Romania - Bucharest

I took an express train from Brasov, back down South to my penultimate destination, Romania's capital city of Bucharest. The train was a nice contrast from that which I took a couple of days ago in Transylvania, this one being the fastest and most expensive class. Strangely the design bared more than a passing resemblance to a New York subway car, complete with shiny aluminium exterior - a weird experience.

The site of the secret police's former HQ, put to innovative use

I met an Australian couple on the train and together we walked to the hostel, avoiding the unusually aggressive taxi drivers touting for business outside the station, which are apparently a notorious rip-off. Upon checking in at the hostel, the nice girl in charge became strangely excited upon noticing we shared the same birthday and insisted I come back later in the evening for a big drinking game she was organising, complete with free drinks. Needless to say I made a mental note.

The Palace of the People - one man's grotesquely egotistical creation

In the meantime I headed into the city and straight for the number one tourist attraction - the Palace of the People. It really is a spectacular and imposing sight, being the single largest building in the whole of Europe and second largest in the entire world (beaten only by the Pentagon). Unfortunately, the directions given to me at the hostel were wrong and I ended up walking around the outside of the entire building looking for the entrance, which gave an exhausting but lasting impression of its sheer size.

Inside the palace

Eventually I found my way in and after making my way through the somewhat chaotic entrance hall, managed to join an English-language tour. Built by the command of Nicolae Ceauşescu, the communist dictator of Romania, with much of it designed by his wife, it was supposed to be a symbol of power and wealth. However, it was deeply unpopular, with a staggering one-fifth of the city being demolished to make way for it (needless to say the unfortunate residents had no say in the matter), including many historic churches.

One of 500 extravagantly ornate chandeliers

Built at fantastic cost in one of Europe's poorest countries, the building is sickeningly ornate. The sheer statistics are mind boggling - over 1000 rooms, 12 floors, 1 million cubic metres of marble and 200,000 square metres of luxury carpet. The place was so big that many of the rooms were never used. The worst part of the story is that this enormous monstrosity was never put to good use - still only nearing completion by the time of Ceauşescu's removal from power and subsequent execution, it still hasn't been finished. Upkeep alone costs a fortune and with all the lights on it would rival the entire city for power consumption.

On the palace's balcony, overlooking the impressive main avenue

The rest of Bucharest is testament to Ceauşescu's delusions of grandeur. Much of the historic and older neighbourhoods were razed, with the city rebuilt in French style, earning it the nickname "the Paris of the East". It's hard when wandering around to get a real sense of where in the world you are - there's a full-size copy of the Arc de Triomphe and an enormous main boulevard based on the Champs-Élysées cutting through the centre, sneakily built a handful of metres longer and wider on Ceauşescu's orders. It really doesn't feel like being in deepest Eastern Europe.

Parisian architecture on the streets of Romania

I took a walk around an area marked the 'old quarter', and found nothing particular old. It seems the history of the city was erased and rewritten on the whim of just one man. Having said that, despite the dark history of much of this place, and the loss of the old, it really is an impressive sight and holds its weight amongst many of the great cities of the world. It seems Ceauşescu really did achieve his dream.

Revolution Square

However, no visit to Bucharest would be complete without seeing where his dream ended. Revolution Square is the site where, in 1989, Ceauşescu delivered what would be his his final speech and had to be rescued by helicopter as an angry crowd booed and chanted slogans against him. He didn't escape for long and was eventually caught and executed, bringing Romania's difficult period of communist dictatorship to an end. It is nice to know that there's a happy ending to the story, with the country having joined the European Union at the start of this year, a fitting reward for Romania's journey to democracy.

A memorial to the Romanian Revolution of 1989

After a hard day's sightseeing I made my way back to the hostel, where once again I bumped into the Irish guys I had previously met in Macedonia and then again in Greece. How on earth can you bump into the same group of people three times in locations hundreds of miles apart?! I may have by now established that they are legendary drinkers, and altogether about twenty of us from the hostel took part in without doubt the funniest and craziest drinking game I've ever experienced. The game involved the creation of rules that everybody had to follow - my favourite being that the Irish and English had to 'swap' accents for the rest of the night...

We had so much fun a jealous neighbour kicked us out of the garden

And so with Bucharest done, my trip is nearly over. Twenty one countries down, one to go. Onwards to the end of my epic trip and a well earned rest - Turkey is awaiting!

