After Iran we spent another few days in Istanbul, we just can't get enough! I got to go on a food tour which was saweeet! I ate heaps. From there we caught a bus through pine forests along winding roads. The weather was cool, sunny and breezy. A nice change from the heat of Iran.
The border crossing into Bulgaria was smooth and silky and before we knew it we were on the black sea coast. We spent our time in a town called Sozopol walking the coast, eating fresh seafood, wining and dining and staying in the biggest (and cheapest) room known to man. This was the life! Well, it was part of it and from what we could tell it was good. Damn good.
We dipped our feet in the icy waters of the black sea and exhaled. We loved Istanbul, LOVED it, but how good was it to be in a tiny town in the low season feeling like we had the whole cobblestoned town to ourselves? Our budget was loving it too! We lived like kings!
From Sozopol we missed our bus to Veniko Tarnovo. It turns out the bus stop we originally got dropped off at (two days ago!) was now out of service and we were experiencing the very first day of the exciting change. We got to miss a bus before a lovely, fonzy-like taxi driver tempted us with a $30 taxi fare to Burgass. How much? $30? When I could catch a bus for $3! I'll take it!! Can I go there and back again a few times to bump up the price? Oh, goody!!
We got the bus, its new stop 100m up the road,and floored it back to Bulgass (catchy name) but, alas, the connecting bus was missed. Hold up! Is that another taxi driver convincing us we still had time to catch it from another bus station? And it only costs how much? We'll take it!! Oh, we'll take it alright. Right up the..."rump steak sounds delicious" frosty said as we ordered our cauliflower soup. We slowed it down, ate dinner and booked a hotel in Burgass. Our luck was changing as this hotel was 200m down the road from our restaurant and we found an op shop!! (Cue daggy, rainbow jacket). Arriving at the hotel and the gate is locked. Buzz the buzzer a few times and take a seat as we try to figure out what to do. Clearly no one is home. After a few minutes we see an angry looking man walking towards us.
"Yes? What do you want"
"We had a room booked for tonight"
Fghfibdgdub. Storms off.
Twiddling thumbs.
Comes back to open gate and house. "Your room. Toilet. OK. give me passport"
Well OK, sure sunshine!!
Turns out this charming fellow had just come from the ambulance because of his sever bronchitis. His gate buzzer was linked to a buzzer in his pocket and while he was getting treated he was constantly feeling a buzz in his pants. Oops!!
Before we knew it we were on the correct bus heading to Veliko Tarnovo. A beautiful town with its very own castle! We scored another amazing room with a view of the castle ruins. From here we meandered through the cobblestoned streets admiring the handicraft shops (the wooden toys were the best! I bought a hand carved wooden spoon) and eating at our favourite restaurant. They made the best pizza and pasta!
The local castle was in a really cool spot on top of a hill and surrounded by autumn trees. It even had its own lift! Turns put it was made in 1985 in an exact replica of the original castle. Was still pretty cool! The surrounding walls were original and covered in moss and the smell of the grounds reminded me of my nan's old place in Hornsby. frosty and I walked around for the afternoon exploring the other ruins and finding hops growing wild amongst the rubble! It smelt so good! Too bad the beer they served was crap.
Veliko had a tiny station where we were to catch our next beast into Romania. It was late. We had to wait over an hour at the station surrounded by falling autumn leaves, chatting with a local and playing with cute dogs. We also saw the fanciest train ever, filled with old Europeans hopping back on to continue their month long adventure through Europe into turkey. Those bitches were loaded!
The border crossing into Bulgaria was smooth and silky and before we knew it we were on the black sea coast. We spent our time in a town called Sozopol walking the coast, eating fresh seafood, wining and dining and staying in the biggest (and cheapest) room known to man. This was the life! Well, it was part of it and from what we could tell it was good. Damn good.
We dipped our feet in the icy waters of the black sea and exhaled. We loved Istanbul, LOVED it, but how good was it to be in a tiny town in the low season feeling like we had the whole cobblestoned town to ourselves? Our budget was loving it too! We lived like kings!
From Sozopol we missed our bus to Veniko Tarnovo. It turns out the bus stop we originally got dropped off at (two days ago!) was now out of service and we were experiencing the very first day of the exciting change. We got to miss a bus before a lovely, fonzy-like taxi driver tempted us with a $30 taxi fare to Burgass. How much? $30? When I could catch a bus for $3! I'll take it!! Can I go there and back again a few times to bump up the price? Oh, goody!!
