Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 15:49:16 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: 3 days, 3 cities... 2 of them superb! (another long email, but no ranting, I promise...)
yow napot, (practicing my hungarian now, at least phonetically)
Been through a lot in the last 3 days, I'll start with my first "real"
sightseeing day of this trip: Monday May 28..
Originally I was thinking about going to the town of Sighisoara, Romania. It's
in the heart of Transylvania, an old medieval city that still has a lot of that
"charm" left over, with mountains all around.. Well, I didn't realize that
Bucharest metro trains run every 10-15 minutes, even during rush hour. I got to
the train station 5 minutes before the train to Sighisoara was supposed to
depart. By the time I stood in line to buy a seat reservation (needed in
Romania even with eurail pass), the train had already left. So I got a ticket
for the "other" medieval town of Brasov.
Brasov, among other things, is the gateway to Transylvania. A short bus ride
away is Bran Castle, which was one of the residences of the Dark Count
himself.. Unfortunately the castle is closed on Monday -- everything worth
seeing in Romania (and for that matter, Hungary), is closed on Mondays. So I
didn't go to Dracula's castle.
After reaching Brasov (160km/2.5 hours train ride from Bucharest), I spent the
day walking around the old town. Its a lot like St Gilgen near Salzburg, or
like Brugges, Belgium (except for the chocolate truffles). The buildings are
all painted in various bright colors, and the streets are narrow and
cobblestoned.. The same kind of "charm" I was looking for in Bucharest without
finding it. There is also a funicular that goes up a mountain for views of the
town, but of course, this being Monday, that was closed too. So I didn't go
there either!
By now you're probably thinking "WHAT DID YOU DO?" .. Well, I did follow the
advice of a co-worker who passed away recently: "Eat Everything". I've actually
been following that quite often this trip. The chicken schnitzel was ok,
could've used some bbq sauce, but it was still good. The views from the
restaurant terrace were fantastic.
Brasov was a beautiful city -- I spent the day roaming around there, then took
the train back to Bucharest in the evening.
One thing about Romanian trains... dont go on them!! The morning train once
again reminded me of India -- right down to that smell of urine inside all the
coaches! Well, I think Romania is the closest closest country to India that
I've been to so far..
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| May 25-27 | Contents | May 29 |