We flew into Bucharest for our first stop in Romania. While our first
impression was traffic everywhere, once we settled into our apartment and
started walking into town, we were delighted. Our walk into
the old part of town was great as they have a wide sidewalk that runs
along the river (it's a small river but still the scenery is pretty) and leads to what
looks like an acre or two of fountains which are choreographed with various
shows and lights. It's fascinating and we intentionally walked through
the area every time we went out. The old part of the city is very walkable and we
thoroughly enjoyed our few days of exploring.
Next, we rented a car to explore more of Romania. We were
warned that driving in Romania poses some challenges so we knew to expect potholes and less than meticulously maintained roadways. However, we never
dreamt that, just a couple of hours outside of the city, we encounter 4-legged
panhandlers! The bears came right up to our and most of the
cars around us, clearly anticipating something to eat, it was obvious that this
is a regular occurrence. They were so cute but we knew better than
to encourage them so we continued on our way heading further away from the city
into the mountains.
We continued driving into the mountains and towards the Transfagarasan Highway until we reached Balea Lake.
This Glacier fed lake sits 6600 feet above sea level atop the Fagaras Mountains. Our seatmate on
our flight into Bucharest (a delightful young man who was not fond of flying
and was glad of conversation that would take his mind off the flight) gave us
tips on places to visit and said the road was not to be missed.
Our route took us through a tunnel and we
found ourselves in a little village of food stalls (think food truck gathering
without the trucks) seemingly in the middle of
nowhere .
Yes, we had to stop!
Thankfully, we’d put on long pants when we
left in anticipation of cooler mountain weather but we weren’t expecting this
cold!
While it wasn’t actually snowing,
it was foggy and felt cold enough to be snowing.
We walked over to see the lake and thought
about walking around it but we were cold and the food stalls were all selling
hot food so we decided that would be a better idea.
We were right!!!!
The food, while not fancy was absolutely fabulous!
We got an order of Polenta with cheese (a
very popular dish that our friend also told us to try) that was hot and delicious.
We also got a kebab of some kind of hot grilled
meat and bought 3 or 4 types of cheese that all tasted wonderful.
We even got talked into trying "Urs" (Romainian
for bear).
We loved it all!
With our bellies full and our bodies needing warmth, we got back in the car and continued driving. Dubbed “The best driving road in the world,” the Tranfagarasan was indeed a
lot of fun to
drive with its miles of
hairpin turns that took us back down the other side of the mountain we’d just
climbed.
While my pictures were nothing, trust me in that ride and the scenery were
both great.
Our next stop was the adorable city of Sibiu that our friend also mentioned as a
great place to stop.
We found a great
place to stay within easy walking distance of the center of town and set about
to explore. This adorable little town’s medieval architecture is beautiful but
the city’s most notable feature is the “Eyes of Sibiu." Everywhere you look (yes, pun intended),
you get the impression you are being watched by the many houses which appear to
have eyes.
While legends hold that the houses were built
to make people think they were being watched, the most likely explanation is
that a local builder designed the houses and added the feature for a bit of
aesthetics but mostly ventilation.
Either way, it’s cool to see (again, pun intended) and the town was so
much fun to explore!
Once again, we left the city and soon found ourselves on country roads as we made our
way to the Transalpina which is another famous Romanian highway.
The countryside was beautiful and again we
were surprised with the wildlife as we came upon a fox just sitting on the side
of the road.
We didn’t try to interact
with him but he certainly didn’t seem to be worried about us.
Just a bit down the road, we also came upon a
traffic jam but this one we actually enjoyed.
The Transalpina while not as windy was equally fun to drive and the
scenery was more diverse.
We found a room for the night in in a charming Pensiunea (similar to a bed
and breakfast).
Thankfully,
our hostess spoke enough English that we were
able to communicate (yes,
for at least
the 100
th time we were so grateful that these wonderful people all
know – enough anyway – of our language).
Since
we’d arrived at sunset, we took a bottle of wine and went to the back porch to
watch the sunset and were treated to another show.
The owners of the hotel were crushing the
grapes (they’re grown on site) to make their own wine.
