PHOTOS FROM BIERTAN - THE FORTIFIED CHURCH

THE DRIVING AROUND BRASOV 14, 15 and 16 of August 2016

Ok here is what we did around Brasov in our Autonom Skoda Octavia

This is Diego a nice guy . I took this photo whitout him Knowing :) . Autonom is a service i recommend

Day 14 - Brasov -Peles-Bran

It would be a easy drive if it wasn't a sunny saturday. everyone came out!!! km and km of traffic jam

Next stop after Peles, Bran just to get to know the way. At the late hour we coulnd't enter the castle our plans were ruined.

A last minute decision... it was on the way so we stopped at Rasnov and went up to the castle

From Rasnov we went back to Brasov

Day 15 - Brasov -Sighisoara - Sibiu

Ok no problems

From Sighisoara the plan was to go to Sibiu but we were going to pass to worl heritage at biertan. A fortified church

Ok no problems. I had to sleep for 15 minutes in the car.

Next stop Sibiu

You can't imagine if you decide to go to this away the loniless you will feel. Yoiu are alone in neverending fields and its a narrow road. Ok it was scary. But you can go back to the road from sighisoara to sibiu if you dont dare.

We had no problems but you have to be careful

A last minute decision also..how couldn't we stop at Fagaras. it has a castle surrounded by a moat, and it is always a good advice to stop a little and stretch the legs and drink coffee.

Last stop Brasov

We just had one problem. Romanians are not patiente drivers and they like to pass each other. One coming the other direction decided to pass right in front of me and i had to go to the side way. Crazy dude. Ok i lived.

Day 16


We couldn't go away without seeing Bran. So we went, quick and easy because we had to return the car

Expenses - More or less

Ok i've misplaced some of the tickets but here is some of the things so you can have an idea

1 euro is 4.40 leis. For a eurozone turist this country is wonderful.

We bought a lot of souvenirs and entered many other places that are not here

But our budget was 800 euros for each person and we came back with 100 euros less the airplanes voyages. So total we spent more or less 1500 euros in the country..

BUCAREST WOWWW WHERE WERE YOU ALL MY LIFE!! DAY 20

Day 20

Woke up, took a bath, breakfast and left ... Objective the parliament building. 

Did you know Bucarestians have a coffee tradition? Every where there is a coffee machine or a place where they sell coffee. But be warned its like American coffee not like portuguese coffee. It seems water.

We went and you are int the plaza facing the buliding ...go to the right side... go to the left and a few meters ahead you will find a gate... enter!

 If you want you can ask the guards. Otherwise go straigth foward, dont go up the ramp. Enter the building... to your right you have big wooden doors... you can to the toilets if you wish .

 To the left a desk. Dont mind that until the end. To the rigth again you have info desk were you receive the ticket to pay.

You have guided tours from the standard visit to the full visit  that costs 120 lei. We chose the full that was  at 11:30.  The lady at info desk gives you a paper  and to pay you need to go to store on the other side. Then the other lady attachs the receipt at the ticket.

It was 10.00 so we went to the outside park and returned later.

At 11 and 15 we were a little bit confused what to do, where to go inside to join our guide.

You just have to pay attention to the guides near the security check.

When you hear ..." tour of 11.30"... go to the front. The guide will now check you ticket and  let you pass. You will have to go to the desk in the right to give you passport ou identity card. You in return will be given a security pass to hang in your neck all the visit.

It must be always in your neck and at any moment the security can ask you for it. Dont stroll away from your guide.

Now you will pass to a security check and metal detector.

If all its ok you have to wait at the begining of the stairs until all the group is complete.

Visit starts

Woww wow wowow wow. The guy was a dictator but he had taste

oh i forgot  you cant take pictures inside unless you buy the right for it.

We start at level -2 and go to the first stop at ground zero.

The building is of a magnitude of amazinesss... wowww.

You can watch this you tube video about it.

The stories i liked more..

In the human rights hall where the round table is and seems almost something out of kings Arthur the round table has a gap on the left.

This would be where a throne like chair of leather would be placed a little bit higher than the rest. Guess who would sit here?

Yeah!!!  Nicolae Ceaușescu

Ok another story is  about the stairs at the main entrance. The dictator had them remade several times until they were confortable for him. Ok i must say they are for me too.

Here are the highest curtains of the bulding.

There is also a corridor that has some religious paintings. What are they doing in a comunist  building?

First of all they're not paintings they are posters glued for a movie but because they look well they remained.

