Day Seven. Suçeava

We arrived in Suçeava it had been a long journey and we we're tired.  The "taxi" drove away as soon as he'd dropped us off, leaving us in a cloud of dust.

We stood and starred at our  pension, it was in darkness, I pushed the gate, it was locked. I spotted a buzzer on the gate post, pushing the button, nothing seemed to happen. I tried the gate again, it swung open.

The door was locked, but again there was another button.  Eventually a stern, surprised looking woman answered the door.  I explained we had a reservation, she shrugged.  I tried again, and she said "Of course" and gestured for us to enter.

She gave us a choice of rooms, we chose the one with a bath, and she left us to settle in.  When we left for dinner it struck us what a strange location was, a bit like finding a mansion on the centre of a run down council estate.

We were both very hungry, so opted to go straight out to eat.  The first decent looking place we found was called London Pub, we wasn't looking for somewhere to remind us of home, the food was okay, and the pub was nothing like anything you would find in London, but we welcomed the sustenance.

We returned to the hotel, and the joys of Romanian hotel plumbing, the bath was welcome, but we couldn't get it to drain, and when we did the room was filled with sewer stench. But it still was good to have a soak rather than a shower

When we got settled to sleep, we heard some dogs barking, it got louder and louder, and just when you thought it had stopped, they started again.

By 1am, I was ready to walk out and find somewhere new, but I fell asleep, and didn't wake till sunrise.

In the morning, both very tired, we debated whether to spend a second night, or cut our losses and checkout. We decided to talk it over after breakfast, and once we'd had some coffee inside of us.

Breakfast was fantastic, a range of local cheeses, tasty tomatoes, and cold cuts, with a freshly cooked omelette to boot.  We felt better after food, and decided that we would use our second night, no way could the same happen again, could it?

Suçeava, has a more modern feel than Cluj, but still feels stuck in the 1980's, it's part of the charm of Romania, but understandably, it's not something they are proud of.  The oldest buildings in Suçeava seem to be the churches, of which there are many, Stephen the Great built a new church every time he won a battle, it appears he was a successful war monger.  Every other building however appears to be a concrete tower block.

Suçeava does have a lovely plaza with stone paving and a pedestrianised street, something we didn't see in the traffic bustle of Cluj.  An Easter display had been made on the square, giant rabbits and eggs made of tinsel, it was illuminated at night and did look fantastic.

Either we missed something, or there's not much to see in Suçeava, we did have a couple of top notch meals and managed to get provisions for our journey to Kiev.

The monasteries are supposed to be fantastic, but, all but one you need transport to see, so it's not possible on this trip.

You do see the Ukrainian/Russian influence here, the language is slightly different, both in accent and the way it is written, you see fairer skinned people, some with blond hair.

After a lovely meal in the Latino restaurant we make our way back to the pension, in the distance we can hear dogs barking....

Day Six. Travel, Carolyn's perspective.

So now we are out of the city on the 7 hour, 320km train journey from Cluj to Suçeava. Despite our fears and many a cautionary tale from inhabitants of Cluj the train is not unpleasant. The carriages are arranged into compartments of the type we are used to seeing in period dramas of early 20th century England with two rows of 4 seats facing inward. The 8 seats are full as we begin our journey, with a cross section of society represented. Ourselves (declaring ourselves as tourists when our  first words are an apology for our lack of the native language), a very friendly well dressed Romanian lady and her teenage daughter who offer to converse with us in Spanish (another apology!) and later to share their snacks with us, a lady in more traditional dress and her little girl (probably Roma), the obligatory cheerful (drunk) chatty man with an aroma of alcohol who, on discovering we are Western European, wants to regail us with details of his 2 years in the South of France (my French is better than my Romanian or Spanish but I decide to keep this detail to myself (giving a blank face beyond ça-va bien) and a young Romanian student who's mistake is to reveal she has a little English and henceforth becomes chatty man's reluctant translator.

The carriage is hot, the air conditioning we were hoping for, was either broken or none existent.  But once the train left the station, the breeze from the window made the journey comfortable.