We got the bus, its new stop 100m up the road,and floored it back to Bulgass (catchy name) but, alas, the connecting bus was missed. Hold up! Is that another taxi driver convincing us we still had time to catch it from another bus station? And it only costs how much? We'll take it!! Oh, we'll take it alright. Right up the..."rump steak sounds delicious" frosty said as we ordered our cauliflower soup. We slowed it down, ate dinner and booked a hotel in Burgass. Our luck was changing as this hotel was 200m down the road from our restaurant and we found an op shop!! (Cue daggy, rainbow jacket). Arriving at the hotel and the gate is locked. Buzz the buzzer a few times and take a seat as we try to figure out what to do. Clearly no one is home. After a few minutes we see an angry looking man walking towards us.
"Yes? What do you want"
"We had a room booked for tonight"
Fghfibdgdub. Storms off.
Twiddling thumbs.
Comes back to open gate and house. "Your room. Toilet. OK. give me passport"
Well OK, sure sunshine!!
Turns out this charming fellow had just come from the ambulance because of his sever bronchitis. His gate buzzer was linked to a buzzer in his pocket and while he was getting treated he was constantly feeling a buzz in his pants. Oops!!
Before we knew it we were on the correct bus heading to Veliko Tarnovo. A beautiful town with its very own castle! We scored another amazing room with a view of the castle ruins. From here we meandered through the cobblestoned streets admiring the handicraft shops (the wooden toys were the best! I bought a hand carved wooden spoon) and eating at our favourite restaurant. They made the best pizza and pasta!
The local castle was in a really cool spot on top of a hill and surrounded by autumn trees. It even had its own lift! Turns put it was made in 1985 in an exact replica of the original castle. Was still pretty cool! The surrounding walls were original and covered in moss and the smell of the grounds reminded me of my nan's old place in Hornsby. frosty and I walked around for the afternoon exploring the other ruins and finding hops growing wild amongst the rubble! It smelt so good! Too bad the beer they served was crap.
Veliko had a tiny station where we were to catch our next beast into Romania. It was late. We had to wait over an hour at the station surrounded by falling autumn leaves, chatting with a local and playing with cute dogs. We also saw the fanciest train ever, filled with old Europeans hopping back on to continue their month long adventure through Europe into turkey. Those bitches were loaded!
Goodbye Bulgaria, hello Romania! We got straight in to it off the train, into a taxi, into the rain and up the stairs into our top story room with massive balcony with a bit of a view of Bucharest. We deserve it!! Drop our bags and head straight to the Irish pub for a hot one. Meal that is. Or is it? Yes, yes it is.
Bucharest was full of amazing history, lots of it recent. The reign of Ceausescu was pretty horrible, particularly because it was so recent and let's face it, pretty horrible. He bulldozed around one sixth of the city to build his "Palace of parliament". A massive complex with its own tree lined avenue, and fancy schmanse buildings. It was apparently the second largest building in the world after the pentahon. Now it is set up for large tour groups and you can pick from a range of tours such as the balcony,the basement, the regular etc. Which one did we do? None. They were more expensive than we anticipated and you had to show your passport. We had limited cash and no passport so we skipped the massive lines and walked out that grand door with our heads held high and straight to the next Irish pub for a cold glass of guiness and pie. Take that, history.
One night we decided to catch some nightlife and go see some live music. Our original gig started at 2:30am. What? We're too old to stay out late! Next gig starts at 8pm. That's more like it. We never did find that band but we did party all night and got home at 4am. Bucharest never knew such dance moves until we came along. Sweet, sweet dance moves.
We stayed an extra night after our party time and spent the day bludging before making the gigantic effort of walking to a lovely little restaurant that was "ten minutes" up the road. The walk was worth it as we ate a three course home-cooked meal in a cosy little restaurant being waited on by the pixie-like owner.
