This morning we had to pay an extra 20,000lei because we exceed our 200,000lei breakfast voucher. Our original plan for the morning was to get the cable car from Sinaia centre and continue trekking from the cable car descent. Thanks to the hotel receptionist we found a shortcut to arrive to the centre of Sinaia by taking a secondary road behind the hotel reception, passing through the forest in front of the lovely Sinaia monastery and finishing in the centre after 20 minutes.

Like the other centres so far, Sinaia centre is basically Boulevard Carol I which is lined by various shops and taxis at every corner. When we arrived at Hotel Montana where the cable car is located our luck abandoned us because the cable car was closed for maintenance. We tried to locate the natural history museum for assistance on nature trails but apparently the museum was completely closed down. We resorted to our lonely planet trail map and decided to get a taxi to Hotel Furnica, which is only a few meters away from Hotel Economat, and ask the receptionist for assistance. This time the plan worked and the receptionist indicated northwards from her location towards two trails, a blue one and a red one. We choose blue.

The first part of trail is a normal road with no attractions whatsoever except for a solider ‘s quarters. Romania is littered with urban camouflage soldiers carrying a Kalashnikov especially in tourist attractions. The trail is a constant ascent probably leading to Cota 1400 where the cable car station and Hotel Alpin lie. There are so many trail markings that even a plant can complete the trail. The trail path is excellently maintained and clearly delimited.

Sinaia view from Bucegi

Since the trail is constantly uphill it is quite tiring but as soon as we arrived at the peak the breathtaking scenery erased our exhaustion, yet the best part of all this had still to come. A few meters after we started our descent back two large birds flew off in the forest and instinctively my better half raised her head and spotted a young Ural Owl perched in the tree above. I started hyperventilating in excitement and awe while she struggled to get a memorable photo. After our eyes feasted on such a beauty and we decided to leave, we spotted another one, then another, then another. Just as soon as we left the poor owls in peace one of their parents flew off from another tree. Orgasmic experience!

Although the Ural Owls were without any doubt the loveliest animals they weren't the only ones. The first week of June was brilliant for birds because most of the species were with their young. Most of the young were struggling with their first flight so it was easy to spot them. Chaffinches and black birds filled the whole forest floor with their hustling of leaves and lovely song. A collared flycatcher was also nesting in one of the trees. In the morning, while we were walking towards the centre of Sinaia there was a spotted woodpecker's nest with young on a tree just besides the pavement. At the end of the hike we saw dippers also with young, at a small river for the joy of my loveliest.

Baby Ural Owl

The last thing worth noting about this ultra active day was the discussion between myself and the train station attended. I was asking about tomorrow's trip to Tulcea and she thought that I wanted to go to Turkey. That’s what I call importance of correct pronunciation.

Today was my favourite's birthday so I conceded extra sleep time. At last for breakfast we got some good hot coffee although bread was still stale.

After breakfast we called a taxi to take us to "Gara" to catch the bus to Bran, but as soon as we had almost arrived I realised that he was not taking us to the bus station so I told the driver "Bus to Bran". He gave me a sour look and called out "Auto Gara nu Gara" which I gathered to mean that I should have said "Auto Gara" for bus station. At this he sped across Brasov's streets ignoring red lights and all traffic rules and we managed to arrive at the bus station just in time for the 09:00 bus.

The bus took 40 minutes to arrive at Bran and with some common sense we located Bran Castle. It is a very imposing beautiful castle which I surely cannot adequately describe here. The photos will help you understand what I mean. In the middle of the castle there is a lovely courtyard and each room contains exhibits such as paintings, furniture, Madonnas, helmeted fireplaces and a huge chalice. One thing which kept me wondering in Bran Castle was how much more authentic would it have been were the walls not white washed with plaster and kept in their original form. This though hit me after we climbed a very narrow staircase with the original wall structure that is too nice to forget.

Bran Castle

Castle Courtyard

Castle View from Courtyard

After the castle experience we brought a kilo of the reddest cherries at the marketplace outside the castle for 50,000lei and nibbled them till the bus arrived at 11:40. There are hourly buses to and from Brasov.

