Romania.From Sibiu to Sofia across Danube.Day 73

 Day 73:

1 November 2010. We had a very long journey ahead of us, but we woke up without hurries (around 10). We stopped a few km from Sibiu, in a shabby fast-food local (so tasty) full of workers having a rest. That was one of the few stops in the entire day… Ah yes, of course, another one was when the Police stopped Miera’s car (the fucking ugly long Clio) and fined him for exceeding the speed limit (120 leis – around 30 € paid at that moment). 

Heading South...

Near Ramnicu Valcea

We continued following river Olt in its way to the Danube through Turnu Rosu Pass, passing Ramnicu Valcea, Dragasani and Slatina villages. So we left Transylvania to enter the region of Wallachia again. Nothing really interesting in those villages, apart from the wonderful environment (mountains, forest, river…). Craiova (very ugly) was the last big city before the frontier, but there were still lots of kilometers, so we stopped to have lunch in a forgotten and dirty village somewhere in the middle of nowhere… Suspicious at the beginning, but a good decision after all! We ate some nice chicken steaks with peppers and chips for a few Leis. 

 

Once back on the road, we drove through moors and isolated villages. That part of Romania (south-west) was absolutely different to what we had seen before in the country. Calafat is the last Romanian village before Bulgaria. 

In the middle of nowhere. South-west Romania

 –“Ahh… at last Calafat!! Uhmm… let’s go to the frontier pass”, I thought. 

We drove through the village for a while, looking for any signal or indication. Nothing.

-“What the fuck? Where is the frontier???”, I started to desperate, because we hadn’t seen any signal to Bulgaria. We asked two or three people around there for the frontier, but they didn’t know. They only knew where was the port. -“I don’t need to know where is the fucking port!!”, I thought. I started to suspect that something unexpected was about to happen, we were there (in Calafat) following ViaMichelin instructions, but we hadn’t any other info. 

  

The route. Almost 10 hours...

It was getting dark and that strange village seemed to be an unpleasant place to stay overnight (no people on the streets, no lights, no restaurants, no hotels, no life), so we finally went to the fucking port. A barrier and a man in a cabin. I stopped and tried to explain our situation. The man didn’t open his mouth, he only looked at me, angrily. Monroy came to help me and the man finally gave us (with bad manners) some papers to fill up: “Number of passengers, Number of cars…etc”. Yeah, it was clear that was possible to cross the river by ship! But everything was so strange… no info, no signals, nobody around… At that moment I noticed that there is only ONE bridge between Bulgaria and Romania, Fuck! 

It was completely dark when we finally move the cars inside the port. There was a police control. A bastard policeman spent like 1 hour with us, checking our cars, our ID, papers... At least it was funny when he was checking Viga’s photo, comparing it with his face. The policeman in front of Viga for 10 minutes, “scanning” Viga’s face one and another time… Viga smiling… the situation was very freak! That man was really bored there, I think…

We had to pay 64 € to pass, and moved ahead to the end of the line. Several trucks were waiting there too. That normalized the situation… we weren’t alone! Our mood had passed from worrying to funny. We (the trucks and our two cars) got on board in a small ferry. I was the last one, and the back of my car was –literally- above the water. Absolutely full! We enjoyed a lot the trip to the other side, and got out of the car to take some photos on the deck. Unexpectedly, we were crossing The Danube in a foggy night with our cars. Exciting! 

 

On the deck. Pacas, Marcos, Miera, Moly and Viga

Once in Bulgaria, the Police (AGAIN) held us for half hour. They asked us lots of things, I suppose it’s not common to receive two Bulgarian cars full of Spanish in that frontier at that time… We were doing a very rare thing. After all the mess, we finally arrived to Vidin (where there is an interesting fortress that we finally could NOT see). We had still 4 hours to reach Sofia… and we entered into a DENSE fog. VERY DENSE. We only could see 5-7 meters ahead, so we had to slow down a lot. 

Golf lights didn't help so much...

-“Bah… I’m sure this fog will disappear soon, it’s too dense and it will not last so much”, I thought. Heh!!... 3 HOURS OF MADDENING FOG! I didn’t know that fog could expand in such a BIG extensión (around 140 km, I estimate). Fortunately, I like challenges (and that was challenging), and I had VERY good company inside the car (Monroy and Pacas), so it was funny. We improved our fog driving skills fast, and soon we were driving at around 50-60 kmph. The trick is to maintain an absolute concentration in the central road line, and react very quickly in the curves or when other cars appear. The second car has a more relaxed driving; it’s as easy as follow the red lights, so we changed the position from time to time. 

