Brasov, Romania

Once we eventually got to Brasov (only an hour late), and found our way to our hotel, we were very surprised to realise the actual size of the place. We were expecting a relatively small village, nothing particular big, but Brasov has turned out to be a city that was definitely bigger than Wagga, and maybe even Canberra size. This is really hammered home once you get up on top of the hill, to the “Hollywood” sign and look down at everything.




However, for a city of it’s size, Brasov is very cheap. Romania is probably cheap in general, but we paid about 4RON each, each way to get out to Bran, a trip that took 45 minutes or more by bus. (And an old bus at that...) – that equates to about 1 Euro. Add that to our taxi fare on the last night (3KM) of 6RON, and you can start to see what we mean. Even meals and cocktails were cheap. Romania is an excellent place to go to now, before the Euro starts gaining hold and the prices go up.

What I noticed most of all about Romania is it’s like stepping back in time. As the trains pulled further into the countryside (and it did get darker, and at the very least a little romanticish, if not creepy) we saw people working on their land – not in tractors, but horse and cart, and old scythes. We even saw people on the buses and trains carrying scythes around. I’d love to go back to Romania, and spend much longer there, and in other towns and cities as well. It’s the sort of place many tourists won’t find their way to so often, as it’s right out on the edge of Western Europe. It takes a long time to train there, and a long time back, but it’s well and truely worth it. It’s almost my favourite place we’ve been, and I wouldn’t have even thought about going there, but Rhiannon wanted to see Bran castle. Good choice, good choice.