Bucharest and Mamaia

From Curtea de Arges we drove on a new Romanian autobahn towards Bucharest (16.08.). Bucharest still looks very socialistic/stalinistic... anyways it impressed us how many great Buildings are there, if they just were restaurated... a Lady Gaga concert in front of the parliament (second biggest building in the world) distorted us from fully sightseeing that corner of Bucharest. The city surely houses a great number of wealthy citizens - probably on costs of their fellow countrymen. When walking the city park with it's statues of famous people, we recognized that Romanians are missing - are Romanians not proud of their own history and people? Roman emperorrs, Romulus & Remus, Konrad Adenauer - non really related to Romania!?

However, when we checked into our hotel, right after paying the receptionist told me that there was no room with 3 beds available anymore... but as I had paid already she offered us the King Suite for the same price. Relaxed we started into the nightlife... bars and clubs were great and covered most clienteles... 5am the club closed and we weaved back to our hotel where we could enjoy 3h of sleep before breakfast and checkout :O

We then (17.08.) continued to Constanta at the Black Sea and stayed just north of it in the beach town Mamaia. There a 24/7 party welcomed us. Basses banged all day and night... the party crowed was floating on drugs to the beats over the beach :D

Another long night and super short sleep we made our way towards Bulgaria...

Socialistic buildings with Ads of German companies -
Romanians seem to favour German companies all over the country

around Piata Universitatii

Monument for the revolution with blood spill :o

Dracula castles and Curtea de Arges

After spending the night listening to dog fights around our tent, we visited Rasnov castle (15.08.). Not fancy, but some nice views over the mountains... they could have made more out of it - maybe if they spent the money for the Hollywood-like letters for restaurations instead ;) Bram Stoker's set for his Dracula novel - the famous Bran castle - was next on our route. A gorgeous setting, but hordes of tourists kinda ruined the great ambience. Also the Romanians seem to dislike all the Dracula hype somehow... and they are right - the region has so much of its own to offer :) We then continued over the roads of Karpaden (Fagaras) mountains, which offer amazing views, to friendly Curtea de Arges - hub between the mountains and Bucharest. Curtea de Arges houses a fancy russian orthodox cathedral. A small city full of young folks - good place for some nice bar evening^^

Rasnov castle

Bran castle - Dracula's

nice spot to enjoy our melon snack :D

Curtea de Arges' russian orthodox church

Timisoara and the Saxon towns in Transylvania

Our impression of Romania started unluckily... a pissed boarder ward when I talked to him in English instead of German or Romanian... a farmer walking his fields at 2:30am when we looked out for wildcamping spaces... wild dogs chasing our car in the night... hence we spent our first night in Romania within our car at Timisoara centre... the next morning (13.08.) our car was surrounded by elder Romanians wondering about the strange foreigners^^ But readily they made us a super parking slot available to leave our car without paying... next a coffee within the cozy centre and the laid back atmosphere in Romania's former starting point of Romanian revolution of 1989 set us right back into the day. On the way back to our car a roofing tile hit the ground we walked 10sec earlier... shocked we drove towards Sibiu (Hermannstadt), where we camped at Cisnadiora (Michelsberge). The next morning we visited Sibiu centre with its beautiful old town, which has been EU cultural capital in 2007. It houses an immense German influence, as it is one of the towns founded by Saxons who were invited to settle in old Transylvania. From Sibiu we drove through several small villages... our first stop was Richiis (Reichesdorf)... colored houses, elder villagers sitting in front of them, Cow next to Horse next to Sheep next to Chicken - all on the road covered by wild dogs. Kids playing on the streets whose parents might be siblings^^ Next we stopped in Biertan which houses one of the famous Saxon fortified chruches - which indeed was an awesome to view. Furthermore, Sighisoara (Schessburg) - another Saxon fortified town - houses a wonderful old city centre, which was relaxing to slander around. We then tried to visit Viscri (Weißkirch) next, with another famous and indeed beautiful fortified church. Unluckily the visiting hours were passed and we could just snap some pictures of the sunset from the winding streets. Later we finished our day at a camping spot in Rasnov (Rosenau) where our next day was supposed to start :)

Timisoara centre

Sibiu centre

carriage in front of the colored village houses

view over Biertan and Richiis from Biertan's church

Sighisoara's old centre

Viscri's church was closed, but the way was rewarding anyways :)