Most of our fellow travellers are taking shorter journeys and after a few stations we can settle to enjoying the frumos (that's beautiful, my Romanaste is coming on) view as we climb into the mountains.

The sky is blue with fluffy clouds, the air is full of bright sunshine. The trees are in blossom and the air smells pure. My previous experience of mountains comes largely from the Lake District where they are clustered together withing a few miles and rise at relatively uniform inclines, forming, in the main, into small tarns or steep giants. Here is different, the mountain area rolls for miles and miles, there are mounds and hills, slopes, undulations, terraces, flat parts which have been farmed, populated with clusters of homes, claimed for industry or grown into copses of fir trees. It reminds me of the eclectic mix of architecture in Cluj but on the grander, more majestic scale of nature.

Our decision to travel by train is vindicated as it lives up to my hope that we will see rural Romania in its glory and beauty. I have seen haystacks, I have  seen horse and carts, I have even seen a haystack on a horse and cart. Guards come put of their station to stand in acknowledgement even when our train is simply passing through. A group of people appear to have pooled labour to turn over a neighbours plot of land ready for spring planting.

We arrive in Suçeava , having left the security of our Romanian hosts behind, feeling privileged once again to be taking this journey.

Day Six. Travel, Kev's perspective.

As we take our seats, I have a feeling of dread, the carriage is hot, and a loud drunk Romanian man wants most of the space in the seat next to me. He is shouting and waving, this is going to be a long journey.

Soon after we leave the station the carriage starts to cool down, but the drunk is now having a heated argument in Romanian with another passenger and gesturing to us. We've only left twenty minutes and it looks like all the stories we'd heard about the train were true.

 Then suddenly he leaves, gesturing to us as he goes. The lady who he was arguing with explains in broken English that he has left because "He has had enough of us" Quite what we'd done, I've no idea.

The carriage feels more comfortable now, and I feel I can leave Carolyn safely and view Romania crawling past through the open window.

Cluj slides into the distance, abandoned industrial sites start to give way to ramshackle small holdings, farmers working fields by hand, some ploughing by horse and a few with tired looking tractors.

As we travel further, the buildings get further apart and the train starts to climb the mountain railway. We see storks nesting on the top of pylons. The mix of old and new, doesn't seem to change however, a grand house stands next to a shack with broken cars in between.

Occasionally the train slows the and we stop at a station, which normally don't have a platform, just a kerb between the tracks. Other times it slows to cross a weak bridge, the churning river can be seen between the rails.

It is impossible to try to describe the mountains and do them justice, lush and green, with spruce trees covering the tops. The occasional snow topped giant in the distance, which feels bizarre in this heat. You can smell the fresh air entering the cabin, the regular lumber yards impart the smell of freshly cut pine.

Eventually we crest the mountains and start to descend towards Suçeava, the mountain air is replaced by the smell of hot metal as the train struggles to hold back the weight of it's load.

The drunk from earlier returns, he is somewhat more sober, and starts to tell us in a mix of French, English, Romanian and mime; How hard he has to work, showing us his scars and calloused hands, and how much he loves his wife and two and half year old son.

A man comes down the train, looks into our compartment and says something in Romanian, and the drunk (Roy) gives him short shrift and gestures to us no. The man leaves carrying a flask. We'd been warned not to accept coffee off anybody while on the train, because we would likely end up drugged and robbed. I've a feeling Roy has done us a favour.

Another man enters, this time silently. He empties a bag onto a empty chair, there's a noisy toy which he demonstrates, a nail kit, tools, torches and a massager, which he demonstrates to each of us in turn. He leaves taking his bag, but leaving his stuff. Each item has a price tag. Roy explains that the man is deaf. Shortly he returns and Carolyn purchases the manicure set for 10leu. Roy gives him a couple of Leu, and the deaf man refuses, but Roy insists. I think that we might have got Roy all wrong.

Through the window the reverse of our departure from Cluj is happening and the lush vegetation starts to be a replaced by dry ploughed fields and then broken factories. The land is much flatter, the fields larger and the tractors are newer.

