Mapping our past..

We have added a map on our page that acts as a link on the sidebar. Let us know if you have any problems using it.

Holiday Homes

Current holiday home count: 24 in 49 days.
And they're all soooo different.

Tree Huggers

Something we are having more and more trouble with over here is the litter. Not just a little bit but excessive amounts. So the rubbish man didn't come this morning, take your bin to the side of the river to empty it. So you had a picnic and are too full to pack up, just walk away! On the train and just leaving your empty drink bottle under the seat isn't goods enough, see how far you can throw it!!!!!!!!!!
What is awful is the totally unnecessary nature of littering. Romania has an awful industrial record. One town we visited had an aluminum plant and carbon factory based there in the Eighties and two thirds of the children showed sign of mental illness at that time. When we went through the abandoned factories are still standing and are pitch black, along with the surrounding houses. Apparently they saw white snow for the first time in a long time not long ago. There was also the gold mine disaster several years ago which resulted in cyanide being released into the drinking water of thousands of people, to the Danube and through to the Black Sea (an Australian company was the major shareholder in the mine).
These disasters are awful but we find it easier to understand how companies and industries pollute than we understand how people just have no care for their immediate surroundings. It is hard to describe the scale of it really but we are both disgusted at times by the piles and piles we come across.
We are VERY lucky in Australia.

Sighisoara

Sighisoara is a smallish town (36000 people or so) and is centred on a little hill upon which the old citadel is perched. We were lucky enough to stay in a place inside the citadel and this part of the town feels like it hasn't changed for a very long time. There are covered walkways, narrow cobbled streets, ancient houses and even more ancient city walls (still intact all the way around!). There are two churches inside the citadel walls and one a fair way outside. This one was for victims of the plague and other infectious diseases. Smart people.
We made an attempt at riding a pair of bikes to some outlying towns but given that Adam had no brakes, Eva's bike was stuck in the highest gear (or the chain would come off) and it felt like they would fall apart over all the cobblestones, made for an interesting morning not getting out of the towns limits, but good fun. It was beginning to rain anyway so we spent the arvo looking around a good history museum and the citadel's two churches.
If every we were going to search for a location to shoot a movie set in the 16th century (OK not likely) this would have to win so far. To think there were actually impalings, hangings and witch trials right in the sweet little square was a bit off putting though.
Photos: Rooftops in the old town, a bastion

Sibiu

We spent two days in Sibiu wandering around the old town with little windy roads, stairways up between buildings and town walls which were still partially standing. It was very pretty but there was one thing interupting our enjoyment (and I'm sure the local's enjoyment) and that was roadworks.
Roadworks, Roadworks, Roadworks. Almost every road was in the process of being dug up. That is without any exaggeration either. If you weren't on a road with roadworks on it you could at least see roadworks at either end. The thing which amazed us was the fact that you were free to walk through what was essentially a city wide construction zone, dodging massive 6 ft deep holes and traipsing through mud and freshly laid concrete. Not so amazing really when you consider that if you weren't able to cross these zones you would end up in some type of house arrest.
We found out that the reason for the rush on roadworks was 'Sibiu 2007', an event which selected Sibiu as 'the centre of culture' for 2007. It is a Europe wide event so they obviously were putting the polish on quicksmart. Somehow we doubt they'll be finished in time but at least everything will be covered in snow for the first couple of months.
We made a trip out to Sibiu's open air ethnographic museum which was a huge complex containing full villiage set ups including wells, windmills, workshops, houses churches-everything. Eva was running around looking at everything but it took a dose of food for Adam to see the light and enjoy himself. Or it might have had something to do with watching a bunch of fishermen pull a few carp in and us seeing loads of frogs the size of our palms launching themselves into the water as we walked along the banks of the lake, way more fun than looking at a bunch of old houses.
We left Sibiu for Sighisoara but not before we climbed throught our last pile of roadworks outside the train station. Oh the memories.
Photos: Some Roma in Sibiu

Bran

 

