Day Fifteen. The final day, Turda and Alba.

It's hard not to feel a bit sad that our last day is here already, but the thought of a full day with our friends exploring Romania does go a long way to making up for it. It had been kept secret what we will be up to today, but we have been told to bring our jackets, in the current 30°c heat, this is interesting.

Aurel drives us out of Cluj, expertly using as many short cuts as possible in order to avoid the early morning traffic. We are soon into the country side, the majestic mountains offering a wonderful back drop to the fields. We are admiring them when Crina corrects us, "They're not mountains, they are hills! The mountains are much bigger, and more beautiful" They were big enough and pretty enough to consider them mountains in our book, sorry Crina.

We eventually arrive in Turda, Aurel pulls over to ask for directions, my very basic Romanian gives me the impression that we are heading for the Salt Mines and when we pull into the car park I am proved correct.

We both had a good idea of what to expect on a tour of a disused mine, some interesting geology, old mine workings, dirt, damp and disused machinery. As it turned out this couldn't be further from the truth. We entered, after Aurel had paid the reasonable fee of 12 lei (under £3) and descended down a long wide set of stairs. We then came across a elevator, and descended what felt like 5 or so stories.

Leaving the elevator we were greeted by a cathedral sized cavern, and we were full of wonder at the contents.

A mini golf course, bowling alleys, a ferris wheel, pool tables, sand pit, a

boating lake, artistic lighting and seating.  This definitely wasn't what we'd imagined..

Our hosts explained that the air is renowned for it's health properties, particularly for people with breathing conditions such as asthma. All the attractions were there so that a whole family could spend the day breathing in the healing air.

Our stay was short, because Aurel wanted us to see the "changing of the guard" at Alba Iulia  fortress at 12:00. Another drive through the beautiful countryside got us to Alba at 12:05, just missing it!  Which was a shame, but we still had all of Alba Iulia to see, which was great.

The fortress and churches around Alba are beautiful, the town feels like York, there is plenty of history here.  We visited a few churches within the fortress and the museum of archaeology.

We left the star shaped fortress by the third gate, towering above fortified gate is the Obelisk to Horea, Closca and Crisan.

The obelisk brought memories back for Crina, who last visited  here when she was nine.  The Communist regime compelled her to become a Scout, meaning she had to deliver reports to her school class, something she hated doing.  In front of the Obelisk was where she had to swear allegiance as a scout.  She asked if I would take some photo's of her for her mum, as a reminder of how far they have come since the revolution.

After a meal in Alba, we then head back towards Cluj.  On our return journey our friends treat us to some desserts at a confectioners, the desserts were somewhere between a mouse, trifle and cake, they were lovely.  It was a wonderful day, and it was made complete by a lovely final meal in Euphoria Bier Garten with Alin and Lidia.  We head to bed much later than intended, with a 4:00am start tomorrow.

Crina, Ioana, Carolyn & myself

Aurel, Crina, Carolyn & myself

Day Fourteen. Back in Cluj.

It felt good to be back in Cluj, a bit like coming home. We had made no plans, not knowing how fresh we would be after the journey, but after a good sleep nights sleep we decided to have a walk around the park and then into town and have a look around the market stalls. 

The weather was still wonderful, and many people were enjoying the park, rowing on the boating lake, using the exercise machines (I have seen similar in parks in England, but never seen them actually used) or just sitting in the shade.  Every time we have walked through here, we have noticed just how well used the park is.

The market was a collection of craft stalls with a few stalls selling produce, Carolyn bought a few things and practiced her Romanian.

At the opposite side of town was a mobile phone shop Carolyn wanted to visit, and around here we found more small shops and stalls, mainly selling clothes, amongst them was a small bar advertising a glass of wine for 1 lei, which is 20p, with hindsight we should have tried one to see if you can get decent a glass of wine for 20p, but we were already heading in the direction of Klausen Burger for lunch.