The guard comes to see us, he is wearing a woollen suit and cap, it matches the ones the station guards wear when they stand to attention as the train passes, even if it doesn't stop. He told us that the next station is Suçeava and the train will wait ten minutes. We thanked him and remarked how hot he must have been in the 30° heat.

We leave the train, and almost immediately a heavily tanned man approaches. "Taxi!" he shouts. We show him our reservation confirmation "I know it" he says. "how much?" l ask in English with my best Romanian accent, and he pulls out a big roll of notes from his pocket, he pulls out a ten and a five, and we say "Da". He leads us to a dirty Passat with a broken windscreen, our bags go in the boot, we climb in the back, forgetting that we are in Romania and reach for the seat belts, only to find they have been removed, as usual.

As we leave the car park he stops to talk to a friend, I get the feeling he is asking for directions. It's 5 minutes driving before he pulls up to a taxi rank, and this time I'm sure he's asking for directions. The taxi drivers oblige, but all the time look at us with slightly worried faces. "colleagua" our driver says as we pull away. 100m down a rutted dirt road is our pension, it looks out of place in this area, like finding a mansion on a council estate. We push the button on the security gate and enter for our first night in Suçeava.

Below you will find a video of the journey, each bit of film is from a different stage, you can see the scenery change. The whole six hour journey is compressed into 20 minutes. The total journey was 318km, top speed 99.1km/h, average speed 50km/h, total time 6h:21m, and time stationary 29mins

Day Five. Guests.

Way back in day two, Aurel suggested as the weather was so nice, we should have a barbeque, everyone agreed, and invited themselves to his house!

We loved the idea, the chance to experience Romanian hospitality in a real home.

It is traditional to take flowers or chocolate when you are a guest in Romania, I looked out for some on my recce to the train station,but it's Sunday, and almost all the shops are closed.

Crina and Dan  kindly picked us up to take us to Aurel's home, so Carolyn asked if they could take us some where for flowers.

Fortunately it was "flower day" and Dan knew just the place.

Flower day is the last Sunday before Easter, and if you have a flower name it is considered your birthday.  Crina means lily, so it was Crina's birthday today.  More here: CLICKY

The flower market was bustling with people buying, sellers and cars.  Carolyn and Crina went to look for flowers, myself and Dan stayed with the car.  It wasn't long before a symphony of horns indicated it was time for Dan to move the car.  The horn is a familiar sound on the streets of Cluj, but is normally a indication of exasperation and not aggression.

I got out to tell the girls that we had moved, I found them enjoying the market, and with a bunch of flowers ready.

When we arrived at Aurel's house, he came out to greet us with his wife Corena and miniature poodle Oxey.

We had a tour of the garden whilst Aurel did the important work of barbecuing.  Aurel's garden is typical of many Romania gardens, in that it is mainly used to grow vegetables, we had all the different produce pointed out to us, and we swapped Romanian and English names for the plants.  You could see many other gardens all the same, but none of them were as well set up as Aurel's.

The food was fantastic, and plentiful, we were introduced to Mititei a kind of kebab, a tomato and pepper salsa, that has been semi fermented (which was lovely) and minced roasted Aubergine, unfortunately we can't remember the names of the last two, but we will be recreating them when we get home.

We spent the rest of the afternoon, chatting and eating strawberries.  Everyone was soon tired from the good food, the beer and the sun, so Dan and Crina brought us back to our hotel.

After a couple of hours back at the hotel, we had a call from Lidia to say that Alin was on his way to pick us up to meet friends in a bar, and we had fifteen minutes.  It was a lovely surprise, but did mean we had to be quick to be ready.

Alin took us to a bar by the river, we met his 5 year old daughter, a charming little girl and their friends Dan and Anna. We drank, ate pizza and compared British and Romania life, another wonderful evening and fantastic treat.

Day Five. Reconnaissance.

We are traveling tomorrow, the first leg of our train journey to Kiev takes us to Suceave.  This is comparatively short, some 6 hours and about 322km or 200miles (which still is my longest rail journey,at least in time), as opposed to the Suceave to Kiev leg which is 21 hours and 585km or 364 miles. This certainly will be a unique journey!

