Dracula's Transylvania

29 May 2009

We spent about a week in Transylvania before heading out last night on the night train between Sighisoara and Budapest. At the moment, we are sitting on the stopped train (the train has been stopped for about an hour and a half) and are wondering what’s going on (seeing as the train is supposed to arrive in Budapest in one hour and we are still at the Hungarian border).

Brasov

Brasov was our base. We found this awesome hotel. Originally, we were going to stay 2 nights in Brasov and 2 nights in Sighisoara, but we changed our minds when we realized how great our Brasov accommodation was.

Gypsies camped by the side of the train tracks.

A view from above.

A view from the mountain. Town square is visible.

The church looming over everything is the black church.

Bran

Famous for its ties with Dracula (more fiction than reality), Bran Castle is definitely the stuff of stories. Dramatically perched on a hill, the red-roofed castle is updated with electricity and seems homey even. In fact, Queen Maria is supposed to have lived their in the early 1900s.

While at Bran Castle, we attempted to find Dracula. We searched high and low in this castle, but couldn't find him. Sad day.

This is it. Bran Castle. Actually, Vlad Tepes (Dracula) never ruled over this castle, but was imprisoned here for a bit. At one point, the castle belonged to his grandfather.

Sitting in the window.

Inside the courtyard at the castle.

Rasnov

Built as a fortress, Rasnov is definitely less storybook than Bran. We climbed all over the fortress, exploring everything from the piles of old wagon wheels to the 360 panorama view.

Probably the most interesting bit about this fortress is the legend. Legend goes that two Turkish men were told that they could have their freedom in return for digging a well. Seventeen years later, the one hundred something meter well was dug and the two men were free.

Rasnov fortress.

Me standing in front of Rasnov fortress.

I look a little too happy to be imprisoned don't I?
Greg looks a little more nervous, as is usual in these situations of imprisonment.

Sinaia

We went to Sinaia searching for an amazing castle, and we got it. We even took the guided tour (you are only allowed in with guided tour, and even then there are always about 3 museum workers watching your every move). I have no photos of the inside Peles castle because this is one of those sites that charges 10 dollars (seriously) to take photos.
Pelisor Castle. Definitely the least impressive of the two.
Peles Castle. Doesn't it look very Disneyesque?

The monastery.

Sighisoara

Our last stop in Transylvania, Sighisoara (unfortunately) wasn’t such a great experience. We had problems: I wasn’t feeling well, which set off a chain reaction. I wasn’t ready to go when we had planned on going, therefore, we missed our train by seconds (we watched the end of it roll by us from the platform) and had to take a train 2 hours later. By the time we arrived, all the tourist sites were closed. Totally unrelated, but adding to our misery (mine at least), it was cold (it’s been hot) and rainy (it’s been sunny). Funny, the morning weather was great and it didn’t start raining until about 2 pm (the time we finally made it onto a train heading towards Sighisoara).

The bathroom on the train. It really is just as lovely as it looks in the photos.

The clock tower.

View of the city.

Anyone want a commemorative wig? It just screams Dracula doesn't it?
Scary Street in Sighisoara, Transylvania.

The cemetery at the top of the hill.

Next stop: Budapest.

A Desperate Situation

So there we were (have you noticed that all crazy stories begin this way?)...



So there we were, trapped in a small hot room, awaiting the end. We were destitute, only 15 Turkish kurus between us, not enough even to buy a snack (a kuru is worth about half a cent, so I'm talking about 7 cents here). We had subsisted on bread and water for a day, but the bread wasn't filling and terribly dry, and the water was almost gone. It was a desperate situation. Desperate acts were thought of.



Finally, we could bare it no more.



"I need to get out of here," I thought. "I want to be able to stand on the good earth again and feel the sun on my face after going so long without."



The second hand crept forward slowly. "When will this torture end?"



Minutes later, there was a knock at the locked door. Was this it? Was my sentence over? The voice on the other side said something in Romanian. I didn't understand. Surely this was it? The moment I had waited for for solong?



The door was opened and I stepped through squinting in the bright light of the sun. The same voice from earlier announced our arrival. "Bucuresti" (pronounced Bookooresht). Backpack on my shoulders, I carefully climbed down the train steps.



I had arrived. I was in this land where gypsies still roam in their covered wagon caravans and horses still plow the fields and women in head scarves stoop in the fields harvesting crops.

I was in... Romania.

24 Hours of Traveling

9.00am

I’m writing this from the train, eleven hours into the journey. We had some trouble trying to get quickly and easily from Istanbul to anywhere, so we ended up with a night (and day) train to Bucharest. We had thought about stopping in Bulgaria, but unfortunately that would involve two night trains, or possibly even the same train only split into two parts. Our other options were plane or bus. Plane would cost 3 times as much, but we would be there in a fraction of the time. Bus would take 3 hours fewer and cost the same. So why are we on this 18 hour train? We got couchettes (minibeds). On night trains, you can usually pay for a seat that turns into a bed, which is exactly what we did. I’ll try to update later, but for now, it’s a bit after 9am and I am wanting breakfast.