The morning after we arrived in Bran we thought we should probably get to the castle early before all the other tourists arrived. We ended up having the place almost to ourselves which was nice but the castle itself was not really as interesting as others we have seen (Oh aren't we getting spoilt). There is a very pretty inner courtyard but most of the place was extensively renovated in the early 1900 so kinda lost it's medieval feel.
We ended up hunting through the markets at the bottom for a deck of Dracula themed playing cards to mix with our other deck so we could play Rummikin. We didn't succeed on getting Dracula themed ones but still grabbed a deck and spent much of the evening trying to figure out how to prop 14 cards on pillows to play one another.
The following day we ran into (for the second time) the issue of most tourist sites being closed on Mondays. You may ask why we don't take Mondays into account in our planning.....What planning!?!?
We did a bit of ringing around to see what we might be able to get out to but it was no use. There was only one thing for it, a day of rest. We loaded up on some wine, a bottle of Palinka (a local strong brandy), a stick of sausage, some bread thingos and headed for the hills. We found a nice spot with a view and sat there for about six hours consuming our treats, and somehow Adam got bitten by a horse. Definitely our best experience of Bran!
The following day we left Bran to visit Rasnov citadel then on to Sibiu. Rasnov was great, although still in the process of being reconstructed what was there gave a really good feel of what the place would have been like 500 years ago. In fact the ruins being worked on out the back heightened the sense of history. Oh, Eva made friends with a donkey too.
We then began yet another epic public transport trip to Sibiu. We are still in awe that a train can take an hour to cover 40 km. No it isn't steep or windy, it's just that every farmhouse along the way constitutes a stop. Interesting at first but....
Due to the long trip to Sibiu and the fact it took us five hotels before we found one with rooms we weren't in the best of moods when we arrived. Our first impressions were not tainted though, Sibiu is a beautiful old town...
Photos: Bran Castle, Horse and cart, Adam trying to play Rummikin

Once again..

We have once again been able to update photos. Some go back as far as Ukraine so if you want to check them out have a browse. It may seem a little out of sequence- long story.

The descent into Bran

After a coffee and a pack of biscuits for brekkie over which we chopped our map in two for Will and Simon who had lost theirs (lucky we were traveling in opposite directions) we set of for Bran.
The sign at Omu said the walk should take 41/2 to 5 hours and our guidebook said 6 so planning on about 61/2 we figured we should be OK but knackered when we arrived in Bran.
The walk was amazing as we descended from the tundra through alpine pine thickets to pine forests, then to logging roads into the town.
This however was no easy descent. It was a 1700 metre drop over 15 km. Most of the drop occurred in the first 8 km though. At times we thought we should have brought along some rock climbing gear as we slid down loose gravel, sheer slopes and amazing dropoffs. With the occasional landslide blocking our path as well.
Crazily enough we actually passed some people coming the other way. No joke, they were insane. The sign in Bran puts the uphill climb to eight hours and we'd add a bit on to that. Mad.
So, the path eventually leveled off and we worked out we had been walking for seven hours pretty much straight, thank goodness for good backpacks!
Coming into Bran was somewhat of an anticlimax however, this was definitely a case of the journey being worth more than the destination! We came around a corner all of a sudden to see busloads of tourists swarming around the tacky, Dracula themed markets at the foot of Bran castle.
We were sooo knackered by this stage we found a place to stay, grabbed some food (squeezed in time for some washing-grrr) and crashed!
Photos: Our first Autumn colour, Another stunning view, Adam observing the view

