Leevi & Sarahs Travel Blog

Afetr another long and no sleep overnight train ride we arrived at the very early time of 7am at Romania’s capitial Bucharest. The hostel we where staying at was a little bit out of town so the by the time we found where the bus stop was and which number etc I think our eye’s where hanging out of our heads. In one way it was a relief that the we where up so earlier as it was much easier to get a bus with our huge bags on.

The hostel we where staying at stated it had 24 hour service. NOT! It’s not the nicest feeling to be ringing a door bell for about an hour and then to be greeted by a staff member who is hung over and surly. It’s a even worse feeling whilst you are trying to put your stuff away and being told to be quiet yet again for the same staff member who should have been working not in bed with another traveller.

Anywho that was my debriefing, so after a freshen up of we headed to explore the mini Paris of the East. Well Romania does have an Arch of Triumph and tree lined streets, which where lovely to walk under especially with the heat. We also spent the morning walking through the famous parks that where huge and full to the the brim of people and dogs. The parks where also a great place to relax and eat ice cream!

We then decided head into the old city  ignoring the hot sun to see what else Sofia had to offer. We headed down town to check out the Old City well what was left of the Old City,  Nicolae Ceausescu, leader of the Communist Party had a grand old time demolishing all of Bucharest beautiful architecture. So now what is left is home to Bucharest museums and gallieries. By this stage are legs and bodies where weary from both the heat and tirdness but we solidered on a little further to see Ceausescu famous creation a 12-storey palace for himself together with a parliament building.

On arrival to the main street that the Parliament is situated you are greeted by several huge fountains all leading the pathway to the HUGE building. It’s actually the second largest political building in the world and with my own eye’s i believe it. We acually had several issue’s trying to get the huge building to fit into a photo.

So after much walking around on day one what will we do day 2 in Bucharest? More walking! Although this time we decided to keep to Bucharest famous parks and tree lined boulavards. We headed down town to Cismigiu to hire a paddle boat and cruise around the lake. Um and that was pretty much it to be honest, more walking back to our hostel and then drinks and nibbles with other travellers and sharing stories.

On our third day we head up and across Romania not only to edge our selves closer to Hungary but to stop at the UNESCO citadel Sighisoara. It is a beautiful living citadel full of picturesque houses, churches, streets and towers. The whole town is surrounded by a medieval wall with several towers so for me it was a very exciting place to visit. As you feel like the town is almost as how it was several hundreds of years ago. It was also exciting for Dracula fans as this was the birth place of Vlad the impaler although the town didn’t play to heavly on that. It also didn’t help the situation at sun down Leevi would get all worked up, as he noticed people heading in doors - ( due to dinner time)

Our second day was our exploring day, feeling refreshed and alive although slightly down trodend as we found out 80 Euro and Leevi’s watch was missing? After a phone call home to moan and groan we got on with it.Sighisoara is a photographers ( Leevi’s ) dream, this was even more emphasised from the top of the clock tower. The clock tower has been apart of the towns history since the middle-ages. The carved wooden people still move and rotate for different days of the week. Also from the top you get an excellent view of the old tile -roofed home’s that sit along the winding streets.

We both enjoyed Romania, it’s people and history. I wouldn’t go to expect theme parks but go to enjoy the country and it’s progression to leave it’s it dark history behind and move forward. Im glad we went there in a time where we can see the in between transition