Travel day one
April 22 in Turkey ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C
Flight from Seattle to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Istanbul. Stayed in same airport hotel as previous trip.
Travel day two
April 24 in Romania ⋅ 🌙 11 °C
Short flight from Istanbul to Bucharest. Settled into Airbnb, lunch, grocery shopping, then we conked out.
Walking tour
April 25 in Romania ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C
Started our day with a great walking tour. Then lunch, and a siesta.
Springtime park and villages museum
April 26 in Romania ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
We took a bus across town to the Herastrau Park, and took a long walk up the lake. It was a beautiful spring Saturday, and tons of locals were out walking, running, biking, etc. Reminded us a littleRead more
Museums
April 27 in Romania ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C
Went to the history museum, it was in a very cool old building, the museum itself was a bit underwhelming (we had been warned). Then into the Communist museum to learn more about life during that eraRead more
Chill day
April 28 in Romania ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C
Spent the morning travel planning, then headed to the popular restaurant of Caru cu Bere. Beautiful interior and good food (definitely a splurge for us).
After lunch we walked along the canal andRead more
More parks
April 29 in Romania ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
Another morning of travel booking. Then we metro'd up to the bus station we'll be departing from in a few days, but weren't able to buy tickets.
Then we meandered through the botanical gardens,Read more
Museums
April 30 in Romania ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C
Went to the national museum of art.
Bus to Sibiu
May 1 in Romania ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C
5 hour bus ride to Sibiu, through the Carpathian mountains. Long but pretty
Lively Sibiu
May 1–6 in Romania ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C
Enjoying this charming town. We've taken a walking tour, seen churches and museums, eaten on the many squares and plazas.
Travel day
May 6 in Romania ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C
Lazy morning, then a walk to the train station. Easy boarding to our train to brasov. We took the 4-hour slooow train (the timing was better) so we stopped in every Hamlet. It was fine except theRead more
Getting to know Brasov
May 7 in Romania ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C
Started the day with a walking tour of the town. Very enjoyable. We then had lunch, then hit up the city history museum.
Bran castle
May 8 in Romania ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C
Picked up a rental car mid-morning, then headed up to Bran castle. I had low expectations, and it was way better then that! Fully enjoyed it. Then we headed to Rasnov for lunch. What a sleepy town! WeRead more
Peles castle
May 9 in Romania ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C
Drive up into the Carpathian mountains to see the wonderful peles castle.
Chill out day
May 10 in Romania ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C
Lazy day, finished booking new Zealand travel
Train to Bucharest
May 11 in Romania ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
Decided to make our travel lives easier. Took a midday train to Bucharest, metro to our IHG (free room night)
Trains to Bulgaria
May 12 in Bulgaria ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C
We left our Bucharest hotel at 8:30, and backtracked on the metro back to Gare de Nord, as we had to pick up our international train tix a bit earlier than our 10am train.
Train ride was uneventfulRead more
Enjoying Plovdiv
May 14–21 in Bulgaria ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C
Great town! Day one we did a walking tour. In the following days we also saw the ethnography museum, the bishops basilica with amazing mosaics, we hiked up to the "monument to the Soviet soldier",Read more
Train day
May 21 in Bulgaria ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C
~3 hour train ride to Sofia. Then taxi to our cute Airbnb. As is our routine, unpack and get settled, find a grocery store for provisions, relax for a bit on our back balcony. Then out to find dinner.
Walking tour
May 22 in Bulgaria ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
Great morning walking tour of the main town. Always a great way to get oriented.
Rila monastery
May 23 in Bulgaria ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C
Day tour to the fantastic Rila monastery, as well as the bayana church.
Town meander
May 24 in Bulgaria ⋅ 🌧 12 °C
Today is the national holiday celebrating the professors and their students that created the Cyrillic alphabet, it's a big claim to fame here in Bulgaria. We walked by some festival streets, andRead more
Rainy Sunday
May 25 in Bulgaria ⋅ 🌧 10 °C
It's raining heavy and not predicted to get above 48*. So much for escaping Seattle's chilly spring.
We spent the morning chilling, reading, travel planning, then decided to go back to the nationalRead more
Tromp thru the woods
May 26 in Bulgaria ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C
Rain dissipated this morning, so we went for a long ramble. Started in a park near our apartment, then continued about 5 miles through the woods (toward the zoo). We some people, but fewer and fewerRead more
Churches and museums
May 27 in Bulgaria ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C
Last day in Sofia. We wandered to a cool looking blue and gold church, but no pictures allowed.
We then went to the regional History museum which had a nice bit of everything.
Then we grabbedRead more


















































