The rest you have to see it ... it of the best i ever seen. I've liked this more than Versailles, being of different ages.

So after lunch and after sleeping we decided to go to arch of triunf and then to the museum of Romenian life

But before we stopped in piata romanai to find souvenir stores. We went to a fancy one near the

Romanian Athenaeum.

We entered to buy somethings. Next we were near the Athenaeum and went  just to see it from outside. You cant image this is a hotspot of brides and grooms to take photos. Its funny.

On the way back to the subway we saw another souvenir store. Ok it was more turistic like and yes of course we bought a lot more.

The lady here was very nice.

Ok shopping done we went back to the metro and continue to our destiny. The metro stop is just on the entrance of the largest park in the city. So objective now was the museum because it was approaching the closing time.

So we walked fast . What were the first impressions?. Romenians like parks. The park is beautiful with lots of things to do.

So after a while near the arch we found the entrance. This museum has an real example of the kinds of houses from each region of romania. its very beautiful.

You have to have time to see it .. You can get nice pictures here.

So at 19:00 the museum starts to close and security guards will find you. Don't try to escape :)

Back to the park we stopped near the triunf arch to have a snack to recover energies and after we went to see the life of locals here in the parks

Its eating, its playing ball, its looking at the lake, its riding bikes, skates, roller-blades , its promenading, its family life...it pokemon catch

I liked very much.

So back to the apartment to have a rest and then seeing the night

We left the apartment at 23:00 so the subway was closed. 

We went to a bar that was a old communist house. Its amazing.

http://www.dianei4.translucid.ro/

The place Dianei 4  its the street and the number of the street. We had local beers. ok they were a bit strong for our taste. We went there by foot it was near . 14 minutes walks

Enough its enough these vacations were killing us :) in a good sense, it was time to head back and have a good nights sleep.

LEAVING CONSTANTA AND TO BUCAREST!! DAY 19 TH

Day 19

The day of leaving. Making suitcases preparing for changing some more euros and catching the train.

The best site to find time schedules and ways of tranportation is www.autogari.ro

We caught the 5-40 bus after 15-20 minutes later we were in the train station. 

We bought two tickets to the 13 oclock train  120 Lei total and them we will arrive at 15:00 oclock to Gara  nord at bucarest

Ok we had lunch in the trainstation, sansdwiches prepared in the apartment . For us its the most pratical way.

On the train we stayed in a cabin of five seats with a romenian couple and their little daughter.

The man started to give us advice in romanian where to go. The advice again was to the north east part .

It must be true because two people said the same thing. Ok a next time

After two hours in the train and some sleeping we entered the city bounderies. The gentleman started to speak with us in romenian again ... Ok for portuguese and spanish we can get some words but for others you wouldnt get anything. Hello we don't speak the language!!

He started asking us if this was a european city , that some one  was deviating funds.

Dont trust anyone. The taxi drivers are charlatans. And in fact we saw a warning at the train station..his wife probably said leave them alone they dont understand anything but he went on ... No problem.

Arriving to the station go to the left and you will find the metro station . You have several options of tickets

We bought the 1 day ticket . We entered the yellow line that is circular and went to the stop Piata Uniri. We found the number of the apartment.

First, what the hell... We opened the booking app and we saw we had a message from our host. He had ask us to talk to the security guard on block c so he could give us ghe keys.

The bulding seems like somethig out of the comunisn days. Ok its ugly outside. But inside is very well indeed.

They have manage to make use of all space

We then decided to leave and search the turism office in piata universitatii.  we had a hard time finding it, we asked a local , a police officer and we still didnt see it. Its underground has the police told us. It was closed.

We went for a walk near the apartment. Its a turist area with coffee shops ans restaurants. Its filled with life

You will also see very strip houses in this area.

We went back to the apartment and stayed there,We were tired from the trip.

Well nothing special to tell you so see you tomorow.

MAMAIA THE ROMANIAN ALGARVE ??? DAY 18TH

DAY 18 TH

Good morning

Cloudy skyes

The temperature is fine.

We are a little bit disapointed but we are still going ahead with the plans of going to Mamaia.

So a few minutes to prepare and we are taking the 40 c bus or 5-40 to Mamaia.

We enter the bus and Mamaia is the final stop of the 5-40 to Mamaia. The ticket was 3 lei for two people

The journey takes about 5 to 10 minutes.

When we arrived we followed the locals because there was a large group going  futher in the street. A two minute walk. The beach is at you right.

