Yesterday we traded Bucharest for Brasov, just to change the scenery a bit and get some fresh air. We bought the train tickets, some pretzels and a magazine and off we went on a 2,5 h ride to Transylvania. I couldn´t believe my eyes when I met a Romanian friend of mine from Oslo on the same train! With her cute 1,5 year old! She was heading the same way, so we sat together, laughing and “poking” the little one´s cheeks. This is the characteristic Brasov, a picture-perfect little town. The main street, Str. Republicii is aligned with shops and cafés, lovely for a stroll with a “kurtos kalacs” in your hand. We had one sprinkled with sugar and nuts, unfortunately it wasn´t warm, so it could have been better. Besides, Vuong prefers it with sugar and cinnamon and boy, did he let us know enough times that it was the wrong one! This is the railway station in Bucharest, Gara de Nord. It´s a typical communist building on the inside, but quite impressive, none the less. The big poles, the red ceiling and the chairs are kind of matchy-matchy, although they´ve all seen better days.  Ready to roll and feeling adventurous! I also had a book with me “Morometii” by Marin Preda, and it got me in a great mood at once.  This is cutest Rebecca, munching on a pretzel. Sweeping views from the train. So much green, so many types of green!  The apple trees are in bloom. I wouldn´t mind having a holiday house here somewhere. And neither would Sam!  A huge taxi sign is showing you the way to registered taxis that won´t use their meter under no circumstances! Under the pretext that they don´t want to pay VAT, they´d already decided to rip us off, regardless of the fact that I speak the language and know the prices, too. In the end we found one obnoxious guy who gave us a lift for double the actual price, but 3 times less than another asswhole wanted to charge us. No shame!The main square, Pizzie showing how dandy he can be. 😉 He told me later on that he used the same umbrella to crook a lady that had sneaked up on them in a queue. haha! That´s what I call cool! I always want to do that, but instead I end up mumbling and swearing and not actually doing anything when this happens to me.

We stayed at Casa Antiqua, a nice little hotel in the middle of the city centre. Lucky for us we got two suites for the price of two double rooms and they were really stylish, too. Ours was facing the garden, so we were not bothered with any noise of any kind.

This pretzel was a german specialty, with pumpkin seeds and salt. Yummy breakfast! 😉

After breakfast, we took the cable car to Belvedere, the view from mount Tampa. The ride takes under 2 minutes, but the panorama is absolutely splendid!

Back in town, we had enough time for a meatball soup at La ceaunul tihnit. They make delicious traditional food and the interior is quite fancy, too. 

Stay tuned for more adventures from Bucharest! 😉

xxx, Alina