The Grants' Bulgaria Blog.

Final instalment in our “Quick! Catch up with the blogging before we move on to Turkey” series… sees us doing a few touristy things around Romania.

After the onslaught of shopping that Humf and I endured – the same onslaught that Elly and Margot revelled in – we were very much ready to leave the city and take in some different sights. On the bus trip up to Transylvania we were surprised and excited to notice the huge differences between Bulgaria and neighbouring Romania – in landscape, in architecture, in the villages, in the people…! I guess noticing all those differences is what travelling is all about.

When Jon and Margot suggested we get a maxi-taxi out to Sighişoara (sig-ee-shwa-rah), a 12th-Century village where Vlad Dracul (yes, Dracula) lived for some time, we jumped at the opportunity.

It was about a hour from Târgu Mureş (ter-goo moor-esh) and we got there in the early arvo. It’s a great time of year to travel (depending on the weather) because it’s well and truly outside of the high season – there were plenty of others wandering around seeing the sights, but much less crowded than in summer (me thinks). The village was typically colourful for Romania:

Up on the hill was the Old Town – the part of the village that dates back to the 12th-Century. I guess we’ve almost become accustomed to the concept of an Old Town now, but really, it just wouldn’t be possible in Australia. Depending on your definition of “old”, of course.

This strange wooden tunnel leads from the centre of the Old Town to the top of the hill where there are some churches and a graveyard.

As if the village itself didn’t have enough charm, we were surrounded at all times by stunning autumn foliage!

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The other sightseeing excursion we made from Târgu Mureş was the Salt Mine at Praid (pron: pride). Apparently it’s been mined since Roman times and, more recently – as the mining has moved further under ground – the locals have opened up some of the disused mining sites to the public. Around the 1950s the salt mine became the site of an alternative therapy called speleotherapy – which espouses the health benefits of breathing in salty air.

Thousands of people every year travel down salt mines, including this one, to breath in the air. There appears to be some science behind it but I didn’t really read the plaques… It’s supposed to be particularly good for sufferers of asthma, and based on that, they’ve built a series of huge playgrounds for kids to stay entertained while they breathe the air! Apparently some of them spend four hours down the mine as often as three times a week.

There’s also a church down there where Catholic and Orthodox (ie. Hungarian and Romanian) services are held.

And when we returned to the surface (allegedly feeling much refreshed, or something), we went and got kürtös kalács which is some seriously tasty Hungarian sweet bread! They put dough on a wooden cylinder and then mount it on a spit. It is cooked over a charcoal fire and then coated in sugar, spices and nuts. You eat it while it’s hot and say “yum”. Not a Hungarian word.

Hungarian, by the way, is considered one of the hardest languages to learn (as a second language – for English-speakers). It’s loosely related to Finnish, but is essentially independent from all other languages (rare for Europe!). It looks like this: “Angolul beszélő magyar megtalálni nagyon nehéz megtanulni”.

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We left Transylvania on Friday morning, and I’m glad to say that we’re nearly caught up with our blogging!

We got another maxi-taxi back to Bucharest and stayed a night at the East Hostel, which is easily the best hostel I’ve stayed in! It was fitted out amazingly well. Incredibly classy bathrooms; it felt like a boutique hotel but instead of a king-sized four-poster bed per room, they have several bunks! A very nice surprise, we thought.

We got the train back to Haskovo the next day and that’s where we are now. Humf will be heading to Turkey tomorrow. Elly and I will probably hang back in Haskovo to nurse our wounded wallets for a few days before joining Humf to see Cappadocia! Looking forward to it!

You can expect some more philosophical reflections on our travels in the next few days!

Cheers,

Stu.

Tags: food, holidays, photos, Romania, Touristy stuff, trains, travelling

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 1st, 2009 at 3:06 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.