To Transylvania!!!

Fro Krakow to Miklosvar!

A Romanian Christmas

Well, I guess it's been some time since I did this - again! Doesn't it just make you wonder where time actually goes - I mean who decided that we'd have 24 hours only in a day, when we all know we need more! And so I'm now going to try to entertain you with visions of our Transylvanian Christmas.

Day 1 - Our little adventure started simply enough - train to Vienna (sandwiches included just in case), then obiad in a little place we know near SudBahnhof! A trip out to the airport, and the easiest check-in and security ever before a flight to Bucharest. Mind you, when you arrive at Bucharest Muddy Field watch out as the folks waiting to meet 'n' greet are pressed right up against the exits! Soooo... after fighting our way out we tried to find the guy who was to take us to the hotel for our overnighter. Luckily he arrived just as we were calling then hotel...The Four Seasons ... very nice place. Apparently it's in the rich area - hmmmm...that's relative I'd say.

Day 2 - a quick visit to the local shopping centre "Jollie Ville" to use the cash dispenser - but of course that was after being let in the fore exit as the security had lost the main entrance keys! Then.... to the Gare Nord to buy tickets for our 1130 train....... but as you might expect....it didn't exist! Oh boy! Instead of an hour's wait we had 3 hour's wait till we managed to get the IC train to Brasov. And here's the thing. They have Business Class on this train and it was just great. We had 1st class tickets but simply paid the extra and had peace and quiet.

The trip was interesting as we saw the countryside without snow - lots of mud, very poor, horses and carts, very depressing looking - and not sign that it was Christmas. The snow appeared as we went higher and I had high hopes for our holiday. At Brasov we were met by Josef and i turned out that there was another couple on the train going our way! Excellent. We were driven to Miklosvar to Count Kalnoky's Guesthouse which took about an hour. The last part of the trip was in darkness, but we were warmly welcomed by one of the managers, offered home-made brandy (excellent) and tea and cake (also excellent). Then we were shown to our cottages... absolutely beautiful. Original architecture, wooden beams, thick walls and wooden stoves in the rooms heated by fires underneath the building - so warm that we thought we'd gone to the tropics by mistake!

But that's not all folks... the bathroom had softened water, underfloor heating and was totally modern; the furniture was antique, with our bathroom door from 1862 - and that was young! We even had our own crucifix above the bed and a couple of bulbs of garlic above the entry - which incidentally was a double door - and excellent for keeping out the cold and snow as we found out later.

Dinner was served at 8pm -that was the norm - and it was good Romanian cooking. We ate in the wine cellar - yes, I know what you're thinking - and you are right! The reds we drank were very good -and we did rather go to town in the week we there - but then again, there were ooh 18? of us altogether. So since this wasn't a convention of Teetotallers Annonymouse.... well, you can guess the rest!

The best thing about all this? Well, no TV, no radio so what did we do? We all talked! Oh yes -we rediscovered that age old skill of conversation...and we spent a lot of time laughing so much it hurt!
And that's enough for this day. Next time I'll tell you all about Days 3 and 4. Try not to go to sleep on it, will you!