Romania
Firstly Bucharest is crap! If you ever have the chance to go there do yourself a favour and don't take it.
What can I say about it? Hmmm, they don't seem to want tourists there. It's a city of 2 million people and they can't be bothered to put in a tourists information centre. Although maybe I can understand why cause all the people who worked there would have to do is say "leave now and head to your next destination". The hostel I stayed at was also bollocks (expensive bollocks though).
A few years ago Romania had a dictator called Nicholae Ceausescu who cared more for the appearance of his country than he did for the people of his country. He also had a thing for Paris as far as I could gather. He built a Arc de Triumph just like Paris' and he built an imitation Champs Elysee (only he built it 6 metres longer than the French one). In order to build it he had to bulldoze 20% of Bucharest which left 70,000 people homeless but that didn't matter cause they had their Champs Elysee. I don't think it was actually finished before he was overthrown so it's mostly one big wasteground around it from what I could see.
He also spent a heap of money building the 'Palace of Parliament'. Which is just that: a palace where the government worked. It is a huge building and very grand. I took a tour of it and every thing was made of marble with gold plating. To finance it Ceausescu had to export all the food his country produced which meant that his own people starved but that didn't matter cause he had a beautiful building. It was finished either when he was overthrown but has been now.
Anyway Ceasescu was overthrown in 1989 and executed by firing squad on christmas day - Merry Christmas to you too!
There really wasn't much to see in Bucharest. I spent a day wandering around fairly aimlessly and then caught a train out of there first thing next morning.
I headed to Brasov, Transylvania for some Dracula spotting so I made sure to turn my fangdar up to high before leaving. Brasov itself was a fun little town with a great atmosphere. I walked up the hill next to the town which had great views looking down. I also went to Bran Castle (which for some reason is associated with Dracula even though he never went there). It was cool castle to look at from the outside but nothing special on the inside. I also went to Rasnov fortress nearby - I ate my lunch at the top with the most amazing views of the green trees of the forests and snow capped mountains in the background. Unfortunately my lunch (of peanut butter sandwiches) wasn't the most amazing lunch I've even eaten.
The fortress was a bit ruined now but there were still some buildings intact. One of the towers in a corner even had one of those cages you see in movies where people are put in to starve to death. There wasn't a skeleton in it when I was there but it may well have been used at some stage.
My last stop in Sighisoara was good too. There wasn't too much to see in the city, but it was nice to wander through. There were a bunch of other people at the hostel and we ended up playing ping pong for most of the afternoon and then had a few beers in the basement. The lady who worked there had more than a few beers. She was hilarious, I guess she was about 30 - 35 and spoke broken english. When she was pissed her favourite thing to say was "Shut the fuck off!" which is great cause it combines "Shut the fuck up" and "Fuck off" in one easy phrase. Look out for it in a drunken Romanian pub near you.
From there I had a 10.5 hour train trip to Budapest. At one stage there were so many gypsies coming into my compartment demanding money that I had to lock myself in to get away from them all. Before I locked the door there was one that just couldn't comprehend that I didn't want to give him any money. When I said no he started looking at me like he wanted to kill me, his eyes flared up and he looked really angry, I think he was looking around for something to bludgeon me to death with, but I stayed cool and stared him down and eventually he left with his tail between his legs knowing never to mess with an Australian again.
Now it's Friday night and I'm in Budapest and I really wanted to go out for a beer but no money exchange places were open. I spent an hour and a half walking around the city and didn't see one - I did see a bit of the city though.
I've only been here 4 hours now but I think I might be in love with Budapest. So far it's amazing. I've already started thinking about which parts of my trip I can skip so I can stay here a couple of extra days.
Well, that's all from me for now, I will try to upload a few more Bulgaria photos and some from Romania too in the next couple of days.
As they say in France, Au revoir!!
What can I say about it? Hmmm, they don't seem to want tourists there. It's a city of 2 million people and they can't be bothered to put in a tourists information centre. Although maybe I can understand why cause all the people who worked there would have to do is say "leave now and head to your next destination". The hostel I stayed at was also bollocks (expensive bollocks though).
A few years ago Romania had a dictator called Nicholae Ceausescu who cared more for the appearance of his country than he did for the people of his country. He also had a thing for Paris as far as I could gather. He built a Arc de Triumph just like Paris' and he built an imitation Champs Elysee (only he built it 6 metres longer than the French one). In order to build it he had to bulldoze 20% of Bucharest which left 70,000 people homeless but that didn't matter cause they had their Champs Elysee. I don't think it was actually finished before he was overthrown so it's mostly one big wasteground around it from what I could see.
He also spent a heap of money building the 'Palace of Parliament'. Which is just that: a palace where the government worked. It is a huge building and very grand. I took a tour of it and every thing was made of marble with gold plating. To finance it Ceausescu had to export all the food his country produced which meant that his own people starved but that didn't matter cause he had a beautiful building. It was finished either when he was overthrown but has been now.
Anyway Ceasescu was overthrown in 1989 and executed by firing squad on christmas day - Merry Christmas to you too!
There really wasn't much to see in Bucharest. I spent a day wandering around fairly aimlessly and then caught a train out of there first thing next morning.
I headed to Brasov, Transylvania for some Dracula spotting so I made sure to turn my fangdar up to high before leaving. Brasov itself was a fun little town with a great atmosphere. I walked up the hill next to the town which had great views looking down. I also went to Bran Castle (which for some reason is associated with Dracula even though he never went there). It was cool castle to look at from the outside but nothing special on the inside. I also went to Rasnov fortress nearby - I ate my lunch at the top with the most amazing views of the green trees of the forests and snow capped mountains in the background. Unfortunately my lunch (of peanut butter sandwiches) wasn't the most amazing lunch I've even eaten.
The fortress was a bit ruined now but there were still some buildings intact. One of the towers in a corner even had one of those cages you see in movies where people are put in to starve to death. There wasn't a skeleton in it when I was there but it may well have been used at some stage.
My last stop in Sighisoara was good too. There wasn't too much to see in the city, but it was nice to wander through. There were a bunch of other people at the hostel and we ended up playing ping pong for most of the afternoon and then had a few beers in the basement. The lady who worked there had more than a few beers. She was hilarious, I guess she was about 30 - 35 and spoke broken english. When she was pissed her favourite thing to say was "Shut the fuck off!" which is great cause it combines "Shut the fuck up" and "Fuck off" in one easy phrase. Look out for it in a drunken Romanian pub near you.
From there I had a 10.5 hour train trip to Budapest. At one stage there were so many gypsies coming into my compartment demanding money that I had to lock myself in to get away from them all. Before I locked the door there was one that just couldn't comprehend that I didn't want to give him any money. When I said no he started looking at me like he wanted to kill me, his eyes flared up and he looked really angry, I think he was looking around for something to bludgeon me to death with, but I stayed cool and stared him down and eventually he left with his tail between his legs knowing never to mess with an Australian again.
Now it's Friday night and I'm in Budapest and I really wanted to go out for a beer but no money exchange places were open. I spent an hour and a half walking around the city and didn't see one - I did see a bit of the city though.
I've only been here 4 hours now but I think I might be in love with Budapest. So far it's amazing. I've already started thinking about which parts of my trip I can skip so I can stay here a couple of extra days.
Well, that's all from me for now, I will try to upload a few more Bulgaria photos and some from Romania too in the next couple of days.
As they say in France, Au revoir!!
posted by pete @ 7:30 AM
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