On Top of The World

We set out from Babele early planning to either return to Busteni that night or stay at Cabana Varful Omu on the highest peak of the Bucegi mountains. Eva had been dreaming of walking down from Mt Omu to Bran since we started planning our trip but we weren't to sure if we would be up to it as it was described as being quite tough.
We first headed towards the WWI monument we had seen hanging above Busteni the previous day. We could not see very far in front of us due to the cloud we were walking through and realized why the trail markers are spaced at 10 metre intervals. As we walked the cloud cleared up and the view emerged, it was spectacular!
On the way to the monument we saw more of the flighty deer we had seen the other day and also came across a huge hunk of ice, this reminded us just how cold we actually were. We came over a final peak and saw the gigantic cross monument which we guesstimate at about 30 metres high. We were lucky enough to be the first ones there and to have the view all to ourselves before several other hikers arrived. Once again the view was amazing.
From the monument we set out for Mt Omu which is at 2505 m. We climbed from having the clouds at eye level to being well above them. The terrain was all mountain grasses and quite beautiful, we were well above the tree line by now and when we stopped walking pretty cold too. The sky was the bluest we had ever seen it being so high up above the clouds...stunning.
We caught sight of the cabana and meteorological station perched on the peak of Omu and realized just how isolated it was. By now we were all enthused to have a crack at the Bran walk so when we hauled ourselves up to the cabana we arranged to stay the night.
The cabana was basic with no running water (and only fizzy mineral water in bottles), no electricity and a long drop squat round the side. The setting and the lovely lady running the place added to the brilliant feel of the day. Isolation can be sooo nice.
We were the first couple of people to grab a bed for the night (so we scored a room to ourselves) so we spent the arvo lazing around in the sun seeing who else would turn up and soaking up the view.
We headed into the dining room for a beer (served up with some drippings on bread-tasty) and were just wondering how many Aussies are lucky enough to stay at Omu when in walks two guys, Simon, an Aussie and Will, a Pom. They had met in Bulgaria at Rila monastery which is one of the places we hope to visit and had met up to travel this stretch of mountain together.
We spent the evening chatting to these two fellows which was tops as we hadn't had the chance to have much English conversation since Paul and Olga in Ukraine.
As the sun set the dining room got pretty dark due to the whole no electricity thing and we grabbed some sausages and mashed potatoes for tea YUM. The candles were eventually cracked out when we had to start using our torches to eat. There was probably about ten people staying there and it was lovely and cozy. To just about everyone's disbelief a couple of very well equipped but cold looking hikers spilled into the cabana at about 9 pm out of the pitch black - mad!
After a hot chocolate we headed to our bedroom which was heated by a naked gas flame, very, very cozy.

Photos: Mt Omu (If you zoom in you can see the Cabana), The WWI memorial, Eva looking like a total dork next to the block of ice we found

Silence of the Lamb

We left Busteni early to take the cable car up to Babele, a cabana situated at the top near some rock formations. The ride up in the car was spectacular and walking up would have been out of the question, even the trees had trouble holding on to these cliffs!
We got to the cabana and dumped our packs before going for a hike down to the Ialomiciora monastery which is nested in a cave. The monastery was pretty but the coolest bit was climbing about 800m through the cave on the most rickety slippery boards ever. We got absolutely filthy but it was well worth it.
We got back to the cabana and settled in to the dining hall for the evening along with a whole bunch of workers from around the mountain and a couple of shepherds. They all got pretty rowdy and the shepherds, after some sort of argument, disappeared for about 15 minutes.
By now the whole place was surrounded by clouds so we thought maybe they had lost their flock while they were busy boozing but sure enough upon their return to the dining hall they carried in a skun, gutted sheep carcass- talk about fresh!!
One of the shepherds must have noticed us observing the goings on and decided to come make friends with Adam. After much hand waving and Romanian he gave up on us but we have a sneaking suspicion that he was trying to sell us some of the mutton he had just slaughtered.
The following morning we walked out of the cabana only to realize that the rock formations which had been covered in tourists the day before had been the site of the slaughter and was now covered in a huge pool of blood-cool.
Photos: The Babele cable car disappearing in the morning cloud, The sacrificial rock, The view of the WWI memorial from Busteni (you might have to zoom in)

These mountains are freaking HUGE!!!!

As the title suggests we are now in the mountains of Transylvania, the Bucegi Mountains to be exact which are part of the Carpathians. We arrived in a town called Sinaia and ended up staying in a little old lady's house. She spoke not a word of English so we got to practice a bit of our Romanian on her. We have really noticed how much easier this language has been to pick up compared to Ukrainian as it is Latin based rather than Slavic based. She must have been able to understand us too which was a bit exciting as we figured out we did have a hot shower and that we could come and go as we pleased. There was a little more difficulty when she had to go shopping for half a day and had to leave the front door key with her neighbour but we figured it out. It was cool having to go through her kitchen to get to our room and passing her chickens that lived in a box, her dog, cat etc etc..
The town is in a valley with massive mountains looming over it which we decided to catch a cable car up. It was a two cable car trip with the first taking you up to 1400m and the second taking you up to 2000m. Up the top it was sunny but freezing and as we were above the tree line it was very exposed. We wandered around for a couple of hours seeing a shepherd and his flock, some deer and lots of flowers, lichen, spiders and grasshoppers. And of course plenty of jaw dropping views, lots of those.
As we descended on the cable car we realised that we had just had one of the best experiences, the mountain was just so beautiful. The best part was we knew there was more to come.
The next day we visited Peles castle which was another jaw dropper. It is the classic fairytale castle which took 39 years to build (a few months after which the king it was built for died-Doh!) and which we have decided to move into if we come across some ridiculous amount of money.
We then headed to Busteni which is at the base of another cable car up into the mountains. Tomorrow we are going up and are hoping to do a bit of walking, staying at cabanas (mountain hut thingos), and hopefully seeing some wildlife. Our current wildlife count is some frogs, some deer and two squirrels. That isn't counting the hundreds of stray dogs and cats everywhere.
We should have some amazing pics for you guys next time we can add them......
Photos: Peles Castle, Us chilling out on a mountain