Having had a easy day, we were ready to meet up with our Romanian friends tomorrow, and a full day of surprise activities. 

Day Eleven. київ A bit disapointing

I was really looking forward to seeing  Kiev, the day before I had spotted what looked like a good spot to park, and a check on Google maps seemed to confirm it.

We parked with no problem, but when I got out of the car, a woman started to talk to me in staccato Ukrainian. I smiled, told her I didn't understand and she smiled back and said "English?" What ever was the problem had disappeared, I asked if we were okay parking here, which she confirmed.  We then walked to the underpass together with her husband.

Except the underpass was under water. We had to find another route or wait for the tide to go.  They led us in the opposite direction, all the time talking excitedly to us about Kiev.

The only available route took us straight through the middle of a building site, lots of people were doing the same, in the UK you would have needed steel toe caps, a hard hat and a risk assessment before you got anywhere near such a site like this.  Carolyn's sandals lived up to their name, and filled with sand.

After making it through, they wished is "Bon chance" and we parted.

We took the funicular up the hill, and almost as soon as we emerged Carolyn
was covered in doves, we had unwittingly walked into a street hawkers trap. I looked at Carolyn as if to say "roll with it" and took a couple of photo's and next thing I had a bird of prey on my shoulder and my camera had been liberated. I could see Carolyn was nervous about it, but they may well have had my camera, but I had their bird, and I had a feeling the bird was worth more.

My camera returned and birds handed back we were asked to pay, "200 Hryven , for you and 200 for you", "No, it's too much" Carolyn says. "Okay, 100 and 100" Carolyn repeats "no" gives them 40 грн  and we leave, with them looking bemused and talking angrily at one another.  Later we realise that 40 грн is only £3.20 and feel just ever so slightly guilty.

Most of the day we spend wandering aimlessly around Kiev, we never seem to learn the lesson that one day is not enough to experience a new city, we made exactly the same mistake with Barcelona.

I was still desperate to fall in love with Kiev, Carolyn was beginning to hate it .

In desperation I suggested we tried using the Metro to the Hydropark on a island in the Dnipro river. There was also a bar I wanted to try on our way too.

How I wish we had got straight on the Metro from the start, it's simple to navigate, clean, very fast, and cheap. You buy plastic tokens which entitle you to one ride, no matter how far, or how many changes. They cost 2 грн which is about 20p.  The trains are every three minutes, and this seems to mean people aren't rushing to catch the trains, and if one carriage is full they will wait for the next.  It might well be different in rush hour, but it was very civilised every time we used it.  We both commented how good it was, and that we couldn't think of a better subway system we'd used.

The first stop was a thriving market, even at this later hour. Carolyn bought some perfume, after some searching we couldn't find the bar and not wanting it to be too late for the Hidropark we headed back on the Metro and towards the river.

The Hydropark has to be unique. It is like a very run down themepark, with beaches, bars, restaurants, barbecues and outside ballroom dancing (with music continuously played over a tannoy).  It had just started to get busy for the night when we arrived, and appeared to be popular, people were getting drunk and riding the attractions already.

There's something here for everybody.  Pensioners dance, children play on the rides, adults play table tennis.  There's fairground stalls, monuments celebrating the fall of communism.  There is a live act on in every bar (of which there are many).  It's impossible not to love it, even if only for its other worldly-ness.








We were tired however and didn't want to risk barbecued food the day
before we travelled back to Romania, but we would have loved to spend more time here. Tired and hungry we set back off into Kiev on the Metro.





All day I wanted to find and eat Chicken Kiev in Kiev, but we had failed. Restaurants here, and in Romania don't display menus outside, so it's hard to find something specific without constantly going inside, finding a waiter and checking the menu. But on the way back we spotted a Chicken restaurant, surely it was worth one last try? And it paid off, two Chicken Kiev later and we finished the day on a high.

(We did get lost driving out of Kiev, but hey)

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.