. We go through the same old motions and eventually they understand.

We’re heading to a carpark in the center of the capital city Bucharest, it’s a guarded park for 50 lei for 24 hours about £10. It’s an easy drive and the scenery is fantastic.

IMG_9353.JPG

We enter the city right on rush hour, a bit of giggery pokery we nudge ourselves in the right lanes and find the carpark with out any problems. Park up and off we g to explore the city.

img_9381

Our first stop is a hairdressers that look like they might be okay. I’ve been dying to have my haircut for months Keith has been itching to have a go with the clippers and I nearly gave in. I had tried in Bulgaria to have it cut but each time they were not suitable or fully booked. Last time I had my hair cut was the 2nd November just before we went to Australia, I’ve usually had at least 3 cuts by this time.The salon is quite trendy and one of them speaks English. 1 hour later I’ve had wash, treatment, cut and blow dry. I’m feeling a million dollars. It cost 150lei £28 I wouldn’t get a haircut anywhere near that price at my usual hairdressers so I’m really pleased.

img_9402

A quick walk around the city and we decide to eat out. We head up to the eating part of the city which is buzzing with people, music and bars, everyone is trying to get you into their restaurant. We stopped to have a look at the menu and were literally pounced on by 3 girls all talking at once shoving their menus into our hands, we haven’t experienced this since we were in Turkey over 15 years ago. In the end we have to walk away from them so we could make our choice in peace and quiet.

After a lovely meal and a few drinks we head back to the carpark, it’s still very hot the dial is showing 35 degrees inside so we plug in the usb fan which doesn’t do that much to cool us down.

img_9421

img_9383

Tuesday 19 June

Our first impressions of Romania and Bucharest are good. The city has a good vibe to it and it’s a 2 minute walk from the carpark.

We have noticed a lot of begging, homeless people and drunks, something we haven’t seen on this trip. Most people here speak English and signs are mostly translated which is great for us.

10.30am we meet the guide for 2 1/2 hour Bucharest Free Walking Tour around the city. The city has amazing architecture the old and the new sitting side by side.

img_9452

We really enjoyed the tour hearing all about the revolution, living under communist law and the stories and myths about the city’s history and leaders and that the legend of a vampire Count living in the foothills of Transylvania stems from the real, bloody life of Vlad the Impaler, apparently!

IMG_9540

In a country where medieval buildings abound, thereʼs nothing medieval about the Palace of Parliament in the city. It’s a modern building that is considered the largest administrative building in the world. It took 20,000 workers, working around the clock, 13 years to build. The palace is a popular tourist attraction with visitors, but not so much with the locals since it was built by Romaniaʼs hated leader, Nicolae Ceaușescu. It’s construction was never finished and much of the interior remains empty after the regime change of 1989.

IMG_9401

We popped into a bookstore Carturesti Carusel considered to be the most beautiful bookstore in the world. There is huge array of books including an English section. It has a lovely tranquil atmosphere. It’s made good use of a beautiful building.

img_9510

When Bucharest faced a radical resigned in the 1980’s under the communist dictator Ceausecu, engineers moved complete buildings hundreds of meters in metal tracks to preserve the Romanian Capital’s architectural heritage.  This church was one such building that was moved.  It must have been startling to look out of your window and see a centuries old church go rolling by.

img_9427

Wednesday 20 June

For once we’re up early and battle our way out the city.

Sinia Ski Resort is situated within the Prahova Valley in the Bucegi Mountains. Not ever skied ourselves or ever likely to we wanted to take a ride on the gondola, really we wanted to go on the chair lift but these only go in the winter. We opted to go to the very top 2000 meters above sea level to the top of the mountain with a change in Gondola half way up. Lucky for us the weather has held although we can hear the rumble of thunder in the distance getting closer the view is clear. It’s a bit windy and the temperature is a cool 20 degrees up here. The view is amazing we can see 360 degrees all around. The photos from inside the Gondola are not that great because the windows are all scratched.

Next we head to Peles Castle. It doesnʼt have a history of sieges and warfare but it does have something other European castles donʼt spectacular beauty, sitting as it does on a Carpathian hillside. This Neo-Renaissance castle was built by King Carol I who vacationed here in the 1860s. Fairytale-like in appearance, itʼs considered one of the most stunning castles in Europe.

When we got back to where we’d parked Eugene Keith goes into the trees for a pee and sees evidence that bears really do exist in this area, claw marks on the trees. We’re told that the bears are often in the area but they are very shy and it’s unlikely that we will see one in the wild.

IMG_9697

Next we head to Bran Castle or commonly known as Dracula’s Castle which is often associated with Dracula as his home, though thereʼs no indication that author Bram Stoker even knew of this medieval castle. The castle, a Romanian landmark, has a fairy tale quality, peeking out from forested hillside near Brasov in Transylvania dating to the 13th century. We arrive a bit late to get into the grounds to take a closer look so have to take photos from the road.

