Day 2: The Long, Long Drive to Brasov

After a 14-hour sleep, we got up to drive to Brasov. (Side note: I've never been so exhausted from travel, and people who say they'll travel "when they're older" are full of crap. That almost killed me at 32.)

Driving in Bucharest was more than mildly terrifying--if there aren't any parking spots available, people have no trouble just hopping up onto a sidewalk or even just parking in a lane of traffic. They also pay little to no attention to lines in the road, sides of the road, or street lights. It's kind of like real-life Mario Kart, if Mario had a Princess Peach in the car too shrieking every five seconds because she's certain they're going to die.

It took us four hours to drive the 88 miles to Brasov, in stop-and-go traffic because there isn't a highway here--it's a two-lane road that eventually winds up into the mountains as you reach Transylvania. But the farther you drive the more beautiful it gets--huge mountains with changing foliage, and snug little houses painted all different colors and with intricate wooden porches. And of course, still the death-wish drivers darting into oncoming traffic to get around one car at a time.

Some of the favorite things I saw but wasn't fast enough to capture with the camera:

• A man walking his goat on a string
• An old granny carrying a bundle of sticks
• Many, many old grannies in headscarves selling cheese, liquor, new wine, and fruits and vegetables from little stands in front of their house (most of the houses had their own little gardens)

 

We finally reached Brasov, which is our base for traveling around Transylvania. Our planned hotel had lost our reservation, so we did some quick Googling and ended up at Hotel Ambient. It's closer to old town and was still very cheap, so we ended up with a two-story hotel room with a view of the "famous" Brasov sign (made to look like the Hollywood sign).

Since we're beasts, we hadn't eaten since dinner the night before and decided to go to Belvedere, supposed to be the best restaurant in Brasov and has won national and international awards. It was amazing and (like everything else here) super cheap--about 10 percent of the price of a similar restaurant in another country!

We started with an appetizer of grilled zucchini, parmesan foam, and spicy avocado ice cream (unpictured, because I was too hungry to remember to take a picture). The second course was a mushroom cream soup with crispy bacon, which was savory and delicious, and Taylor had a consommé with noodles, duck, and dumplings. Soup in Europe is always so much better than American soup, but then again you can't beat American plumbing, so I guess one can't have everything in the same country.

Then Taylor had crispy trout and I had a beef tenderloin "lasagna"--which was beef layered with parmesan, herbs, and flat little pancakes.

The view was also beautiful, and we watched the sun go down over the mountains, turning all of the trees a misty blue-purple.

Then we finished at Zoomserie, a pastry shop with an astounding array of pastries. I got an Oreo cream pastry, a cream puff, a mini cream cake, and a mini caramel cheesecake. Taylor fell asleep when we got back, so I ate them all myself.

Tomorrow the real vacation finally begins and we start seeing castles and really getting into the culture of Romania.