South America April - June 2010, Eastern Europe 2009

For the sake of keeping all blog posts in one place, going to keep this Europe travel blog page rolling...



Monday, June 1, 2009

Transylvania - Brasov

The last three nights we have spent in a hostel in Brasov, the biggest city in Transylvania. Transylvania is gorgeous and incredibly green, so it has been nice to spend some time somewhere that reminds us a bit of Vancouver.

Two days ago we took a tour of Bran, Sinaia, and Rasov to visit the castle that inspired Dracula, a citadel, a palace and a monasterie. The palace was incredible and so crazy ornate with gold plated ceilings and walls, hand carven staircases, and stone statues that littered the front lawn. Draculas castle was also cool but definately a huge tourist attraction so Christi and I were able to fill up on cheesy tourist crap.

On the tour we met some British boys and with who yesterday, we rented a car to Sighisora (spelling??), the oldest Medieval town in Transylvania. Half the fun was getting there renting the car and driving in crazy Romanian traffic, where horse drawn carts are no rare thing and cars pass each other at insane speeds on blind corners. I got to drive the way back which was a bit nerve racking, especially when we got back into the City with big roundabouts and small one lane alley roads. On the way back from Sighisora we decided to spontaneously pull over on the road and hike up to some crazy castle on a mountainside, which was really cool. It would have made the best playground ever and it was fun to be able to see a castle that wasn't touristy with no one around in the middle of the forest.

Today all of us are hiking up to this big Brasov hollywood-style sign on the mountain, then taking a sleeper train to Budapest where the weather is supposed to be warmer. yeah - transylvania has been like Cold Mountain weather (this is where it was filmed) - I have pretty much worn the same thing everyday, meaning my only warm clothes.

So overall things have been so good I'm not sure I am going to want to come home in a month :)

Hope all is well in Van,

JEss

2 comments:

  1. Sound like fun, Jesse. The weather has been really warm in Vancouver, and it looks like it may stay that way for awhile.
    You missed Garret's wedding on Sunday, it was outside on a beautiful afternoon. Lovely meal and lots to drink at the reception. I made the mistake of leaving my credit card at the bar and later found out that Jackie and Ali had quite a good time.
    We are cruising up to Wigwam Inn with Sharon next Saturday and Ashley is having a shower on Sunday at Rita's. Are you still checking your regular e-mail?

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  2. Hey Jess,
    I am so envious. I am going crazy preparing for our graduation ceremonies this week, and I would give anything to be strolling up a mountain looking for a castle. J'espere que tu as beaucoup de temps exitant. Je t'adore. Mom

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