Showing posts with label Romania. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Romania. Show all posts

Wednesday 24 July 2013

Timisoara, Romania

We were supposed to arrive in Timisoara at 7:07am and catch the connection at 7:25am but as it is in Romania, we assumed the train would be late and... it was! Good thing we had planned this ahead and had booked a hostel for the night.  In the afternoon we went for a walk in Timisoara, through the squares, Roses Park and Kids Park. The Kids Park was actually amazing with lots of different games for all ages, and hammock type chairs for parents. Back at the hostel we had a few beers with local architecture students in training in Timisoara. We had a good time.

View from the night train to Timisoara
Piaţa Victoriei
Piaţa Victoriei
Piaţa Victoriei
Canal surrounding old town
Piata Unirii
Piata Unirii
 

Tuesday 23 July 2013

Bucharest, Romania

Today, we visited Bucharest. It was way easier to get around in Romania than Moldova as they don't use Cyrillic alphabet and Romanian is a Latin language close to French. Between two night trains, we had 15 hours to spend in this huge city. We walked a lot to see all the sights we found interesting in one day. There are quite a few areas with really old and interesting architecture. The walk from Gara de Nord to the Palace of the Parliament is over 4 kilometers via the Calea Victoriei. After the Palace of Parliament, we walked slowly toward the Kiseleff Park, where we  tried to read for a while but ended up having a nap as we were really tired. Sometimes sleeping in night trains isn't enough and it was also really hot outside so a break in the shade of the trees was well deserved. When we woke up from our "reading break" we decided to go see the Arcul de Triumf. We didn't know but they have one here too, just like the one in Paris, but half the size. It was rebuilt as a better version a couple times since it's original wooden version built in 1878. The walk back to the station was long and under a very hot sun again and we got there around 7 PM, 12 hours after our arrival. We then sat down in an air conditioned Mc Donald to have a coffee and use their free Wifi until our departure time to Timisoara.

Random Old Building
University Library Carol
Dambovita River
Playground / Castle in Izvor Park
The corner of Boulevard Natiunile Unite / Libertatii
Palace of the Parliment
Coltea Hospital
Arcul de Triumf

Tuesday 16 July 2013

Brasov, Romania

We stayed in Brasov for one week, at the end of our train pass. Leaving Prague at 15:30, we did a first train to Budapest and then changed for a night train to Brasov. We arrived at 14:30 the next day. We took a few days to relax as we were exhausted. It is really hard to move like this all the time. We stayed inside the flat we rented for a few days without doing anything else than reading, researching for future destinations and watching some TV shows. On one of the last day there, we hiked Mount Tampa, up to the Brasov sign, walked in the old city and saw the narrowest street of Europe. It felt really good to be in the same city for more than 2 days.

View of Romania from the train
Some sunflowers
Some more...
First class private 2 beds cabin
Modern Romanian transportation waiting for the train to go by
 
Almost 400 meters above the city
The sign
Brasov
View from mount Tampa
Brasov sign view from the town
This is apparently the narrowest street of Europe
Map of the train route so far, at the end of the 2 months train pass.
Mountains of Transylvania