So, this morning, we needed to pack light and I also wanted to walk to the train station, to avoid any directional challenges tomorrow.

We decided to divide and conquer, Carolyn would pack, and I would do the walk.

Having checked the map, I could see the railway station was on the opposite side of the hill, Google navigation told me to walk right from the hotel, I thought if I turned left that would take me a more direct diagonal route.

Once I turned the second corner I saw the hill I had to climb, WOW, by the time I was nearly to the top it felt like it was nearly vertical!  I turned right and then it was down hill all the way.  That hill is going to be a challenge with all the luggage!

I wandered around the station, I read the information boards and watched a train leave, it all looks quite straight forward. I filmed a train leaving, the video is here: CLICKY

I decided to try a different route back, this involved a foot subway, these are now rare in the UK, having been filled in, in favour of pelican crossings.  This Romanian one was made even more special by the fact it has a bar, I've included a picture. Other than that they are the same dark affairs we used to have in England.

I saw other things such as a tidy classic Mini, which must be a rare sight in Romania, some interesting graffiti, and lots of people queuing to get into to church.

The walk was nice, and the thought that the packing would be done when I got back made it even nicer.

Typically the return journey was completely flat, with no hill climbing, Google was right all along!

Day Four. The botanical gardens.

As our self appointed culture correspondent I was delighted to be given a tour of the beautiful Cluj-Napoca on Friday night and have a chance to ask all of the questions I was wondering about. Here is some of what I have  learned:

•Cluj means close which is a reference to the city's position in the valley, and Napoca is the original name of the Roman settlement here and so is retained as an acknowledgement of the heritage.

•There is no demolition industry here, culture dictates that buildings are not demolished. Also, planning regulations are not stringent like ours. These two factors account for the mish mash of architectural styles, ages and placement of buildings which creates a beautiful chaos.

•The monument near our hotel is an anti communist statement, and the wording therein questioning why some forces within parliament still oppose freedom.

•The main industry is the 7 universities bringing income in rents and fuel as many students drive cars (not hindered by the restrictive insurance premiums our young people face; insurance is, currently, charged at a flat rate.)

•Cluj was in Hungary until the border moved in 1918

•In Transylvania you will find Trovants, Romanian Growing Stones. They look like rounded rocks, the ones we saw were about 30cm across. When it rains they grow and then reform their hard shell.  You can find more information here: Trovants

•There are wedding traditions of stealing shoes and stealing brides, this may have been why we saw a bride, looking somewhat out of place in a shopping mall.

Our first task on Saturday was to return to the shops in Cluj centre, when we left England the first signs of Spring were breaking through and the temperatures were making tentative attempts to rise, we arrived into an early Romanian summer with temperatures up to 30 degrees and we have not brought the right clothes. Managed to pick up a couple of things, there are some still on the list, but there's always Suceava :)

After a quick lunch back at Klausen burger we were met by Voichita and her 2 adorable and very bright children for a visit to Cluj's Botanical Garden. The weather was scorchio! Lidia and Alin, and later Marius and his son, joined us there. The gardens were beautiful but it was the sense of togetherness and friendship that made the afternoon really special. We giggled at our attempts to fill water bottles from the unpredictable flow of the water fountain, chatted on shady benches, collected water snails, swapped vocabulary while reflecting on the nature of language & how we learn, and (the geeks among us;) shared wifii hotshots and car videos.

After a quick trip to one of Cluj's large shopping malls for some vital reservation printing and our first sight of a horse & cart since entering Romania (many more to come when leave the city on Monday I hope) we were safely delivered back to our hotel in time to contemplate where to eat dinner.

On our walk to the restaurant we laughed when we caught ourselves speaking to one another in broken English after a day of simplifying our vocabulary and syntax. We have since managed a few words to each other in Romanian - much more productive.

Dinner was taken alfresco. It's hard to describe the feel of the Euphoria bar. While unmistakably still in Romania there were comforting reminisces of modern life at home as people gathered on a balmy Saturday night to drink and chat and chill. It felt like a taste of what younger generations would like Romania to be.