Romania - Brasov & Translyvania

The six hour journey to Bucharest was more fun than I imagined, as I shared a compartment with an Australian and Dutch couple and ended up chatting all the way. After arriving in the Romanian capital at 7pm, I headed toward the 7.30pm train and asked a conductor-looking person if it was the train to Brasov. He responded by grabbing my bags from my hands, running along the platform and jumping on the train. He then put the bags in a cabin, gestured for me to sit, kissed me on the cheek and stuck his hand out for money.

A church opposite my hostel in Brasov

I was utterly bewildered, having seconds earlier been standing rather tired on the platform, but it turned out this was a fitting introduction to the rather strange world of Romania. The train eventually departed, beginning a somewhat-creepy journey onward to Transylvania, with me on my own in the poorly lit cabin and the train winding its way in the darkness through the mountains. Traders regularly came to my cabin, trying to sell me everything from pens to toys, but I relented.

Brasov town centre

I arrived in Brasov, a major town in Transylvania, at about 11pm and took a taxi (with a female driver, the only one I have seen in eastern europe so far) to the hostel at the other end of town. I was greeted by a woman, who stuck her head out of the window above and yelled that I was late. What a nice welcome! Once inside, she was actually really nice and clearly just having a bad day. She even lent me money to eat and insisted I go to a local Romanian restaurant, called Casa Romanesque.

Not quite as glamorous as Hollywood, but probably nicer

I spent the rest of that evening chatting with people on the hostel's terrace, which had a great atmosphere. I talked with a funny Swede, a Mexican living in Cuba about all kinds of things, from life there to Castro, politics and communism and even spotted two Americans I had met previously in Macedonia and two Brits from London I had shared a taxi with in Bulgaria.

Walking through the backstreets

The next day I set off into town with the intention of getting to Sighisoara to see 'Dracula's castle'. The train times were inconvenient, so I waited for a minibus with another girl from the hostel for two hours, but for some reason none of the drivers seemed willing to take us there, despite it being marked on the route. I gave up and visited the Black Church and the old town, which was much more charming than I expected.

Behind the sign

I walked to the foot of the hill featuring the Brasov Hollywood-style sign and while deciding whether to walk up or take the cable car, the two Brits I had met in Bulgaria, brother and sister Em and Daniel, turned up. We decided to walk up the hill together. It was a pleasant climb as it was entirely in shade and at the top were met by a spectacular view. Just before the summit we passed a guy carrying a big jar of gherkins and a bottle of wine which seem, at least to me, strange things to have on a mountain.

Throwing a gherkin off a mountain. Somehow, strangely symbolic.

After a drink in the hilltop cafe, we descended back to the town and I headed off to the station to buy my next ticket. On the way I ran into the Dutch couple from the train the day before and was invited to dinner, so instead ended up back at Casa Romanesque where we had a great meal.

I think I'll skip on that one

Upon leaving I met with Daniel, Em and Taka, a Japanese traveller from the hostel, who it turned out had also been eating there but sitting outside. Together we went on a quest into town to use an ATM, then back to a kiosk for beer and sat on the terrace until the middle of the night.

With Em and Taka, triumphantly clutching our beer

The next day I once again set off to go to Sighisoara and waited for a bus to the station, but it took ages to come and I managed to miss the only reasonably timed train by a minute. Frustrating! After two days of trying, I gave up on going there and instead, determined to go somewhere for the day, caught a train to Sibiu, a town a couple of hours away.

Self-promotion in Sibiu

Sibiu is this year's European Capital of Culture, whatever that means, and is a nice place to spend a day. I didn't see anything specifically amazing, but it has a charming atmosphere and plenty of old buildings, with an impressively large main square.

Yet another nice old-town

Romania has five different type of trains, ranging from the fast and clean 'Express', to the cheap and agonisingly slow 'Personal'. Annoyingly, I was forced to take a 'Personal' train back to Brasov, which is something I was told to avoid. The journey took more than twice as long going back, the train was dark and full of very strange, mostly drunk people, who threw all their empty cans and bottles straight out the windows. The train stopped regularly, sometimes even in the middle of fields for a farmer to get off. Not particularly enjoyable, but it was interesting to experience things as the locals do.

Hiding off the main square

I made it back to Brasov after 11pm and spent a final night relaxing on the terrace and chatting with all kinds of travellers. There's just one final stop before the end of my trip, so tomorrow it's back to the capital Bucharest, for a penultimate bout of sightseeing.

Bulgaria - Sofia, Plovdiv & Veliko Tarnovo

Having slummed it in standard class for the duration of my trip, it was almost a relief to be told that only 1st class seats were available on the Thessaloniki - Sofia train, and at just EUR16 for the 6 hour trip, it wasn't a bad deal. It made it all the more comfortable as the train sat, bewilderingly, just outside the station for 1.5 hours before finally deciding to leave.

