We arrived in Prague a little city'd out after making quite a rapid journey back across central Europe. Unfortunately persistant problems with the van meant we didn't get to see as much of Hungary as we'd have liked and ended up hopping from city to city to avoid driving too much on bumpy country roads (sounds a little like a gremlin is banging away with a spanner inside the engine!). It was great to get to Prague though and especially to catch up with an old fri...

Budapest is one of the few cities that I know I could quite happily live in. It is beautiful and lively with a stunning architecture and a dark history. After the problems with the van we decided to have a treat and bought a 'hop on, hop off' sightseeing bus ticket. Budapest is quite spread out so this ended up being a great way of seeing everything and deciding which things to see in more detail. We ended up seeing some fantastic sites, but one of the things t...

Spent a couple of days in Szeged enjoying the cafe's and museums. Generally just pleased to be out of Romania. One of the larger museums had an exhibition on Tibetan culture which was very interesting, it also had a lovely collection of art from Hungarian artists. The collection's central piece is based on the flood which wiped out Szeged in the 19th century. Each of the collections has a detailed analogy of how the piece came about and what made it special; a n...

DAVE- I'm quite certain that the beauty of Brasov and surounding Carpathian mountains, along with the obvious immense skill of it's mechanics finally won Ab over to Romania, despite initial reservations. I can tell this by the loving glint in her eyes every time the country's name is mentioned and every time we hear the 'rhythmic' knocking sound coming from the engine when driving over bumps (clearly a result of the genius mechanics' love for syncopated beats, wh...

Transylvania. Dracula country. The obvious choice of campsites was Vampire Camping (not that we actually had a choice!) Went to have a look at Bran Castle which disappointingly has very little to do with Dracula; I was a little upset that they didn't give you complementary fangs at the entrance. There wasn't even any ushers in cloaks, dungeons or coffins. Alton towers does Dracula better than Transylvania! The very tenuous link is that Vlad Tempes once may have ...