Upon arriving in Brasov we took a taxi to the train station this time to go to Sinaia. This train was an inter-city IC train and it was much better than the personal train to Curtea de Arges. At the only train stop a suspect person came to sit on a different seat at my left. The keen observation of my mate remarked that his only possession was a rolled newspaper in his hand which is the weapon of choice for pickpockets. After a while he asked to sit near the window to my right which coincidently was near our day packs and my wallet. He told us that he was working for the train company and wanted to look out of the right window. It was very evident that his intentions weren't good so I played dumb as if not understanding his request. I then asked him to get a translator if he wanted anything specific and at this he shut up. A few minutes later a train conductor came over and we realised that this guy didn't even have a train ticket.

As soon as we arrived in Sinaia we were greeted by two scruffy men who offered us a room but we ignored them and rushed for a taxi instead. After a long-winded hill we arrived at the special birthday hotel for the holiday, the once palace Hotel Economat. Before we actually made it into the room three small children came to offer us small berries and they were so insisting and cute that I had to give in and brought two small cups of minute sour strawberries. The room was magnificent and lived very well to our expectations. I think the receptionist wasn't lying when she told us that she gave us the best room. A small corridor lead into the bedroom displaying a king sized velvet green covered bed. To my mates enthusiasm we had satellite TV with Animal Planet again and a well ventilated (open window) toilet with heater to dry our laundry. The only minus was that we didn't have a bath only a shower, but that is negligible compared to the beauty of the room.

The main attraction in Sinaia is the Peles Castle which was within walking distance from our hotel. Unfortunately we arrived late and could not enter inside because the last guided tour starts at 4.30 and like all other attractions it is closed on Monday. The Peles is the utmost of castles; it should be made a wonder of the world. I will forgive you for not visiting any other castles in Romania but you must see the Peles. There is no point describing in words just take a look at the pictures.	Peles Castle

To finish the birthday on a culinary note we had dinner at the hotel's restaurant, and it was the only mistake of an otherwise perfect birthday. For once the birthday was actually the best day of the holiday. Everything was magnificent from Bran Castle to the Peles Castle, Hotel Economat and the 1kg of cherries. This will be a very difficult birthday to beat but it was well deserved after 4 consecutive birthday flops.

After yesterday’s laborious day we excused ourselves for waking up late. To this effect we had to sacrifice most of our lousy breakfast with cold coffee, stale bread and no cereal. I nicked a fork instead to compensate for the price difference (I forgot my cutlery at home).

We arrived at the bus station near the train station by taxi, and caught the only bus for Brasov departing at 10:00. We must thank the train station personnel for this important piece of information. The trip lasted 4.30 hours and despite the beautiful scenery outside transport was getting quite tedious. The bus route passed through Bran and we regretted not stopping there, since time was pressing and therefore we couldn't visit Bran.

To make up for it I changed plans on the hotel accommodation after reading that the Aro Sport hotel in Brasov was miserable. This change cost me 60Euros because the next cheapest hotel in LP was Hotel Postavarul who had cheap shared bath rooms and 2 star rooms at 60 Euros (Hotel Coroana). After the public toilet experience and considering the state of affairs between us at the moment I made the right choice by getting a better room and spending some more. We had a choice between two rooms and we choose the bigger one with a two single beds, cable TV and en-suite bathroom. This definitely helped to change our sour mood.

The hotel was at the corner of the main pedestrian street in Brasov, "Strada Republicii". This street is lined with shops on both sides and leads to the large Black Church. I managed to get my dearest a present (two eagles engraved in wood) and card for her birthday. The Black Church was quite disappointing. First of all it is not black, just a sooty ashen colour resulting form a fire in 1689. Apart from being quite imposing it isn’t anything extraordinary. Since it was disallowed to photograph inside the church we didn’t bother to enter. The church location is also extremely non-photogenic. A lesser known and blacker attraction was the "Black Tower", and the "White Tower". Although not as imposing as the Black Church both towers offer excellent locations to photograph the Black Church.

Black Church

After the cultural tour we watched a comedy featuring Rob Schneider and then went for a pizza in the centre of Brasov. As the food was so cheap I dared a beef steak and Cabaret Sauvignon Blanc while she ordered a Funghi. Surprisingly enough the Funghi pizza also had ham so she had to remove each and every piece of ham from each slice. I then overdosed on ham to make up for the small beef portion.

