Bulgaria to Transylvania
At the start of October we were still gardening in shorts and t-shirts, but when we left Bulgaria mid-Oct and drove over the Hemblas pass to the northern side of the country we hit snow! It was an easy cruise to the Romanian border and then the usual hassle to try and buy a vignette. The first service station we stopped at tried to charge us for being a large bus or lorry, not a mini-van (classed the same as a car) so we decided to push on to Bucharest and buy one the next day.
We were aiming to stay at the only campsite near Bucharest, which was described as being on the north side, close to the airport. Well given that neither of the two airports were even sign-posted, it took us an hour of trying different roads until we happened on the campsite. It had always been given fairly good reviews but we were not impressed. It was basically a few very basic huts around a central car park with several stray dogs wandering around. The plan had been to rent one of the little huts for the night as we did not want to bother putting the awning up or re-arranging the van for one night. But as it was going to cost us around 18 Euros for one of the huts, without hot water and any heating (and it was freezing) or 17 Euros to park the minibus in the car park, plus a further 6 Euros to use the wash block, we decided to try and find a cheap motel for the night.
The road going into Bucharest is a nightmare – its 3 lanes of dangerous driver’s and a central reservation so if you miss your turning you have to go another few kilometres until the next turn off. Eventually (on third bypass) we found a motel that had nice rooms for 30 Euros/night. We snuck the dogs in and set up our camping stove and settled down for the evening.
The next morning the local news channel was showing images of a horrific crash in the snow so was with some trepidation that we set off towards Transylvania and into the Bucegi mountains and over the Predeal pass. The road was good and in a couple of hours we had reached Sinaia, where we took a break to visit Peles Castle. The actual castle was closed but it was a pleasant walk around the outside and gardens.
Snow had started to fall by the time we left and it was bitterly cold. We carried on and soon reached the small ski resort of Predeal, at the top of the 1038-metre pass, which marks the entrance to Transylvania. Just on the outskirts of Predeal, we were rather shocked to pass the site of the crash we had seen that morning on the news. There were still people around inspecting the site and taking photos and bits of car strewn on the side of the road.
After another hour or so we reached Brasov and after a rather frustrating crawl through the centre and then doubling back on ourselves, following signs to Bran, we managed to get on the right road out of the city and headed for our campsite – Vampire Camping, under the shadow of Dracula’s castle.
