Barcelona

Spain is a country that I like a lot - the food, the people,  the language - and when we got the opportunity to spend a few days in Barcelona, we did not hesitate at all. It was February, the huge tourist crowds were missing most probably because the weather was a little bit chilly, but in my opinion great for sightseeing. It had rented a room in an apartment 10min away from the famous  tourist street - La Rambla.Two days are not at all enough for seeing Barca, but this was all we had. So we decided to start with the most popular landmarks - Sagrada Familia, Parc Güell, Arc de Triomf, Columbus Monument. We had a tourist map so it was easy to get around, preferably by foot, only to Parc Güell we took the bus as it was quite a walk. The park itself is great, it was designed by Gaudy and it is part of the UNESCO world heritage, and from the top there is a magnificent view over the city 'garnished' with flying parrots amongst the palm trees

Unfortunately Sagrada Familia was still under construction, and it will remain so till 2032 when according to the plan it should be completed. In 1926 when Gaudy dies, the work on the building is stopped but later with thanks to private funding started again. During the construction of the cathedral Gaudy was so obsessed with it that he moved to a small house next to the site. Before his death only one out of twelve towers was completed. Till now (2013 when we were there) only eight were build and still it looked impressive.

The lane by the ocean next to Columbus monument is great for walks and relaxation as well as drinking beer in the heat, or if you do not feel like resting there is a mall. We are not shopping fans so we visited the mall 'by necessity' but we gladly paid our respects to the 'Estrella' under the palm trees

 We really wanted to have paella with spanish wine for dinner but even though we were not in the main tourist season it took us quite some time to find a free table. To be honest i did not like the paella as much as the one i tried in Alicante but the wine was awesome. While we walked at La Rambla we could not fight the urge to go to the local food market. Good that we just had dinner otherwise i have no idea how to resist the temptations over there. And still i bought a small fruit for desert :) The other great thing was that on the street they sell sliced 'hamon' or in english they call it 'Iberian acorn ham' which goes great with their wine :)

We saved the Arc de Triomf for last (i have the feeling that every major tourist city has to have an acr). The sun was shining so nice, the parrots were happily flying around the palm trees and we had to catch the plane....

Romania - a pleasant surprise part 2

Next stop - Brashov, as we got a little lost on the way (even though we had GPS) it took us a little bit longer than expected but around 9pm we finally managed to arrive at the apartment we have rented. The people were waiting for us, and it was quite a surprise that the lady did not speak any English. Only Romanian and luckily Spanish - I've never thought that i will have to talk to somebody in Spanish in Romania :) We went out with some romanian friends that were in Brashov for a vacation as well and energized with a lot of positive emotions we went to bed, waiting for the 'vampire day' in Bran castle
In the morning we managed to walk around the center of Brashov and we really liked it. We bought something like the Bulgarian 'banitsa' (meal with white cheese) for breakfast, got some coffee from around the corner and left for Bran castle. There we accidentally met again our Romanian friends  Andrei and his wife and following their suggestions we tried some local things - something like the bulgarian Easter Bread but in a different form and served with either nuts, chocolate chips or sesame seeds on top and the other thing was really unusual - something like meatballs but boiled made of potato dough and filled with sweet plum...I loved the Easter Bread but cannot say the same for the meatballs. The castle Bran is interesting but it is quite misleading calling it Dracula's castle, as Vlad is 'supposed' to have stayed there for a night but even this is not certain at all. Even though it is worth the trip as the building is quite interesting, has a some of secret passages, nice view, and if you do not expect to see vampires you will like it :) The surroundings is also nice - there are quite e few monasteries and a fortress on a top of a hill with awesome view. After the walks we decided to go back to Brashov and take the gondola so that we see the town from the top of the hill. But till we got to the base station it was already 5pm and we saw the last gondola going up, so if you are planning to catch it, have in mind that you have to be there 4.45pm the latest. But anyway - we are not scared of some hiking so me and Rado took the path up to the top. It is really nice, going all the time through the forest and for about an hour and a half we reached the top. The view is amazing and it was totally worth the effort. We rested for a while, took some pictures and started going back as we had to be in the town on time for the dinner reservation. We had arranged a table in 'the best romanian' restaurant in Brasov' according to Andrei. And the food was really tasty and they had some quite strange dishes - for example i ate lettuce soup which was delicious as everything else we tried there. By the way the Romanian wine was also a nice surprise .

We did not want to leave Brashov but we had to - so Sigishuara, here we come. It is a nice small town with old streets, a citadel and .... guess what? The house where Vlad Dracula was born. Or so they say :) As Sigishuara is quite small, we walked around it relatively fast and hurried to Sibiu - as everybody said that Sibiu was the best of all. We had a reservation in Grand Central Studios, that are 2 min by foot from the historical center. We met the landlord, he gave us a tourist map, left the luggage and went out sightseeing. Small cozy streets, big squares, nice old buildings that had 'eyes' on the roof watching you all the time, the vibe was so relaxed and peaceful. We loved the clock tower and the view from its 6th floor. You have 360 degrees panoramic view from the top and if you manage to be there for the sunset as we did, you will be mesmerized. It is also a real pleasure to sit in one of the small cafes and just watch the people and enjoy the tranquility.

