Indulging in Brasov, Romania

View from Tampa

Our train arrived in Bucharest after a five hour mid-day train from Veliko Tărnovo. We walked to our hotel, Villa Romana, and were surprised to find a locked door with only a phone number. Because we don’t have working phones (which is becoming very annoying) we had to find one to borrow. A salon next door was closing but luckily we were able to catch one of the employees. When I called, the receptionist asked why we didn’t coordinate a check-in time as requested on the booking confirmation. We were then instructed on how to enter with a hidden key and told which room to occupy. While waiting for the receptionist to arrive and collect our payment, I re-reviewed the email and saw the unusual request hidden amongst the regular jargon that booking.com sends. They obviously don’t make it easy to find because another couple had the same issue a few hours later (and we were able to help them by using google hangouts since we were then on wifi).

Also while waiting for the check-in process to complete, Sara looked at a lonely planet guidebook that was available in the room. We planned one night in Bucharest but otherwise had no idea what we wanted to do in Romania. The guide confirmed that there was not much to see in Bucharest and suggested some towns closer to mountains in the Transylvania region. We settled on going to Brosov on an afternoon train the next day so we could explore the city a bit.

In the morning, we left the apartment with our packs and turned the corner to get a bus. We wandered in circles looking for a bus ticket booth and eventually found the tiny office just big enough for a person to sit. We bought a set of six bus tickets to get us to the train station, into the city and back to the train. The plan was to leave our packs at the train station while we explored but they didn’t have luggage lockers (only option to leave in manned room for a big price). Still with our packs, we went to the bus stop outside of the station and waited. We continued waiting while bus after bus passed but ours did not. It was hard to know if we were on the right spot or not because there was nothing marking the bus stop except for other people waiting and getting on different busses. Cutting our losses, we decided to take the metro and effectively wasted the prepaid bus tickets we had.

Palace of the Parliament

Our only goal for the day was to see the Palace of the Parliament, the largest parliament building in the world. Across the street from the Palace, there was a nice park where we relaxed and took in the view. The Palace of the Parliament was an impressive building, but it didn’t have that extra architectural flare to really make it stand out. After relaxing for a bit and snapping pictures, we headed back to the station and boarded the train to Brasov.

View of the Brasov sign while starting our early morning hike

We arrived to a completely different feel – where Bucharest was a large and bustling city, Brasov was a quaint town in the foothills of Transylvanian mountains. After settling in to our guesthouse, Pensiunea Paloma, we planed to head into the old town for dinner at Sergiana. While asking our host the best way into town, one of their friends offered to give us a ride. The friendliness continued for our whole stay. A Romanian family also staying at the guesthouse loved that we were Americans and always wanted to talk with us. The nineteen year old son did a lot of translating to help the conversations – he said he learned English so well form playing Call of Duty online.

Dinner at Sergiana – Bottom Left is fried brain!

Sergiana is known for having excellent local dishes, and that is exactly what we were looking for. We started with a complimentary plate of fried pork rinds and onions before having Transylvania sour soup. For the main course, we became a bit more adventurous ordering a plate of fried brain along with pork schnitzel stuffed with bacon and mushrooms. After eating the brain, we decided we don’t need to try it again. The taste was pretty good, but it had an unpleasant soft texture. Even so, I am glad we tried it at least once. It was actually the strangest thing we’ve eaten since mouse in Vietnam.

The next day, we took a bus further into the mountains to Poiana Brasov. Right as the bus was about to leave, a ticket controller came onboard and told us we had the wrong tickets. We had to run back to the ticket hut, quickly get the right tickets, and run back as fast as we could so we wouldn’t miss the hourly bus. It seemed like we were really having a streak of bad luck with busses!

Manastirea Poiana Brasov

In Poiana Brasov, we wandered around the small village and cute shops. I had hoped there would be some hiking nearby but the mountains didn’t look very appealing. After exploring and a bit of shopping, we had an excellent meal at Coliba Haiducilor. The restaurant was set in an old fashioned wood chalet surrounded by towering pine trees. We enjoyed a hearty meal to finish our outing.

I convinced Sara to wake up really early the next morning so we could hike to the top of Tampa hill overlooking Brasov. At the top of the hill there is a Hollywood-style sign that you can walk under and lookout over the old town. The hike up was full of views over the town and before we knew it we were at the top! We missed sunrise but still enjoyed a quiet breakfast picnic on the quiet mountaintop… except for a stray dog that barked and growled while following us at the top. On the way back down, we took a quick detour into the old town. Most tourists were still waking up so we had most of the streets to ourselves to enjoy and photograph.

Peaceful spot for breakfast

Unfortunately, our time in the Romanian countryside was coming to an end. In the afternoon we were booked on an overnight train to Zagreb, Croatia. We are on a time crunch right now to visit Croatia before we need to be in Austria for the Red Bull Air Race! We had to checkout of our room but the owners let us stay on their courtyard until it was time to leave for our train. Sara really enjoyed the extra time playing with Albert, the owners kitten. Before lugging our packs to the station, we had a quick lunch at the nearby Ceasu Rau Resturant to fill up one last time on our favorite Romanian food – sour soup and polenta with sour cream and cheese.

On the way to Brasov station, we stopped at a DHL to ship a box home. I don’t know what goes on in Romania, but first the DHL worker told me it would cost over $300 (shipping boxes home usually costs $35 from the rest of the world). Then he told us that he couldn’t send anything without an invoice for every item in the box – even our personal belongings. I have never seen anything like it! Needless to say, we held onto our souvenirs to try again once we arrived in Plitvice Lakes, Croatia.