So we left Turkey and, once again, found ourselves pushed into an old school kind of sovietic environment: Bulgaria. Not only everything is written in Cyrillic but many people still drive Russian UAZ jeeps and vans, the economic level reminded us of the old Russia and the architecture of the villages and towns that we crossed definitely threw a sovietic feeling during our journey through Bulgaria. We only spent one night in this country but it was nice moment: we just parked on front of a little monastery perched on a small mountain slope and Ural owls were singing all around us at dusk (sometimes birdwatchers are easily pleased, it’s true…).
The next morning we crossed the Romanian border, quickly passed through Bucharest to get some food, diesel, passed on front of the massive parliament and then we headed north to the first relief of the Carpathian mountains to reach the little town of Sinaia. We read about this place on other bird/mammal watching trip reports that this was a good place to spot bears but heavy fog and snow falling didn’t give us much chances to see any of these furry animals. So after some hopeless searches on every forest road we could find, after sunset instead of sleeping in the mountains at -4°C we decided to go and allow us one night in a little hotel that we have been informed about by other birdwatcher friends. So if you ever go to Sinaia, one place that we definitely recommend as well is the Vila Florea del Colt. This is a very comfortable place held by Lucia Popescu, an incredibly nice woman that will not let you settle in your room without inviting you to taste her home made schnapps, herb tisane and local cheese with bread. Beside a slight headache in the morning we only keep a great memory of this place and the welcome of Lucia (lucia.popescu@pcnet.ro). The village of Sinaia, known as the pearl of the Carpates, is full of pretty houses and buildings but the nicest of all (really close to the Vila Florea) is the Peles Castle. We took a long walk around it and it is indeed a very nice visit.
In fact there are tons of things to see and visit in this region and not far from Sinaia we stopped in the town of Bran to visit its castle. Mostly known because of the legend of Dracula, this castle is very impressive and fun to visit. It is also a very popular touristic destination and we were happy to visit it during the low touristic season for more tranquility.
The town of Sighisoara that has a beautiful fortified medieval center on top of a hill. Beside the touristic interest that we had for this town this was also a good place to repair one more broken air chamber that blew up on us a few kms out of town... this was the 8th flat tire for this trip so even if air chambered tires are easy to change yourself, this trip would probably have been easier with tubeless tires (well, we’ll think about this for our nest trip I guess).
Further on the road we visited the very nice Saxon citadel of Biertan which is one of the prettiest fortified church/village of the area.
Another few kilometers further we couldn’t pass on front of the Corvin castle without checking it out and it was really worth it as it is very big and impressive; one of this place that really throw your imagination back a few centuries ago in the Middle Age.
This was pretty much our last visit in Romania and the Carpates that only gave us the envy to go back there as the people are extremely welcoming and the country is full interesting places to see and visit.
This was pretty much our last visit in Romania and the Carpates that only gave us the envy to go back there as the people are extremely welcoming and the country is full interesting places to see and visit.
Arrived in Serbia we only stopped in Belgrade to spend a night there and go on the next morning. Belgrade is a nice city, clean and a bit mysterious with a relatively young population and a real party spirit that wakes up at night in most streets, squares and cafe. We liked it but we had a much warmer feeling in Zagreb when we visited it the next day. Croatia really seems to be a little pearl with a thousands “facets” . We loved the atmosphere of this "human-sized" capital full of cute little winding streets, markets, pubs and restaurants and an architectural unity that gives a pretty harmony to the whole city.
Just about 40km north of Zagreb we visited the splendid castle of Tracoscan. This castle probably has a medieval origin but it’s actual appearance is the one of a much more recent habitation with only limited evidence of a defensive purpose. The inside is amazing though with super well furnished and well maintained rooms and architecture in general. The woods and lakes all around directly desinged from a fairy tale...
Another day on the road and we arrived in Slovenia where we met a class of children with two teachers taking a walk on the little hill where we decided to camp on the night before. It was early in the morning, we were brushing our teeth on the side of the Toyota or something and it was just great to meet all these curious little kids looking at us like a couple of aliens from another world... we had fun talks with the teachers and they indicated us the way to beautiful place in the mountain that was worth visiting before leaving Slovenia. So, following their instructions we arrived in Bled and it sure was a stunning sight in the heart of the Dolomites mountains. Yep, there is everything you need to get a romantic atmosphere there: a lake, a little island with an old church, row boats to get there, forest, rocks and pretty villages all around and yes, another medieval castle where we camped for our last night of this trip.
After a short crossing of the Italian Alps on October 16th we finally reached our first destination: the town of Resana (close to Castelfranco Veneto) where Erica’s family was waiting impatiently for our return. For a few days we visited many members of the family, had lots of parties with friends in the evening and spent some time in Padova and Verona.
These few days in Italy also gave me the opportunity to take some well deserved care of the Toyota with an oil and oil filter change, I also changed the diesel filter (that to my surprise was in a much less horrible condition that I expected considering all the Siberian and Mongolian diesel with which we fed the car with during this long trip). I also crawled under the car to grease adequately all the gimbals and the direction’s ball-and-socket joints.
The next day, under a pouring rain we took the road again to reach our final destination: Belgium! About 1200km further we reached home after two days on the highway and the crossing of the Austrian Tyrol (under heavy snow fall) and Germany with one ultimate night of sleep in our Toyota.
Once home, the return to reality was a bit harsh as we immediately started to work and because as soon as we came back all we’ve done during this trip only felt like a dream with only our pictures, a matryoshka, two bottles of БАИКАЛ ВОДКА, a little bag of dry cheese from Kazakhstan and the contacts with the people that we met on the road that materialize this dream.
This trip was pure pleasure from the minute we started to imagine it in October 2009, with the search for the car, the building of the inside during the winter, all the mechanical revisions with my friend Pierre, the search for all the equipment necessary, the trip itself and all the great people that we met and spent time with in every place we stopped in Russia, Siberia, Mongolia, Altai, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Romania and Slovenia.
After all this we would like to thank all of you that followed us on this adventure and particularly for all your message that we loved to receive when we were far away from everyone and everything.
See you some other time on other roads...
Erica & Henri (Dec. 2010)
This trip was pure pleasure from the minute we started to imagine it in October 2009, with the search for the car, the building of the inside during the winter, all the mechanical revisions with my friend Pierre, the search for all the equipment necessary, the trip itself and all the great people that we met and spent time with in every place we stopped in Russia, Siberia, Mongolia, Altai, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Romania and Slovenia.
After all this we would like to thank all of you that followed us on this adventure and particularly for all your message that we loved to receive when we were far away from everyone and everything.
See you some other time on other roads...
Erica & Henri (Dec. 2010)