Wowww

What a sight ....a large bay with a long beach with many new buildings that are hotels. The beach is filled of umbrellas and people. The people place them selfs just to the water line

Its such a crowd. You can do topless... they dont mind.

ho i forgot the sun came out so we had luck.

We started walking along the beach. Its like Marbella. The beach is well organized with lifeguards always on the watch. There are black mud sellers, going around. Here the locals rub black mud around the knees, elbows , shoulders, problably it has medicine properties.

Here and there there are small boats i suppose they take you for a stroll around the area.

We continued walking until a peer were large boats were leaving. We notice that most of the peole were red from the sun.

Ok.... They are little bit crazy with the sun burns. Ho!!!.. and like to get tanned every where. Some stood up facing the sun with the arms up so they get tanned under the arms. :)

If you are reading this be careful with skin cancer.. use sun protector between 10 and 12 am. Leave the beach at noon and return after 15.00 . Positive point a group was making a sensibilization campaign about this subject.

Ok we dived in the water every few meters because the sun was strong and our backs were getting hot.

We arrived finally at the white iron and wood peer and went to the point where the boats left.

It has a nice perspective of the entire beach.

Looking back you can see the crowd the buildings an the teleferic going from one point to another place of the beach more or less in the middle.

We would go there later

We took some pictures... The crowd was amazing

On the way back a fisherman caught with hook a seagul. What a aim...

He pulled it in and with the help of other fishermen we took the hook of the wing and the seagul was released. It seem fine because it went flying away. Ufffff.

Reaching the beach we went for a bath 

We arrived at the starting point at noon so we left the beach in the direction of the teleferic. We arrived after a 5 minute walk trough the main avenue.

We paid 10 lei for a one way voyage. You enter the cabin and a guy comes to check the ticket.

Well enjoy the ride. To the left you have Ovideos insula where i think he is buried and the lake. To the right you have the beach and the sea.

In the middle a aquapark... a large one ...and the hotels. You can see what the turists are doing

Its a 10 o 15 minutes ride. Enjoy it will finish at a restaurant area. Lunch here.

We did that. There are several self service restaurants and we went into one. You pick up the tray and you go to the line to choose what you want, Like a school cafeteria

You have fish, meat and vegetables.

We paid the two of us, 15 euros.

Ok we were getting tired so we decide to go home. We went to the main street to the bus stop.We caught other type of transport. Its very used by locals. Its a minibus but not like the ones you know. Its a changed van. You have to open the door and ask the driver if its going to the place you want.

The price its two ley per person.

Open your gps app because you dont know the route. When you are close ask to leave.

Now we are going to lunch and sleep.

Hello!!! after two hour sleeping i decided to stay at home and see tv.

The weather outside was funny. Stormy like and later it starte to thunder

After dinner we went to the center to take a cofee . We enter  coffeshop and said hello in english. The waitress seemed AMAZED. Probably not a lot of foreigners enter there. One expresso and one expresso with milk was 12 lei.

After we left and went in the direction of the old casino. We stopped there for a while. Familys, groups of youngtsers ....its a peacuful evening.

We now went int the direction of the pharo to the icream vans and we had a normal one with chocolat toping -4 leis each.

Them head back to the apartment by foot. The buses are only until 23. It was a 4 km walk

Its quite safe but as in every country you have to be careful.

We arrived very tired so off to bed and see you tomorrow.

ENJOYING THE BLACK SEA - DAY 17TH

Day 17

Well we woke up... took breakfast and off to the beach at 10 am. I suppose today it will be all beach

See you later.

Ok how was the beach here?

The sand sucks... what its true compared to Portugal

The water i loved!!!

We went for a walk down the beach and at the end near the peer we dived.

The temperature is great.

How was the fashion?

.

The girls were using  bikini and swim suit,  some were  topless. Normal.

The guys were using shorts or brasilian sunga. Normal again, like us.

We returned to our place, i decided to soak in water for some minutes.

After a while a old guy approched me and said something in roman. I said i didnt understood. We talked with me in french and ok my french its not good but i started to speak with him. He also had a kid with him.

It was his granchild... this conversation happened with me always laying down in water and them beside me standing up.

He was a radio speaker and a french teacher, the radio is called Europodiam. He asked me a lot of questions about music and how we said things in portuguese.

It was a nice cnversation he was very nice.

So after this i went to the beach to get tanned

Because it was approaching mid noon we stayed a little bit and came to the apartment to eat, rest and take a bath

Now its 15.00 and we are going to sightseeing at the center.

See you later.

