Brașov

The walk from the station to the hostel, located in the middle of Brașov's busiest old town street, has shown me more of that weird and wonderful sci-fi architecture.

The arrival at the hostel has been positively James Bondish. Or Sam Fishery, for the youngest amount us. Nobody was at the reception, but a sign, with a telephone number, told to call in case of absence. I did and I was instructed to follow some instruction by a woman.

«Go out, turn right and enter this code in the safe box.»

«Done, it opened.»

«OK, you can take key number 6. Close the box and use the key on the electronic pad of the door.»

Not bad for a start.

After a quick shower and rest, I ventured out. Brașov immediately appeared as a nice mix of old and new. A fashionable old street was lined with new shops, while many young people walked by. The central Piața Sfatului (Council Square) is a perfect place to sit and enjoy the consistent sun. From the square, you can see the Biserica Neagră (the Black Church), so called because of the charred colour after a huge fire in 1689. It's huge, one of the biggest (if not the biggest) gothic churches in Eastern Europe. Unfortunately, taking pictures was not allowed inside (you know what? Stop with this bullshit!), which is a pity, for the sheer number of interesting sculpted gravestones, though I admit it didn't give me the Tardis Effect like the Duomo of Milano. You know what I mean.

After the Black Church I headed to see the Biserica Sfântul Nicolae (Saint Nicholas' Church), not far. This had the classic pointy towers seen in many Romanian architecture. Unfortunately, surrounded by other small buildings, it was impossible to get a proper angle, especially considering that from the side I was having another against the sun moment.

After a quick tour of the bastions, which gave a nice overlook of the city, I decided to walk up the citadel, the Cetățuia Brașovului, from where you can enjoy a view of the town. Yeah, great view, if it wasn't for the two huge new building popping up into view, which fortunately are a bit blurred with light in this lucky sunset shot here.

Once down again, I went back to the hostel, where I met a Korean girl and a Romanian guy. The girl spoke English, but the guys didn't. He spoke good Spanish though, so I took it as an exercise for my learning. Let's say that, as usual, reading and understanding are a different matter than speaking, but we managed to understand each other enough. Especially when he tried to talk to me about alien abduction and the resulting pregnancies...

The second day has been a mostly resting one. I went to have lunch Ina good city centre restaurant, where again I was the only patron (I'm specializing in this) and joint the Romanian guy, An US guy and a Brazilian girl for some beers at the pub downstairs. I originally wanted wine, but the first two I chose weren't available, so I opted for a nice unfiltered beer and it wasn't also available so I prayed to the waitress to bring me ANY damn beer...

Good bye Brașov, you also treated me well! Tomorrow morning let's hop on a train to Bucharest!