Someone actually thought this was a good idea

Upon arrival, things started going wrong as I tried 3 ATMs and found that none worked, and with no Bulgarian money couldn't get any transport to my hostel, which I knew was a long way away. I decided to walk and the moment I stepped out of the station it started pouring with rain. Having been up since 5am, after a night of drinking, to catch the train and incredibly frustrated, I was forced to change my precious remaining euros at the rip-off exchange office in the station, something I had managed to avoid doing until now. I took an overpriced taxi and eventually made it to the hostel.

The Palace of 'Culture'

It was at this point that I realised my credit card was missing. I suppose that being so tired, annoyed and carrying lots of stuff I managed to lose track of it, especially in trying so many ATMs. While I don't think it was stolen, this did nothing to improve my mood and wasted yet more valuable time. After cancelling my card and arranging a money wire from home, I rushed out to do some sightseeing.

The cathedral, one building that is indeed beautiful.

My first stop was the incredibly hideous 1300th anniversary statue, built by the Soviets in typical social realist style. It really is amazing that they considered this to be fitting tribute to the nation and really hasn't stood the test of time. Shoddily built and with no real enthusiasm to maintain it, the monument is now fenced off as it is literally falling to pieces. Close by is the equally ugly palace of culture, which is at least still being used in multiple functions, including a cinema.

The Soviet Army memorial

I made a quick dash to a park on the edge of the centre to catch a glimpse of the Soviet Army memorial before nightfall. I was actually quite impressed by it, especially the scenes of battle depicted around the base. Bulgarians may not want it in their city due to the history it represents, but it's a fitting reminder of a bygone era and well worth seeing.

A statue of Milo, Veliko Tarnovo's nosiest resident

The next day I got a train to Plovdiv, a town not far from Sofia. It's a charming town with lots to see and as such tends to be full of tourists. After walking around the small old town, I headed down the main street, passing a statue of Milo, apparently a very nosy man who listened to other people's conversations. Somehow this endeared him to the people of Plovdiv and they chose to erect a statue in his honour. How lovely.

Roman remains

The Roman Amphitheatre was a little over hyped and I didn't pay to enter, especially as it's easily visible from the path above. On the way to a park on the outskirts of the centre, something strange happened. A building, not too far away from me, exploded. There was an enormous bang and car alarms down the entire street went off as it filled with smoke. Not something you see every day! It seems in Bulgaria health and safety laws aren't particularly respected by demolition crews.

Not something you expect to find on top of a hill

Once at the park, I climbed a hill to be greeted by a massive statue of a Soviet soldier at the top. It really is an impressive sight, overlooking the entire city. It seems those Soviets really do (did) know how to build monuments.

It really is bigger than it looks

Back at the hostel I recognised Nathan, an American I had met in Thessaloniki. Bumping into people really seems to be a very common occurance when travelling. He was also heading to my next destination, so the following day we took a bus to Veliko Tarnovo, a town in the east of the country.

Sunset in Plovdiv

Once there, we parted ways and I made it to my hostel, which was the emptiest I've been to. After walking across the entire town to buy a train ticket for the following day, I headed to the town's famous castle, dramatically located on a hill surrounded by gorges. At the centre of the complex, perched on its own small hill, was a church with one of the most interesting interiors I've seen, painted entirely in modern art.

Amazing artwork inside the church

Returning to town, I discovered the the hostel was completely empty and would remain so for the rest of the day, so it didn't look like I was going to meet anybody. Once again, however, I bumped into someone I knew. While walking along a street I heard someone call my name - it was Arnold, the father of the American family who had rescued me on the Albanian-Macedonian border over a week ago. How do these things keep happening?!

Yes, this is a real picture. Quite amazing.

We had dinner together and then headed up to the castle, to watch one of the most impressive light shows I've seen. The entire castle, and the hill, were lit up in widely ranging colours synchronised to music, along with some fantastic lasers that seemed to shine across the entire town.

Not something you see every day

After being treated to dessert (they really are a generous family), I headed back to the hostel for a good sleep. Tomorrow I'm heading to Bucharest, capital of Romania and then onwards to Transylvania.

Erm, suppose I won't go by bus then...

It's quite annoying as the drive to Bucharest only takes 2 hours and the train, for some reason, is much longer at 6 hours. Unfortunately I haven't been able to arrange a ride despite a tip-off that a local hostel provides a driving service. Looks like it's going to be another day spent on trains!

