Romaniacs
We dropped into Bucharest around 1pm and after retreiving all of our luggage (score!), we found our way to the car rental place. It's actually a Dollar, but it was run by 2 barely shaving Romanians who reminded me a lot of Beavis and Butthead. They kept referring to each other as "my coleague", which I thought was great. We had reserved a compact, which I figure was good for what were sure to be tight spots (damn - we\re in a tight spot!) and crazy drivers. Butthead figured he'd do us (and him) a favor and upgrade us to an SUV. I think after seeing we were American, he thought it would make our day. In fairness, we ended up with a nice Subaru Forester, which is sort of a station wagon-hybrid thing. It was a manual, so all was well.
A couple of Sara's friends had outlined a good route to take and sights to see, so I buckled down for a good old fashioned road trip. It turns out Romania (the part we would see) is pretty small, so my visions of eight hour drives were a bit skewed. A couple hours later we arrived in Sinaia, home of two castles that have to be seen to be believed. After driving around aimlessly for a while and asking directions with mixed results, we stumbled onto the hotel we were looking for. It was a cool little place, and the guy hooked us up with a good room for not too much dough. We had a nice big balcony and outside the bathroom was a waterfall. Not kidding. Check the pics. We hung that night and afternoon in Sinaia, where we befriended some wine and a waiter who was able to call us a cab due to the ridiculous thunderstorm that opened up during dinner. Sara gave him about a dollar in Romanian money (8,000,000,000 or so old Lei) and you'd have thought he won the lottery.
We finally made it to the castles the next day, where we wished for some good old fashioned American signs and lines. There was a bit of a mob hanging around outside the door to the castle, where the sign said to wait before being invited in. They give tours in a million languages, but you have to have somewhere between 15 and 30 people before you get a tour. We had 6 english speakers who we found by asking 'English? English?' to everyone hanging around. The Germans and Italians were representing, and by representing I mean they were yelling the loudest when the door keeper (similar to the one in the Wizard of Oz) appeared. We finally ended up with a mixed group of English sort-of speakers about 45 minutes later. It was well worth the wait. Sadly no pictures, but the castle is 160 rooms, of which we saw about 20. There were the obligatory secret passages, fake bookcases, suits of armor, and all the other castle mainstays. There was a smaller castle near there built for the king's daughter in law who didn't like the main castle. I've since tried this tactic with my parents and got nowhere. The smaller castle was impressive in its own right, but in a more modern way.
We bid Sinaia adieu and headed toward Brasov, the "Prague of Romania". On the way we stopped to see Dracula's castle, which has little or nothing to do with Dracula, but was a cool castle nonetheless. Again, some more signs showing the way would have been helpful, but so it goes. The castle was the most tourist-laden area we saw in Romania, so after a quick drive-through, we were off again. We rolled back to Brashov, which is a neat little town, and on its way to being even cooler. There's a couple of main streets and a large square along with a nice assortment of bars and restaurants. There are a few interesting sights to see including the synagogue and a couple huge churches, one of which has the largest bell in Romania. We ended up staying in a hostel with Sara in a room with 5 other people and me on a matress in the hallway. It was more of a landing really, but it was super cheap and we needed to sleep somewhere. Hostel people are fun. The next morning we hiked up to the top of a mountain you can also access by cable car. It took us about an hour of steady switchback hiking. We thought we were making good time only to be passed by a dog and a 50 year old guy running up the trail. The view was worth it. We rode the cable car back down and watched the operator pocket our fares.
From Brasov we went northwest toward Sighisoara. We missed a turn somewhere and had to take a 'secondary' road to get back where we needed to be. The condition of the secondary road can only be described as post-apocolyptic. Picture car-eating potholes, huge piles of dung, and sections just completely missing. The Subaru made it through with no problem. I don't think I say the same for the Smart car that was in front of us.
Sighisoara brought a meet-up with a Friend of a Friend (FoF) of Sara's named Pujo and his cousin Alex. He gave us the best tour we've ever gotten and found us one of the best places we've stayed. It was ours for the bargain price of 1,000,000 old lei, aka 100 new lei, aka about $36. The town was also the birth place of Vlad Dracul, aka Vlad the Impaler, aka Count Dracula. A good time (and Romanian brandy) was had by all. It was truly amazing to hear about living under and the the fall of Communism from eye witnesses.
Next up was a trip to Sibiu, a beautifully restored town to the southwest. We met up with another of Sara's friends for a traditional Romanian meal and drinks. We found our way around town earlier in the day to one of the sketchier places we stayed and then took in the sights (as well as a couple of outdoor cafes. Note to the US - please get more of these.)
From there we took the Transfagarasian road through the Transylvanian Alps. We had been warned that everyone who ever drives it dies. It wasn't so bad in reality, but it did rise something like 2500 meters in a little over 20 kilometers. We dropped about 12 degrees Celsius on the way up. The peak and the lake at the top was fogged in, but after driving through a small tunnel to the south side, it was beautiful and amazing. Check the pics.
We finally made it to Bucharest, where I wisely spent some hard-earned hotel points on the Marriott. We paid more to park the car than I did to stay in the hostel. We toured Bucharest, including marveling at the People's Palace. It was built to be the largest building in the world, but they didn't plan correctly and it's thus second to the Pentagon. While a marvel to behold, It's a little sad since it was, and continues to be, a huge drain on Romanians to build and maintain it. Rooms with 19m ceilings are flanked by hallways with 25ft. pocket doors. There's a fair bit of green space in Bucharest, and the old areas are making something of a comeback. The fingerprints of Ciecescu are all over the place, including a full size Arc de Triomphe in the northern part of town. We also met up with some additional FoFs for a great meal and more Romanian perspective. From there it was on to Greece...