While it was a small operation, we enjoyed
watching it.
The hotel had a shared
kitchen so we decided to stay in to fix a little dinner using up the cheese and
bear meat we’d bought earlier.
As we sat
down with our food, we struck up a conversation
with a group of friends (mostly Romanian but one of them now lives in
Barcelona) who were traveling together.
Again, they thankfully spoke English so we had a wonderful time sharing
our food and enjoying their delicious homemade Tuica (plum brandy).
The
next morning, over breakfast, our new friends told us about a nearby monetary
and cave they thought we’d enjoy.
So off
we went, both of us commenting on how it really is the people you meet along the
way that is the icing on the cake.
Armed with our new local knowledge, off we went to explore. Originally built in 1505 as a convent for nuns, Polovragi Monastary is a beautiful walled
compound surrounded by mountains. We
enjoyed meandering around and I loved the beautifully restored old churches (Pedro not so much)!
We left the monastery and made our way to the Polovragi Caves.
Since they only took cash and we didn’t have
any, we had to go back to the town to find an ATM.
As I am writing this, Pedro reminded me of a funny story. As we
went to the first bank which was closed and the ATM wasn’t working (or at least
I couldn’t figure it out) and an older lady (who only spoke Romanian and I only
spoke English) was, I think, asking me why it was closed.
We spent a few frustrating minutes trying to
converse before I politely(at least I hope she thought it was politely) bid her good-bye and found another bank just down
the road.
Seriously, there were only of a
handful of times we were unable to communicate in all of our travels.
Anyway, back at the caves, we paid our
admission and spent a hour or so wandering around. Next, we stopped for lunch at a small
roadside restaurant and had one of our favorite lunches. Alas, our time was up, so we headed back to Bucharest where we spent one
last night before our flight out to Sofia, Bulgaria.
For over 20 years, I’ve wanted to see Bulgaria. Our dear friend Polya is originally from there and and I’ve
long thought it would be so much fun to visit her home country. so, we decided this was the perfect opportunity. From the moment we arrived in Sofia, I knew
I was right. Sofia was absolutely beautiful! For our first night, we got a hotel room right downtown and
immediately set out to explore. The old
town was everything you'd want. It's quaint, clean, walkable and very lively. We happened upon a wedding, found a restaurant with beer taps at the table and just loved everything about this pretty city.
To top off our visit, the next day we arranged to meet mutual Bulgarian born friends of ours and Polya who also now live in Florida and were visiting Bulgaria. Atanas, Rossitza and Minko met us in the nearby town of Plovdiv. Atanas had gone to college in Polvdiv so he served as our tour guide. With over 8,000 years of history, Plovdiv touts itself as Europe's' oldest continuously inhabited settlement. While I can't speak to that, it is an adorable city with a lively "Old Town" and a very well preserved Roman amphitheater dating back with the 1st century AD. Our guide took us everywhere and found a great place for dinner. The next morning, he walked us to a local bakery and treated us to a typical Bulgarian breakfast of Banitsa (it's a delicious cheese pie made with phyllo dough and feta cheese). It was delicious!!!
Sadly, our dear friends needed to return to their former home town to visit with their family (the main reason they were in Bulgaria) but they sent us on our way with advice about our next destination city and the name of a great seafood restaurant. So we took off and headed towards the Black Sea and adorable little beach town of Nessebar. While the weather was a little (really a lot for me) too cold for a beach holiday, we had a great time walking both the beach and the adorable town. Plus, we had an amazing seafood dinner at the restaurant Atanas and family recommended.
Next, we left the coast and headed back southwesterly stopping for lunch in the town of Stara Zagora. We found a great restaurant and a pedestrian shopping street that was fun to wander but road construction made the rest of the town nearly impossible to navigate so we continued on to Velingrad. We chose this town because it was touted as the "Spa Capital of the Balkans." While we had trouble finding spas that were open and operational, we loved the little town and found the best Banitsa (we went back 3 times in 2 days to get more).