Brasov

We hit Brasov the other day, the main gateway to a lot of the sights in this part of the mountains and a beautiful town in its own right as well. We searched around for a decent place to stay and ended up in a guesthouse recommended by the trusty old guidebook. It was tucked away in a courtyard off a pretty street in the old town. We just had to walk a few streets over and we were in the old town square, perfect.
It just so happened that our arrival in Brasov coincided with a Tuborg Gold beer festival. Totally unexpected but very handy. A whole outdoor area was set up with heaps of beer tents, BBQs and a stage. We had a lot of fun sampling the cheap beer, queuing up for mici (meatball things served with mustard and bread) and getting down to awful DJs and a so-so Romanian rock band which was very popular. After seeing a big street dance party in Yalta and now this we have concluded that these guys know how to party over here, don't know what the noise pollution rules are though... You could hear the partying across town.
The next day Adam was healthy as usual and Eva was trashy as. How unfair!! As a hangover cure we took the cable car to the top of the mountain overlooking the city. The ride to the top was a bit on the queasy side but the fresh (freezing) breeze at the top was very restorative. It was very exciting getting to walk up to the huge BRASOV sign which is on the side of the mountain Hollywood style and which we had seen hanging over our heads for the last couple of days. Getting to see an aerial view of the old town was wonderful as well, with its huge defensive walls, ancient buildings and Gigantic church.
We ended up staying four nights in Brasov without seeming to do anything other than a bit of lazy sightseeing. It was just one of those places where you can spend a lot of time just soaking up the feeling of an old town and chilling out. Perhaps we stayed there so long because we knew our next stop was to the mountains where we were actually going to be doing some exercise...
One little adventure we had was trying to get out to a fortified church just out of town. We grabbed a couple of train tickets but when we pulled up at the 'station' we didn't quite know what to think. There was a house and a road and we had to jump down from the train about 1.5 m. We managed to navigate our way to the church only to find that it was closed which was pretty disappointing as from the outside it looked pretty cool. Mind you by the time we got back to Brasov (on our first minibus since 'the crash') we were pretty happy just to have gotten out to yet another tiny town for a look around what life is like over here.
Photos: Brasov main square (Note sign on hill)

Photos

We have now added photos to some of our blog entries!!
There are descriptions at the bottom of the entry if you can't be bothered reading the whole thing again.
There aren't any recent ones as we need to burn our cards to CD to be able to upload them.

Transport issues

We have spent a bit of time in transit in the last few days. We have thanked the fact that we are not running on any type of schedule a fair few times now. You will have already heard of our experience in crossing the border, we then had a two hour bus trip turn into a four and a half hour trip as the bus broke down.
The next time we went to catch a bus, this time to Lacul Rosu, it was flat out cancelled stranding a whole bunch of people til the next morning, ourselves included.
When we did get that bus the next morning we headed to Lacul Rosu, a resort 'town' which we had expected to be a lot larger. We were going to spend the night there but after seeing the magnificent Bicaz gorge nearby and wandering around the lake for a bit we decided to head on to Brasov that day. That involved a stop in Gheorgheni as we had not brought enough money with us to get all the way to Brasov. As we had expected Lacul Rosu to be much bigger we thought they would have ATMs (everywhere else so far has) so we were pretty much skint. Lucky we didn't want to stay the night anyway.
The next bus we jumped on was a maxi taxi, similar to marshrutkas in Ukraine but not quite as crowded. Not the best journey as there was a mother and son behind us getting terribly travel sick and stinking out the bus. We were relieved when we saw the city limits sign for Gheorgheni although our relief didn't last long. A woman turning left as we were overtaking her (silly bus driver) sideswiped us and sent us careering into a telegraph pole. BANG!
It was a scary couple of seconds before we figured out that the little girl sitting on her mum's lap and gone flying forwards was ok and that the sleeping babushka who landed in the aisle hadn't broken her hip. Oh and of course checking that we were ok too.
Actually thanks to that invention called the brake everyone escaped completely unharmed (except for Adam who has a mysterious sore arm). The telegraph pole might need replacing though, and the van.
The weirdest part of the whole experience though was that as no one was hurt, no one spoke our language and there was nothing for us to do we just put on our packs and walked the remaining ten minutes into town. How lucky that it was the town we wanted to get to in the first place.
Now just to settle down any worry warts out there, the driving here has actually been fairly sedate. A combination of shocking roads, horses and carts and livestock keep the speed limits right down even between towns. Just thought we should add that...
Photo: End of the road...

