Brasov/Sighisoara - Days 120-121

I totally did the typical tourist thing and went to "Dracula's" castle. It's actually called Bran Castle; creatively named because it's located in Bran, about 30 km outside of Brasov.

The day was a bit overcast with moody clouds, so it seemed like an appropriate destination. Plus, it was one of the few museums that was open on a Monday. There was a public bus that leaves every hour for Bran, but to get to the station, I had to take the city bus...and had a bit of a tiff with the ticket patrol. It was entirely my fault because I didn't validate my bus ticket when I boarded, but four, FOUR ticket patrol officers came around for the checks and wanted to give me a huge fine for not stamping my ticket. I don't speak Romanian, they don't speak English, but we were all speaking at the same time and they blocked all the doors and refused to let me off the bus until I paid the fine. I suppose eventually they realized I was stubborn enough to never pay the fine and one guy created a tiny opening, just big enough for me to squeeze through and run away. That's right, I ran. Partly because I wanted to get away, but mostly because I was really late for the hourly bus to Bran.

Caught it just in the nick of time and arrived in Bran an hour later. The Bran Castle was built initially to defend the Bran Pass and the Transylvanian territory. Eventually, it was given to Queen Maria of Romania and the royal family used it as a part time residence until they were exiled. Either way, it has absolutely nothing to do with Dracula or Vlad Tepes (the historical figured on which Dracula is based).

I cut the day short because it was raining and bought pizza for my hosts and myself. This time, my hosts are a young Romanian couple who both lived in Copenhagen for a few years before moving back to Brasov for an extended vacation. The girl, Irina, is a sociologist and teaches here and there. Her boyfriend, Marius, is a visual artist and works in marketing/branding. His family immigrated to Canada when he was 12, so he's very much North Americanized.

This morning, I bid my hosts farewell and caught the 7:50am train from Brasov to Sighisoara. Like I mentioned before, Sighisoara is another medieval town in Transylvania, and some call it the "Pearl of Transylvania." It really is a gem. The town is smaller than Brasov and is an UNESCO heritage site. So a few years ago, they started pouring money into restoration and tourism and it shows. The old town is called the Citadel and is located on a hill in the city center. Perhaps because it's more closed in and on a smaller scale, you really feel like you're stepping back in time. I went a little shutter happy and took too many photos. Oh, and some gypsy kids threw a rock at me today because I didn't give them any money - quite a welcoming committee.

I'm staying at a guesthouse as a couchsurfer for the next couple of days. My host, Meinhard, is a German guy who travels the world and forms bases in different countries. He does freelance internet programming and other work in exchange for free lodging and also hitchhikes quite a bit. Very interesting fella. He was sharing stories about his time in London living in a squat and dumpster diving for gourmet sandwiches and pastries :) I, of cousre, had nothing to contribute, except when I inadvertently dumpster dove for Upper Crust pizza in Cambridge.

Brasov - Days 118-119

It's not an overstatement to say that I'm absolutely in love with Brasov. And the town is especially appealing after the urban jungle that was Bucharest. Just a short train ride away from Bucharest, and I'm in Transylvania and the Carpathian Mountains. Insert Dracula joke here.

Brasov is a medieval town with picture perfect streets, town squares, and buildings in various hues. It's one of the few places I've been where the town is just as pleasant in the rain. The day started out with brilliant sunshine and by mid-afternoon had turned cloudy, and by evening it was sprinkling.

The city has a German section encircled in old city walls, and it's the hub of the city. The cafes, restaurants, and shops line the orderly laid out pedestrian streets. There is also a Romanian section of town called the Schei where the roads are winding and nothing is at a right angle. Historically, only Saxons were allowed to live within the fortified city, thus the two different areas. Both sit right at the foot of the Tampa Mountain (a little bit of home in Romania) and there is a cable car and various hiking paths that lead to the top. The mountain is even complete with its own version of the "Hollywood" sign. I'm not quite sure when it was erected, but if I had one criticism about Brasov, that would be it. It's not like I would forget where I am without it...

