Cluj Napoca. Apparently it's just me, but the name of our new town (for 7 whole nights) makes me think of Neapolitan icecream. Just sayin' is all. This is in fact 'History City' by Romanian standards. Size wise it is the second largest city both in area and population to Bucharest, but time and development wise, it goes waaaay back. To the Dacians and then, for a short period of only 100 years or so, to the Romans who arrived around 100 AD to snag all the salt...

First off it's not Siggy-sore-rah! Though given the rock hard nature of the teeny-tiny double bed (go on - measure 140 cm across your current bed... not much is it), after Siggy, we are sorer than we have ever been. Also nothing to do with Dino-saur(a). In fact, and it's certainly an interesting Latin based language, it's Siggy-Shwa-ra. We only say, because we've had to learn the "shhhh" sound here, otherwise people just look at us like we have two heads. Wel...

Jagged, mountainous and cloaked in snow - the Carpathians kept us company for the 3 hour train ride from Brasov to blinky sweet Sibiu. Despite the blue sky and sunshine during the trip, the day was certainly brisk when we chuffed into Sibiu Station just after 4 pm. Getting much better at bribing cabbies for short trips (no meter, sling 'em 10 lei), we were at our swish yet cosy apartment, bags dumped and off exploring by 4.30 pm. We'd not planned on being out f...

After a crazy/busy start to our time in Brasov, the last three days have been the ultimate in chill-axing. And it has certainly been chilly! Overnight lows have been down to -12 degrees and days have been blue skies and sunny and usually freezing... 0 degrees or a bit more. On Friday we finally managed to leave the house by midday, did a spot of grocery shopping at Billa (our new fave hunting ground for ready to eat Romanian food). By the time we had a late lun...

We were much more organised for Day 2 of our sightseeing fiesta - even ready 45 minutes before our driver-man was due to arrive. Lunch packed, water bottle packed, cash-for-entry-tickets just in case (as yesterday at Peles was cash only for tickets)... All packed. Today's destination was Bran Castle. It's marketed everywhere as Dracula's castle... but has a very, very (very) tangential relationship to Vlad the Impaler (believed to have been the inspiration for ...