The new Airbus was graced with our presence along with another 23 passengers at the hideous hour of 23:25. The airport was completely deserted with all employees regretting the night ahead.

The in-flight meal was prepared with the enthusiasm of a cook working at midnight. The beef was more akin to chewing gum than meat and I was in doubt whether the rice salad was already digested before being put on the plate. The chicken menu of my travel and life companion was a much better choice.

We arrived at 03:00 and as soon as we entered thie Banasea (Bucharest’s secondary airport) arrival lodge, I looked out of the window to confirm that outside was an aeroplane not a time machine. Everything looked at least 10 years old. The customs check was just 10 meters away from the entrance and the baggage belt another 10 meters away. Through the transparent door you are able to actually see baggage being offloaded and being placed on the convenor belt. Just besides the belt before going out of this multipurpose room three customs policeman were opening and checking each bag, but we had no problems. This is the perfect beginner airport everything placed in one room, not even our ex-secretary would have managed to get lost here.

As we had no hotel to go to we lodged for two hours at a marble covered circular hall just outside the arrival lodge. Along with the numerous vulture taxi drivers there were a couple of other tired people in the same room. To avoid falling asleep in this dubious environment I started reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. My mate was suspiciously eyeing anybody who tried to trespass the 5 meter radius barrier.

At around 04:30 we started getting concerned about how we were going to arrive at the main train station (Gara Nord). As soon as I got up to peep outside, a taxi driver approached me and asked where I want to go. He was not content with Gara Nord and pressed for the actual destination. I told him “Curtea de Arges” and he insisted upon taking us there. When he gave up, he quoted 20Euros for the trip to the train station. No way! I knew that a normal trip should cost no more than 10Euros because I had called the information office a day before. I haggled the price down to $15 and told him to come over at 05:00. After two minutes another taxi driver approached us and told us that he was an authorised taxi driver while the other wasn’t. At this I was all ears and as soon as we settled for 10Euros we left immediately. I had been warned by the Tourist office to use only authorised taxis so I felt bold that I choose the best option.

My enthusiasm didn’t last for long because when we went to the ticket booth of the train station the English illiterate sales girl did not accept Euro or Dollar currency. This was a very serious problem because the train was supposed to leave at 06:40 and it was too early to exchange money legally.

At this golden opportunity somebody approached us accompanied by a train station security member and offered a mini bus service to Curtea de Arges for $5. This was extremely cheap almost too good to be true, but since there was the security guard we accepted. As soon as we got out of the train station a junk car that wouldn’t start greeted us. That’s what they call a mini bus in Bucharest. After some shallow talk I noticed the low fuel indicator was blinking and soon after we drove into the first fuel station. The driver stuck out his hand and expected us to hand over $30 for the fuel. I told him that we had agreed on $5 dollars for the trip and he replied that he had asked us $45 dollars not $5. At this my mate got snappy so we gave him $10 for fuel and insisted on being taken back to the station. Fortunately, he took us back and left us in peace. This was our first and last attempted rip-off experience of the whole holiday.

This fake taxi trip was an original way to spend time in Bucharest in the early hours of the morning. Fortunately we managed to illegally exchange some dollars at a travel agency besides the pharmacy in front of the train station, and brought the train tickets to Curtea de Arges.

The train left exactly on time at 06:40 and arrived at the changing station Pitesti at 09:20. The train was a personal train which is the slowest of Romanian trains; its speed is best compared to a metro train. We changed the train at Pitesti to a horrendous smelly, rusty, noisy 1 carriage junk of a train which arrived at Curtea de Arges at 11:00.

Just outside of the train station we experienced the unforgettable public toilet experience. The toilet was made of piss. This is an excellent solution for blind people as they can easily find the place by smelling around from meters away. The toilet was very interesting – a toilet room with no toilets, just ill dug holes. One can imagine that this will work for the male toilet but there was no difference at the ladies.		Curtea de Arges Train Station
At Curtea de Arges we lodged at Hotel Posada in a 1 star room. The first thing we did upon entering was checking the toilet to put our mind at rest that it exists. The room was pretty basic with all the necessaries it was just lacking that nice finishing touch to keep the price low.