I was craving something familiar so, to Kev's disapproval, went for a cheese and ham pasta which was very pleasant; Kev has been wanting to try confit duck for some time and at less than £10 this was an ideal opportunity. It was delicious. We were served all the while by a hero of a waitress managing about 50 covers single handed with a mixture of food orders and those just enjoying oft repeated rounds of drinks (its a big place, easily in excess of 200 covers in total). She collected and delivered 3-4 orders at once on her trips back and forth to the kitchen without a single hiccup. We made sure our appreciation was expressed verbally and financially, a gesture which we hope made the rest of her exhausting shift more bearable.

Day Three. A surprise.

So we ate a meal in Klausen Burger last night with six Romanian friends.  The food was great, the conversation was fun, and interesting.  The beer was good, perhaps a little too good, as my hangover proves this morning. 
After the meal Alin and Lidia took us on a tour of Cluj, we drove to the top of the mountains on both sides of the valley and looked down on the city at night.  We then went onto a Cuban bar (Havanna) and drank tea.  The whole night was fantastic and we were made to feel very special.
They say you learn through your mistakes, and according to this trip, we are at university (of which there are 7 in Cluj!).  Hands up who knew that Easter is celebrated on a different date in Eastern Europe.  We certainly didn't, although I did find it strange to see Easter displays in the shops!
This applies to the Ukraine, and guess what, the dates we are there is Easter.  Experiencing a festival in a different culture is certainly a good thing, but when I learnt this last night, I was worried.
When we got back to our hotel in the early hours, I went straight to the tablet and did a search on Booking.com The first hotel in the list £1000 for three nights.  I panicked.  Game over, we couldn't afford those prices!  Especially worrying, was this price was for a Holiday Inn,  Booking.com said "It is busy in Kiev on those dates, prices might be higher than usual"  Too right.
Changing the criteria, I found a few hotels about 20 miles from Kiev at around £200.  Still more than we were used to paying on this trip, but at least affordable.
One hotel I found on Expedia seemed to stand out, it's name was "boutique Hotel Seasons Spa", there wasn't any photo's, reviews, and very little description, but the name stood out.  I Googled it, set in the forest, full spa facilities, two pools, and beautiful rooms.  It seems everyone wants to be in the centre of Kiev, and not the countryside.
But how would we get there?  Would there be public transport? Would it run on the holiday?  We decided to sleep on it.
Waking up with the idea of hiring a car, I set to Google yet again.  £100 for the four days, giving us a chance to explore the area, it looked like a good idea.  So i set to booking the hotel, first try, ended with an error, unable to confirm the booking.  Maybe the card details were wrong, 2nd time, same error.  Okay, I'll try another card, same error.  Right I'll refresh the site, same error.  Now I'm panicking again.  Maybe, it's because I'm on the mobile version of Expedia, error, but this time it says the hotel has increased the prices, would I like to book at the new prices.  My heart sinks, here we go, I knew it was too good to be true.  I click on the link, it's gone up by 10p!  I click confirm and the booking goes through!
I have now booked the car, although I am still waiting for confirmation of this, hope that's a bit smoother than the hotel!
All the while I keep receiving e-mails from tour operators in Kiev saying nyet to the tours in Chernobyl, knowing about the public holidays, it's making more sense why!
Edit: email just received confirming the car hire is secured, phew.

Day Three. Train Tickets.

Our hope was to take an excursion to Kiev in the Ukraine, but you probably already guessed that from the blog name.

We had several futile attempts to buy them from the UK, until a post on the Raildude forum advised that you can only buy them economically from a station booking hall.

So we decided to do just that and keep the holiday flexible.

Crina and Ioana again kindly volunteered to interpret for us.  And boy, were we glad for their help!  Even with a local doing the negotiations it took well over an hour to buy them, with two travel agents doing the research!  Without Crina and Ioana's help, I don't think we could have ever managed it.

