Roadtrip

The train stopped so many times and we don't know why. They must have been scheduled though because we arrived on time.
Out we popped and straight into maccas - the only reliable place you can trust to be open at 6am.
Will was starving because we didn't have a proper dinner.
The look and thought of their breakfast menu made me feel ill so I skipped. I nibbled on Wills chips.

We caught a taxi to the airport and after an argument for the price down to 60 lei from 80. It should have been 30 ..
the problem is we can't really decide to get out and get a new taxi cause our stuff is in the boot and he could be a real ass about it which is better to just avoid.
He refused to use the meter because of the traffic - to be fair it was pretty bad lol.
Still, taxi drivers as a species are pooheads.
Made it and found our hire car place.
They decided they don't take debit only and credit cards yada yada so we had to upgrade to the top insurance . More money gone ... wahh.
Probably best though. Drivers be cray cray.

We had to take a shuttle bus out to our car. Nice little hatchback thing. It will do the trick.
I got the worker dude to write Peles castle into the gps because it decided it didn't like the English version - off we went!
They are fucking crazy. Cars just jump out of no where.
We drove for about an hour an a half to reach stop 1 - Peles castle.
We had to pay 15 lei for parking - boo and then walk up a hill - bigger boo

But wowey! Ok so it's more of a palace than a castle but Hooley Dooley! The most intricate and sublime design yet! A masterpiece.
It's really new though - it the summer residence of the first king and queen of Romanian which was late 1800's to early 1900's.
The castle has a bloody lift for heavens sake - not as authentic in age and "history" as the others but still - WOW.
So we decided to pay the 7€ each to see inside the first level but we skipped level 2.
Our basic tour (which was really hard to find because of the lack of signage) took us to the reception hall and maybe 10 of the 150+ rooms.
Beautiful beautiful beautiful.
It cost 8€ to take photos so I didn't. (Well not many 😝)
Made it back out and had to take off our shoe protectors we had to put on before entering.
We would have liked it better though if we didn't have to go around with the tour guide. 1. She was a bore and 2. She didn't say anything that interested us - only what countries things were made in and what style.
Only interesting piece of info was that the king and queen had 1 daughter who died when she was 4. They then adopted prince Ferdinand who became the 2nd king.

I told Will I want my library room in our future house to look the same as the palace one 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 easy peasy.. heh

The gardens were lovely too. Picturesque. I could just imagine people in gowns around the garden.

I bought some raspberries of a gypsy lady on the walk down the hill and they were yummy.
This section of Romania felt like Romania.. it was brown? Not dead but sort of like had the feeling of a ski resort? I doubt that makes sense but yeah. Loved it!

We then put Bran castle into the gps and off we went.

When we got there we had to find parking which was surprisingly easy.
We had lunch at a local inn there which Will really enjoyed. He got soup in a bread bowl.
We then had full bellies so we walked to the castle. This one didn't have the same option as the other one where you could just walk around the outside and not go in so we had to pay.
35 lei each and then We paid an extra 10 each to see the torture museum. We figured it's Draculas castle so what a good opp to see some gore.

So, the castle has been done up too much to have an old feel but it still had a lovely courtyard. Inside was mainly the set up from when some royals spent time there. In other rooms it had info on the creation of Dracula and pop culture.
It wasn't the best but we loved the torture section. We needed help finding it but oh lord. It had some terrifically horrific stuff. It was the most extensive collection I've seen in the one spot before.
There was one where they hold you upside down so all the blood goes to your head. They then spread your legs and saw you in half but because of your bloods location you stay conscious and alive for a long time.
The spiked mummy sarcophagus thing was gruesome. Ive seen it in so many movies but never one in life. It could take 3 days to die inside 😐😐😐😐😐
All the items had great English explanations next to them so that was awesome.
We then left the castle and went around the side to take some Dracula pics 🤓😎

The torture museum, not the castle was worth the $$

We then drove to Brasov to the hostel - we got so lucky with parking! Near miracle but we got one for free!!!!! 😋
We left our big bags in the car and only took our small backpacks.
We checked In and put stuff in our locker before we walked around and went to the supermarket.
We went past the black church, through the main square and saw the Brasov Hollywood sign. The main square is actually really really nice. Brasov has an old great feeling. I can't really figure out why I like places and dislike others but this was a great spot.

We weren't hungry so we went back to the hostel before going back out for dinner later.
There were 2 Aussies we talked to and got some tips for Montenegro and France from.

We took our shoes off and stuffed then immediately in the locker because they smelt SO BAD!!!!!!!!🤢😷😷 it's because they got wet the other day.

We booked our hostel for Turkey and are going to stay 4 nights instead of 3 because the difference in flights to Serbia differed by $200 for one day.

Unfortunately as it would turn out... Istanbul has 2 airports and we are flying into the one that's far away.
We are going f to get a private pick up for 60€ because the shuttle bus doesn't take us the whole way and is 20€ p.p 😒😒😒😒😒😒😒😒😒
Stupid turkey. Lol
My bad .... again. Lol
I triple checked Serbia before booking - they only have the one airport lol.
We have booked a Bnb for 7 nights because we can pull put head in and try save and Emily from work is also going to be there 😁😁😁

We both showered because we stunk haha
Our room was super spacious and our beds comfy :)Read more