Saturday 28th August Calafat (Romania) to Sofia via Belogradchik (Bulgaria)

Belogradchik

The ferry border crossing between Calafat and Vidin (in Bulgaria) has to be the most expensive we have ever encountered. They charged us 5 euros to drive into the port area, 11 euros to drive into the ferry area and 52 euros to catch the ferry 1.6km…a crossing we would certainly not recommend to anyone! They wouldn’t even accept card payment and we had spent all of our Romanian money but luckily we managed to just scrape the barrel by negotiating part payment with US dollars which they seemed displeased with. We also had problems at passport control as they hadn’t stamped Cass’s passport when we initially entered Romania (Bek didn’t require a stamp because of her EU passport). To top it off when we arrived in Bulgaria we had to purchase a car tax and also make some other payment , we don’t have a clue what it was for as they didn’t speak English and were now back to the impossible Cyrillic lettering! They wouldn’t accept card payment and we had spent all of our Euros on the ferry crossing so we had to drive to a bank and return to make the payments. After all the palaver (which included a three hour wait for the ferry) we were exhausted but finally arrived at Belogradchik which is an old Roman fortress wall from 3rd century BC with weird rocks formations.
We decided to free camp that night as there were no campsites nearby, we picked a good spot away from the road at the base of a large mountain. At 10.30pm we were just dozing off when we were woken by flashing blue lights and someone knocking on the door yelling “open up”. Yes you guessed it an angry Mr Plod was outside and told us to move on, we were told to drive to a petrol stations carpark where we could sleep for the night... What a welcome to Bulgaria !
We ended up sleeping the night surrounded by trucks in a lorry driver’s carpark 10km from Sofia.

Friday 27th August Brasov to Calafat

Arges Valley

Arges Valley

We checked out of the hotel and then headed for the border/ferry crossing to enter Bulgaria. The drive took us above the Arges Valley through some spectacular scenery, due to the mountainous twist and turns we had to drive slow which meant we spent most of the day driving. That night we slept in a lay by next to a main road, the van shook each time a truck passed us so we were rocked to sleep lol

Tuesday 24th-27th August Brasov to Poiana Brasov

Brasov by night

Brasov square

Brasov Hollywood sign

The room

Breakfast

Having slept for nearly three months in the campervan we were craving a proper bed so Bek checked us into a hotel for Cass’s birthday present. The hotel was a boutique hotel with only 9 rooms all of which were decorated differently. Our room had a balcony with a view of the mountains plus a large walk in bath which was set in the floor and took two hours to fill. We still maintained the traveller mentality at the breakfast buffet and stuffed our pockets full with fruit, sugar sachets and posh tea bags as well as eating enough for four people so we wouldn’t need lunch.
Brasov was a nice little town and we had to laugh at the faux-Hollywood Brasov sign which was displayed on the hills. We had grown tired of eating the same type of food while in Romania so for Cass’s birthday we went to a Mexican restaurant and the day before we had a Chinese meal on the square.This type of food wasn’t readily available elsewhere in Romania.

Monday 23rd August Bran to Poiana Brasov

Tortoise and the sheep

Tortoise hiding in the trees

We aimed to beat the queues of tourists so departed the campsite early and walked the 4 km’s to Bran castle Aka Dracula’s castle. By the time we arrived the coach loads had beaten us to it and there were large queues for tickets although there was only one booth to buy tickets from and the queue was less than orderly. The castle was a huge disappointment and if it wasn’t for the large volumes of people traffic we would have walked in and out in 5 minutes.
From Bran we drove through the Bucegi Mountains to Poiana Brasov where we stumbled upon a large plain surrounded by mountains and fir tree forest. People were camping , having picnics and Bbq’s so we decided to free camp here for the night. Later that day we watched a shepherd and his dogs bring a flock of sheep and goats to graze in the field. The dogs were more interested in seeing what food they could scavenge, after half an hour the shepherd started running and crossed the road back into their previous field, he returned with four sheep which had been accidentally left behind.

Sunday 22nd August Sinaia to Bran

Peles Castle grounds

Peles castle

Our first stop of the day was Peles castle we walked here early from our free camp stop to try and beat the hoards of visitors. Peles castle was built in the early 19th C by King Carol 1st ( a German king) he aimed to invoke jealousy in those who visited and each of the 161 rooms are decorated elaborately with a very eclectic style to each. The castle is full of antiques and throughout there are secret doors some were masked as a wardrobe or a bookcase and it was only when the guide pointed them out that we noticed. We initially purchased a ticket for the first floor only (tour groups see this level only and another of Lonely Planets recommendations) however after seeing the magnificent rooms on level one we wanted to see more and purchased a further ticket for the remaining levels. The remaining two levels were again fantastic and we were surprised to be the only two touring this part of the castle. You could easily spend a day marvelling at the décor, we would have visited the castle again if we had remained in Sinai. Later that day we arrived in Bran and were glad to have missed the traffic which was at a standstill and tailed back 15 km’s in the opposite direction, which is a daily occurrence in summer due to Sinaia, Bran and Busteni having pedestrian crossings rather than pedestrian over/underpasses on the highways through the towns, in Romania pedestrians don’t have to wait for lights to cross they just walk over the road and traffic has to stop and given the amount of tourists traffic has to stop every few cars causing a 10-15km tailback.

Saturday 21st August Sighisoara to Sinaia

The red squirrel

The town of Sinaia was full of people but we weren’t quite sure where everyone was going as the town was sparse and not very appealing although the surrounding mountains were picturesque. After exploring the town we sat in a nice park and watched the world go by. That night we free camped in a car park near Peles castle.

Friday 20th August Sighisoara

Today we explored Sighisoara which is the birthplace of Dracula , the citadel contains the majority of attractions and is perched on a hill surrounded by a 14th century wall and nine towers. We climbed the clock tower (which dates from 1280) which gave a great view of the surrounding villages, forests and hills. The clock tower also housed an interesting history museum although the surgeons’ amputation case from the 18th century that looked rather barbaric. The torture room museum was disappointing; we walked in and out in about 2 minutes.
Sighisoara had a very nice vibe our feet were hurting at the end of the day due to the poor quality cobbled streets and our poor choice of foot wear – thongs/flip flops.