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We hopped on the metro for the 3 stops back to the train station. It was a little bit difficult to find the right person to get our Eurail pass stamped, but after being sent to 3 different counters, we finally got it stamped. Again, the person acted like she'd never heard of stamping a Eurail pass before - weird. I guess maybe most people originate in more Western European countries or something? We were relieved to finally have it stamped, as we only had until tomorrow to have it validated before it would be no good! We bought our seat reservations (50 cents) for the train ride to Brasov and had only about 10 minutes to wait before our departure.
We wandered back down the side streets towards our hotel and took a small nap since we were both exhausted from not much sleep the past several nights. Around 6pm, we were rudely awakened to a very loud and not so good singing coming from the restaurant located behind our hotel. I guess we have discovered the reason why these 1 star rooms might be so cheap! The folk music singing was really annoying and extremely loud. We began to wonder just how late into the night we'd have to listen to this stuff! At 7:15, we left to go grab a bite to eat at the local creperie just down the road. My tuna and cheese crepe was good, but Mario's strawberry jam crepe smelled like someone used Nesquik strawberry powder to make the jelly - very fake tasting. :( We watched part of the world cup soccer game that was on TV, and hung out there until we couldn't take the massive amounts of cigarettes the people next to us were smoking. I can't believe how much people here smoke compared to people in the US (its similar to S. America where people just smoke one cigarette after another). Back at the hotel, we decided to investigate exactly where this loud music was coming from. It was weird, because we couldn't hear it from the front street when we had left the hotel earlier. We walked around the corner and passed by an alley where we recognized the loud music instantly. We noticed the sign over the door said they are only open until 10pm and we sighed a sigh of relief! :) In fact, by the time we got back to our room, the music was just stopping. Maybe we will be able to stay here 2 nights after all. Day 168 - Bucharest < | Index | Photo Galleries | > Day 170 - Brasov © 2007 Blue Ocean Studios, LTD. All rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Services | About | Contact Prints | Return Policy | View Cart World Travel Galleries | World Travel Blog | Links |
With another night of bad sleep from the uncomfortable beds and almost non-existent pillows, we awoke and got ready to leave for Brasov. There are many trains per day linking Bucharest and Brasov, so we didn't worry too much about rushing for the 9:30 train. Before checking out, Mario went outside to exchange more Lei to Euros, so we could pay for our hotel without using their exchange rate. They have more exchange booths here than anywhere we've ever seen, and the amazing thing is they give you within 1/2% of the online daily rate (although some booths refuse to give it to you for their posted rates)! We changed in lots of Romanian currency so that we could stock up on our Euros. 
The train was surprisingly modern and clean - fast too (for Romania)! The 160km journey would take us just about 3 hours, so we settled in for the ride. We soon left the countryside and entered mountainous Transylvania. Surrounded on 3 sides by the Carpathian Mountains, Transylvania is of course best known for Dracula. But besides Dracula, you can ski, hike, and explore the small medieval Saxon and Hungarian towns that are nestled snugly within the mountains. We had some amazing views from the train window of the jagged peaks surrounded by green pine forests. We could tell that the air was getting much colder outside and there was even a little snow on top of some of the peaks!
The train ride went by pretty fast, and soon we were pulling into Brasov station. We had heard that there would be many hotel scouts waiting for tourists at the train station, and it was true. We don't usually talk to these kind of people, even if we don't have a hotel reservation. This might sound silly, since we did need help, but we've found that these people are often not very trustworthy. They might tell you somewhere is really nice and close to town and then you find out it is the exact opposite (taking you to the middle of nowhere, and by then, so tired, you just give in) . Basically, it probably would end up as a waste of time. Instead, we turned down the numerous offers for a room, and bought our tickets for the #4 bus that would bring us into town. The bus was packed, as most of the other people on our train were also wanting to get on. Luckily, it is a short ride and took only about 5 minutes. 
We got off at a stop that seemed to be popular with other people on the bus and also had a large park next to it that we were guessing was Parcul Central. We found that we were right in getting off, as we ended up being only a block or two from the hotels we had wanted to check out. We saw the large Capitol hotel right in front of the park. Even though we had read a bunch of negative things about this hotel (mostly just how old the rooms are), we decided to check it out anyways. We asked to see a room and were a little disappointed in it for the $53 they were asking. Nothing horrible, just not good. We decided to look around. The guy who showed us the room gave us a tip on where to check out next. The Coroana Hotel was just 1 block around the corner and had an excellent location right on the pedestrian-only street. The rate was only a few dollars cheaper, and the room about the same. We went back downstairs and told them we'd like to keep looking. They then told us that they have a 2nd part of the hotel that normally doesn't have private showers, but that there was 1 room that did have its own shower. This section of the hotel was only 1 star instead of 2 stars, but would be less than half the price ($20 without breakfast). I was a little skeptical about even seeing this room at all - wondering how horrible it must be for less than half the price and in the 1 star section of the hotel. We decided we'd better just check it out while we were here. We were surprised to find that this room was pretty much the same as the first room, just smaller. We decided, for $20, we could definitely stay here. 
With that settled, we went out on the town in search of lunch. We wandered down the pedestrian street and checked out a few cafes before we reached Brasov's main square, Piata Sfatului. Brasov was originally a German mercantile colony before becoming a major trading center during medieval times. Many of the old buildings still exist, and with some beautiful cobble stone streets, it feels like going back into medieval times. In the middle of Piata Sfatului stands the Council House, from 1420, and now a historical museum. There was another old church built right in alongside the buildings surrounding the square. But the most medieval and gothic of them all, the Biserica Neagra (Black Church), stands just to the South of the square. Built during the 15th century, this church got its name when it was burned in a fire in 1689. We expected it to be really black, but actually it didn't really look black at all to us. Strange. We paid the $1.50pp to go inside, but no pictures allowed. Covering many of the walls, and hanging from all of the balconies, were Turkish carpets from the 16th to 18th centuries. These carpets had been given to the church as gifts from merchants after they came back from shopping in the orient. Since we'd just purchased some Turkish carpets ourselves, they were of particular interest to us :) 