It was madness… but we finally reached the highway to Sophia, where we arrived after 10 hours of car. Tired!! But not enough! We went to Dybaka to re-fill our stomachs, and later to Rockanrolla to drink a beer and celebrate that finally everything went well!! Long day… 

Romania. Transylvania. Day 72

 Day 72:

Dracula's Castle

I woke up at 8:30 but once switched on the TV I realized that actually was 7:30! Yeah, clock had been put back one hour, pretty news for lazy boys. After a few kilometers by car, and a quick breakfast in a petrol-station, we were the first visitors of the day at Bran Castle, Dracula’s home!!! Interesting place, with its particular beauty and strategically erected in a mountain pass. But we expected a different thing. All those legends about Dracula and the vampires… we thought we would see something scary and bloody! In fact, we visited the whole castle (is a museum now), with lots of things from Princess Ileana (the real owner), and saw very few mentions to the Romanian’s hero who inspired Bram Stoker to write “Dracula”: Vlad Tepes, also known as “The Impaler”. 

Fortified Church in Rasnov

Hordes of tourists were coming when we decided to leave and drive back to the nearby Rasnov. My friend Casar had recommended me to stop here and walk to the upper village, an ancient fortified church from where we could see the entire region in such a cloudless day. 

In the top of the fortified church

Our route

It was time to take the road to the west, parallel to the Carpathians. We arrived to the city of Făgăraş very hungry, so we stopped in the centre and bought 2 kebabs each one. Yeah, nice ones! We visited the fortress there, which has a museum inside with lots of ancient objects, coins, documents, weapons... Interesting.

Fortress in Fagaras

Sibiu

The road continues to the west, always with the magnificent presence of the mountains on our left side. We arrived to Sibiu, a beautiful city with charming old houses, streets and cathedrals. We took a walk –with a fresh beer in the hand- until it got dark, which was the moment to look for the booked hostel. It wasn’t easy, but we finally found it: Flying time!! The name is quite appropriate for this nice hostel, with its own bar and discotheque (10 € per night).

Southern Carpathians

Flying Time

We drank several beers in the bar while playing chess (at a very low level), expecting some party that night. We tried it after having dinner, but it was impossible… everything was closed, except our discotheque! We went there for a while, but it's not funny at all being only we and the waiter! 

Tomorrow will be very, very hard. Now --> BED.

Romania. From Bucharest to Transylvania. Day 71

Day 71:
 

Romanian Orthodox Church

CEC Palace, built in 1900

After taking a shower by turns, we had breakfast in a bakery and took the metro to go to the historic centre. Interesting buildings there, some big museum (that we DIDN’T visit) and orthodox cathedrals in which we listened that inspiring -and quite funny- monk chants. But the most surprising thing was the HUGE Palace of the Parliament: the world's largest civilian administrative building, most expensive administrative building, and heaviest building. Not less surprising was to see shacks in the middle of the city, surrounded by all that big and luxurious buildings. That’s the Romania that we probably expected, not the renewed and modern that we found in most of our trip. Anyway, a big contrast.

Palace of the Parliament. Bucharest

Later, we took our time to get out the city (just the opposite that when we arrived) and get lost in the suburbs. We stopped at 15:00 in Sinaia (125 km from Bucharest) to have lunch. Lots of laughs... And after that we tried to find Sinaia’s castle, which was the reason to stop there. It’s up in the hill, hidden in the forest, like the little wonders have to be. Peles Castle, a marvelous construction with more than 100 years (and 170 rooms), was the residence of King Carol I of Romania. Unfortunately, we couldn’t visit the museum because we arrived later and was closed! Anyway, we all get amazed by this castle. Absolutely recommended!

Finally!! We found the castle... hidden in the forest

San Nicolas Church. Brasov

Peles Castle. Sinaia

Sinaia is surrounded by Bucegi Mountains (they are part of the Southern Carpathians), which are full of huge forests and nice peaks –I’ve to came here again to do some hiking!-. The road continues through this spot until it arrives to Brasov, city of the mythical Transylvanian region. We didn’t have so many time to see the Black Church and San Nicolas’ Church, but the city looked nice. A comfortable little hotel in the nearby village of Christian was our accommodation that night. 12 € per person and nice private rooms with TV, bathroom and... Jacuzzi!! Superb. We returned to Brasov centre in my car (6 on board, Monroy in the boot, someone had to sacrifice) and watched the Real Madrid match in a pub, while eating some pizza... so nice! After some beers I decided to come back to the Hotel, but the rest continued partying until late... and had problems with a cheater taxi driver when returning to the Hotel... fortunately, things didn’t become serious.