Fun fact about Brasov and Transylvania in general - the film "Cold Mountain" was filmed here and after the production wrapped, the cast and crew vacationed in nearby Poiana Brasov resort town.

A perfect start to my stay in Transylvania. Brasov, Sighisoara, and Sibiu are like the holy trinity of Transylvanian Medieval towns, and I'm overjoyed to be exploring them in the next week. I would move here in a heartbeat if there were decent jobs available. I did pass by Transylvania University today and saw a big "Confucius Institute" sign, so maybe there is hope?

Just kidding, I wouldn't do that to my mother. Speaking of, a big happy mother's day to my mom and all the moms out there. That includes the new and expecting mothers in my life :) I don't say it enough but I love you mama! One of my first writing assignments in the 4th grade when I arrived in America was to write about one person you admire the most, and like a good Asian kid, I wrote about my mother. I'm pretty sure I was the only one. The teacher showed it to my mom and I was embarrassed  beyond belief! I don't remember what I wrote but if given the same assignment today, I'd still pick my mom - no doubt. Thank you for being there for me and for giving me so many opportunities! The only reason I'm able to defy your wishes and travel around the world as an unemployed vagabond right now is because of you :) 

Bucharest - Day 117

The city map I got at the tourist information center included several 3 hour walking tours of the city, so as a result, I have been doing my fair share of walking. Can't say Bucharest is my favorite capital city, but it does have wide boulevards, beautiful architecture, and a lot of green space, which makes walking for hours in 88 degree heat more bearable.

I mentioned before that Bucharest is the "Paris of Eastern Europe" and today I walked by its version of the Arch of Triumph. Looks exactly the same to me, except for the Romanian flag. I also walked by the Palace of Parliament - a MASSIVE piece of architecture. It is the largest administrative building in Europe and claims to be the the world's second largest building in surface area after the Pentagon.

Of course I need fuel for all that walking and discovered that Romania has arguably the best pretzels I've tasted. They're thinner than US ones, but soft and chewy and oh so delicious when they're fresh out of the oven. And at 1 Leu (30 cents), a really affordable on-the-run snack. However, I have been on a carb overload recently in the Balkans with all the borek/byurek/spanakopita, other cheesy and sweet pastries, sesame rings, etc... and I'm pretty sure I've gained weight at this point. So I decided to go on a "strict diet" and had a cucumber and yogurt for dinner, but now 2 hours later I'm starving.

Bucharest - Days 114-116

As planned, I made the 20 hour journey to Bucharest - painless enough and uneventful. I have to admit that my favorite form of travel is by train and it saddens me a little that people are opting for faster or cheaper alternatives; myself included sometimes. The bus from Istanbul to Bucharest would have taken 12 hours versus the 20 (actually 21) by train, but there's something about the rhythmical clanking of the rail carts and the gentle swaying. The bus from Istanbul to the border was only about a third full and I ended up being the only person in a 6 person compartment when we switched to the train. 

Bucharest is a cool city, at least based on what I've seen so far. There's usually something about a place that surprises me. For Istanbul, it was how the city was so hilly and steep. For Bucharest, it's the sheer number of stray dogs roaming the streets. Bucharest has the highest number of stray dogs in Eastern Europe apparently and they are not all nice...apparently an average of 75 people are bitten everyday! My goal for the next couple of days is to avoid contributing to the statistic.

Bucharest is called the "Paris of the Eastern Europe"and it's apparent in parts of the city. It's an architecturally eclectic city. Many of the "beautiful" buildings were constructed between the two world wars and those are juxtaposed by the massive megalomaniac buildings constructed during Ceausescu's reign. Unfortunately, he destroyed much of the historic city center, and earthquakes took care of another large chunk. Today, the Old Town has shrunk to just a few blocks and up until just a few years ago, it was considered a bad neighborhood. But the city started investing money and renovating the center, and not surprisingly, it is full of bars and restaurants and is the choice hangout place for the young people of Bucharest. That's where my host and I, along with some other friends, went last night to "watch" the Europa Final in Bucharest between Madrid and Bilbao. 