2.52 pm

After endless hours of entertaining myself, we are now at the Bulgaria/Romania border. So close… only 2 more hours. Earlier I failed to mention the Turkey/Bulgaria border crossing. That was definitely an interesting experience. I’ve never gotten off the train or bus to get my passport checked. The passport guy always comes to me. But for some reason unbeknownst to me, I found myself standing in a short line at the passport office in an almost deserted train station at 2 or 3 in the morning. Strangely enough, after getting my Turkish stamp and back onto the train, the Turkish officials checked on me 4 more times. Once to make sure I got my passport stamped, once to make sure I had a ticket, and twice for customs (who checked my ticket and passport). It all just seemed so redundant.

The Bulgarian border was much easier. Since they became part of the EU, apparently the border has eased up. I remember sitting on a train at 4 or 5 am as my passport was taken from me and waiting an hour or two before I got my at-the-border visa. The stamp is different now, the normal EU stamp. There isn’t even any Cyrillic on the stamp! Only Roman characters. How boring!

I’ll update a bit later if I can. From Bucharest we are traveling to Brasov (an additional 3 hours).

Istanbul not Constantinople

21 May 2009

I’ve been here only a couple of hours and I knew immediately, before I even stepped off the night bus from Selçuk that I would like this city. From the bus, the view was great. We saw the Aya Sofya and the Blue Mosque and numerous other sights before the bus swung around in the opposite direction and headed toward the bus station (which is a lot further away than we expected).

From the enormous bus station (I think we were dropped off at platform 126), we took the metro to Aksaray, the end stop and then took the tram from there to Sultanahmet, the neighborhood where we are staying and where most of the sites are located.

The hotel receptionist didn’t speak English, but we were able to communicate enough to check in and pay. After breakfast on the roof terrace (apparently those are all the rage here and I can see why - the view), we set out to explore Istanbul.

22 May 2002
We started our adventure with the obelisk near the Blue Mosque (we are staying in a place close to the Blue Mosque so it is a logical starting point) and then headed to the Mosque itself. Neither of us had seen the inside of a mosque before. After securing my scarf around my head and removing my shoes and placing them inside a clear plastic bag, I was ready to enter the mosque. Although several signs were posted about women covering their heads, many women ignored these signs. Scarves were provided for those who had none, and still there were many many people ignoring the requests.

The Blue Mosque.

After seeing the mosque, we walked over to Topkapi Palace where we discovered the price had doubled since the publication of my guidebook information (November 2007, so 1.5 years ago). So we didn’t go. At least not yet. I’m not ready to shell out that much to see a castle.

After the castle grounds, we walked to the Grand Bazaar. While interesting to see, there were too many people and all the vendors had the same products. And I couldn’t afford anything.

One of the many entrances to the Grand Bazaar.

From the Grand Bazaar, we made our way to the Egyptian Spice Market, which was just as interesting, slightly cheaper I suppose, but twice as crowded.

The Egyptian Spice Market Entrance.

Spices anyone?

With aching feet, we ate dinner and ended the day.

Selçuk Part Deux

20 May 2009
Because our bus left at 10.30pm, we had a second full day in Selcuk. We ate a late-ish breakfast (10.00) and then wandered around the city for a bit. We found remnant of city walls, a castle, an old mosque, and last, but not least, we found the Temple of Artemis, famous from the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World list.

Having read that the thing had been destroyed long ago, we had very low expectations, but it was actually quite cool. While Ephesus is expensive (20 Turkish Lira or 10 Euro), seeing the Temple of Artemis is free. While most of it is just a pile of rocks, one of the pillars has been re-erected. There is a gaggle of geese wandering around the grounds, people right outside selling obscene and senseless “souvenirs” (if you can even call them that) and buses of tour groups standing at the entrance (fortunately, the tour groups only stop for a photo opportunity and move on quickly to their next photo opportunity.

After a stop at the temple, we took a bus to the beach where we saw and experienced many interesting sites.

Our evening was spent finding food, lodging for the next night, and checking email and facebook and other such vices.

Selçuk and Efes

19 May 2009

Famous for it’s camel wrestling (yes, you heard me right, camel wrestling) event every January, Selçuk is the obvious place to stay when visiting Efes (Ephesus).

Efes was an ancient Greek city on the coast of what is now Turkey.

We had reached the top gate when the clouds turned gray and we started hearing thunder. I fully anticipated rain. We were partway through the site when fat, cold drops started to fall. We started walking more quickly. We were on our way to see one last thing we had missed the first time when marble-sized hail started falling. I couldn’t believe it. Hail. In Turkey. On the day we were visiting an ancient ruins site. The morning was exceptionally hot and sunny, and the afternoon was chilly, rainy, and it hailed!

