Hi there! Way back at the end of August (is it really almost Christmas?!) we took an epic 31-day road trip (with a toddler), looping around Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Why? Because that's the type of fun we like to have. While I can't say that every moment was a relaxing vacation, it was an amazing trip and we saw and learned a ton. Paul is really a great traveler, and a great little kid. And even though he won't remember any of this, we did enjoy having him along for the ride. And he'll at least get some cool photos for later.
So, we rolled out in the Corolla with way too much stuff on 27 Aug. After a small wait at the border crossing where they wrote down everyone's license plates since their computers weren't working, we crossed into Bulgaria.
We didn't take any photos at our first stop, Sozopol, Bulgaria. It was a nice little beach town on the Black Sea Coast. Paul unfortunately did not care for the sand or the water this time, as the waves were a fair bit stronger than he'd experienced on the Aegean. But it was a great beach as far as the adults were concerned. After a quick spin around the old part of town the next morning we were off to.....
Veliko Tarnovo - a small Medieval town in North-Central Bulgaria. We spent 2 nights there, so we had a full day to sightsee (and ate dinner twice at the same restaurant because it was awesome and had great views of the river valley). According to Dennis, the town was the historical capital of the 2nd Bulgarian Empire from the 12-15th centuries. It also had a really cool soviet-looking scary statue near a huge abandoned hotel.
 |
| Tsarevets - the empire's primary castle/palace complex, dating from 1185. I think they used to throw criminals(?) off one of the high outer walls, sending them to their deaths way down by the river. |
 |
| View from way up on top of the tower at the church at the castle, you can see the Yantra River as it winds through the town. It really was a beautiful little town when it wasn't raining. |
We left VT and then headed north. Crossed the Danube (for the first time) at the border to Romania! Definitely a country I've had mental images of for a long time but was not at all as I expected. Beautiful countryside, hardly any vampires. And the northern part of the country particularly is much less post-communist-sad-concrete, rather much more western-european-hapsburgy-pretty.
First stop was Bucharest. Only stayed there one night. Visited one museum, walked around town a bit -- I'm sure there's much more one could see with more time and less toddler, but we like the feel of the place.
 |
| Paul started the trip with a nice short haircut. Peaches were in season early on, and he digs peaches. We stopped for a snack in one of Bucharest's very nice parks. This was on our way to the Museum of the Romanian Peasant, which is an interesting place too, but this was a cuter photo. |
 |
| Bucharest's Arcul de Triumf, their version of the Arc de Triomphe. Built after Romania gained its independence in 1878. |
|
Next, we drove north some more, stopping at the supposed burial site of (the body minus the head) of Vlad the Impaler. It's at Snagov monastery, which is on an island in the middle of a lake near Bucharest. As I write this, I just read on Wikipedia that most historians don't actually think he is buried there, so maybe we got a raw deal, but it was a very beautiful church and a very peaceful island.
 |
| We were the only visitors. There were some small ponies and large turkeys running about though. |
Next stop, Brasov, Romania. Very nice old Medieval town center, a bit touristy but almost felt like we were suddenly in any town in central Europe when we entered the old town square. Which we drove around a couple times looking for our hotel, based on inaccurate google maps directions.
 |
| This is not the pretty part. This is our apartment, which, while being nice enough on the inside, was *not* right next to the center of town/all the main sights/pedestrian district as advertised on booking.com. Oh well, we got to do laundry. |
 |
| We were in Brasov two nights, so first we went down to Bran Castle |
 |
| I love how they stack up the hay in these piles. Feels right out of a fairy tale to me. |
 |
| After Bran castle, we decided we hadn't seen enough castles yet, so we also stopped at Rasnov Citadel (built in the early 1200's). It was disappointing inside as it was mostly touristy junk for sale, not so much historical information to read. |
 |
| But it did have nice views. |
 |
| Back to town that afternoon. This is the Black Church, a very dark gothic Cathedral built in the late 14th century. It got that name after being partly destroyed in a fire (so maybe it wouldn't be so black if they cleaned it off?). Used to be Catholic, became Lutheran after the reformation. It's pronounced "Biserica" in Romanian so that was fun to say. |
 |
| THIS is the pretty part of Brasov's old town square. You just had to be patient. We didn't get to go in the church but they did have people come out & play trumpets on a little balcony up in the tower at 6pm. |
Next stop, Cluj-Napoca, Romania -- the city of another Olmsted Scholar, who unfortunately wasn't home, but gave us good travel tips. On the way across castle country, we stopped in a town called Sighișoara. It's old town is high on a hill, with beautiful architecture (German craftsmen from the 1200's).
 |
| Not what we were expecting from Romania (though I guess I should have googled more first). Bright colors, really cool architecture, very European post-card. |
Last stop in Romania was Cluj, we spent two nights there so we had a nice, non-rushed full day to wander around the town. Sorta a breather stop after many, many castles & churches.
But we did go to one church--St Michael's Church is a large, gothic-style cathedral downtown. We were struck by how Austro-Hungarian the town looked, and by how cold it seemed to have gotten all of a sudden. Wasn't it summer still? We celebrated our 8th wedding Anniversary with an early dinner in Cluj.
Next stop...Hungary!
No comments:
Post a Comment