Romania

With the Halloween spirit on everyone’s mind, I started my adventure to Romania. With Mario having already visited Romania, I joined a group for a few days of exploring the land of Dracula. Romania makes European country # 20!

I took an early morning flight out of Frankfurt with my fellow travelers heading towards Romania’s capital city of Bucharest. From the airport we headed towards our hotel which was located in the city of Brasov which was about 3 hrs from the airport. When we arrived at our hotel, I discovered I scored my own room. I normally don’t pay for single supplements and normally get a roommate. There were 2 single travelers besides me, one being a male and the other one was a female which had paid for single supplements. This hotel we would be staying for 3 nights, making it our hub.

The currency is Roman lei/ lay which is 3 lei to $1 USD. The coolest part is the dollars are plastic. 

After resting for a bit we had dinner at the restaurant at our hotel.  Dinner was; Cauliflower soup with bread, Fish with rice and mushroom like risotto and for dessert a Black Forest tasting cake.

The next day, we headed towards the city of Sighisoara. While there we explored the church on the hill, the clock tower and saw the birthplace of Dracula. 

We were given some free time for lunch. I headed to Hotel Sighisoara along with a few people from my group. I wanted to try the bean soup in a bread bowl.
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On the way back to the hotel, we stopped for a bathroom break at Rupea Citadel, a 14th century castle.

Throughout the trip we learned about the history of Romania. Our tour guide Vlad was awesome! We learned how the author of Dracula did research and pieces together different bits of information to create the character of Dracula. Also learned that Princess Ileana daughter of Queen Marie of Romania spent time in both Ellwood City, Pennsylvania and Youngstown, Ohio. I have family in Ellwood City and grew up near Youngstown, Ohio, talk about making a connection to home.

It was also interesting driving around and seeing the communist feel that is still there after all these years. This is my first eastern European country and it does have a different feel that the western cities I have visited.
After resting at the hotel for a little bit, we boarded the bus again and headed towards our dinner which was a theme dinner. The restaurant has a lodge feel to it. Dinner included; Cheese and meat platter, venison and boar with mash potatoes and donut dessert with yogurt

The next day,  we headed into Braşov. Our first stop was a church inside fortress walls. In case of danger the towns people would come and stay. They would have already packed chest with belongings which would be stored in the church. 

From there we headed into old town and did a small walking tour. Then we had some free time. So I visited black church, which is called that cause of the fires that burned the outside. Sadly I couldn’t take pictures. Then did lunch and walked to the cable car in hopes to ride it to the top. However the line was super long and it was close to our departure time, so I walked around instead.

From there we headed back to the hotel to prepare for the Halloween party at Bran Dracula’s Castle. We had dinner at hotel before heading to the castle. We got our wristbands and stood in a long line in the windy and cold weather to tour the castle. After touring the castle, we headed to the Halloween party which was held in a party tent on the castle grounds. We had about 2 hours before our midnight departure, getting us back to the hotel around 1am.

The next day, we check out of the hotel and headed towards the Bucharest which is the capital of Romania. We stopped at Peles castle and took a tour. Sadly we couldn’t  take pictures inside but it was the  prettiest castle I have ever seen. The woodwork was amazing and had a German feel to it. After touring the castle we headed into old town where we had some free time for shopping and lunch.

Then headed towards our hotel in Bucharest. We had some time to rest before we took a walking tour and then had some free time before dinner. Bucharest is known as the Paris of the East. We had dinner in a 1806 restaurant.

We had an afternoon flight back to Germany. So after checking out of the hotel, we took a bus tour around the city, stopping at a war monument and took a tour of the Parliament building. From there we headed to the airport. After arriving in Frankfurt we took a bus back to Stuttgart and of course hit traffic getting me back home around 8pm.

 Another great trip in the books!