Scotland, Faroes, Romania 2024

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Scotland, Faroes, Romania 2024 Darren and Janet
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SCO to RO
31 мая 2024 г., Румыния ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
Early morning wake-up for our flight to Romania. We left the hotel at 6am with a breakfast bag in hand and walked to catch the airport bus.

We flew to Bucharest via Amsterdam, arriving at 5.20pm.

Marina arranged an Uber to collect us, and we arrived at her apartment around 6.30pm.

It's a warm evening and the outdoor dining scene is popular in Bucharest, so we walked to dinner around 8.30pm.

The restaurant was crowded with families and groups enjoying the balmy evening, and we had a relaxed dinner, then walked back to her apartment via a couple of caches... which included Marina's first find!Читать далее
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John Kalaitzis Looks rather yum!
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Путешественник 👏👏
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Scotland, Faroes, Romania 2024 Darren and Janet
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Children's Day
1 июня 2024 г., Румыния ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C
We woke up to a warm day for the first day of summer, with 33 degrees forecast. It's also International Children's Day and a public holiday in Romania.

We walked into the city centre, where many of the streets were closed and were filled with cafe tables, children's games and activities. Of course we stopped on the way for morning tea, lunch and caches.

After having ice creams in the park, we caught an Uber back to Marina's and had dinner in, before watching the UEFA Champions League final on TV.Читать далее
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John Kalaitzis Tell us about the potato. What is it supposed to represent? That's not a crown group casino in the background is it?
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Darren and JanetIt's actually called The Memorial of Rebirth, but none of the locals can tell you that, they just call it the potato. It's supposed to represent the struggle and victims of the 1989 revolution to overthrow communism.
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John KalaitzisI like it!
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Scotland, Faroes, Romania 2024 Darren and Janet
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Casa Ceausescu
2 июня 2024 г., Румыния ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C
Today we toured Casa Ceausescu, also known as the Spring Palace, which was the Bucharest residence of the leader of the Communist Party. It was most notably the home of Nicolae Ceausescu and his family from 1965 until he was overthrown in 1989, so is generally referred to as the Ceausescu House.

In a country where most residents had no electricity or running water, it was an opulent house, with an indoor swimming pool, cinema room, sauna, hair salon and a golden bathroom - the rumour at the time was that the bathroom was solid gold, and while it is gold in colour, the guide told us is all gold plating and contains next to no actual gold (no photos are permitted inside, so we can't share any of the gaudy details)

Late lunch was at an outdoor terrace restaurant, and our first serving of papanasi, the national dessert.Читать далее
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John Kalaitzis Remind me, what does it consist of? I'm sure it's not a baked potato with a meatball in yogurt and caramel syrup, as it looks to my eye?
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Darren and JanetYours sounds very unattractive! This one is a fried donut made with a sweet cheese dough, served with sour cream and blueberry jam (and the hole on top).
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John KalaitzisOf course, now that you say that, I can see it...😂
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Scotland, Faroes, Romania 2024 Darren and Janet
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Bucharest Old Town
3 июня 2024 г., Румыния ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C
We caught the underground Metro to the city this morning for a walk around the cobbled, car free streets of the Old Town, a mix of restaurants, nightclubs, ancient churches and historic buildings. And a decent number of caches.

The weather was fine and hot again, so the walk was leisurely and the refreshment stops numerous. After a few hours walking and lunch al fresco, we caught the underground in the late afternoon back to Marina's, for a quiet night in.Читать далее
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John Kalaitzis Ooh, fancy....
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John Kalaitzis And the distance from here to its equivalent in Edinburgh is?
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John Kalaitzis Wonderful
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Scotland, Faroes, Romania 2024 Darren and Janet
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Park'n'Shop
4 июня 2024 г., Румыния ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
We caught the underground again today, this time south of the city to Vacaresti Nature Park, which is a wetlands surrounding Lake Văcărești.

The area was part of a large swampy area on the outskirts of Bucharest that was drained by the Communist Party and apartment blocks built at one end. President Ceaușescu wanted to build a reservoir which was supposed to be filled from Mihăilești Lake, 22 kilometres away, and a concrete dam was built to surround Lake Văcărești.

The plans were abandoned when communism fell in 1989 and the area was neglected. Due to the area being unused for such long time, plant-life and wildlife flourished and the biodiversity is now considered to be comparable to that of a small river delta. There are now a number of bird hides and walking trails in the park.