Our next stop was Transylvaniaaaaaaa!!! I wasn't even scared but Frosty had gone a very pale. Or was that how he always looked? Anyway, our first town was Brasov from where we could hop on a train, or hop on a bus...got that song in your head now? Well it was true here that there was minimal fuss. We wandered around more cobblestoned streets and looking at even more autumn trees. one of our first stops was a town up the road which had a gondola that could take you to the top of the mountain. All 2000 metres of it. Pffft, I've climbed higher than that in Kyrgyzstan. But no, frosty didn't feel like tackling the beast today so we got the easy way up. I was dressed for a mild autumn day but there was nothing mild about the top! We were freezing! We quickly took some happy snbaps then ducked inside for a hot cuppa and to admire the beautiful view.
We had heard about the famous Peles Castle that looks more like a grand palace. The winding road leading to it was surrounded by beautiful woods in full autumn glory. We took about a thousand photos along this spot it was so beautiful. We pop around a corner and there it is in all its magnificent glory. We had picked a perfect day as the sky was blue, the sun was shining and the grounds were full of colour. Continuing our walk around the castle towards the entrance we took about another thousand pics. How brilliant are digital cameras? Don't answer that question. Pew, pew, pew cameras blazing we walk past security and towards the ticket office which was closed. Just like the castle. For one whole month. Cursing the sassy statue of the King we walked across the mesmerising grounds to the restaurant across the way and treated ourselves to an ice cold beer. It had been a tough day and we deserved it. We had a million dollar view of the castle and felt pretty chuffed even if we didn't get to see the inside. We heard it was like, totally boring anyway.
In town we checked out the Black Church. It gets its name from fire damage not because its the church of Satan. Inside was a massive pipe organ. Huge! They do shows there pretty regularly but we just missed the last one. I would love to hear one of those bad boys.
But what you really want to hear about is Dracula's Caaaaastle!! Blaaaaa! One, ah ah ah! On the bus and out of town we arrived and it was nice to see it was relatively quiet. The castle looks great perched on a hill. There's even a mossy roofed house on the lush grounds. As Frostys tour guide it was up to me to tell him about the castle in my best Dracula voice. I didn't know much information but I was good at pointing at things and declaring their daily use for example, *Dracula voice* "This, is where, I kept my clooothes" and so on and so forth. It didn't even annoy him in the slightest! He actually thinks I'm pretty funny which is nice. The castle is actually called Bran's Castle. Vlad,the yet to be Impaler, may have passed through here in the 15th century. Classic.
Further west we visited the lovely little town of Sighisoara. We stayed in a Pension and got an upgrade because our heater wasn't working. Our room was huge and beautiful and the owner was really, really sweet. Here we did things like drink coffee (good coffee!), drink beer, see a mediaeval festival with sword fights, drink local wine, explore an old church with an underground walkway and go to the local markets where you could buy any honey paraphernalia you could dream of! Romania had been just as pretty and relaxing as Bulgaria. We were loving cruising the streets in the quiet season. Our next stop would be a little different, Budapest! Bring it on!
Bucharest was full of amazing history, lots of it recent. The reign of Ceausescu was pretty horrible, particularly because it was so recent and let's face it, pretty horrible. He bulldozed around one sixth of the city to build his "Palace of parliament". A massive complex with its own tree lined avenue, and fancy schmanse buildings. It was apparently the second largest building in the world after the pentahon. Now it is set up for large tour groups and you can pick from a range of tours such as the balcony,the basement, the regular etc. Which one did we do? None. They were more expensive than we anticipated and you had to show your passport. We had limited cash and no passport so we skipped the massive lines and walked out that grand door with our heads held high and straight to the next Irish pub for a cold glass of guiness and pie. Take that, history.
One night we decided to catch some nightlife and go see some live music. Our original gig started at 2:30am. What? We're too old to stay out late! Next gig starts at 8pm. That's more like it. We never did find that band but we did party all night and got home at 4am. Bucharest never knew such dance moves until we came along. Sweet, sweet dance moves.
We stayed an extra night after our party time and spent the day bludging before making the gigantic effort of walking to a lovely little restaurant that was "ten minutes" up the road. The walk was worth it as we ate a three course home-cooked meal in a cosy little restaurant being waited on by the pixie-like owner.