So we need to get a train to Suceava in the Romanian mountains, and then a night sleeper to Kiev.  Only 2nd class was available, so we will need to share four bed cabins with Carolyn in a separate female cabin.

We will get nearly two days to explore Suceava starting on Monday 29th April, then catch the 13:27 train to Kiev, this arrives at 09:18 the following day in Kiev (2nd May).  We catch the return train at 20:12 on the 5th May, this ticket is paid for, and is open, BUT the Romanian office couldn't book us seats/beds, we just have to hope that there is availability on the train!  Apparently it won't be a problem!

We have no stop over on our return journey, and just change at Suceava, this gets us back into Cluj-Napoca 00:18 Tuesday 7th May.  We then have to get back to the hotel, we have EBT (estimated bed time)  of 1am!

I have booked our accommodation in Suceava, but haven't yet for Kiev.  We are wanting to do a tour of Chernobyl, and this I have attempted to book today.  Many failed Skype calls, a lot of e-mails and a couple of mobile calls, has brought me to a dead end.  Apparently according to a nice guy at chernobylwel.com, the administration of The Zone have cancelled some tours, right on the dates we are there, and availability is virtually zero!

Looks like I am going to have to book accommodation and hope tours of Chernobyl are like Romanian train tickets, you have to be there to get them.

Anyway, tonight we go for a meal in the pub with a brewery with six other people, so that's good!

It's the Little Things

It's the little details that make Romania so enchanting, the little differences from home.
In so many ways its like going back to childhood, maybe that's one of the reasons I feel so happy and at peace here. It can seem, at times, like a 1980's-Life-in-England theme park. Even down to the muzak, I browsed a department store today singing along out loud to Suzanne Vega's "Luca", God I loved that song circa 1987!

Maybe the most off the wall piece of nostalgia so far..underground public loos, ours at home long ago locked ( and even in some cases, I believe, converted to dwellings) to put a stop to who knows what manner crime and depravity. I have been trying to bring to mind my experiences of such amenities but my memory is hazy, I think they are connected with visits to the seaside and our annual Christmas Shopping trip into "The Toon" (Newcastle if any explanation is needed!). But the memory it brings back with intense clarity is the smell, just the sight of the iron railings guarding the entrance and the WC sign produces a reaction at the back of my throat at the complete recall of the smell of stagnant piss and valiant efforts to mask it with what must have been industrial strength and quantities of bleach.
I haven't decided yet whether to pop down there and see if they smell the same!

Day Two. Romania.

I've never experienced a runway quite like the one at Cluj airport, it was like landing on a typical British side road.   However the trip through passport control was smooth, I did laugh when I heard a English accent proclaim "Well it's almost a queue."

Another thing that hit us on arrival was the heat, after leaving Doncaster in the high single figures, 25 Degrees Celsius, was a bit of a shock. Maybe we should have brought more shorts!

Our friends Crina and Ioana kindly took time off work to meet us off the plane, and gave us a whistle stop tour of Cjuj-Napoca centre, which was handy when we explored on our own later.

Our first three nights are in the Pension Deja vu, which is just over the river from town centre.  We chose this place for it's location and it's quirkiness, I will post photo's when we return to the UK.  The hotel is well used, but clean, and our room is massive, king size bed, three piece suite, walk-in wardrobe, tables, dresser, TV, air conditioning and mini bar. We are very pleased to have got such a room for less than £70 bed & breakfast for the three nights.

Our exploration of Cluj revealed a beautiful town with a juxtaposition of concrete tower blocks and Gothic cathedrals.  The squares and the parks were pretty, and full of people enjoying the weather.