After lunch at a nearby cafe we caught the underground back to the north of the city, stopping at the shopping mall for some supplies and afternoon tea, before walking back to Marina's.Читать далее
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John Kalaitzis Incredible that this exists in a sizeable city and all because of an accident of history?
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Daniel Williams Dam, they were expecting a lot of water then
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Scotland, Faroes, Romania 2024 Darren and Janet
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The People's House
5 июня 2024 г., Румыния ⋅ ☁️ 32 °C
Today we did a guided tour of the Palace of the Parliament (aka House of the Republic aka The People's House), the seat of the Romanian Parliament. It is on Unity Boulevard, originally named Triumph of Socialism Boulevard.

It was ordered built by Communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and built by displacing 50,000 citizens and demolishing their homes in the 1980's (no compensation was offered).

It is the heaviest building in the world, containing 1,100 rooms, 10 stories above ground, and 8 below, including a nuclear bunker under Ceausescu's former office. If you visited one room every thirty seconds it would take you 9 hours to visit them all.

After our visit we walked into Unity Plaza for lunch, then home on the underground. The underground system is efficient and reliable - and cheap, a single journey to anywhere on the network is $1.Читать далее
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John Kalaitzis Amazing building
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Darren and JanetIt certainly is. But still not popular with the locals ... he spent 5 years of the country's GDP to build it (estimated at over 6 billion Euro), and put the people through misery to try and pay it back....
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John KalaitzisYes, he didn't win any popularity contests
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Scotland, Faroes, Romania 2024 Darren and Janet
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Train to the seaside
6 июня 2024 г., Румыния ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
An early start for everyone today. Marina is travelling to Belgium to play in a corporate touch rugby tournament, and we're catching the train to Constanța, on the Black Sea Coast.

After a pleasant 2.5 hour journey, we arrived in Constanța at 1pm and walked to the centre of town via a number of caches.

Constanța is Romania's oldest continuously inhabited city (founded 300BC), and the largest port on the Black Sea, and our hotel is in the centre of the Old Town.

In the afternoon, we were having a lovely walk around the old town when a summer thunderstorm struck. We took shelter in a building entrance and stayed there for an hour until the rain stopped.

After a change of clothes at our hotel we had dinner in one of the many alfresco eateries in the main plaza, followed by our farewell papanași.Читать далее
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John Kalaitzis I'm glad you think it's magnificent. It certainly looks it. I love the curtains neatly tied up and the Romanian flags in the window. A nice touch.
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John Kalaitzis The canopy out the front looks like a recent ill-thought add-on, but the rest of the building looks magnificent.
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Darren and JanetYes, agreed, that's out of place
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Scotland, Faroes, Romania 2024 Darren and Janet
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The Casino and the Telegondola
7 июня 2024 г., Румыния ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C
We continued our walk around the Old Town this morning, finishing at the Constanța Casino, on the waterfront.

Completed in 1910, the casino was bombed in both world wars (because of its proximity to the harbour), then transformed into a cultural house, restaurant and tourist office before finally being abandoned in 1990. Since 2019 it has been undergoing restoration, due to open again later this year.

Mamaia is a summer beach resort destination, with only a handful of permanent residents staying there over winter.

Mamaia lies on a strip of land 8 km long and only 300 m wide, between the Black Sea and Lake Siutghiol. As it is very early in the season, most attractions and restaurants were closed... but some look like they have been closed for many years, so it would be interesting to see the town at the height of summer.

We caught the telegondola back to the southern end of Mamaia, then an Uber to the train station.

Our train back to Bucharest departed on time, but we stopped with an engine problem about 10 minutes down the track. The engine was unhooked and a replacement arrived about an hour later and we were on our way again.

We caught the underground back to Marina's for a quiet night in, packing bags ready for our flight tomorrow.Читать далее
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John Kalaitzis I'm glad they're restoring this. An impressive looking building
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John Kalaitzis Chernobyl-esque
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John Kalaitzis There can't be too many of these around the world in an urban setting. About time Mt Lofty had one 😂
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Darren and Janet🤣🤣
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Scotland, Faroes, Romania 2024 Darren and Janet
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Transit to Austria
8 июня 2024 г., Австрия ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C
Today was mostly a day of travel, departing Bucharest around midday for Munich.