Other pics...:

The other face of Bucharest city centre

 

Monroy sacrificing himself :D

Mad Mollo and the mad lion!

La Jandarmería !!!

Romania. From Sofia to Bucharest. Day 70

Day 70:

We had met at 10 in the morning, but as it was predictable, nobody had woken up at that time. So was necessary to wait a bit more until all the people were stand up, including myself (usually the leader of the Lazy…). Continuing with our SICKLY PLANIFICATION of the trip, we did our bags and bought some food as we went along. While I was going to take a rented car (a shitty long Renault Clio, in Sara Rent) for the newcomers with Iva and Miera, Pacas was offering an AMAZING TOUR EXPRESS around Sofia city-centre (Cathedral, Russian Church, touristic market…) to Moly and Viga. Nearly ready, we had lunch before depart, and did a BOTCH reparation in the VW Golf motor (only with my hands, teethes and some rubber...McGyver is a newbie). Yeah, we were finally ready to drive!

Ooouachh.... Good weather this morning in Sofia!

 

ON THE ROAD: FROM SOFIA TO BUCHAREST

Having in mind that we had booked night in Bucharest, and it was 14.00 on the clock when we started the cars to move on… ok, we wouldn’t have so many stops that day… Fortunately, a hot sun was rising above us, and the first kilometers were over one of the few highway stretches in all the country (from Sofia to Varna). It relaxed the driving at the beginning, while crossing through Stara Planina mountains (a loooong range from west Bulgaria to east Bulgaria). There we could enjoy some nice views and the snow in the road verge. The traffic was quite heavy, and from time to time, a crazy Bulgarian driver passed us with violence. Usually, a big black 4x4 BMW or Mercedes. Mafia? Yeahhh...

Once out of the highway, we found the authentic Bulgarian roads, with its lovely BIG holes. That pavement was much more older than my car, but anyway, we enjoyed the long west-to-east northern lands crossing. That is an area that we rarely would have the opportunity to visit again. It was interesting to see this forgotten Bulgaria, with isolated villages and industrial cities in the middle of nowhere (Pleven). A bus which was driving in “beast-mode” entertained us for a while. It passed us like a crazy devil, and was doing the same with the rest of the cars. Overtaking from the right side or from the left one, no matter at all!. In a straight or in a curve, who cares? We tried to follow it as hard as we could, seeing its madness. But some passing was impossible to replicate… it disappeared in the horizon… crazy fucking bus!! The newcomers were very surprised after seeing that, but I think it was because they were exactly that… newcomers!

North Bulgaria, a few km from Pleven

We arrived to the city of Ruse at night. Danube river it’s there, marking a big natural frontier with Romania. We paid 6 € to cross the long bridge, and 3 € in Romanian taxes. Not so expensive. In Romania the roads surprised us: perfect pavement, wide, clean and signposted. Why is SO BIG this difference between Bulgaria and Romania??? Maybe are true all those rumors which say that the European funds are controlled (or strongly influenced... as you want) by the Mafia in Bulgaria, and they use them to their own benefit. I can’t know exactly what the reason is, but it’s really strange.

One hour later we entered to Bucharest. We simply followed the road until we were in the middle of the city. Once there, we stopped and asked for the street of our Hostel: “It’s just there”, said a young man, pointing the other side of the street. “It’s impossible to be so lucky… there are 2 million people in this place, it’s impossible…”, I thought. But yes, we had stopped just in front of our Hostel, less than 100 meters. We, lucky bastards!!

Bucharest at night:

Good morning with Kamenitza!

We left our things in the Hostel and went to the old city centre, surprisingly beautiful at night. We had been recommended to go to a specific restaurant: Caru Cu Bere! Opened in 1879, it’s a marvelous building with impressive furniture and decoration. Classic and luxurious. But we weren’t lucky this time: it was absolutely full. Finally, we found another place were we could taste local food (mainly meat) and beer (Ciuc, Silva…). Around 10 € per person, more expensive than Bulgaria, but still far cheaper than Spain, considering we are just in the center. After the feast, we had some drinks in downtown local pubs (3 € per “Cubalibre”, aprox.). Viga and some other rebel tried to extend the night as long as our money could last, but the fact is that we returned to the Hostel around 2.30 AM. Wise decision, because it would have been a trench warfare with unknown consequences!