Weekend trips to Budapest, Hungary and the region of Transylvania, Romania have undoubtedly been the highlights of my past month! Abbie and I visited our coach, Adam, in Budapest for a few days (he is originally from a small town outside of Budapest but now lives right in the city center) and were lucky enough to stay in downtown Budapest at a nice hotel recommended by him.
My intake of Hungarian history, culture, cuisine, and sights left me in awe of wonderful Budapest, and Abbie and I squeezed in the chain bridge, Buda Castle, Parliament, The Museum of Terror, a night river cruise (with champagne, cha-ching!), St. Stephen’s cathedral, Heroes’ Square, and Margaret Island! Adam had sent us an itinerary of must-do’s, and we only got about a third of the way through! Budapest has so much to offer; its history of occupation by the Turks, the Russians, the Germans, and the Austrians has inspired their uniquely chaotic story. Despite a surprisingly disturbing past (learned from the Museum of Terror), Hungary is extremely developed and a strong contributor to the European Union.
View of the Danube river, separating the "Buda" and "Pest" sides of the city
Along with miles of walking around the massive city, Abbie and I tried typical Hungarian goulash, paprika chicken, cottage cheese crepes, and local wine and beer – did I already mention that food and alcohol are by default one of the most amazing aspects of travel?
The following HALLOWEEN weekend, my friends in Bulgaria came up with the amazing idea to hit up Transylvania, Romania to celebrate the spooky holiday Twilight-style! Team Croatia, Kosovo, and Bulgaria all met up in Bran, Romania, where Dracula’s castle is. Well, met up BEFORE an 18 HOUR drive through deserted, under-developed no-name Serbian and Romanian towns. Eastern Europe Google maps lies (Claire, Kell, and Jenna – get on that haha!) Abbie and I drove to Belgrade, Serbia to pick up Bill and Lydia, who had taken a bus from Kosovo. Getting into Serbia from Kosovo is a difficult process, and there is literally a war in Lydia’s passport. Because Serbia is one of the only countries to not recognize Kosovo as a country, anytime Serbian border control sees their Kosovo stamp, they pound an “annulled” stamp over top of it! Their Kosovo stamps caused us problems at the Romanian border as well – 3 Americans and 1 Brit driving a Croatian rental car through the Romanian border at 3am caused quite the queue.
We finally reached the Transylvania region just as the sun was rising, and if I hadn’t of been so crabby/numb/sick of car games/tired of yelling at Bill for driving so aggressively past horse-drawn wagons, I would have enjoyed the windy passage through rickshaw cottages, just waking up with smoke in their chimneys. Completely out of it, we checked into our amazing lodge, and were greeted by the kind owners insisting that we have breakfast before sleeping. They brought out fresh fried eggs literally straight from their chickens, warm milk straight from the cow, and mysterious cheese straight from the goat. After rest we explored Bran market and souvenir-shopped our little hearts out. We snapped pictures of Dracula’s castle during daylight and enjoyed Romanian funnel cakes in town – my fatigue was completely overshadowed by the amazing weather, company, and indescribably extraordinary surroundings.
Bran Castle (the original "Dracula's Castle")
That night we enjoyed Vampire wine at the lodge before heading to a Romanian restaurant for dinner with the whole group. From there, dressed head-to-toe in black, with plastic fangs to emanate truly vampy personas, we marched up to Dracula’s castle just as midnight on Halloween eve was approaching. Halloween is the only time of the year when the castle is open during the night, and we loved gallivanting through the truly paranormal fortress for awhile, reading tall tales about “Count the Impaler” who inhabited the castle. After an unforgettable tour, we headed to a Halloween disco and danced the night away with the rest of the Halloween-spirited locals.
Count Kristen and Abbie Cullen inside Drac's Castle on Halloween
The next day we went to Brasov, Romania, a picturesque town with an adorable Sunday market, and enjoyed browsing the many stalls of homemade gingerbread cookies, delicious cakes, hot wine, cheese samples, and other traditional Romanian specialties. It was a beautiful afternoon, and stopped by the famous Black Church of Brasov – which actually is now Lutheran!
A night of relaxing dinner and drinks in Bran prepared us for the long day of traveling we had in front of us (that Monday was All-Saints Day in Eastern Europe, so did not have work). We all tried to enjoy the car ride home, and broke up the trip by stopping in Belgrade for dinner. Was two more-than-full days of backseat driving worth the trip to Dracula’s castle for October 31st? Bloody bet it was.
No comments:
Post a Comment