We were in for a long travel day departing Asia and making our way to our third continent, Europe. After a few hours of failed sleep attempts we got our taxi to the airport for our 2:30am flight to Istanbul. Turkish Airlines served us the best airplane food ever; I still bring it up sometimes. After a quick (honestly too quick as we had to run to our next gate) layover in Istanbul we arrived to Bucharest, Romania by 9:00am. Passport control was one of the longest we’ve encountered, but we made it through without trouble. From there it was easy to catch two busses then a short walk to our accommodation.

We used our time in Bucharest mostly to catch up on logistics. There are a number of busses and trains we need to take in Europe that couldn’t be booked that far in advance, so I had a long to do list. It was also great to catch up on the blog!

We did spend a little time out and about exploring the city (Nick a little more than me). We tried to visit the Palace of Parliament, but it is a little busier than we thought—they didn’t have any availability for tours until three days later, after we would be off to our next destination. Luckily the outside of the building was very nice.

After a few days in Bucharest we caught a train at 7:00am to Sinaia, Romania. Luckily the train station there has baggage storage, so we could leave our backpacks behind while we waited be able to check in to our apartment. The town was small so it was easy to walk everywhere, but seemed to be more of a winter tourist destination for skiing rather than a summer one, so there weren’t many sidewalks to use. Walking around town we enjoyed seeing all the beautiful houses as we made our way to the area with all the castles.

First we saw Pelisor castle which unfortunately was closed both days we were in town so we could only look at it from the outside. Double whammy was that it was also undergoing renovation so a lot of the outside was covered in scaffolding. It was a quick stop for a photo before continuing on to Peles castle. This one was also closed, but there was much more to see around the outside and it was much larger. Nick and I agreed that the term castle seemed to be used loosely and both seemed more like large mansions rather than what we tend to imagine for castles. Our last stop, Sinaia Monastery, seemed to be still actively used. There was a small old church and a larger new one on the property, and an area that was under construction. We had the best burgers for dinner from Umami Burgers.

Our third and final day in Sinaia we opted to explore up the mountain together. We took the two cable cars up to the top to attempt some hiking. Unfortunately the thunderstorms were rolling in much earlier than expected so we only spent a few hours at the top. There are many trails going to a lake or different viewpoints but we knew we wouldn’t have time. We enjoyed a quick climb to a high point for views of the forest and valley on one side, and herds of sheep meandering the hillsides with many working dogs on the other. We made it down just before the rain started and enjoyed one last rainy evening in town.

In the morning we took a train to Brasov, where we transferred to a second train ending in Râșnov. There wasn’t a formal baggage storage at the train station, but after chatting with some railway workers we were able to leave our bags in someone’s office. Nick and I strolled through the quaint small town to get to the ‘mountain rail’ station. There was a cable car which was really a mountain monorail that took us up and down to see the Citadel. As it turns out, it would’ve been a relatively short walk up some stairs instead, but the glass car had nice views of the town so it was still fun. At the top we walked around the outside of the Citadel, but due to restoration the inside was closed.

We were wondering if we’d be able to find a bus to Bran or if we’d need to take a taxi. Nick found a bus stop on google maps near us and as we walked to it the bus to Bran pulled up. Crazy timing! We ran to catch it and rode the short distance to our final destination of the day. In Bran we stayed in a cute guesthouse with swing chairs outside. We were a short walk away from Bran Castle, which was amazing. It was the best castle we went to in Romania. The castle was excellently curated and had interesting exhibits. There was information about ‘dracula’ and the views were beautiful. It was the busiest place we had visited and most people were well behaved. Later we walked to a park farther away for a view from a distance and ended the night with delicious pastrami and mici for dinner from La Trăsura cu Bucate.

In the morning we were picked up by a hilarious Romanian driver to get taken to Arefu. The driver was an older man who told us a ton of interesting facts about Romania, made jokes about neighboring countries, and talked about his unique work history. The ride was about 3 hours long, but flew by. The reason we came to Arefu on our way to our next destination was to see Vlad the Impaler’s fortress (pictured). Google maps tricked me into taking us to the worst tourist trap of all time first. In google maps ‘Dracula’s Castle’ was a house horribly painted to look like a cheap castle and was expensive to enter. At first I was hoping maybe inside would have real relics and be like a museum. Instead we watched a low production documentary about Vlad the Impaler and the rest of the ‘museum’ was props from the low budget film.