Bucharest: No Expectations (September 2-September 4, 2011)

To say that we came to Bucharest with no expectations is an understatement. In fact, after the poor reports we’d heard from other travelers and the less-than-glowing recommendation from our guidebook (the section on Bucharest uses the phrases “stray dogs,” “rip-off taxis,” and “grey housing blocks” to describe the city), we almost skipped coming here at all. In the end, though, we decided to see for ourselves about Romania’s capital.

At the heart of central Bucharest is what remains of the city’s old city center – a few square blocks of cobblestone streets and historic buildings. Thanks to some EU grants, this area is undergoing major renovations. Some buildings have already been returned to their former glory (though, sadly, most of these are now occupied by Irish-style pubs, Italian restaurants, and nightclubs) but many remain vacant and dilapidated. Most of the old city, however, was torn down under dictator Nicolae Ceausescu to make way for a boulevard (Bulevardul Unirii) of huge concrete apartment buildings and the Palace of Parliament, which at 12 stories and 1,100 rooms is the world’s second largest administrative building (after the Pentagon). North of the old town, the former Royal Palace sits across the street from the former home of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. It was from the balcony of this building that Ceausescu gave his never-finished last speech on December 21, 1989 as he tried to suppress revolution. As the crowd turned on him and violence broke out, he fled but was quickly captured. Ceausescu and his wife were executed, after a brief trial, on Christmas day of that year.

As we walked around town we found that, despite all the concrete, the city seemed warm and vibrant. Near the university, we found a farmer’s market and several blocks of book vendors selling everything from textbooks, to old communist propaganda books, to antique German military pins. In Cismigiu Park we watched at least half a dozen wedding parties take photographs and a group of very talented teenagers play a game that appeared to be a mix of soccer and tennis. We stopped for lunch at a tiny diner for one of the tastiest and friendliest meals we ate in Romania. In the end, while the city lived up to our expectations in some ways (there’s no denying the concrete apartment blocks and stray dogs), it mostly exceeded our expectations and we were really glad we stopped here before moving on to Bulgaria.

Click on the photo below for our Bucharest photo album.

Transylvania (August 26-September 2, 2011)

After twelve days of living the city life in Budapest, we were ready for a change of pace and headed directly to the central Romanian region of Transylvania. Admittedly, we knew little about the area before our arrival – other than its associations with Dracula and vampires. We arrived not sure what to expect, but half-imagined we would find an area of foreboding mountains, stormy skies, and gothic castles (but we knew better). What we did find was a region, bounded on two sides by the Carpathian Mountains, that was sprinkled with cities and villages of Saxon origin set amidst a pretty landscape of mountains and rolling hills, and where, yes, there are also a few Gothic castles. We also found a region where ugly reminders of the recent past are common, where poverty abounds, and where the growing pains of the developing tourism industry were sometimes obvious.

All told, we spent about a week here. We explored the castles, old towns, and fortified churches (mostly built by Saxons, who were invited by the Hungarians to settle the region), shared the road with horse-drawn carts, dodged sheep and cow herds, encountered Roma (Gypsy) encampments, and tried to outrun the busloads of vampire seekers and Dracula references.

The Dracula references were strongest in our first destination, Sighisoara, birthplace of Vlad III, (aka Vlad the Impaler; aka Dracula), the former ruler of Wallachia (a region of Romania to the south). Known for impaling his enemies on a sharp pole, he was the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the town does its best to capitalize on this connection – there is no shortage of plastic vampire teeth and black capes, and his birthplace (now a restaurant) provided the backdrop for numerous photo ops. Despite the hokey souvenirs, the hilltop old town is lovely and though the region is full of fortified churches (built by Saxons to protect against Ottoman invasions), Sighisoara was one of the few fortified towns and was, therefore, different from other Transylvanian towns that we visited.

We spent one night in the city of Brasov, where we picked up our rental car, and then headed south high into the mountains to visit the relatively modern Peles Castle, constructed in the late 1800’s as a summer home for the Romanian royal family. Next, we visited Bran Castle, which is known as “Dracula’s Castle,” though Vlad himself never lived there. Bran was supposedly the inspiration for the castle described in Bram Stoker’s novel (though some say he likely knew nothing of its existence), and it certainly looked the part. Originally built in 1378 to defend against the Ottomans, by the 1920s it had become a residence of the Romanian Royal Family. After a period of uncertain ownership (it had been seized by the communist government in 1948), the castle was awarded to a Habsburg heir who has turned the castle into a museum (devoted to the period of royal residence circa 1935 and dedicated to his grandmother) making it a bizarre (though still beautiful) place to visit.

We then spent a night in the town of Sibiu and discovered its beautifully refurbished old town. From there we headed through a web of small Transylvanian villages over the next two days. In this, we entered a world where it sometimes seemed that time had stopped. We got friendly waves from the elderly Romanians sitting along the road to sell fruit, vegetables, or honey, or to simply watch the traffic go by, and enthusiastic “hellos” from children playing along the road (or in one case a middle finger!). We stopped for cattle and sheep crossings, and rolled up our windows as one or two of Romania’s infamous stray dogs got a little too close. We also stopped at a number of fortified churches. They were all different (some were UNESCO world heritage sites, some were crumbling; some had entrance fees and managers, others required you to find the old man in the village who held the key), but all fascinating, and vampire-teeth free, and made us happy to have journeyed off the beaten path.

Click the photo below for our Transylvania photo album.