Romania – Day 1 (Sinaia, Bran, Brasov)
Saturday 02-May-2009
Breakfast consisted of tea, bread, salami, boiled eggs and some sort of yellow/brownish cake which I had no idea nor did Alin know the ingredients of. After watching a bit of Romanian TV, Ioana and her partner Chris picked us up in their ute and we began our journey into the Romanian countryside.
My first impression of the Romanian roads was that there are no road rules whatsoever. It seems like if you go in the same direction as the car in front of you and you stop at a red light are the only laws applicable. Other than those two things, there appears to be no other road rules that one must follow. You can drive as fast as you want, but slow down when there’s a speed camera, overtake someone while there is oncoming traffic, wear seat belts only when you see a police officer just to name a few.
Along one of the highways at midday Ioana pointed out some prostitutes on the side of the road. Isn’t it a bit early for them to be parading about during the day? It seems they’re quite liberal about the profession so it doesn’t matter what time of the day it is, they’re happy to advertise their services.
We passed through the town of Comarnic then on to our first destination being Sinaia. Sinaia is a mountain resort which offers hiking and also winter sports. In Sinaia we went to visit Peles Castle, Pelisor Castle and wandered around the garden there.
Lunch was at a restaurant called Vanatoresc which served only game and hunting food. So animals like wild boar, venison, bear and other species were all on the menu. I wasn’t at all comfortable with this kind of food but out of respect to Ioana and Chris who took us there, I sampled everything that was ordered and hid the fact that I feared to eat any of this sort of delicacy. Lucky they had an animal that I could eat without guilt or fear, and that was some grilled pork with polenta balls which tasted very bland. You need to mix the polenta with the sour cream and add a fair amount of salt.
The next port of call was Bran which was about an hour from Sinaia. Bran is famous for Bran Castle which is commonly known as Dracula’s castle. Yes, the castle does sit in the region of Transylvania in Romania. Upon arriving at the castle, we found that it was closed so there wasn’t any chance to visit and explore its compounds. Would we have needed to wear a garlic necklace to deter the vampires? Or would some Romanian Lei (their currency) be just as potent?
I noticed quite a long line of people queuing up outside a small store. I didn’t know what they were queuing for but before I knew it, I was in the same line waiting with them and the whole gang. Everyone was patiently and eagerly waiting for their serving of Kürtös Kalács. On the banner it looked like a kebab stick but they explained to me it was a type of pastry treat powdered in a flavor of choice which is delicious. That’s possibly why everyone was in line, waiting for some Kürtös Kalács goodness.
These things were quite large and for about £2 it is an absolute bargain. It looks like a giant bread roll but it is actually hollow. You have 2 people in the back making the dough, then 2 people cutting the dough and wrapping this dough firmly around this wooden stick. Once the dough is wrapped, it then goes on a flame grill which, takes seconds to brown and cook.
Once golden brown, it goes to another area where it is coated by nuts, cinnamon, chocolate and so on. Once coated, it is placed on a stand ready to be removed from the wooden stick and then slid into in a bag and taken away by the customer. To eat it you simply peel away a portion of the bread/pastry and continue repeating the process until all is gone. It was worth the 40 minute wait in line under the light rain.
After fleeing off with our 3 rolls of Kürtös Kalács, we headed to our hotel and checked in. The hotel is advertised as a pension but to me it is a hotel. The room was massive with a single and king bed, nice bathroom, stunning views of the surrounding countryside and cable TV all for the price of £30 per night per room. An absolute bargain if you ask me. The hotel is located in the middle of nowhere; quite simply there is nothing around it other than another pension across the road.
The bar and restaurant is down stairs and the closest town is at least 15-20km away. You will see cars driving past all the time but now and then you will see the horse and carriage, even in the middle of the night when its pitch black. I don’t know about you but horses do not have headlights! These roads do not have any lights so you will need to rely on car lights to see anything.
We all took about a 1.5 hr nap before heading into Brasov for dinner. You will recognize Brasov and Rasnov with their Hollywood-like sign of their own town up in the mountain. Brasov has a good feel to it, fresh air, no where near as busy at Bucharest and has some amazing food. We dined at this tavern towards the end of the main strip which served a meat platter dish to die for. None of the meat on the platter was foreign to me, so I was happily tucking away at it until I could eat no more.
The night ended with cocktails at Café Mado where the shots of alcohol were not proportional the non-alcoholic substance. So a tequila sunrise would be in a glass with the tequila making the glass half full and the rest would be the other ingredients. After the tequila sunrise we had the vodka cocktail and after that we were all spent and called it quits. Luckily Ioana was the designated driver and drove the three intoxicated guys back to the warm hotel. Chris couldn’t help himself buying more beers at the petrol station where we the three guys happily continued to drink en route to hotel.
smiles