Our next stop was Transylvaniaaaaaaa!!! I wasn't even scared but Frosty had gone a very pale. Or was that how he always looked? Anyway, our first town was Brasov from where we could hop on a train, or hop on a bus...got that song in your head now? Well it was true here that there was minimal fuss. We wandered around more cobblestoned streets and looking at even more autumn trees. one of our first stops was a town up the road which had a gondola that could take you to the top of the mountain. All 2000 metres of it. Pffft, I've climbed higher than that in Kyrgyzstan. But no, frosty didn't feel like tackling the beast today so we got the easy way up. I was dressed for a mild autumn day but there was nothing mild about the top! We were freezing! We quickly took some happy snbaps then ducked inside for a hot cuppa and to admire the beautiful view.
We had heard about the famous Peles Castle that looks more like a grand palace. The winding road leading to it was surrounded by beautiful woods in full autumn glory. We took about a thousand photos along this spot it was so beautiful. We pop around a corner and there it is in all its magnificent glory. We had picked a perfect day as the sky was blue, the sun was shining and the grounds were full of colour. Continuing our walk around the castle towards the entrance we took about another thousand pics. How brilliant are digital cameras? Don't answer that question. Pew, pew, pew cameras blazing we walk past security and towards the ticket office which was closed. Just like the castle. For one whole month. Cursing the sassy statue of the King we walked across the mesmerising grounds to the restaurant across the way and treated ourselves to an ice cold beer. It had been a tough day and we deserved it. We had a million dollar view of the castle and felt pretty chuffed even if we didn't get to see the inside. We heard it was like, totally boring anyway.
In town we checked out the Black Church. It gets its name from fire damage not because its the church of Satan. Inside was a massive pipe organ. Huge! They do shows there pretty regularly but we just missed the last one. I would love to hear one of those bad boys.
But what you really want to hear about is Dracula's Caaaaastle!! Blaaaaa! One, ah ah ah! On the bus and out of town we arrived and it was nice to see it was relatively quiet. The castle looks great perched on a hill. There's even a mossy roofed house on the lush grounds. As Frostys tour guide it was up to me to tell him about the castle in my best Dracula voice. I didn't know much information but I was good at pointing at things and declaring their daily use for example, *Dracula voice* "This, is where, I kept my clooothes" and so on and so forth. It didn't even annoy him in the slightest! He actually thinks I'm pretty funny which is nice. The castle is actually called Bran's Castle. Vlad,the yet to be Impaler, may have passed through here in the 15th century. Classic.
Further west we visited the lovely little town of Sighisoara. We stayed in a Pension and got an upgrade because our heater wasn't working. Our room was huge and beautiful and the owner was really, really sweet. Here we did things like drink coffee (good coffee!), drink beer, see a mediaeval festival with sword fights, drink local wine, explore an old church with an underground walkway and go to the local markets where you could buy any honey paraphernalia you could dream of! Romania had been just as pretty and relaxing as Bulgaria. We were loving cruising the streets in the quiet season. Our next stop would be a little different, Budapest! Bring it on!
Another amazing train ride and we arrived at 3:30am. By chance we had booked a hostel that was a short walk from the station. Legends! Our first day wasn't full of adventure but we did manage to find a south Indian restaurant we were pretty chuffed with! The next day Frosty explored the city while I went on another food tour. I love food tours! They're a great way to see the city and eat delicious food! Our last stop for the day was their own wine bar. I tried them all and went back for seconds (don't worry, everyone else did too!) And then quickly had to dash to meet up with my man as we didn't have ways of contacting each other and had faith that we would meet in a certain spot at a certain time. I was late but I still found him there! Little cutie. Now this is where our trouble began. It wasn't serious trouble, it was delicious trouble. You see,Budapest had a new emerging passion for craft beers and who were we to poo pootheir hard work? It was up to us to scour the city visiting every single craft beer pub in search of the holy grail. Oh we found her alright! first one off the bat! Sure we tried the others but we kept coming back to the original spot. This place had about five beers on tap that changed almost daily. The owners were some serious beer lovers. They even drove to Germany to pick up a couple of kegs from a gypsy brewer who had limited stock. People were lining up outside hoping to get a chance to taste it! other places had delicious burgers or hot dogs, and one place was huge and filled with 70s stuff. Looked cool but the beer was no good. You can't have every thing I suppose.
