We decided to take a weekend trip to Romania cause tickets were only €20 a person. Romania is about 60 years behind a modern country (this was told to us by several Romanians, so we are not being mean). Apparently the Romanians blame the USSR for the setback. Also many people smoke, like more than in the Netherlands… or France. We even saw a four year old gypsy child smoking a cigarette. But enough about the negatives…
Romania is beautiful (and not busy at all in Jan). Transylvania has lots of mountains, forests (with bears), and nature preserves. It has old buildings, with old quaint roofs, and old roads, with old, large, potholes! We saw some beautiful castles, like Peles castle. Peles castle is a very modern castle (in castle years) and even has an elevator and built in vacuum cleaner system. We also made our way to Bran castle (where Dracula is from in the books). In reality, Dracula had nothing at all to do with Bran castle. Vlad instead came from a medieval (preserved) citadel called Sigishoara, which we also got a chance to visit. Sigishoara is unique in that it is so well preserved, and it was a beautiful old village. We climbed the bell tower, took hike up the hill to see the old school and cemetery, and had some gluwijn in a small cafe.
Since it was only a quick weekend trip there isn’t a whole lot to report, other than there were some wonderfully preserved churches, cities, and castles AND the traditional food was delicious (lots of pork though). We also got to visit a HUGE salt mine that was turned into an amusement area with a bowling alley, ferris wheel, and even row boats. And … there is no real Hotel Transylvania.
There and back again 