Bulgaria, Romania and things not going to plan...
Bulgaria is the only place I have visited (in 57 Countries) that does not have a breakfast menu at McDonalds. I have not had to resort to eating at Macca's all trip, but I was dying for an egg and bacon McMuffin. Bulgaria does not have any English breakfasts that I could find, only sweet bun things. There was nothing up on the board, so I asked and got a resounding "No". Okay, not eating there. Bulgaria really sucks.
I arrived in Romania and the bus depot is way out of town and there are no local buses to town. I tried walking around I could not find anything resembling a bus stop. So I decided I would have to resort to a taxi. I asked how much and was given a price, a bit steep, but I wasn't in a position to argue as I was way out of town. The driver seemed nice enough. pointed out all of the things I could visit during my stay. However. Once we got to the drop off point he charged me almost double as "traffic was bad." then added another 100 Leu for a tax I had to pay. I was pissed, he was agressive. And he had all of my luggage in his boot, he stopped in traffic and he didn't have his ID on his dash as they usually do. There was little I could do. I thought after I should have taken a photo of his rego, but I was in traffic with my luggage, so was in no position to be standing around taking pictures. I cursed him to there and back in my head. But you know what. I thought "Here's me travelling the world and here's him, driving a taxi in Romania and probably always will be." So I let it go, no point in ruining my stay because of him. At least I was safely at my accommodation. If that is the worse thing to happen then so be it, I have been extremely lucky so far. Little was I to know...
Bucharest is really pretty, it has flowers everywhere and cute little restaurants. It also has statues everywhere, like most Balkan cities.
I got into the airbnb and they had a washing mashing, I was so happy. I put all of my clothes in to wash, except the ones I had on. It was a weird washing machine, I had never seen or used one before and apparently I should never use one again... It made a horrible sound and the cycle never finished. It just stayed on for hours, doing nothing. I contacted the owner and she talked me through it in text, but no, nothing doing. Finally about 7 hours later her and her husband came over and they could not get it to work either. They decided the drum may not have closed correctly and it has stuck with the back to the top. So we can't move it and we can't access my clothes. I probably didn't close the drum properly, as I didn't even know I had to. So there's that.... They came to the conclusion that her husband would have to cut the drum open tomorrow, and he was concerned that the sparks might ruin my clothes, he wasn't the only one. But if we could save some at least that would be better than nothing. I have one set of clothes at present and I have to wash them by hand tonight to wear tomorrow as I am going on a tour of two castles in one day. They never blamed me as they weren't sure it was me or just the machine was faulty, so they were very nice about it, but I think it was me...
So the next day I went off at 7.30 am to do the tour. I had no idea if I was going to come back to any clothes at all, adventure after adventure here folks.
The tour itself was really good, at least the first half. We went to the Castle Peles and it was amazing. It was built in the 1880's and it had electricty and everything. I was inpressed. The lovely glass roof could be electronically opened to let in the daylight and breeze, it was incredible. They had a small elevator, that only the king and queen could use. They even had holes in the walls for the vacuum hoses to go into so the king was not disterbed by the vacuum sound. I thought that was a new invention, nope 1880's people... They have statues and paintings of all the seasons except winter, winter was not allowed in the castle.
The whole castle was amazing I liked it almost as much as my favourite little castle of Ludwigs in Germany. This one even had the same mechanicism to raise the food from the kitchen below to keep the food from getting cold. It was really amazing. I shall share some pics.
We then went to Castle Bran, the castle of Vlad the impaler. It is also the castle that people believe the Irish author of the Dracula novel used as his castle. He used a photo of Bran castle on the cover of the book. But he did not mention the castles name. People started flocking to Transilvania to find the castle. The people of Bran kept saying they didn't have a Castle Dracula, but the tourists insisted until the locals said okay, how much you wish to pay., and they made a room in the castle to reflect the Dracula myth. I thought that castle was pretty boring to be honest, it did not have any of the appeal of the first one. Apparently Queen Maria wanted it to be kept plain, nothing like the first castle. We didn't even get to see dungeons or any Vlad stuff. But the guide did say he told us about Vlad in the bus, I must have nodded off as I didn't hear any of that. So if you go, let me know.
We then went on to a town I cannot for the life of me tell you the name of, we had lunch there, it was 4.10pm by this stage. We ate and then went on a tour of a church and the town. Not a big fan, nothing interesting in either.
Headstones in the wall of the church..
We did pass some huge metal towers, like phone towers. Apparently the soviets used them to block the BBC and the American news stations so that the people behind the iron curtain could not hear western news or radio.
I was tired by the time I got back to the room and they have this cute little lift, really old fashioned that you have to close the door before it will move. It was adorable and quess who broke it. Yep, I was on a run... So The lift was stuck on my floor and I tried everything to get it to move but alas, no go. I think I opened the door too soon. So all night I could hear people bashing the door and trying to get the thing to move, no luck. I just stayed inside and pretended I knew nothing. I am a walking disaster and am starting to think Kearie might be right and I shoudn't be let out alone... But by this morning the thing was fixed. so no harm done.
I was pleasantly surprised to find they had somehow gotten the washing machine open without cutting it and I could access my clothes, they weren't washed so I had to do that by hand, and they have been hanging all over the room all night and day. Most are dry by now.
I am heading back to Heathrow tomorrow morning and then catching a plane back home. I am ready to finish this adventure and am really grateful that you all came on it with me. So thank you
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