• Darren and Janet

Bulgaria & Romania 2019

Et 29-dagers eventyr av Darren and Janet Les mer
  • Vlad's real castle... just up that hill

    9. juni 2019, Romania ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    We headed south today, down the Olt River Valley Road, stopping at Cozia Monastery on the way. Being Sunday morning the church and grounds were very popular, especially as it's also a pilgrimage site for Romanians as Mircea the Elder (Vlad Tepes' grandfather) is buried there. Vlad and Mircea were both leaders of the Wallachia Region, although Vlad is now more connected to neighbouring Transylvania via the Dracula stories.

    We were also scheduled to visit Vlad the Impaler's real castle (Poienari Citadel), which can only be accessed up 1480 steps through the forest, but it's currently closed due to recent bear attacks. So we just viewed it from below...

    We then drove along the southern section of the Transfagarasan Road (not the famous bit) to Vidraru Dam, before heading to Curtea de Arges, the former capital of Wallachia, and visited the cathedral where the last 4 kings of Romania are buried (the last King of Romania, Michael I abdicated in 1947 when the communists took control, and died in 2017)

    After a walk around town we had a farewell dinner with Gabriel before our tour ends tomorrow.
    Les mer

  • Back to Bucharest

    10. juni 2019, Romania ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    It's the final day of our Romania tour, so we departed Curtea de Arges at 9am in order to arrive in Bucharest around lunch and avoid the afternoon traffic.

    Gabriel dropped us at our hotel in the city centre, and we went for a walk in search of lunch and caches. We found the former at a lunch bar packed with locals, so we figured it must be good. We took ours to the park and enjoyed it amongst the pigeons and a team of gardeners sprucing up the park ready for summer.

    The caching took us to the Holocaust Memorial, commemorating the lives of Romanian Jews who died in the Holocaust, and acknowledges Romania's role.

    There are numerous abandoned buildings across town, the two most striking occupy an entire city block and were under construction when Communism ceased, and haven't been touched since 1989.

    Dinner was at the oldest beer house in Bucharest, Caru cu Bere, which has at least 100 tables and was booked out later in the evening (Romanians generally eat tea from 8pm, so we could have a table for 1 hour). It has a striking wood and stained glass interior and is popular with tourists and locals alike... the Communist style service fell somewhere between amusing and offensive - perhaps that's part of it's attraction!
    Les mer

  • Bucharest backstreets

    11. juni 2019, Romania ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    We spent the day walking the backstreets in the south of the city, discovering more great street art, parks, palaces, churches and abandoned buildings. And finding caches of course (including a First to Find on a newly published cache).

    We had a coffee break in a cafe opposite what was to be the Academy of Art and Literature, which was under construction before it was abandoned in 1989. New apartments now adjoin it on both sides.

    We also visited Xenofon Street, a narrow street of steps that was one of the most visited streets in Bucharest because of the painted waterfall cascading from top to bottom. It is now in such a state of decay that it is barely recognisable - we were there in search of a cache, but we chatted to an American tourist who made a special trip across town to see it! She was so disappointed! You can see what it used to look like at https://www.trover.com/d/1EMhz-strada-xenofon-b…
    Les mer

  • Big British Bucharest Quiz

    12. juni 2019, Romania ⋅ 🌫 30 °C

    Our last full day in Romania was the hottest of the whole trip, with 32 degrees forecast.

    We left the hotel about 9am for a walk to the east of the city. We bought some apricots from a street seller and continued through the backstreets until we reached the Fireman's Tower. Originally designed as a fire lookout tower and water storage, it was never used for the latter because there were no pumps in the country strong enough to pump the water up, so it was used as lookout tower until the buildings around it got taller and blocked the view.

    We had tea in the old town, before attending the Big British Bucharest Quiz Night, Europe's largest quiz night, held every fortnight. It's held over 2 floors in an old town bar, with big screen and cameras used to relay the action upstairs. There were 37 tables competing (200 attendees). As I'd emailed the quiz master to register our attendance, he gave us a goodie basket of Romanian souvenirs and included a number of Australian questions... which thankfully we got correct! We were a table of 3, with Marina, the host's girlfriend... and we finished 10th overall !☺
    Les mer

    Reisens slutt
    14. juni 2019