Whoo Hoo, made it to Bucharest without a flaw then caught the train to Brasov, Transylvania. No vampires so far.

Mike

All riiiiight :)
Enjoy Transilvania and the rest of the countryside. Brasov is wonderful make sure you take a lot of pics :)
How's the weather so far? Looks like it's going to be cloudy these days.

As far as food, do not miss out on "Sarmale" and definetly try "Mici" (or "Mititei" as they're sometimes called.)
Not sure if you're a wine kind of person, if you are I hope you enjoy it. Romanian wine is one of the best in Europe and IMHO fairly under-advertised.

Hope you have a great time,

Chris

The first round of people have been to Romania and returned. I was debating starting a new thread in trip reports, but I think at the moment I'll keep my report here. It can always be shifted over, but this way it is easier to find all of the recommendations and tips from the people's adventures here.

My adventure started on 11/17 when I drove from Seattle to Mom's just south of the border. We got up early in the morning and Mom dropped me off at the airport in Vancouver. The border was wide open and we made great time to the airport. I hopped out of the car and they headed home. In Vancouver I waited at the AS club to fly back to Seattle.

The flights went well and were on time. I flew QX YVR-SEA, then SEA-AMS on NW. The YVR-SEA flight had several empty seats, SEA-AMS was pretty full. I wandered around AMS for a little bit before catching the KLM flight to OTP. Plenty of empty seats for that three hours so was able to spread out a bit.

Once I arrived in OTP customs was quick and easy. I was through in minutes. Plus I was traveling with my backpack only so I was through quickly. At the airport I hit the cash machine to get a few lei (2.71/$). A Romanian friend picked me up at the airport and we headed to the train station. A high speed Regional train was heading out a half hour later so we had coffee and I headed aboard. The train was clean, fast and ran with German precision for the timing. Every stop was within a minute of on time.

I arrived in Brasov in the early evening and took a cab to the Rolling Stone Hostel where I had a bunk booked for three nights. The hostel was clean, well located, had nice beds and large storage lockers. Cost was $12/night. There is another hostel in the same part of town called Kismet Dao. Kismet Dao gives you a free beer for each night you stay, but someone I talked to said she got a few bug bites while there. I didn't check out the insides, but the outside looks decent enough.

Brasov has a lot of the medivel center still remaining including much of the 15th century walls. There are a few churches and museums to explore. I enjoyed the town immensely. Others also recommended continuing on the train to Sibiu which will be the European Capitol of Culture for 2007. From Brasov it is easy to do side trips to Bran Castle and Rasnov as well as Sighisoara, a UNESCO World Heritage site and the birthplace of Vlad Tepes.

After Brasov I took the train for a night in Sinaia. Sinaia has a couple of interesting castles and an old monastery. In Sinaia I splashed out a bit and stayed at the 3* Hotel Sinaia. This ran about $50 for the night. They also have one of the hot clubs in town downstairs.

The final two nights were back in Bucharest. I stayed at the Butterfly Villa Hostel.($12/night) It wasn’t the greatest hostel I have ever stayed at, but it was ok. They have 24 hour reception and lots of people interested in partying. Bucharest is basically a big ugly city. Much of the historic center was bulldozed by Ceausescu to build the Palace of the People, the second biggest building on the planet and a street longer and wider than the Champs Elysees. He also used Pyongyang, North Korea for design inspiration. I think your best choice is to spend as little time there as possible and head to the countryside to see the real Romania.

The trip home was nothing special except for snow in YVR. My the time I left for Seattle Sunday morning there was about a foot of it at Mom’s house.

I look forward to other people’s reports especially for Amsterdam and area since I will do that trip in May.

I agree about Bucharest. Big, noisy, ugly city with lots of traffic. I walked around in the downtown area a lot, hoping to find a square where people hang out, but it wasn't much like Prague or Amsterdam. Just another bustling big city. Worth seeing the one time, but I unfortunately have another 2-day stay in December. If it were in the summer I would try a hotel in the lake district, but since it's winter I'll probably go to Brasov. Does anyone know how exactly to get to the Gare de Nord from OTP? The map I have seems to indicate that taking bus 783 to Piata Victoriei and then the Metro from there is the best bet. Also, is there a way to get Romanian train tickets online, or is that asking too much?

I tried my WorldClubs card at the lounge at OTP, but no go. I didn't think it would work, but inexplicably it works at the lounge at OSL, so I thought I'd try.

Because of this trip I'll be Gold when the Europe miles come in, so it was worth it, and I was in Amsterdam several times and got to meet my friend's smiley baby girl in Frankfurt. Next trip will gain me Plat if they don't change the fare class on me, and Brasov sounds pretty good, so I'll look forward to that.

The hostel I stayed at suggested taking the 783 to Piata Unirii and then the metro to Gare de Nord. I'm not sure why they suggested that if the 783 stops in Piata Victoriei.

Check out http://bahn.hafas.de/bin/query.exe/en for train schedules. There are trains to Brasov every hour. The run is 2.5-3.5 hours depending on which train you choose. You can just walk up 15 minutes early and buy one for about 30 lei. The fee for ordering the ticket online would probably be more than the actual ticket.

The Butterfly Vista hostel web site offers rides to the airports. Based on what you saw, would you consider the staff trustworthy enough to count on a 4 AM ride to the airport, if necessary?

Butterfly Hostel seemed to be a party hostel, like many capital city hostels are. The beds were comfortable enough, but the noise continued a bit late in the rooms. I told some people to move their conversation to the common area which they did.

The driver that brought people to the hostel didn't want to get up for the 6:10 am AMS flight, I assume that is the one you are on for a 4am ride. The staff called a cab which came within minutes. The cab cost about 35 lei which is actually less than the car from the hostel. Oh, in city cabs are 1.4 lei/km. From the hostel to the airport it was the outside the city rate of 2.5 lei/km.

mcrt, thanks for the information. For a one-night stay, the Butterfly Villa sounds all right (particularly with a private room).

Yeah same here .. I'm going to end up staying for two days in Bucharest. I'm still debating between that hostel or an HI hostel.

I'm not sure what your dates are, but right now the HI hostel is closed for renovation. I'm not sure how long it will be closed. There is another HI Hostel up near OTP. If you are just looking for an overnight before flying out that one might be good.

I think that's the same HI Hostel mcrt is talking about.

That is the OTP one. The other one, Villa Helga, is the downtown one that is currently closed.

Loving the info trickling in. Thanks for posting your reports/tips... but

DID ANY OF YOU MEET UP?!

Show it at checkin, and try tp get alounge invitation from, KLM. They nowadays almost uniquely work with lounge invitations at that lounge.

Are any of the AMS Bound people geocachers? If so I have a coin that wants to go that direction. Let me know.