Horse and Cart

When our guidebook mentioned that horse and cart is still the most popular mode of transport in Romania we didn't really pay it much attention. True in Suceava we saw one or two which was a novelty but we didn't really think they were that common.
That was before we hit Gura Humorului (say it!!!). Don't get us wrong, this is no little village, they have a Best Western, all the mod cons and quite a large population. So it was quite a shock when every second vehicle was a horse and cart, they're registered too.
When we visited even smaller villages the old horse and cart outnumbered cars about 20 to 1. This all provides a dreamlike quality to the landscape we have been seeing in these rural areas, haystack upon haystack, people walking around with scythes, cowbells dinging. Just like stepping back in time.

Romania Romania!!!

Our first port of call in Romania was the town of Suceava. Immediately we realized what a different country we were now in, to begin with almost everyone we stammered our 'phrasebook Romanian' at replied to us in English (a little embarrassing) and they had much more modern music, if a little daggy. We also have seen so many more smiles, and the service!! Heaven!! Adam is now happy that we are dealing with plastic money rather than the paper hryvnia that kept disappearing in his pockets in Ukraine.
The money actually confused us for a little as they have just downsized. For example what was once 500,000 is now 50 lei. What made this so confusing was that we knew they had gone from millions to thousands in 2000 but were unaware of this more recent (December 2005) change, the old notes are still in circulation too. Kinda disappointing as we would have liked to get 21000 lei for our dollar rather than 2.1, Oh well. It doesn't help that many people haven't really adjusted to the change so we have had some very weird prices quoted to us.
We stayed a couple of nights in Suceava, seeing the town's ancient citadel and churches and getting used to a new country.
The next town we visited was Gura Humorului (say that 5 times fast) which was a little place we used to base ourselves while we visited the regions painted monasteries. These monasteries were fortified against attacks in the 1500's and as soldiers were sheltering in the grounds between battles the monks decided to paint the outside of the churches, cartoon style, with biblical stories. Amazingly they have largely survived and are pretty entertaining at that, gory too.
One of these monasteries proved to be quite difficult to get to. After a rotten morning getting lost Adam somehow stumbled on an English teacher who enlisted her daughter to take us to the correct bus stop. By bus stop we mean crowd of people at a random spot next to a paddock. Once we had seen the monastery we were then faced with the challenge of returning to Gura Humorului (say it loud) and considering busses were quite infrequent in the two street village we had landed in hitching was looking like our only option. We had seen sooo many people do it already but were quite nervous ourselves as it is not common practice in Australia. After seeing about three other people get lifts in front of us we while we waited we were saved the decision by two people in a van pulling up and asking if we needed a ride, this apparently is a common way of people covering fuel costs. We hopped in and received door to door service, brilliant. Love this place.
Photos: A painted monastery, Countryside near Gura Humorului (say it!)