Ok we caught the bus in the main street 5-40 bus and the ticket was 1 lei.

We got off near the archeological park and walked in the direction of plaza Ovidiu

This is a very turistic area where you can find many restaurants coffees  mixed with historical buildings.

When we arrived at the plaza Ovidiu and we saw a beatiful building  and in the center the Ovideo's statue,

The building was the archeological museum.

There were three exibitions . We bought number 1 that was the permanent exibition.

It costed  13 leis to get in.

See some things that are in the inside.. it  is worth it!!!

Getting out, turn rigth and then right again. Go straight ahead and to your left you will find a bulding were inside is a roman mosaic.

Is costs 10 leis. Its nothing special compared with others but its big.

Just enter if you are curious otherwise i dont recommend.

Exiting the building straight foward to your right you will find the strada arhiespicopi where you see a mosque, probably you  have already seen it afar. Enter!!

Its a building of the earlys 1900 ordered built by king Carol I in homage to the islamic community.

Its made of concrete. You can go up to the minarete and see the views.

It costs 5 lei.

From the top we saw an ortodox cathedral an a roman catholic cathedral. We would go there later.

We went all the way down to the sea to the bouleverdul were we find the pharo, the casino and the aquarium.

But first rest a bit look at the sea or go eat somenthing to recover energies.

To the right you have restaurants and to the right again you have a pastesserie. 

You can have two cakes and two expresso for 11 lei.

Dont enter the aquarium its not worth it. If you have kids you can go, otherwise its not recommended

It costs 20 lei.

Back to the walk ...go in direction of the casino you can take beautiful pictures here. Its a shame they dont use that building for anything. its so beautiful.

Continuing you will find the monument to  Mihai Eminescu  and behind you will see the pharo.

Its a bit small dont you think?

Well if it does the function size does not matter.

Continue and you will find yourself in a marina with lots of modern restaurants. If you continue we you will find stairs that will take you to the square of Ovideo where  the  archeological museum is.

We forgot to see the cathedral but they are not far from this square. The only problem was the time and if they would be open.

First we saw the Saint Anthony of Padua cathedral.  It was open because there was a service going on. The church was very simple but the images were like ortodox icons.

See the images

Next stop the Ortodox cathedral. Would it be open ?

Yeahh it was!!!!

Beautiful like the other.  A priest was singing

See the images

Now what.?

We wanted to see the opera house

We are always using the app maps.me to walk around. Its fairly good but in walking mode it takes us some weird paths that we see we can avoid.

We found the opera house and look at it for one second . Nothing special on the outside.

We went back to the apartment by foot.. A 30 minutes walk just to get to know the city

Now we are going to make dinner and have some rest.

Have a nice evening

Leaving Brasov but first COUNT DRACULA Day 16 th

Ok... recovered from the driving of yesterday we decided to wake up early, leave and check out of the apartment and go to Bran to see Dracula's castle, that we didn't see yesterday. 

The trip by car has a duration of more or less 40 minutes and more or less has 30 km.

Before leaving we went to the Gigi's bakery just 5 min on the left leaving the apartment. And once more bought two slices of pizza , 8 lei, two covrigi , two lei each and 1 struddle, 2 leis.

Total: 14 lei woww and the girls are nice.

When we arrived at Bran we parked in the car park castel on the left side. You can leave the car, that the man helping you to park is going to place later the ticket on your window. Well it was like that for us it can be different for you.

So we went to the line to enter , that was growing fast, and waited 20 min to open, meanwhile we looked  around. Its a very touristic site, filled with shops to buy draculy things and hand made souvenirs.

The gates open and to your right you have the tickets office. 35 lei each ticket.

A guy confirms that you bought the ticket and then you are free to go to the castle.

Before the way up you have the gardens that you may visit on the way down.

So take photos on the top. At the cross on the top you have a nice view.

Enter the castle. If you are a big fan of Dracula and are expecting to see blood and fangs and darkness you will be disapointted. The castle is more of the time before Dracula was happy and living with his wife.

Sorry to disapoint you but this castle was also one royal residence not at all Dracula's castle. he never lived here. They fought to associate the name Dracula to attract more visitors.

Its white and brown of the wooden floors and structures. 

Well it is worth it but it finished very fast.

We took less than a hour. The town has many restaurants and cafes so you can manage very well.

So has we saw the town the day before and we had to give the car back we hurried up and went to the car park picked up the ticket on the window and went to pay the four lei. 

The guy does not speaks english!!! 