The next morning with our fresh Banitsa for breakfast, we drove towards the city of Blagoevgrad. Our drive there was a wonderfully windy two-lane road that took us through the beautiful Rila mountains enabling us to admire the brilliant autumnal leaf colors. Blagoevgrad is home to the American University where Polya went to college (her first degree). We spent a couple of days enjoying the city and it's pedestrian friendly streets.
The next morning, Pedro had some real work he needed to complete, so I took a day and decided to explore the nearby Rila Monastery. Built in the 10th century, this was the first Christian monastery in Bulgaria and, today, still hosts over 60 monks. Between the colorful wooded mountains, the adjacent wonderfully flowing little river and the absolutely gorgeous architecture of the monastery, this is another must see if you find yourself in the area.
The next day, we decided to get a more close-up view of the mountains and a hike so we drove to the base of the ski lift that would take us up to the famous Seven Rila Lakes - a beautiful group of glacial fed lakes. Well, the day we were there the ski lift wasn't operational. No problem! We knew we wanted to hike anyway so we took off walking up the mountain. At the base of the mountain the weather was wonderful but we knew it would be cooler at the top so we donned long pants and grabbed the light jackets that had with us. While the hike up was challenging at times, it was very enjoyable and the scenery was worth the effort. However, by the time we hiked reached the top of the ski lift (i.e. the base of the hike to the lakes), we were freezing. We knew the change in elevation would be cooler but it was really really cold and super windy. The last straw was the other hikers coming back down and telling us the cold it was worse at the lakes and visibility wasn't much either. So, we turned around and hiked back down the mountain. While we'd still love to see the lakes one day, we were happy the fact that we had a great hike and enjoyed our scenery.
Our time in Bulgaria was almost up so the next morning, we headed back to Sofia for our flight out the next day. We once again enjoyed the adorable old town, wandered South Park (a huge city park in the heart of town) and bought another banitza for breakfast before our flight out (it was good but not as good as the ones from Velingrad).
Our European adventure was almost over and our last leg took us back to Barcelona. Since we'd booked a cruise ship home (we had so much fun getting over on the Queen Mary 2 that we thought we'd try another ship on the way home), we had a few days before it was set to sail. We booked an amazing airbnb high in the mountains overlooking the ocean in a nearby town of Cabrils. The views were breathtaking and walking distance from our house were a few hiking trails one of which even led to an old fort that we were able to explore.
In addition to several trips into Barcelona itself (we love Barcelona), we took day trips to the nearby medieval city of Besalu with it's gorgeous bridge dating to 1075. We also visited Castellfollit de la Roca, a town built on the edge of two ancient overlapping lava flows and overlooking the Fluvia River. This adorable town is described as the most picturesque village in Catalonia and we have to agree. To top off the trip (not that Barcelona needs topping), our friend Michael - from Munich - stopped and spent a couple of days with us while on his way to visit his boat in Portugal.
Alas, our time in Europe was up and it was time to board our ship, Celebrity's Apex, for our ride back across the Atlantic. Our trip back was 13 days and included several stops. While amusingly enough, we'd already seen all of ports of call at least once (mostly) on our own boat, we had to admit that the vantage point was significantly different. We made 2 stops in Spain, Valencia and Malaga both of which we loved walking around. We stopped in Gibraltar where we again hiked up the rock to get some exercise but then negated it with a stop to our favorite restaurant for their amazing fish and chips. Our next stop was Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel in the Azores where we wondered around the town and the marina we visited with our boat (we also got a load of laundry done while enjoying a beer).
Next we had a couple of sea days where we enjoyed the ships amenities and relaxed before arriving in our favorite stop of the trip, Bermuda! We thought we were funny and used the bikes in the ship's onboard fitness room to bicycle into Bermuda (since we'd already been there twice by boat). While we love just about everything Bermudian, our favorite is our dear friend Mary. While, we'd met Mary on our first stop in 2018 and again in 2019, we'd not seen her since so it was such a treat when she agreed to travel to Hamilton to meet us for lunch. She's a vibrant as ever and we all loved the mini reunion.
We again had a couple of days at sea, stopped in Nassau in the Bahamas for a few hours before landing in Fort Lauderdale, back in America for the first time in over 4 months! But, we'll fill you in on that, next time,
Until next post!