I'd set myself the challenge of finding a good beer bar, something Carolyn had warned me wasn't possible in Cluj.  We did find some great bars, a couple had a limited selection of big brewery beers.  Our last attempt, on our way back to the hotel, led us to http://www.klausenburger.ro A pub with on-site brewery, now this was more like it, I'm not going to say more here, but I will be writing a full post at some point at www.original-gravity.blogspot.com

The evening meal in the hotel was enjoyable, if a little inconsistent.  Carolyn had steak medallions on a bed of mash with a bilberry "mirror", I had a mixed grill.  Carolyn's steak was really good, my meal was the inconsistent one.  My plate had two smoked sausages, chicken, pork fillet (I think), steak, pork tenderloin, chips and vegetables. The tenderloin was plaited around small pieces of garlic, and was fantastic, the sausages were really nice.  Whilst waiting for the food you could hear the chef beating the shit out of something, he was tenderising my steak, it didn't work.  However there was a lot of food on my plate, and I did finish feeling very full and still leaving what wasn't too good.

Day two UK

After a early start, and a mad rush to be ready, we checked out of our hotel, and set off on the short walk to the airport. Check-in and security was reasonably easy and we arrived in the departure lounge about 1 hour 30 minutes before the gate opened.

I'm not sure what your definition of lounge is, if it brings to mind a veal crate, then you probably have better idea the "lounge" at Luton this morning than me. We did manage to find a nice premium bit of wall and sit on the floor whilst we waited for boarding though.

We had paid the little bit extra for long leg room and priority boarding. Some of our passengers had also paid for priority boarding.  And some of these seemed to believe that this meant they could remove the barrier and push their family of six to the front of the queue. Surprisingly many of the passengers seemed to accept this behaviour.  Carolyn wasn't one of them, and she spent her queue time acting as goal keeper, at least it was something to do.

I'm pleased to say that none of the frequent queue jumpers were British, if there's one thing us Brits know how to do it's queue.

Day one.

After the car snapping a suspension spring and a couple of trips to the garage to get it sorted, the trip to Luton was really smooth, and we got nearly 500 miles under our belt with a trip to Newcastle yesterday.

We chose a package with a over night stay at the Ibis Luton Airport.  Our parking is with Airparks, about 15 minutes from the airport. Parking there was a pleasure, the staff were really helpful. It was stressless and even quite fun.  A good start to the holiday.

The hotel seems clean and the staff helpful, food is served 24 hours, with a full restaurant open in the evening.

We are currently chilling in the bar, with a decent wine and a shit beer.

The start.

It's only a week to go before we leave for Cluj-Napoca in the heart of Transylvania.  We are going for two weeks, and haven't prepared at all, no packing, only three nights accommodation booked, in fact the only things we really have prepared  are our air tickets and passports.

This is unlike us, normally everything is carefully planned and thought through.  We managed to get in this position through a series of protracted twists of fate.

The day after we booked our flights Carolyn found out she was pregnant, we have suffered too many miss carriages in the past to risk a trip away from home, so we made the decision to cancel them. Except we couldn't under Wizzair's terms and conditions.  So the tickets sat in our inbox.

Very sadly our world changed again and we lost baby Tyler at 15 weeks.  We have a blog about baby loss at http://courageandhope.co.uk/ and a twitter feed https://twitter.com/survivingloss

It wasn't for a few weeks when remembered the tickets.  And something to focus on other than baby loss seemed like a really great idea.

Plan A was to hire a car and take a grand tour of Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, and the Ukraine. However the car hire company let us down, with only a couple of weeks to go. Out of all the countries on our route, the Ukraine was the one I was most interested in, and I suggested a train journey to Carolyn. She agreed and a bit of googling found a night train to Kiev.

Further googling revealed tours of The Zone of Alienation were possible, this is the area around the Chernobyl nuclear plant. Carolyn was a bit harder to convince on this one, but eventually she agreed. 

Her decision was patrially influenced by Fiona, my aunt. Her son, Andrew died at 23 years old, and it was his ambition to travel to Chernobyl. Fiona asked if we made it could we take something of Andrews with us.  You can see his story on this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewsJourney

If you ever travel from Romania to Ukraine or Russia, forget about booking tickets on the internet. We discovered that it COULD be done, with great difficulty, but it is also far more expensive. Also don't expect to be able to book over the phone. After a very, very long phone conversation with a employee of the train company DDB, who operate a train on the the route, they still couldn't tell us how much their own train would cost!

So the decision to wing it was made for us, and the unplanned holiday is soon to begin.