IMG_9727.JPG

Along the road driving from place to place if the traffic starts to build up raspberry and blackberry sellers appear and wander amongst the cars trying to sell fruit from their baskets, they do look lovely but we haven’t yet had the opportunity to buy any yet, but I’m sure we will over the next few weeks.

Our free camping spot is in the Piatra Craiului National Park. Just as we arrive the thunder is right above us, the sky turned dark grey and soon turned into torrential rain which lasted for the next two hours. The park is home to numerous animals including bears, wolves and links. We’re feeling pretty confident that we won’t be eaten because our neighbors a couple of young French hikers are sleeping in a tent and they will be supper before us lol.

Thursday 21 June

We have a very quite night and in the morning our neighbours tell us they went out in the car after dark last night and saw a bear on the track a little further up from where we’re parked. They were very excited about it. Maybe next time for us.

We use our shower today, a little too cold for the solar shower and the river is just dirty muddy water gushing down through the park so we’ll give that a miss. We fill up with water at the nearby tap which is in full flow of very cold mountain spring water. We stop and have a chat to a group of English hikes who are keen to ask us questions about our trip and of course the number plate.

We’ve got a long drive today we want to get to the start of the Transfagarasan which itself is a 3 hour drive.  The scenery is stunning Romania certainly does have some beautiful houses, castles and open spaces.

We stop along the way at at truck stop for a traditional Romanian lunch, chips, a very large pork sausage and coleslaw.  For only £6 for the two of us with soft drinks it was delicious, although all afternoon we kept burping sausage lol.

We get to our stop for the night, Camping Dracula.  Its really a site for hikers or bikers as they offer small chalet/huts to sleep in.  There’s building work going on but it will do for us for tonight.

Friday 22 June

Our hiking neighbours staying in the huts kept us awake until 2am singing at the top of their voices.  We finally got some shut eye to be rudely awaken at 4am by the sound of an alarm.  The blady Carbon Monioxide alarm again!  This time it was pour gas, open all the windows and go back to sleep.

Once we wake up in the morning we realise the fridge isn’t working on gas, it should have shut the gas off but it doesn’t appear to have done so.  Keith with his ever handy bag of tools takes the grills off and sees that there’s water pouring out the back.  the water was probably from the defrosting earlier in the week and the circuit boards have got wet.  A quick fix and it works on 12v, that will do and we get on our way.

Our destination today is the Transfaragarasan Highway Keith would rather be doing this in a high performance car or even better a motorbike, but we are doing it in Eugene, 3.85 tons 7.5 meters long motorhome.  The highway stretches 90km in total and rises in altitude from 500 to 2200 meters above seal level.

Initially I’m not impressed there’s to many trees in the way to see whats behind.  The highway goes around the pristine Lake Vidraru  and over the Vidraru Dam and we get snatch shots of the lake and the mountains behind.

Once we’re away from the lake we navigate hairpin after hairpin, slowly beginning our ascent up the mountain, it is absolutely stunningly beautiful, now I can see what its all about.

We pass the showoffs in the Porche, Maserati and the big motorbikes.  We find ourselves on a small, two lane road with sheer drops on one side and postcard views all around.  We made our way through a very long and dark tunnel to the peek of the mountain.

At the peek of the mountain we reach Balea Lac, an oasis at the top of the mountain, if you exclude all of the touristy stalls set up along the road.  We parked up and I bought some cheese, a thin sausage and a ring of pretzels.

IMG_0014.JPG

After lunch it was time to go down, the sight that was revealed was breathtaking, this was going be fun, oh no we’re doing it in a motorhome lol.  The road angled downward severely, the corners becoming tighter and tighter as we made our way down.  We passed cyclists making their way up the road, they must be mad.

IMG_0036.JPG

Half way down and I can smell burning.  We stop on the road side, Keith thinks he’s left some paper towel mopping up the water in the fridge vent.  I get out with the camera to take some more photos and I nearly die.  There is smoke pouring out the front wheels.  “we’re on fire” Keith nearly jumped out the window to get outside “we’re not blady on fire” he shouts at me.  The brakes have had enough of the heavy braking.  We wait half an hour for them to cool down before we head off again.

IMG_0074.JPG

Our stop for the night is a camping site Camping Ould de Wilg in the small town of Cirta.

Hopefully we can get the fridge sorted and sort out the brake issue.

So far we are enjoying Romanian, not the rain though lol.

Please let us know if you enjoy this blog, catch up with us on Polar Steps, Facebook and Instagram.

a al perchoine

Shirena & Keith

xxx

 

You Might Also Like

  • Ali Benn June 23, 2018 at 7:50 pm

    Romania seems to have stolen your hearts – I feel as if I am there with you, your writing is to descriptive. Get the brakes checked and keep safe. xxx

  • Nikki June 24, 2018 at 9:38 am

    Wow Romania looks stunning. Rather you than me on that road with sheer drops, I’d be crying in the back of Eugene!!! Stay safe guys xxx