Slovakia - Bratislava

I arrived in Bratislava in the middle of the day, which was a bit unfortunately as like Budapest it was ridiculously hot. It was also once again a long walk to the hostel, which ended up quite difficult to find as a building was being constructed, quite bewilderingly, across the actual entrance to the street! How on earth was I supposed to find the place if the street no longer exists?

The small old town is quite charming

Luckily I worked it out and arrived in a near-deserted hostel, which would make my time in Bratislava a bit less enjoyable as for the first time I ended up not meeting a single person.

Sometimes you have to look down to see the statues...

I took a walk into the old town, which is very small, thanks to the Soviets having demolished half of it to built a horrendously ugly suspension bridge. The castle, thankfully, survives and was a very pleasant place to relax and gaze across the city.

A robot in the castle keeps watch

The city is located on a river, but strangely does not have much of a riverside or promenade to match any of the other cities I've been to. In fact, the other side is dominated by the largest communist housing estate in Europe.

The 'flying saucer' bridge and communist tower blocks

It's a bit hypocritical for me to complain, but the city was rammed full of British people. Although, in this case, the wrong kind of British people - stag parties comprised entirely of loud, rude, incredibly drunk men. It's not the city's fault but it really harms the atmosphere.

Modern art on the main street

I've complained a lot about Bratislava here, but maybe it's just because I really didn't enjoy myself. It was too hot, the hostel was bad and there wasn't much to see or do. But I'm sure the city could be very enjoyable with the right people, especially with locals. And on the bright side, I was really impressed by the fantastic array of modern art and sculptures on display, probably the best I've ever seen. Maybe I should have given the city a second chance, but unfortunately I've got to keep moving!

Hungary - Budapest

I stayed a night in Krakow (which I had already visited last year) to catch a train onwards in the morning. I then had to change in a random town, which involved a couple of hours of free time waiting for the connection. This turned out to be quite an experience, as upon arrival I realised I actually had no idea at all which country the station was in.

Maybe this town was actually in the Twilight Zone

Due to its location, it could have been any of 3, and I literally had to ask someone once there, "Excuse me, which country am I in?"/ I was met by an understandably confused expression, but thankfully they answered that I was in the Czech Republic. After a couple of hours of looking at not very much at all, I jumped on the train to Hungary.

If only the weather had stayed like this

I made the mistake of underestimating the size of the city and, ignoring the metro, tried to walk from the station to my hostel, which eventually took about 30 minutes. Once there it was already quite late so I didn't do any sightseeing and instead went out on the town with other backpackers.

At the foot of the royal palace

The next day I headed out across the river, which separates the two sides of the city, the west is known as Buda and the east as, you guessed it...Pest. Unfortunately the walkway on the rather ornate southern bridge was boarded up so I was unable to get a good view of the river front.

Looking North from the hill

So instead, I climbed a big lookout hill, giving a great view of the city. By now it was roasting hot, the beginning of the big summer heatwave, the brunt of which I would thankfully miss, which saw temperatures reach 45C.

There are still reminders of the revolution scattered around

I then took the funicular up the second hill to visit the walled Royal Palace area, almost a city within a city, containing government offices and various official places. Unfortunately I didn't have time to visit the Parliament on the other side of the river, it looks absolutely beautiful and would be well worth a look.

The waterfront at dusk

The (free) military museum at the top of the hill features a great exhibit on the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, which saw the people rise up against their Communist oppressors and its subsequent defeat at the hands of a Soviet invasion. There really is a lot of history in Budapest and my time was not enough to explore it a deeply, but I think I still got a good feel of the place. After a day of sightseeing, it was time to go. Following a nightmare of queuing at the chaotic main train station, I jumped on a train back north. Next stop, Bratislava!

Poland - Lublin

After the Ukrainian border debacle, I managed to jump on the day's only train to Lublin just as it was starting to pull away. My friend wouldn't be there until later, but he sent a friend of his to pick me up at the station, who showed me around town and even took me to dinner, which was nice. That night, once all together, we engaged in much drinking before the rather somber events of the next day.

The monument to the victims

Lublin itself is a nice, medium-sized university city, with attractive streets and quite a few things to see, but undoubtedly the main attraction is the former Nazi concentration camp, called Majdanek.

No chance of escape

Majdanek was one of the largest Nazi concentration camps, but thankfully was never finished to the full size it was intended. Later in the war the camp became a centre of extermination, mainly for Jews but also victims of other nationalities.

Inside the gas chamber

I have already been to Auschwitz before, so I knew what to expect, but still a few things shocked me, including the crushed-up Jewish gravestones used to build the access road. At the end of the camp is possibly the worst thing I have ever seen - under an enormous, open-air concrete mausoleum is a huge pile of ashes of the camp's victims. It is an absolutely horrible sight to see.