Walking back to the metro station last night, some random guy pretended to be a wild dog and "bit" me on the back of the leg with his hand. Freaked me out but turned out to be quite a funny guy. The girls I was with concluded he wasn't Romanian because he was too friendly, but now I know that pretending to a stray dog is a popular Romanian past time for drunk guys. Yet another thing to avoid.  

Istanbul - Days 111-113

Friday night actually turned out to be not so bad compared to Saturday night in terms of sleep. Sure the bass is thumping and drunk people are outside yelling but eventually you get desensitized. Saturday night however, a group of 7 couchsurfers arrived from Ukraine at around 1am, and then took their sweet time getting settled and spreading out their sleeping bags. Then at 7am, my host Murat returns from the bar downstairs with the rest of the bar staff to eat breakfast and talk and SMOKE. I almost couldn't comprehend what was happening. But despite that total lack of consideration my host isn't bad, but I do think he has a mild case of ADHD - he is all over the place.

During the weekend, I visited Dolmabahce Palace, which is where the sultans used to live and also where Ataturk died. The place itself was amazing and ornate and located right on the water with a perfect view of the Asia side of Istanbul. However, the entire visit was one of the poorest organized affairs ever. You could only see the interiors of the building on guided tours and they basically breeze through everything and give facts that could have entirely fit on a trifold pamphlet. And of course, no pictures :)

Then today I took the ferry out to The Princes Islands. They're a set of seven islands, but I think only four are inhabited by people and accessible by boat. The ferry ride was about an hour but you feel as if you've escaped to a different time period. The islands have minimal auto traffic and most of the people get around by bike, scooter, walking, and also horse-drawn carriages. Although I'm sure the last one is only for tourists. I set off on what I thought was a short little walk to the monastery on top of the hill, but it turned out to be a two hour hike through the woods and I was impossibly lost. But it was really nice getting away from the hustle and bustle of Istanbul for a while.

Tonight I will take a 20 hour train ride to Bucharest, Romania. Unfortunately the section of the rail from Istanbul to the Bulgarian border is under repair so I will bus it and then switch to the sleeper train. Excited to go back to the Balkans!

Istanbul - Days 109-110

The thing about Couchsurfing is you're constantly making and giving first impressions - like a perpetual first date, so you're always on your best behavior. The degree of trust is established within those first 24 hours...and sometimes far far less. My first couchsurfing experience was in Paris seven years ago where the host presented me with a key and left for a 3 day international conference. I couldn't believe that people still trusted each other to that degree. Of course that's an extreme example. Most of the time I am given a key but the host is typically around during the evenings. I never ask but just sit back and wait for them to offer. Sometimes the host is more cautious and ask you to work around their schedule, which is perfectly understandable. I try to do this anyway to establish some good will :)

That's what I did here in Istanbul for the first couple of days, but then apparently proved to be trustworthy enough to be left alone in the apartment (with its collection of DVDs). I took full advantage of this and spent the better part of the day cooking meals and watching movies. There is always a little nagging voice in my head that says, "You should go out and see the city!" but sometimes you just need an off day.

Today is Friday and my host gets his young daugher for the weekend so I was scrambling for a last minute couch once again, but CS came through and I am now staying at the Indian Culture Center and the Hare Karishna Temple in the center of the city. You really couldn't ask for a more convenient location - it's right on the huge pedestrian street that I mentioned in my last post. I moved my stuff over here today and walked around a bit with my host and went to happy hour at a couple of local bars. As a non-drinker, happy hours are generally a little less happy for me than other people, but it's always interesting to experience the local culture, especially in this case. He really likes the rock and roll dive bars - the dark, grungy, and smoky type. I was the only female amongst nine guys in the first bar and half of us had pony tails...there's something awfully wrong with that.

Oddly enough the culture center/temple is located on a bar street and sandwiched between two bars with live music. This being Friday evening, I can basically bet on not getting much restful sleep tonight.