We left with a lot of other tourists, but didn’t have transportation. We had taken a minibus part of the way, but had been dropped off at the highway entrance. There was still a kilometer or so left to walk from there.

While trying to decide if we should brave the hail or not, a couple in a car stopped and offered to take us into Selçuk (about 3 kilometers away). We happily accepted. By the time we got out of the car at the bus station (we were staying only a couple of blocks away), it had stopped hailing and raining, but we were still soaked. We walked back to the hotel and dried off a bit. The rest of the day was spent more or less lounging about. We went out once for food, but ended up caught in hail again, so we took that as a sign and stayed at the hotel the rest of the evening.

Greece to Turkey

8.17 Arrived at customs office. Told we'd have to get the customs stamp at the dock.

8.21Boarded the Maria Star. Filled in health survey. Checked NO for swine flu.

9.15 Boatsailed from dock to passport control at end of port. Got off boat. Stood in line. Almost didn't get stamped out of Greece. Spent 5-10 minutes trying to convince passport guy when I arrived in Europe. Was seriously afraid I was going to be rejected. Greg was already on the boat and I was the last person in the passport office.

10.30 Disembarked. Paid USD 20 for a Turkish visa. It's pretty.

11.00 Realized we weren't in Bodrum, but 20 km away and the boat and all daytrippers had gone.

11.30 Found an atm, the minibus station, and the minibus bound for Bodrum, in that order.

12.30 Arrived at Bodrum bus station.

1.00 Found hotel. Told that the room wouldn't be ready until later.

1.30 Ordered a plain omelette at ta Turkish fast food place. Total bill: 10 lira or 5 Euro or USD 7.50 for 2 people.

5.00 Spent afternoon wandering around city trying to find mausoleum, odeon (theater), windmills, tower, and good view of the castle.

8.00 Internet time.

9.00 Dinner time. This was a different experience. There was no menu and no prices. There was a display case filled with cold food. There were probably 20 choices. The hostess explained what the food items were. Then, you chose 3 or 4 starters and 2 or 3 middles (I can't remember her term for the items on the middle shelf intended to be eaten after the starters and before the mains). She said most people fill up before they even get to the mains. Once you chose your items you sat down at a nice candle lit table with fancy glasses and silverware. Unfortunately, the starters and middles did not fill us up, but we didn't want to spend anymore money there, so we left and sought out dessert, which we found at a little sweets shop on the ultra touristy shopping street.

11.00 Bed time.

Kos

15 May 2009

We’ve been in Kos for a couple of days now and are planning on taking the ferry to Bodrum, Turkey tomorrow. Apparently, few people go one-way. We encountered only tour boats. One gave us a “deal” of 15 Euro. Funny, round trip is 20 Euro including a city tour. How does that work?

Yesterday we rented bikes and rode to the Asclepion, a place of healing. The day before, we relaxed in the morning (the midnight ferry from Santorini to Kos rendered us useless as tourists. In the afternoon, we explored ancient ruins. Kos is full of them. I actually liked the ruins here in Kos better than the Acropolis and Agora in Athens. Despite being overgrown with pokey things and obviously not well cared for, there seems to be more remaining. You are allowed to crawl all over the ruins (there are no whistle blowers here as in Athens).

At the Acropolis in Athens, a whistle blower (aka a ruins guard) came over to us and asked to view our last photo. We complied, but didn’t understand (the last photo was me with the Parthenon in the background). She said it was okay, but wouldn’t explain what she thought we were photographing. We couldn’t figure out what it could be that she wouldn’t want us to photograph.

At the ruins here in Kos, we found baths and partially hidden (by sand and rocks) mosaics and wall paintings and all sorts of interesting finds. The ruins seemed to be slightly less ruinous. I could see the boundaries of the buildings and the lines of the walls. In the Forum (in Rome) and the Agora (in Athens), you see piles of rocks. I have a good imagination, but it’s not good enough to imagine structures from piles of rocks with any sort of realism.

Kos is definitely a different place than Naxos, Iraklia, and Santorini. Those three are in the Cyclades (group of islands). Kos is in the Dodecadese and is very close to Turkey. I’m talking swimming distance. How crazy is that? I could swim to Turkey! Except I’m not positive I wouldn’t be harpooned down for trying to enter the country illegally.

Time to start another day. On the agenda today: thermal springs and some beach time.

The fortress and inner castle:

If you look carefully, you can see a couple of helmets stacked up on top of the pile of canon balls.

The pillar graveyard.



The following were taken at the Odeon:

The following were taken at the West Archeological Site:

Taking a bath, Roman style. Am I clean yet?

Check out the mosaic I'm standing on. They are just letting this thing deteriorate underneath a bunch of rocks and dirt.

I loved that we were allowed to crawl all over everything. There were no whistle blowers, no "danger" signs, and no one there to watch us. There was also no one taking care of the site. The place obviously is not tended to.