Into Romania!

Me in one of europe's narrowest streets in Brasov, Romania.

Kelly at the wondefully gothic Bran castle
Kelly looking lovely in the castle courtyard.
Kelly in Brasov's central square. Behind her is the house where they used to tourure people, now home to the tourists information. We learned quite a bit about medieval life in Brasov, for example how the various guilds (tanners, locksmiths etc.) where in charge of defence of the town and each manned their own tower or bastion along the town walls.
A view of Brasov showing the Black church and the Hollywood style Brasov sign on on the hill.
The Black church.
Inside Pele's castle in Sinia, Romania. This was a summer holiday home for Romanian Kings and perhaps Hapsburgh kings if I remember correctly. It was shockingly opulent, really!
I and Kelly outside Pele's castle.
Belgrade in Serbia, I am not sure if the damage to that building was due to NATO planes or not! We did have a pleasant time there and it is a very nice city.

Hello all. I hope you are all well. You find I and Kelly about to leave Romania for Budapest where we will stay until Sunday when we fly to Germany. It has been an amazing time in Romania, although each place has offered something special and unique Romania has to be my favourite destination so far. It has been a worthy adventure on it's own. Our brief stay in Belgrade was actually very nice, the people were very nice and friendly and the place had a pleasant feel. It is nice to have it confirmed that Slobidan Milosivitch (however his name is spelt) and his Serb nationalists wholely misrepresented this country. We also spent a facinating few hours in the Nicolai Teslov museum, the guy truely was a genuis of the highest order. We are in dept to him for much of the aspects of our modern life, most famously electricty. It was his work not Edisson's which allowed the first power stations built and electricity to be supplied over long distances. I knew this already but it was nice to see him honoured with such a nice musuem which involved a number of live demonstations. After a lovely 13 hour train ride to Bucharest be didnt wast time and rushed on to Sinia in Romania where we took in wonderful mountian views, experienced romanian home cooking and visited the amazingly opulent Pele's Palace. Which amung many other wonders had a set of teak (sp?) chairs and tables made in India which took 100 years to make! Then we went to Basov which is a lovely medieval town from where we took a day trip to the gothic to it core Bran castle. Basov was a very nice, clean and modern feeling town. Everyone was well dressed and it could have been anywhere in the EU. What a difference it was when we rented the car and discovered rural Romania! It just finished out 6 day car adventure today and my goodness what a time! I can't wait to tell you about it! And of course show you the pics!
OK, back to time wasting....time wasting you wonder! Well, first I would like to point out so far EVERYTHING on our trip has gone perfectly smoothly. However today before dropping off the car we dropped by the train station in Cluj (norther Romania) to buy our train ticket to Budapest. I went in to buy the ticket, Kelly is wholely inocent in the matter, and asked for the next train to Budapest. The lady told me 3.22, I asked how much, it seemed reasonable to I baught them, the time was 12 noon by the way. We then returned the car and spent the last of our Lie (Romanian money) on food and a book and caught a taxi to the train station with 50min to spare. The train wasnt up on the board so I asked and that is when I discovered that train was at 3.22 AM! Yes! In the morning! I was only 12 hours early! Oh boy! And to boot there was no left luggage or toilet at the train station. So in the end we found the old security gaurd was running a left luggage on the sly, he agreed to take out bags and while Kelly when to change some money to pay him and keep us going I hung out with him in his little office. He was a friendly guy! When he discovered I was British (englaisee) he gave me a hug and a kiss! He was pretty funny and even gave me a bag of pumkin seeds when I told him yes they were nice (only out of politeness). Hopefully it all works out!

All the best

Craig and Kelly