Hi All,
Arrived at the train station and found the train. We weren´t sure about which carriage was the correct one so had to show train staff. Turned out to be the one we were standing next to anyway. Didn´t take long to get into rural rumania with fields of corn and sunflowers and houses with ornate wooden carvings. The plains gave way to the tree covered carpatheum mountains following a river and the valley in between. It wasn´t completely perfect as there was a lot of rubbish in the waterway and often abandoned concrete buildings but the stunning mountains at least covered up most of the ugliness.
Had a slight problem with a man who wanted my seat claiming it was his but I wasn´t giving it up and an old romanian couple next to us confirmed the seat numbering. Still he wanted the window seat and looked grumpy for the rest of his journey before being relaced by a young Czech couple who spoke english and had just been walking in the moutains. I made the mistake of calling their country czechoslovakia and was quickly corrected .It is now Czech Republic with Slovakia have been given its own independence.
We pulled into Brasov and packed onto the local bus into the old town with the same Australian couple who we had met in Snagov. She had recently been on the trans siberian railway trip so provided a little information. Missed the bus stop but it wasn´t too far to walk back to the hotel. It truely must be a one star. The beds have bows in them like hammocks and the air was quite stale but it has the redeeming quality of being right in the heart of the old town and has been very convenient. The hostels were out of town and overpacked with people so I think we are better off.
Spent the afternoon exploring the old town. Lovely. Sure it is quite tired but it is really nice to walk around. The mountain is next to the outside wall and we took the cable car to the top and walked over to the hollywood like brasnov sign for a fabulous view before heading down to the town through the forest. Didn´t take long to find that Vanessa´s shoes didn´t grip well on the slippery rocks so we headed back up and caught the cable car back down.
We tend to try and find supermarkets soon after reaching towns. On our walk we found a carrefours sign near the outer wall of the old city so we followed the signs and followed and followed and followed. About 3km of sign following and still nothing so we gave up. We met the same Australian couple next day and they had walked to the supermarket and it was about 7km! I think perhaps the signs started a little early. We found another supermarket near the old city which also was near a market selling lots of fruit and vegetable. We stocked up at the supermarket and picked up a 5kg watermellon for later as well.
Next day. Headed off to famous Bran castle. The count dracula castle. Spoooooky. Not really. We headed out on the bus with storm grey clouds in the direction we were heading. They turned into rain by the time we got to Bran and we were caught out without either umbrellas or coats so after sheltering under a large tree decided to just get wet. The castle which is perched on a rocky outcrop had a really warm feel about it and we took our time wandering around before finding one of the many ladies selling baskets of blackberries and raspberries.We brought a small heaped basket of berries which we consumed with a toothpick.
We were going to go to Raznov to visit the fortified city but gave up with the rain. We went back to Brasov and walked the 3km back to the old town and found a nice park for lunch which typified what a park should be. Beautifully planned it had walkways with trees either side and beds of roses surronded by grass. There was a playground for children which was being well used and people walking. The were benches under the tree which were occupied by all ages. On the edge of the park were chess tables with old men playing, watching and arguing. The sun had come back so it was lovely and warm.
This area is know for its bear population so we were trying to find a tour to find some in the hills. We wandered to a hostel and found that they had a tour and it was cheap so we signed up for it to start at 9pm. It was getting late so we headed back to town for a quick vege pizza, grabbed some warm clothes and headed back to the hostel. We were with 5 others and a driver and had high expectations. Apparently they had a 90 percent success rate of seeing a bear and it was only over the next hill. We went over the next hill and went where suberbia and the woodlands met. The driver slowed and looked at the dumpsters which were along the road which divided these areas then chose a spot and parked. Hmmm. Not exactly what we had in mind. Smell a scan? we just sat and watched dumpsters and had just about had enough when the driver got excited and pointed out a bear at one of the dumpsters. Sure enough it had a white plastic bag of rubbish in its mouth and was heading back into the forest. It was remarkably quiet. We really didn´t get much of a look and it raised our enthusiasm. Not long after another bear turned up for a poke around the garbage before being scared off by a passing car. Unfortunately we didn´t manage to get any decent images and only have a little video clip. Odd. We were only 10m away from a wild bear with no protection yet our curiosity overcame our fear as we watched in amazement. This was the same area in which people were walking there dogs and just going about life. We saw no more bears and it was getting cool so we headed back to town.
Next day. Much better weather. Caught the bus out to Raznov. Impressive fortress with an unfortunate hollywood like sign just below it. The fortress is located well on the top of a steep hill. We wandered around for a while and it even came with free medieval dressed romanians then headed down through the forest with just a red squirrel to stop us for a while. Headed back to Basov for lunch then got some directions to visit the fortified church at prejmer which we found to be closed on mondays. If only we had asked the information person in Brasov whether it was closed after we asked for directions to get there. Seems the spanish mentality is here.You get the answer to your question without any further information. Well the view from the outside of the fortified church area was impressive anyway!
Tomorrow we head to Sinaia for some walking in the mountains.
Bye,
David and Vanessa