On the last day in Romania we had to travel the biggest distance - 440 km which would not have been a problem if there was a highway, but instead the road was winding by a river through the mountains and there were hundreds of small villages on the way. You get out of one village and a kilometer down the way, the next one begins, so it is not possible to drive with more than 50-60 km/h. But this has good sides - the road was picturesque and with this slow speed you have time to enjoy the views. We stopped at a monastery right by the road for a quick break and shortly passing through the ring road of Bucharest, we were at the border.To be honest we did not feel happy to go be back home, Transylvania was really magical and we wanted to explore it more but may be next time :)

Romania - a pleasant surprise part 1

May 2015

Although Romania is so close, it has always remained somewhere in the back when it comes to travel plans. The reason was that i have always imagined that it is dirty, awful and depressing. Even though this May holidays we organized a road trip together with Vesi and Rado. The beginning was the 'unbelievable' road over Danube river, full with cars, trucks, smog, bad road conditions and whatever you can think of. But in a few kilometers we started passing through small nice villages filled with life, beautiful houses, people doing their daily activities, children playing around...A little bit less than an hour later we reached the capital of Romania. Bucharest left me speechless - huge boulevards, everywhere we went it was clean and tidy, well maintained public parks, working fountains, bike lanes all over the city - nothing was the way i imagined it. 

We found the hotel really quick, which turned out to be located in a quite rich neighborhood, ten minutes from the old city. We were impatient to see the city so we just threw our luggage in the room and went out for a walk. It turned out that 1st of May is also a national holiday in Romania and pretty much everything was closed. After quite some time spent walking around looking for a place to buy a tourist map, we gave up and used the good old way - asking the people :) and at last we reached the old city Strada Lipscani.

In year 1400 most of the craftsmen from Romania, Austria, Greece and Bulgaria founded their craft shops exactly in this part of Bucharest. Soon after that the district became know as Lipscani, due to the fact that the majority of the German craftsmen were from Leipzig. We viewed the church Stavropoleos (apologies if it is misspelled), the a few museums from the outside (i was never able to understand how come the national monuments are closed on holidays when there are thousands of people wanting to see them), and we decided it was time to try the local cuisine. Well we could not do that as the place we chose turned out to be a German beer-house, but even though they had Romanian beer and wine :)  

Next stop on the daily agenda was the parliament, the tremendous building that is famous for almost bankrupting the whole country and that still continues to 'eat' too much resources for maintenance. A huge boulevard leads to the main gate of the parliament, with a lot of trees, walking and biking lanes and of course fountains. The parking lot in front of the building was also enormous - i am not sure if it can be ever filled with cars, but it is for sure perfect for open concerts for example (Michael Jackson performed there a few years back) Unfortunately we could not go inside, as we had to have an appointment and of course it had to be a work day...but even from the outside it was worth seeing it.
The way back to the hotel was again through the old part of the city, where we could feel a lot of movement - the bars and pubs were full, there were a lot of people in the streets, life was thriving. We could not stay behind all that hustle and sat in a bar to try again the local wine with some fresh bruschetta, only for the same of the 'good sleep' of course :) After all on the next morning it was time for ‘Muzeul Satului’or the so called Village Museum. The idea of an open-air museum in Romania has come about in 1870s, but the project succeeded in 1909 with the showcase of a „complete authentic peasant households from every important area inhabited by Romanian people”. In the  museum area they were selling a lot of hand crafted things - from sweets to magnets. It was full with Bulgarian tourists that were bargaining for prices, squawking,gobbling and making a lot of noise while we were drinking coffee in a house made of hay. In an hour drive, we reached the under ground salt mine in Slanic. The weather worsened and it started drizzling a bit, but lucky for us we had rain coats, which turned out very useful for the one hour wait at the ticket queue. The line was going really slow as the elevator to the mine is not working any more and all the people were transported 200m under the surface in minivans through huge tunnels. Quite an experience itself :) We were not sure if we should wait that long but i am really glad we did as it was totally worth it - the mine is a 'must visit' place. When i entered the galleries i had the feeling as i am stepping in the mines of Moria (Lord of the Rings) 'The mine is composed of 14 chambers with trapezoidal profiles, having a 10 m opening to the ceiling and 32 m to the ground, a height of 54 m and a wall inclination angle of 60 degrees. The shore difference between the surface and the base of the mine is of 208 m and it used to be covered by the elevator in 90 seconds' The first thing we did was to lick the walls - they were salty for real, the air inside the mine leaves a slight salty taste on your tongue and is really salutary. That is why there are beds if you want to sleep in the mine, they also had basketball court, football court, table tennis and a cafe. Awesome place i really loved it.