From Romania we decided to cross the Danube into Bulgaria. We considered going to the Black Sea, but we were really tired of driving by this point, so we decided to take a break and head, once again, into the mountains. Our initial plan was to drive to Veliko Tarnovo to explore the town and stay in a mountain village near by. However, our plans got sidetracked by the fact that our hosts cancelled on us last-minute (supposedly they were double booked) and then we got stuck at the Bulgarian border crossing for over three hours because there were some protests going on and the roads were blocked. So we had to alter our plans causing us to, regretfully, skip Veliko Tarnovo. Scrambling for last-minute lodging we booked a room in a family owned mini-hotel on the northern slopes of the Balkan mountains. We looked nothing up ahead of time, we had no idea where we were going and what to expect. Then we drove into the town of Tryavna.
Romania Part III: To Bucharest via the Transfaragastan
Following our tour of Transylvania we decided to move south toward Bucharest and decided to take the scenic route via the Transfaragastan. For those of you who are not coerced into watching Top Gear by your significant others you may not be aware of this road. But those of you who watch are probably well aware that this has been dubbed to be the “world’s best driving road” by Jeremy Clarkson. Therefore TK could not miss the opportunity to drive it, even if it was in a VW Polo. I was just in for the ride, exercising my grip strength on the car’s grab handle.
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Romania Part II: Medieval Towns and Fortified Churches
When you google Transylvania’s towns most of the images that come up are from the town of Sibiu, a colorful and picturesque medieval town with well-preserved architecture sitting right next to the Carpathian mountains. So I was very excited to explore Sibiu and couldn’t wait for the evening to come (heat wave Lucifer was still on a rampage) and see what Sibiu had to offer. It did not take long for me to realize that we were not the only ones there to see, we were also being watched. Not by the locals or by the other tourists, but by the actual town itself. The houses literally had eyes! And they followed us everywhere…
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Romania Part I: Timisoara, Hunedoara, and Hateg
I don’t know what I expected from Romania. I think I had some preconceived notions about it and because of that we almost scrapped it from our trip. But last-minute we decided to cross over into Romania just to check it out. And I am so so glad we did!
Timisoara, Romania
Timisoara was our first stop in Romania because of logistics, given that it is the closest big town to Serbia and we needed to break up our drive. We arrived there mid-afternoon after driving through Vojvodina, which is the very flat northern part of Serbia. There was literally no one on the road as we drove through miles and miles of endless corn and wheat fields. Even at the border we were the only car. This may just be that it is a less traveled road, but it is probably because it was over 100 degrees outside that day (it was the hottest day to date, thanks to a heat wave known as Lucifer), and we were the only idiots outside! Because of the heat we had to wait until the evening to explore Timisoara. And in the evening the town came alive!
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