Travel update from Sibiu
Hi From Romania,
I am in a little city called Sibiu. It is in the heart of Transylvania. I arrived in Romania on the second of September and have been having a pretty darn good time here. I stayed two nights in the Funky chicken Hostel in Bucharest. What a dive. I mean I am a guy who stays in 5 or 10 euro a night places all over the world. I aint expecting no Hiltons for 8 euros a night...but what a dive this place is!! If you ever go to Bucharest just pass this place by unless you are really desperate. Crowded noisy rooms. Bored
un-attentive staff, gross shower room. You get the picture.
Besides the crummy accomodations,Bucharest just didnt move me at all. I dont know exactly why. Some cities I really dont get anything from but a neutral vibe.
After coming from Bulgaria, I just had to compare it to Sofia and Sofia is 10 times nicer. I did go to the National Art Museum and saw the modern art pavillion which was very nice...I stayed two nights and split for Brasov on a very clean modern new train.
I guess i will give Bucharest another chance. I fly out of there to go to Alexandria Egypt on October 12 so I guess i will get to Bucharest a few days before my flight and check the city out a little more.
(Breathe in...) Brasov waws a way cool iittle town. I stayed in a really nice Hostel called Kismet Dao. (Breathe Out) It cost 10 euros a night but you get free breakfast (just toast jam coffee and tea, but all you want from 6 to 12), Free Internet, Free Laundry, and Free Beer or soda every night. Good location and a very good and friendly, well informed staff.
I met a lot of REALLY cool people in this Hostel and felt very good about this town and myself. I did a lot of meditative walking, climbed a mountain and went touring the local environs and checked out three castels...Well only one was really a castel, Bram Castel. It seems that many people think this is where Dracula lived...WRONG he never lived there. It is just a castel that was built as a fort and then the local Duke lived there for a couple of Generations. No Vampire history here...
Peles (Pay-laysh) Palace was just magnificent. No kidding this place was FANTASTIC Unbelievable beauty and decadent lifestyle of the rich and greedy fuedal lords. These people had an uncanny ability to spend other peoples money!! it took 40 years to build the place and the workmanship and attention to detail is just splendid. If you ever go to Romania be sure and here!!! Ir is in a ski resort town called Sinia...
So after 6 days in Brasov I took the train to Sibiu, which is where I am writing from. The train in Brasov was a trip. I misunderstood which line the train was leaving from and had to run to catch my train on another platform. I got to the platform as the train just began to move and had to jump onto the moving train by holding onto the hand rail and running and then timing my leap to catch the bottom rung of the ladder/steps. All these Romanian guys were all yelling at me from the train and holding out their hands to help with big grins on their faces and they were all congratulating me and laughing as i boarded!! Fun but not so fun...
So I have been in Sibiu for a week. high lights were the outdoor Folklorico Museum which is on about 10 acres of land with a little lake. They have gathered all these old buildings like blacksmith shops grist-mills and fire house and farmers huts and shepherds huts and all kinds of structures from the 1400s through the 1800s and transported them and reconstructed them in this outdoor museum/park. It was a great way to spend an afternoon strolling through history. I met an American ex-pat in Sibiu at the train ticket office and she be-friended me and took me to this little village just out of the city about 15 kilometers called Rasinari which is like seeing the folklorico museum alive and operating!!! All cobblestone steets with horse shit on them. People walking around dressid in traditional clothing and the most gorgeous mountain setting. This is what transylvania was like 100 years ago. We found a house which is owned by a shepherd and his family and I bought half a kilo of "telemea" cheese for 5 leu which is about US$2.00. It is a brine cure cheese like feta made from sheeps milk. Very tasty yet mild and not over powering, and unlike many similar cheeses i have tried, it is not too salty.
So...yesterday Angela arrived from Austria and we will travel around the rest of Romania for another month. Then we part as she goes to South America and I go to North Africa.
We bought train tickets today to go to Sighisoara, and leave tomorrow, again in search of Dracula and adventures as yet unforseen. We expect to be in Sighisoara for about a week and then head to the Danube Delta and see where the mighty Danube River emptys into the Black Sea. We hope to get there in time to see the migratory birds before they leave for their winter homes in Africa... Thats all for now.
here are a couple of quotes from people I admire...
"My favourite thing is to go where I've never been." Diane Arbus
"Men who travel should leave their prejudices at home." Frederick Douglass
"The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only a page."
Saint Augustine
Peace and love to all of you!!
