Dracula's castle and a stunning Romanian countryside
No Royal wedding coverage here!
29.04.2011 - 30.04.2011
19 °C
'Welcome to Romania'. I breathed a sigh of relief when the border official finally stamped Olivers SA passport in our cabin around midnight whilst stopped in THE middle of nowhere in the Hungarian/romanian border.. I had visions of being asked to step outside to explain why he didn't have a Romanian transit visa beside his shengan and Bulgarian ones, and was all prepared with our 'but we're married, English visa, etc etc' story. But no need for panic, the guard seemed amused by our obviously tense expressions, and, relaxed as anything and looking all official, stamped his little stamp and that was that.
The super relaxed, friendly approach pretty much sums up our visit to Romania thus far. A not often visited country with a fantastic natural beauty, lots of gothic architecture, a 'loose' view of driving safety and a thankful dracula-esque wave to Hollywood.
We arrived at the station looking like the sleep-deprived-but-excited-to-be-somewhere-different tourists we are, and were almost immediately accosted by Nikolei, a soft grandfatherly looking character wanting to know if we needed a guide/driver to Bran (Dracula's) castle... yes, we replied, and after dropping our bags off at the tiny old lady bent double manning the left luggage, we were on our way in Nikolei's 20 year old Dacia with Romany pop blarring out the speakers. Brilliant!
Considering Nik's main languages are Romanian, Russian and French (thank you communism), the English his son has managed to teach him was broken but certainly better than our Romanian! We made it to Bran castle before the coach load of Asian tourists arrived and had a great look around the place, taking many posed fang-type photos... love it.
The rest of the day spent in Brasov's magical medieval square eating lunch and being treated to a performance by the Brasov Philharmonic orchestra (yes, an entire orchestra in the square complete with opera singer) we felt on top of the world and would gladly recommend Romania as a beautiful tourist destination.
Of course we haven't quite made it to Bucharest yet...
Posted by AOGardner 30.04.2011 00:00 Archived in Romania Tagged trainromaniabrasovdracula
