Romania

Written by JB snr
This journey was designed to provide increasing exposure to challenging environments as we progressed and this was driven home with our arrival at Bucharesti Nord station. This is the real 3rd world in Europe, shabby and dirty, everyone milling about with countless beggars, peasants and shady looking characters trying to get our attention. Eventually got our tickets for the next leg of the journey to Istanbul and then our rental car to Transylvania.

Every second car in Romania seems to be a Renault 12 this was a successful model in the 1970's and I have fond memories of driving one in Newfoundland, Canada in 1972 (Jonathon suck on that one you were 1 year old!) Here they are still going well 35 years later, even if like me they too, are looking the worse for wear.

So now we have the latest Renault (Dacia over here) thank goodness for SatNav, it brought us straight to the door of our hotel, well it brought me to the door of the hotel, an unauthorized and uninsured driver (Jonathon was at the police station....read on!) and this was on countless crowded highways and unlit back streets. I shouldn't be too surprised at this, as my SatNav on the boat gets me through equally scary conditions on the Solent on a sunny afternoon to a specific berth at the Lymington marina!

We are now in Brasov, in the Carpathian mountains (Transylvania) of central Romania. We spent the first morning strolling through the old town, it has some excellent treasures, such as Orthodox churches and 13th Century garrisons and some shabby back streets glowing in the morning sun. As a serious photographer, mostly black and white and infrared, I lingered while Jonathon went in search of yet more Illy coffee.

In the afternoon we wandered deeper into the mountains to Bran castle of Count Dracula fame. Perched on a craggy outcrop and dating from the 14th Century, the rooms are well furnished and presented and it was used by Queen Marie of Romania well into the 20th Century. There are many original photos of her and the rooms she used, looking much as they do now. In the grounds there are several traditional rural dwellings. The whole place is a gem, despite there being no evidence that Vlad the Impaler (Dracula) ever stayed there.

Mercifully there was no evidence or commercialisation of the Dracula legend here, just as well then that we brought our own garlic, silver crucifixes and wooden stakes (no silver bullets needed as they are only for Werewolves!)

The simple if hard rural life,is still prevalent in much of Romania, with horses and carts everywhere and peasants wearing Caciula hats and serious hardship in their demeanor.
As we set out to do, we continue to sampled local dishes wherever possible, tonight it is traditional Romanian cuisine, Pork in a mushroom sauce for me and Pork in a Carrot sauce with Polenta for Jonny, both were excellent. The wine is the local Prince Mircea 2004 (100% merlot) rich and smooth but dark and purple like the puncture wounds on the neck of sleeping Dracul virgin. I have had more disappointing expensive Clarets.

Footnote:
Jonathon's response to our unbelievable incident with the car is very reassuring, he was calm and business like in the handling of the other drivers involved and relished the “new experience” factor of his time with the Romanian State police, the good humor with which he saw it all through, is a lesson to us all. It is almost the ultimate nightmare – an accident in a rental car in Transylvania.

There is a line from an insurance company advert that springs to mind “Don't turn a drama into a crisis” he didn't and neither, thankfully did the Romanians. Considering that I am a risk adverse Irishman in the “prime” of life, fatherly pride is well to the fore, after that, also but don't tell him this, I am less apprehensive than I was about his plans to cross the Greenland icecap towing the sledge in August, but once a parent always a parent.