We flew into the capital city. Bucharest. A romantic city ruined by Graffiti. A walk into the old town found several romantic restaurants with outdoor seating or indoor seating amid pictures of the notorious Vlad the Impaler. And the Romanian royal family through the ages. Plus wine bottles whose labels were decorated with pictures from horrid history or scary myths.
Romantic Romania
I loved the painted churches. So colourful. So photogenic.
We were meeting a hiking group. We went out to the second city .Brasov From there we walked around the fortified walls of olden times.
A car trip to the ruler's castle, Dracula's Castle, Bran Castle, of earlier times was a must. It was in the centre of a little mountainside town with traffic jam one way systems and crowded cafes and souvenir shops. The exhibition about Vlad the Impaler pointed out that in his times, all surrounding Europen countries had equally fearsome and cruel kings.
Then it was off to hike through the mountains. The hiking trails were clearly marked. But a bit short on toilets.
Toilet Tricks
You don't want to go too far off trail. You could fall over a tree root, and never be found.
You can get tangled in branches. Fall into holes. Get clothes snagged on brambles. Be struck by branches, entangled by tendrils and torn by thorns.
You could disturb something. Be bitten by insects insects. Scared by noises incicating larger things. Who knows?
You get aboandoned in the middle of nowhere, with nobody of the same sex to act as a loookout. However, when nature's call is so instant that you are obliged to stop, suddenly large groups of people appear.
After I returned to the UK I learned the travel and hiking trick for improvised toilets in the wild. Carry an umbrella for instant privacy.
Bears
The notice baords were helpful. But the countryside is over supplied with over size wildlife. Bears.
On the one hand, the radio warned of roaming bears. On the other hand, tourists were off on bear sighting trips and annoyed when they never saw a bear.
I was not bored by the lack of bears. I was very happy to get safely back home.
Now that I have been there, I am more interested in learning Romanian. Yes, ironoically, learning the language after my return. I suppose that is the enfit of travelling. It makes you more interested in the culutre and language of other coutnries. The one things which I learned effortlessly was that the Romanians use the French word merci, in Romanian spelled mersi, for thank you.
So, mersi for reading my post about Romania. Please share links to your favourite posts. My next post is on the Romanian language.
Useful Websites
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Bra%C8%99ov
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