While we were here we went to Electronic Beats festival to see James Blake and some other dudes. It was pretty cool. No matter where you stood in the hall the sound was amazing. That's a pretty imprssive feat of strength. By this stage we were staying in an air bnb apartment cooking our own food and living it large. One night while waiting for a tram,some lovely tourist girls came over to us and gave us their Hop on Hop Off bus tickets. They were still valid for another 24 hours but they were leaving so didn't need it. Scoooore!!! This isn't the type of thing we would do because it would upset the budget master so we were pretty excited! It was an open top double decker and we headed straight to the top. We got stuck in traffic and froze our ass off for about three hours, hopping off once for lunch, but it was so cool. You put headphones on and they have pre-recorded tourist information. Such glitz and glamour! We warmed ourselves up with a visit to the majestic Gellert Thermal Baths. This place was pure glamour. The building that is, not the old dudes in speedos. It had an outdoor bath and sauna and inside was a maze of poorly signposted baths, steam rooms and freezing dip pools. It was really cool because you had to try and find the next spot and I felt like a big kid. frosty had visited the Szechenyi baths as well which, of course, were heaps better for numerous reasons I won't bore you with now. After steaming, soaking and sweating, my lovely Frost man took me out to dinner at a fancy but relaxed restaurant. They let us taste wine as though we knew what we were doing. We would give each other a look like "hmm, that's tough. Well I liked the grapiness of this one. I feel it had more of a 'foot-crushed' mouth feel that will be divine with our potatoes five ways" recite 'eeny-meeny-miny-mo' in your head and go with that. This also worked with our dessert wine ooh la la!!
We didn't want to leave Hungary having only been in Budapest (for eight days!) So we caught the next train to a border town called Györ and spent a couple of days there. Nice town! Nice, nice. No Budapest but it was nice! Had some nice bits too it which was nice. One thing it did had was thermal pools! Not your classy Budapest style, your Black town Ripples style! It had two water slides and pools that were both inside and outside at the same time! Whoahhh! One of the slides even ended at a bar!! Heaveeeeeeennn!!! So that was nice.
Next stop Vienna!! I know, not sticking to any plans but we are having a good old fashioned time! Sausages and schnitzels here I come!! I hear they have fried potato cakes too Fro, don't worry.
While we were here we went to Electronic Beats festival to see James Blake and some other dudes. It was pretty cool. No matter where you stood in the hall the sound was amazing. That's a pretty imprssive feat of strength. By this stage we were staying in an air bnb apartment cooking our own food and living it large. One night while waiting for a tram,some lovely tourist girls came over to us and gave us their Hop on Hop Off bus tickets. They were still valid for another 24 hours but they were leaving so didn't need it. Scoooore!!! This isn't the type of thing we would do because it would upset the budget master so we were pretty excited! It was an open top double decker and we headed straight to the top. We got stuck in traffic and froze our ass off for about three hours, hopping off once for lunch, but it was so cool. You put headphones on and they have pre-recorded tourist information. Such glitz and glamour! We warmed ourselves up with a visit to the majestic Gellert Thermal Baths. This place was pure glamour. The building that is, not the old dudes in speedos. It had an outdoor bath and sauna and inside was a maze of poorly signposted baths, steam rooms and freezing dip pools. It was really cool because you had to try and find the next spot and I felt like a big kid. frosty had visited the Szechenyi baths as well which, of course, were heaps better for numerous reasons I won't bore you with now. After steaming, soaking and sweating, my lovely Frost man took me out to dinner at a fancy but relaxed restaurant. They let us taste wine as though we knew what we were doing. We would give each other a look like "hmm, that's tough. Well I liked the grapiness of this one. I feel it had more of a 'foot-crushed' mouth feel that will be divine with our potatoes five ways" recite 'eeny-meeny-miny-mo' in your head and go with that. This also worked with our dessert wine ooh la la!!
We didn't want to leave Hungary having only been in Budapest (for eight days!) So we caught the next train to a border town called Györ and spent a couple of days there. Nice town! Nice, nice. No Budapest but it was nice! Had some nice bits too it which was nice. One thing it did had was thermal pools! Not your classy Budapest style, your Black town Ripples style! It had two water slides and pools that were both inside and outside at the same time! Whoahhh! One of the slides even ended at a bar!! Heaveeeeeeennn!!! So that was nice.
Next stop Vienna!! I know, not sticking to any plans but we are having a good old fashioned time! Sausages and schnitzels here I come!! I hear they have fried potato cakes too Fro, don't worry.