After a long wait for our luggage we caught the train into the city centre (45 minutes), and transferred to our train to Salzburg with minutes to spare.

We arrived in Salzburg at 5pm, checked into our hotel and went for a walk.

We started at Mirabell Gardens and Schloss Mirabell, scene of some classic moments in The Sound of Music. It's also home to the Zwergerlgarten, 28 dwarfs carved in marble in 1695... and would you believe, "the oldest dwarf garden in Europe" (I'm surprised there's more than one!)

Again our walk was cut short by an afternoon thunderstorm, so we took shelter in a restaurant and enjoyed a schnitzel and spätzle (egg noodles) for dinner.Читать далее
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John KalaitzisSeeing as you asked, I did some research on gnome gardens. The largest gnome is in Iowa but largest collection of gnomes according to AO, is in North Devon, England. Is it technically a garden? It isn't specific but it's still technically in Europe. I never knew there was so much to uncover with gnomes. Thank you
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Darren and Janet🤣🤣 I'm not sure it's a garden at all! But Austria are claiming it! (I can't see it affecting diplomatic relations)
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John Kalaitzis These gnomes are a bit more substantial than the North Devon ones :)
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Scotland, Faroes, Romania 2024 Darren and Janet
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Mozart's Houses... and a fortress
9 июня 2024 г., Австрия ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
We were up and about early today, starting our walk where we left off yesterday, in Mirabell Gardens. First stop out the other end of the park was the first Mozart house of the day, the one where he lived as a child. After a short tour of the house, we had strudel and coffee in the outdoor cafe next door and watched the world go by.

Crossing the fast flowing Salzach River via one of the many pedestrian bridges, we made our way into the picturesque streets of the old town. As it was Sunday, most of the shops were closed, but the cobbled streets were busy with tourists and locals alike.

Our second Mozart house was the one where he was born, and another self guided tour.

Lunch was at a hole in the wall Balkan Grill - we were reading about the cult status of the grill, hidden away in a back alley, and noticed a queue had already started forming, so of course we joined it!

After lunch we caught the funicular up the hill to Hohensalzburg Fortress, the 11th century fortress overlooking the city. At 250m long and 150m wide it's one of the largest and best preserved medieval castles in Europe.

We meandered back the our hotel via the riverfront path, and had tea at the same restaurant as last night. As we were eating, the rain came down, luckily for the first time of the day!Читать далее
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John Kalaitzis Is this perception and angles or is the ceiling really low?
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Darren and JanetProbably perception, it was a couple of steps down into the kitchen
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John Kalaitzis I like it. Whilst it looks very modern, I'm guessing it was built in a less enlightened time when it was thought OK to punch a hole through a medieval fortress wall for touristic enablement?
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Darren and JanetYes, the line was built in 1892, the current cars are from 2011
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Scotland, Faroes, Romania 2024 Darren and Janet
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View of the clouds
10 июня 2024 г., Австрия ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C
Our plan for the final day in Salzburg is riding the cable car to the top of Untersberg. If only the weather was in on the plan!

We caught the local bus to the base station, arriving just before 10am . The cable car ascends 1,320m in 8 minutes, and on a clear day, the top has 360 degree views for many kilometres. Low cloud today meant we had zero view ☹️

We had a coffee, then caught the next ride down, and back on the local bus, getting off near the Old Town. In drizzly rain, we discovered some streets and squares we hadn't seen yesterday, has some pretzels for lunch, then made our way to the train station.

We booked the fast, comfortable train to Munich, but it turned out to be neither. It was so crowded there were people standing for the entire 2.5 hour journey. Oliver got a seat and I went for a walk to see if other carriages were any better. They were all the same, so I sat in the corridor between carriages for most of the trip, with 2 other people.

Our hotel in Munich is near the train station, so we dropped our bags and went for a walk. Dinner was traditional German fare at the Lowenbrau Brewery Beer Garden.

We're flying home tomorrow, with a short transfer in Singapore, then overnight in Melbourne before a domestic flight home on Thursday.Читать далее
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John Kalaitzis Oh nice!
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John Kalaitzis Very reminiscent of our Blue Mountains trip last month
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Darren and Janet😁 yep, you can only take what the weather serves up!
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Окончание поездки
13 июня 2024 г.