Drug mules

Crossing the border from Ukraine to Romania was an amazing adventure. We had to get up early to catch a bus across the border the bus was scheduled to leave at 7:10 but was running a little late because the driver and his friends had to stuff the bus full of cigarettes. We had heard that this border crossing was a favourite for cigarette smugglers but we did not think that we would be involved. They were stuffing packets into the headrests of the seats, but even a child would've been able to see them. When the bus finally left it had only out 10 other people on it. As we approached the border we realized that we were the only fare paying passengers, everyone else knew each other and that the gypsy looking women may have been thinner than they looked.
Somehow we made it across the Ukrainian border ok. The Romanian border was a little bit more interesting, as we drove the 50 metres to the border the driver and the ringleader were looking increasingly uneasy asking us to carry a few cartons for them. We politely declined being uneasy about crossing the border ourselves.
We somehow made it through, although we have a sneaky suspicion that money may have exchanged hands, because just before the border they had a whip around on the bus with no explanation to us of course. You could smell the relief amongst the smugglers. We realized the extent of the operation when the 'large' women started removing huge belts of cigarettes from around their waist (Bali nine style) and emptied their stockings out. Our one regret is that we didn't get them to pose for photos.

Well at least it has a roof..

We promised a bit of a rundown on some of the Soviet Era hotels we have been staying in so here it is.
Our Lonely Planet guide book states that 'Ukrainian hotels are either stinkingly expensive or just plain stinking' We of course are on a budget soooo
The reception and breakfast staff are brusque and you almost think they are having you on with the attitude you get from them.
The hot water exists but you have to time your showers with the one hour in the morning and the one hour at night for which it is turned on. Some let you know what time the heat is on and others leave it up to your detective skills. Turning the tap on every half hour from 6am seems to work.
The beds and bathrooms (if you are not sharing one) are not too bad if you don't scratch the surface, and hey they have a roof.

I forgot, We have a remote for our camera.

This is us at Kamyanets-Podilsky. Adam nearly killed himself trying to get back in the frame for the photo, scaling a 6 foot wall before we remembered we had a remote.

Our Last Week in Ukraine

After another long train trip we arrived bright and early in Lviv. Lo and behold the weather wasn't stinking hot, we actually had to dust off the jumpers.
Lviv was yet another type of city entirely. There is a much more Western European feel, at least at first, it isn't hard to look for reminders about being in Ukraine. This was especially the case as we arrived on Ukrainian independence Day, so many flags!
After settling in we headed out to see what sort of celebrations were taking place. These ranged from singing Ukrainian national songs in front of a statue of the country's favorite poet, Taras Shevchenko to strong-man competitions in the street. We ended up heading in for an early night (passing a few scuffles on the way) but from the sound coming off the street the celebrations continued for some time.
The next day Adam came down with a head cold so we decided to climb a big hill and see if that would fix him up. It didn't but we got some great views of the old town from the top.
We rested up a bit after that to try and help Adam recover. On the way home from tea that night we saw a very drunken driver pull out from his park only to swerve directly into a parked Mercedes, whoops! No worries though he just drove off. Mental note: Do not cross the road (or footpaths) here without knowing the car heading towards you is stopping.
We spent another two days in Lviv doing a walk around the old town one day, which unfortunately was covered in scaffolding but still very interesting, if not at its most attractive. On the other day we headed out to Lychakivsky Cemetery which was cool. The whole place has about 400000 people buried in it and is overgrown, overcrowded and very, very goth. We saw some of the most beautiful and spooky looking gravestones and family tombs ever. We ended up spending several hours wandering around.
The next city we hit was Chernivtsi, a smaller university town close to the border with Romania, Moldova and Poland. What a university too! The buildings looked as though they were designed by an architect on LSD who decorated the buildings with bumps and bits, mosaics and all sorts of other stuff. None of the photos we took could really capture the feeling the place had, very strange.
Just out of Chernivtsi we visited the hugest markets in the country, attracting 50000 shoppers daily. It was really cool going from walkways full of wedding dresses, candles etc to anything you could ever need in the garden shed to toiletries, food, cloth and everything else under the sun, or under the overcast sky as it turned out.
The last town we visited was Kamyanets-Podilsky, a tiny little place in a spectacular setting. The old town is positioned on a bend in the river which has cut a 50 metre deep canyon around it. Added to this there is a massive fortress positioned above the town which you can climb all over and is simply amazing to look at. It was so much fun exploring with no restrictions that Eva decided to go into an unlit tunnel and disappear into the blackness as she fell down a flight of stone steps. You should see the bruise!! Luckily for you all you wont be exposed to the sight of it as it is somewhere that doesn't usually see the sun.
That pretty much sums up the where and what of Ukraine for us, much more to come though...(plus photos)
Photos: The castle at Kamyanets-Podilsky