Cramped bunks

Much of the camp survives as it was during the war, and interestingly the camp, unlike many others, is not hidden from sight at all. There was no special 'security zone', there are no natural barriers such as forests in the way - the camp is slap bang right next to Lublin and is now actually surrounded by suburbs.

These sheds housed thousands of inmates

Aside from the camp I actually had a great time in Lublin, including a night bowling where I found I was nowhere near as bad at it as I remembered and a couple of great meals in traditional Polish restaurants. It was really nice to hang out with actual Polish people rather than backpackers for a change, and get to really experience the place.

Ukraine - Lviv

Ukraine was a country high on my list of places to visit. Torn between East and West, it can't seem to decide whether to move closer to Russia or the EU. It is in fact the only Eastern European country that does not have joining the EU as an official goal and recent political turmoil shows it could still go either way.

Just like any other European city...

Getting there was not easy - a 7 hour train journey from Warsaw to Przemysl on the border, and then a dilapidated old Ukrainian bus across to Lviv, Ukraine's second city. It was probably the worst bus I've ridden on, with the seats not firmly secured to the floor and a worrying stench of diesel fumes throughout. A nice introduction to Ukraine!

I really should make an effort to learn this alphabet

To be honest I had absolutely no idea where my hostel was in the city, and I soon discovered everything was in the absolutely impenetrable cyrillic (Russian) alphabet. Luckily, of all people I was sat next to the owner of a travel company who kindly took me on the tram to the hostel, which was the only one in Lviv.

The book market

I set out to do some sightseeing and found it to be very similar to other Eastern European cities. In fact, Lviv was historically a Polish city, right up until the second world war when the USSR moved the borders of Ukraine westwards, swallowing up the whole area. The architecture and feel of the place still seems to me very Polish.

On top of the hill

I climbed the hill dominating the town, where the ruins of a castle now lie, before climbing back down to visit the market. Just as in other former USSR states, there are many relics left over to buy including medals, old uniforms and propaganda posters. I settled on some Soviet coins from the time of the Moscow Olympics in the 1980s, which aren't too rare but I liked the design.

Soviet War Memorial

In contrast to the overall European atmosphere of the place, there are still areas with a Soviet feel, especially with the monumental 'Social Realist' sculptures scattered around.

Close up of the war memorial

One of the most interesting places in the city is the main graveyard. Hanging around graveyards isn't normally something I would do, but this one was particularly beautiful with many extremely elaborate and ornate gravestones and shrines. Interestingly, almost all of the buried had Polish names, and there were big groups of Polish tourists wandering around taking photos and placing candles.

Another war memorial, this time in the graveyard

Late at night I decided to head back to the hostel, which turned out to be a lot more difficult than I thought. It was pitch black, with no moonlight and there were, amazingly, no streetlights. In fact they were there, just not switched on. I had to make my way across the entire city in total darkness, without tripping over the cobbles, uneven paving stones and bewilderingly large holes randomly dug in the road.

One of the random holes, this time in daylight

It was not a particularly fun experience, especially as I could at times hear voices close to me but not see anybody at all. Thankfully, I made it back safely to the hostel, where the owner just laughed and said "Yeah, it's not like England here". Well I know that now!

Ukrainian nationalist hero, you won't see many of these in the east of the country...

In fact the biggest problem I had to overcome was the sheer rudeness and unhelpfulness of the local population. Nobody spoke English, which I really don't mind at all, but many seemed to only pretend not to understand my attempts at sign language which had worked everywhere else in europe. Normally pointing at your watch and then the train would work, but apparently in Ukraine they don't understand even simple things like this. Coupled with the alphabet being unreadable for me, I was not able to take a train back to Poland and had to settle on a bus, which was easier to work out and yet still involved a taxi ride across the city to the main bus station which is conveniently 7km from the centre!

The totally bewildering train departure board

The bus ride back was amazing - I was the only foreigner on the bus and absolutely everyone else, the driver included, was smuggling. They were strapping cigarettes and alcohol to their arms and wearing sleeves over the top, putting them down their trousers, in the engine compartments, they even used screwdrivers to remove the air conditioning panels and hide bottles of vodka in there! At the border, despite bribing their way across the Ukrainian side with US dollars, the Polish customs were having none of it, forced everyone off the bus and searched everybody one by one. Luckily I got out of it, waving my British passport at them, but the guards were furious with everyone else and arrested seemingly half of the bus. In the end it took 3.5 hours just to cross the border! I had been warned about the likelihood of smuggling on the buses, but thought it was exaggerated. I think I'll pay more attention in future...