As a village Curtea de Arges is very straight forward with a pleasant main boulevard containing all the shops and activity. Hotel Posada was located at the end of the street within 1km walking distance from the train station.

The reason we travelled to Curtea de Arges was to view the Poienari Castle which is 25km away from Curtea. According to Lonely Planet the best information source was our hotel but the solution offered by the receptionist was defiantly not the best, as she recommended taking a taxi. We walked to the train station to check out other solutions and found out that there is a mini bus service every hour. The mini bus was the perfect solution, driving us exactly at the foot of the long flight of stairs leading to the castle.

This was by far the longest flight of stairs I have ever climbed (over 1400), but since the steps are low and surrounded by the forest it was not that tiring. I think it’s less tiring than work’s stairs, at least you don’t dread going up. We spent about 40 minutes to finish our quest considering frequent breaks.

Poienari Castle Entrance

The reward was worth it. After paying 20,000lei and a camera fee of 10,000lei we could share Dracula’s original castle with a group of light hearted local youths. Unfortunately the castle is more ruins than castle as a landslide destroyed the castle in 1888. It looks like an open air castle. History has it that in 1459 Vlad Tepes built the castle to be able to observe enemies trying to access the Arges valley. Vlad’s wife is also said to have committed suicide from the castle but we didn’t manage to find blood evidence to prove it.

Needless to say the descent was much more pleasant and quick. We had to walk about 2km to get to the bus stop from the castle but we were lucky enough to find the mini bus awaiting us. Our outing ended with a quick pizza at “No Comment” which was barely edible yet satisfied our hunger.

For a first day it was pretty tiring spending 40 hours awake, travelling, avoiding scams, climbing stairs and sightseeing.

I am going to start the Romania Travel Blog part with the cost analysis of the holiday. I hope I manage to find the determination to re-write and translate some of our experiences too. The following table is an itemised breakdown of all our costs. From the last 5 holidays, Romania is by far the cheapest place we've been to, however keep in mind that the average Romanian gains only $90 a month.

The cost per person for 9 days in Romania was Lm151.61 including flights, with pre-holiday costs and a day in Milan raising the total to Lm232.88 (extra 35%). Going on holiday during a 10 day birthday celebration helped our spending spirits considerably.

Accommodation was the highest expense, however considering that we once stayed in a lovely quasi upscale palace (Hotel Economat) and made a severe mistake that cost us an extra 40Euros (Hotel Coroana) it was not that bad. Hotel Ibis (Accor) was priced at 59Euro per weekend night in the capital Bucharest.

Unlike other holidays transport was not the major expense. This is indicative on Romanian culture with large travel distances and low wages. We used taxis frequently given that they were cheap and efficient to use. Train costs vary widely according to the type of train used paying peanuts for P trains getting more costly using IC trains. In our case at least, the quality of the train reflected the price.

Food is our greatest vice. There is little you can do to resist getting 4 packets of crisps (150g) costing 10c each. We made the worst and best bargains getting food. The flop was spending almost Lm17 (21% of all food expenses) food from home. This is totally outrageous considering that we could have got the same things from Romania for less than half the price. Getting food from home is only a good idea when travelling to expensive countries like the Scotland trip. The best bargain was buying 1kg of the best tasting cherries ever for 50c (they cost Lm4.50 at home). Wine and spirits are also relatively cheap, with 3 bottles of good wine totalling Lm3.61.

Bird and Nature Guiding is ridiculously cheap. We got 3 full days of birdwatching, nature and cultural guiding for a proposed price of Lm25.75p/p which got further reduced to Lm6.44 (since there were a total of 6 people on the tour). Considering that we were expected to pay Lm65p/p for a single night tour in Finland the difference is extraordinary. The best part of the deal is that you get to see large quantities of birds in a wonderful habitat. I am sure that the prices will boom up very soon as birdwatchers invade the Danube Delta in a matter of a few years. Go for it now!

Status: Success
Started at: 03 June 2004 @ 23:45
Compeleted at: 13 June 2004 @ at 21:30

source: romanian tourist office

Bucharest Tourist Office - 021-314-99-57
Brasov Tourist Office - 0268-144-680
Diana Fanic (Mini Bus Service from Curtea - Brasov) - 0723567846

Taxis Low Prices

Cobacez - 0723399451
Meridian - 0723344433