A Taste of Romania

Plus, the final exam for our “Ph.D in traveling”

Hello ~ I’m Scott and welcome to your 5-Minute Vacation for Nov. 24th. I share these snippets of our travels in the hope that my photos and stories will allow you to go on a vicarious vacation and “get away from it all,” if only for a moment. I appreciate you inviting me into your inbox today.

I wonder if Dracula or even Bram Stoker liked hot dogs.

As we neared the end of our time in Europe, we had to decide between visiting someplace new (to us) or revisiting old faves. We chose someplace new: Romania.

We began our four-and-a-half-day visit with a full day in Bucharest. We took a walking food/history tour because it’s the best way for us to get a feel for a new city. Bucharest’s architecture ranged from the grandiose vision of the communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu to the more utilitarian apartment blocks of that era.

Our tour included a visit to a market. A variety of things, including shoes, wine in plastic bottles, souvenirs, and, of course, food, were available. We bought some candy and a (plastic) bottle of wine.

On our second day, we took a train to Braşov, the gateway to Transylvania.

Braşov’s charming main square.

On the third day, we toured two attractions near Braşov: the Libearty Bear Sanctuary and Bran Castle (a.k.a. Dracula’s Castle). The Libearty Bear Sanctuary is touted as the largest animal welfare project in Europe. The sanctuary has 130 bears, each of whom was rescued from some sort of mistreatment.

Bran Castle. The fact that Bran Castle has nothing to do with Dracula doesn’t diminish its popularity with tourists. We tried to talk our driver into skipping the castle in favor of a different locale, but he demurred, blaming traffic. The real history of the castle (Teutonic Order, Saxons, sieges, the favorite home of the last queen of Romania) is interesting on its own. Unfortunately, 800 years of history have been buried beneath one work of fiction. If you’re interested in Bram Stoker and Dracula, Dublin would be a better choice.

Our last full day in Romania felt like a final exam for our “Ph.D in traveling:”

• We took a taxi from the hotel to the train station, where we

• took an early morning train to Bucharest

• where, without being able to speak a word of Romanian, we figured out how to store our luggage at the train station.

• Luggageless, we figured out how to buy a 24-hour transit pass rather than taxi around the city, again without being able to speak a word of Romanian.

• We used our new pass to take a bus to our afternoon tour, “The History of Communism in Romania.”

• After the tour, we took a bus back to the train station where

• we caught a train to the hotel that was next to the airport.

• All of this was done on the fly.

• Whew!

Four and a half days in Romania were just enough to give us a taste of the country. There’s more to see and do, such as learning more about their wines (Romania is the sixth-largest producer in Europe) and exploring the Danube Delta on the northern end of their Black Sea coast. I hope we get a chance to return someday.

Plus, we could savor more of the delicious locally-made chocolate.

Thanks for inviting me into your inbox. Until next time ~

Ciao!

PS ~ If you are new to my photography, you can see more at scottgilbertson.com.