So it was 10 o'clock... we arrived at Auton Brasov at 10.40. He had to fill  with gasoline our skoda octavia and we did it in one of the many pumps that you have. We payed 35 euros for half a deposit.

So we did 540 km in two days but it he best way.

The guy Diego at Autonom is very nice and  gives all the information that you need and just look!!!! He offered to take us to the train station. NICE GUY!!! WELL DONE AUTONOM HE IS A KEEPER.

We recommend the service of Autonom. They were quick answering, explainig ,doing the paperwork and gave us a fairly good car.

Five stars to the team. DIEGO YOU WERE GREAT!

So diego left us at the train station at 11.30 more or less we waited until 12.20

We took  a coffee on an outside caban - 2.50 each

The trains and train station are old but ok.

So now we are starting the the trip to Constanta  In Portuguese it reads Constança that is going to take 5 hours.

The voyage in the mountains has lot of green sights and rivers,

During the voyage a guy goes around with chips and eatables to sell.

Funny remarke... a lady took out off her bag a small bottle of whiskey

 or vodka and drank. Such a funny image.

Ok we are leaving the mountains and the river left our side. Now there is a road.

The river is back and we saw a naked men on the middle enjoying the sun :) ...ok its nature

The landscape is getting planner and the river has disappeared. Now there are little towns and the road.

We see a lot of sunflower fields..

Ortodoxe white church with a golden roof at far..

Now we are on one part that is very similar to the plains before arriving Lisbon in Portugal . Fields and more fields....

We stopped at Ploiesti vest  at 14 and 35.

Next stop Bucarest!

We are in the region of Valaquia known for the oil extraction you will smell it. There is a big refinery on the way.

This is still a region of great planes

We arrived at Bucarest at 14:50. We saw many people going out and we were afraid we had to change the train.

The locals are very friendly. I helped a lady with her bags and she gave me a touristic guide book of bucarest that she wasnt using anymore. It had some parts in English but we were not going to use it so we left it in the train at Constanta.

Dont worry train enters the terminal and then after a minutes it goes back

We left bucarest at 15 and 30.

We arrived ar Ciulnita at 16 : 12

We arrived at Fetesti at 16:28

And  here comes the guy with the goodies croissants, potatoes etc etc...

I felt asleep    .. it all seems too spanish and portuguese

So we arrived at Medgidia at 17: 15.

We are almost there.

We arrived at Constanta. Everything seems old. The railroad needs a fund of the european union to be renewed.... they deserve that.

So from the peer down the stairs trough the tunnel and up the stairs again to the train station hall. Where to go?

Do you need to exchange euros... dollars to lei?

Leave the train station and to the left walk in direction of the houses and to you right you will find a little office to exchange money. Open your eyes you can miss it.

Dont need to exchange money?

In front of you, you will be attacked by taxi drivers asking you if you need a ride. On the right you have the buses and old nice ladies asking you if you need apartments.

We caught the bus of line number 40 but we could catch the bus 5-40. The tickets were 1.50 lei where we where going and we can buy them on the bus.

We asked the bus driver to warn us of our stop and we did so. Again people are very nice.

Our stop was  two streets away from ou street ...very near. We walked.. what?.. 5 to 10 minutes and we followed the indications of our host .

We had to find the yellow van enter the gate at number 12 sit under the sunbrellas :) and call him he was here in just 10 minutes.

Our host was very nice he talked in a mix of italian, spanish portuguese and roman, it was alltogether a new language that you understood. Well we was making an effort but should be us trying to speak roman. He also spoke english and german.

Well he took us to the 2nd floor and showed our apartment. See the pictures.

We filled the paperwork and payed. He told us directions to the beach, markets and restaurants and left.

What to do?

It was 19 and 30 the sun still in the sky, why not go to the beach and feel the water temperature. So we did.

We changed cloths and went to the beach and entered the water

Ok first impressions.

Its beautiful

The sand if filled of shells that are a little annoying in the feet.

The water was cold but its suppose to be....because of the hour.

We will it see the next day

Well after 10 minutes of enjoying the black sea for the first time we left and went to buy groceries.

We went to the left trought the promendade near the beach where you have covered seats to protect from the sun straight ahead to a street where you will find groceries, pharmacies, bakeries, ...

its a 10 to 15 minutes walk

You bought what we felt was needed. But also if you dont want to cook you have plenty of restaurants

We came back to the apartment to eat.

Because it had been a long day we decided to rest get some sleep to recharge batteries.

Bye bye see you tomorrow