Plovdiv/Istanbul - Days 105-108

Sunday was my last day in Plovdiv and Zarko had the day off so we walked around town together and he showed me a couple of places which he thought was interesting...me not so much, but I appreciate the thought regardless. I guess for some reason he is really impressed by fountains and athletic fields, so we actually took a 30 minute bus ride out to the "Rowing Channel" and the surrounding athletic complex. The rowing channel itself was pretty cool I must say. It's a 2.3 km long Olympic "pool" that attracts a lot of joggers and such when it's not being used for competition.

The best thing about staying with Zarko is our daily cooking sessions. On my last night we made the typical Bulgarian Shopska salad with tomato, cucumber, pepper, parsley, and healthy pile of Bulgarian cheese on top. The main course was a special sausage from his hometown of Chirpan. I have 100% intention of recreating these amazing dishes when I get home, but hunting down some of the ingredients should be interesting. 

Monday was uneventful; transit day. 11am bus from Plovidiv and arrived in Istanbul a little bit after 5pm. I didn't do my research very well and just assumed I don't need a visa for Turkey, so I was completely caught off guard when the border agent said in a menacing tone "No visa!" Turns out I could purchase one on arrival for $20. Crisis averted. My host in Istanbul is Kenn, a construction engineer who has lived in the city for almost 20 years. My initial host canceled at the last minute due to a family emergency and I ended up sending out emergency CS requests the night before and Kenn kindly agreed to let me crash at his apartment. By the way, I suddenly realized this morning that he looks like a young Turkish version of Dustin Hoffman.

Istanbul is overwhelming and huge in comparison to the past few places I've visited. Just its public transit system consists of metro, bus, metrobus, suburban train, ferry, seabus, etc... My "commute" from Kenn's apartment to the city center by suburban train is about 30 minutes and that even bypasses all the surface traffic. By bus it'd probably be an hour or more. Yesterday, my first day in Istanbaul, I visited the Blue Mosque (known by locals as Sultanahmed Mosque), the Hagia Sophia, the Grand Bazaar and everything in between that links those places. Tons of walking. For some reason I had really high hopes for Istanbul and it doesn't disappoint but I'm having trouble accepting the hoards of tourist groups - and I AM a tourist. I can't imagine how the locals feel. But to be fair, the residential areas are less suffocating.

Walking around in Istanbul, the first obvious character is the numerous minarets dotting the city skyline. The mass majority of the population are Muslim and there are hundreds of not thousands of mosques in the city. The most famous of these are the two that I visited yesterday, and they're right next to each other. The Blue Mosque is still a functioning mosque and has free entry. Tourists line up to enter and there is an attendant who hands out plastic bags to everyone for their shoes - it breaks my ecological heart. The interior of the mosque is covered with blue colored iznik tiles, hence its name. Next door is the Hagia Sophia and that was converted to a museum I think as early as 1935. $15 entry fee but totally worth it. I was literally slack-jawed when I walked into the place. Hagia Sophia is unique because it houses both Christian and Muslim religious symbols and artifacts because it served as both throughout history. It was originally an orthodox basilica until the Ottoman Empire when it was converted into a mosque.

After those two I was a bit mosqued out and decided to grab some lunch in the Grand Bazaar area. An over friendly carpet salesman chatted me up and I ended up talking with him in his carpet shop for almost 2 hours. And HE looks like a young Turkish version of Stallone. It's not just me; his colleagues even call him Stallone. He showed me some gorgeous carpets and kilims and then showed me the horrendous price tags to go along with them. I knew they were expensive, but not $6000 expensive. Anyone out there interested in purchasing an authentic, handwoven Turkish carpet? If so, place your orders now :) I'm sure they all say this. but Hasan (Turkish Stallone) promised to sell to me at cost price and send door to door via DHL for free. I'm not under the illusion that it's free, but it's still cheaper than purchasing one in the US. He travels there for work frequently and says there's about a 500% mark up in the US. Who knows.

Today I'm exploring a different part of the city center - close to Taksim Square. It's a huge pedestrian street, and I discovered the section that sells musical instruments, so I was able to get a quick guitar fix. Right now I'm tying this on a MacBook Pro in an electronics store since I didn't have time to finish up last night. Off I go before the store attendants kick me out.