Robert
I am in a little city called Sibiu. It is in the heart of Transylvania. I arrived in Romania on the second of September and have been having a pretty darn good time here. I stayed two nights in the Funky chicken Hostel in Bucharest. What a dive. I mean I am a guy who stays in 5 or 10 euro a night places all over the world. I aint expecting no Hiltons for 8 euros a night...but what a dive this place is!! If you ever go to Bucharest just pass this place by unless you are really desperate. Crowded noisy rooms. Bored
un-attentive staff, gross shower room. You get the picture.
Besides the crummy accomodations,Bucharest just didnt move me at all. I dont know exactly why. Some cities I really dont get anything from but a neutral vibe.
After coming from Bulgaria, I just had to compare it to Sofia and Sofia is 10 times nicer. I did go to the National Art Museum and saw the modern art pavillion which was very nice...I stayed two nights and split for Brasov on a very clean modern new train.
I guess i will give Bucharest another chance. I fly out of there to go to Alexandria Egypt on October 12 so I guess i will get to Bucharest a few days before my flight and check the city out a little more.
(Breathe in...) Brasov waws a way cool iittle town. I stayed in a really nice Hostel called Kismet Dao. (Breathe Out) It cost 10 euros a night but you get free breakfast (just toast jam coffee and tea, but all you want from 6 to 12), Free Internet, Free Laundry, and Free Beer or soda every night. Good location and a very good and friendly, well informed staff.
I met a lot of REALLY cool people in this Hostel and felt very good about this town and myself. I did a lot of meditative walking, climbed a mountain and went touring the local environs and checked out three castels...Well only one was really a castel, Bram Castel. It seems that many people think this is where Dracula lived...WRONG he never lived there. It is just a castel that was built as a fort and then the local Duke lived there for a couple of Generations. No Vampire history here...
Peles (Pay-laysh) Palace was just magnificent. No kidding this place was FANTASTIC Unbelievable beauty and decadent lifestyle of the rich and greedy fuedal lords. These people had an uncanny ability to spend other peoples money!! it took 40 years to build the place and the workmanship and attention to detail is just splendid. If you ever go to Romania be sure and here!!! Ir is in a ski resort town called Sinia...
So after 6 days in Brasov I took the train to Sibiu, which is where I am writing from. The train in Brasov was a trip. I misunderstood which line the train was leaving from and had to run to catch my train on another platform. I got to the platform as the train just began to move and had to jump onto the moving train by holding onto the hand rail and running and then timing my leap to catch the bottom rung of the ladder/steps. All these Romanian guys were all yelling at me from the train and holding out their hands to help with big grins on their faces and they were all congratulating me and laughing as i boarded!! Fun but not so fun...
So I have been in Sibiu for a week. high lights were the outdoor Folklorico Museum which is on about 10 acres of land with a little lake. They have gathered all these old buildings like blacksmith shops grist-mills and fire house and farmers huts and shepherds huts and all kinds of structures from the 1400s through the 1800s and transported them and reconstructed them in this outdoor museum/park. It was a great way to spend an afternoon strolling through history. I met an American ex-pat in Sibiu at the train ticket office and she be-friended me and took me to this little village just out of the city about 15 kilometers called Rasinari which is like seeing the folklorico museum alive and operating!!! All cobblestone steets with horse shit on them. People walking around dressid in traditional clothing and the most gorgeous mountain setting. This is what transylvania was like 100 years ago. We found a house which is owned by a shepherd and his family and I bought half a kilo of "telemea" cheese for 5 leu which is about US$2.00. It is a brine cure cheese like feta made from sheeps milk. Very tasty yet mild and not over powering, and unlike many similar cheeses i have tried, it is not too salty.
So...yesterday Angela arrived from Austria and we will travel around the rest of Romania for another month. Then we part as she goes to South America and I go to North Africa.
We bought train tickets today to go to Sighisoara, and leave tomorrow, again in search of Dracula and adventures as yet unforseen. We expect to be in Sighisoara for about a week and then head to the Danube Delta and see where the mighty Danube River emptys into the Black Sea. We hope to get there in time to see the migratory birds before they leave for their winter homes in Africa... Thats all for now.
here are a couple of quotes from people I admire...
"My favourite thing is to go where I've never been." Diane Arbus
"Men who travel should leave their prejudices at home." Frederick Douglass
"The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only a page."
Saint Augustine
Peace and love to all of you!!
Robert
posted by Rambling Robert | 4:38 AM
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