10,000 Cheesburgers later...

We're in Bratislava now, killing time. Cause there's not much else to do here but kill time. People told us not to go to Bratislava, actually, everyone told us not to go to Bratislava. But we did. So the expectations were low. No real surprises after we arrived. We got some good pictures, it's a surprisingly picturesque little city. Little being the key word. We're looking forward to drinking in a pub tonight that has a statue of Lenin in it. And last night we drank a beer called Kelt out of the coolest. tap. ever. It was a viking sword with horns. Awesome.

Anyway, so the last time we tuned in was Serbia...

Right, so we left Serbia on the longest, most uncomfortable train to Sofia, Bulgaria. We were crammed in with 6 other people for 12 hot, deordorantless hours. Dermot sat next to Sauron the Dark Lord, or atleast his cousin (Iiiii SEEEeeee youuuuuu). And I was sitting next to some 7ft Serbian pervert who spoke to his mom or his wife I wasn't sure for all 12 of those hours in the beautiful language that is Serbian (not). The train wove us through the scorched earth of Serbia, stopped randomly in the middle of nowhere for 20 minutes here, 45 minutes there, and got us into Sofia a half hour before most of its restaurants closed.

We got a taxi to our hostel, where we checked in then ran to KFC for dinner. We then bought loads of beer to wash down the dinner and train ride. But when we got back to our hostel, the kindly receptionist told us we couldn't drink after 9 p.m. It was 11 p.m. Never tell an alcoholic she can't drink. (Just kidding mom).

So we signed up for Facebook accounts, I let Dermot beat me in a few games of pool, then we collapsed in our room and fell asleep to the soft purrs of an Asian woman coughing. And I particularly enjoyed walking downstairs and across the courtyard 2 times in the middle of the night to pee.

Sofia, Bulgaria was worth it though. We'll add it to the list of places we've been that'd we'd gladly return to. I'd love to see more of Bulgaria as well, its history seems rich and ancient. Sadly, the poverty of the city struck me hard. It's not easy seeing 80 year olds begging on the street... Long lives Communism.

We saw what we could of Sofia on foot in the searing heat. Then went back to our hostel for the free dinner that they were serving and to drink the beer that we had purchased the preceeding night. We were getting up around half 6 to catch a train to Bucharest, Romania.

We got to the train station at 8 a.m. for our 8:40 train. We departed the train station at an awesomely annoying 11:30 a.m. We arrived in Bucharest at 21:00 after another painful journey, (our cabin could've doubled as a sauna). And then there was the Romanian Border Patrol, otherwise known as two badge-less jabronies in fake-looking jackets, who took my passport away from me saying they needed to stamp it. My bullshit radar was off the charts, but they gave it back to me after a half hour, laughing, silly American girl. I said under my breath that the funniest thing about this is my husband is probably less hairy than your mother. Haha hahahaaaaa. Funny.

We saw the sun set on Bucharest as we attempted to find our hostel without getting lost. Attempted, being the key word. We are SO good at directions. But after 1 hour of walking up and down the same street, I started screaming, EXCUSE ME, CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHERE THE NEAREST STRIP CLUB IS. Because our hostel was above a titty bar called 'Heaven' - insert ironic quip here.

We found the hostel eventually, toweled ourselves off because it is SO HOT in this area of the world, then set off to get some drinks.

Bucharest was so cosmopolitan. Definitely not the shit ridden, rabid dog infested, wasteland of crumbling brick buildings as I had anticipated. No seriously, what do you see when you picture Bucharest? I'd argue that it wouldn't be far from what I had pictured. It was a great little city.

Off to Transylvania! Muah ha haaa. I need a tissue! We meet some fellow backpackers at the bus stop who had actually stayed at the same hostel we did who were heading to Transylvania as well. Small world. Brasov was the collective destination. So we ended up traveling with Mark from Australia, and Vanessa and Alana from New Zealand for the next 2 days. We suggested to them that they should stay in the same hostel that we were because they'll probably have room and it's the top rated hostel on hostelworld.com for Brasov, Transylvania. So they complied. We arrived in Brasov, where we had to take a another small train half hour outside the city, well past Brasov town, where the Carpathians became scarily closer and more abundant. Oh Christ, where are we taking these poor people! We hired two taxis who had no idea where our hostel was exactly, but it was somewhere thatta way, farther into the Carpathians.

We're no where near Brasov, are we?

No. Nowhere near Brasov.

Just call me Jonathon Harker. The fear I had in me as the taxi struggled to climb the slight, rocky trail up the mountains to our unknown destination was as palpable as Bram Stroker could have described it.

I felt bad, I had told our fellow travel companions that our hostel in Brasov was the highest rated location for the area. So it was guilt, really.

But then the trail broadened. The countryside before the Carpathians was breathtaking. See our pictures, if they can do it any justice at all. The sun was setting, the air was cold, the moon was coming out from behind the clouds... this is what I wanted from Transylvania. I just hope our companions felt the same.

They did.

Hallelujah.

So as to reiterate, we were in the middle of nowhere on this farmer's farm. Josef, a very nice man, with his wife and family. I finally got a picture of a woman with the babooshka on her head as requested by my mom! Hahah. We took loads of pictures, played with the dogs and chased the chickens around, adjusted to where we really were, unpacked and got psyched about the prospects of hunting for Bran castle the following morning.

Anyway, who's hungry? Lads, help Josef clear the back of his pick up truck and we'll ride 3km to the nearest town to get some dinner. Everybody hop in! Mind yer arses, the road gets bumpy ahead. Very, very bumpy. Mind the branches as well, they sting at 60 km/pr hour!

We were loaded like cattle into the back of his truck and spun around the hills of county Brasov for 30 minutes each way all for the sake of some pasta and drinks. Hysterical.

We made each other dinner, drank a bit, then got a good night's sleep in the fluffy clean beds of Villa Park hostel, with alarm clocks set for 8 am the following morning.

We hiked to Bran Castle, otherwise known as Dracula's castle on a hot, clear day. The castle itself was insanely disappointing. No mention of Vlad Tepes at all, and the interior dates to the early 20th century. But the hike there was spectacular. The path was not the least bit man made. We hiked up rocky slopes, down slippy hills where we swung from trees like suicidal monkeys, as we followed our instincts (or should I say Mark, Vanessa, and Alana's instincts) and a few signs here and there. Bran castle is that way, you're good, keep going! 3.5 hours later we arrived in Bran town, ate some pizza, and caught a very deserved bus back to our hostel. Well, atleast the nearest town next our hostel. Remember the 3 km car ride? We had to walk that, uphill. Fun.

It's okay, because of the 10,000 McDonald's cheeseburgers we've been eating since we've come to this area of the world we burned off like, 4 of them. There are McDonald's everywhere!

We left for Budapest at 7 am the next morning. An hour long taxi ride and we were at the train station in time for our train, which was also on time. Sweet!

11 hours later on an okay train, we arrived in Budapest. Our hostel there was freaking awesome. We watched Scrubs on DVD, got our laundry done, checked our internets. Place Budapest on the list of places to come back to as well. It was so beautiful. We took a walking tour so we saw the vast majority of the city and learned the chaotic history of the Hungarian people. And we went on a pub crawl to a karyoke bar where we sang some Chili Peppers and Bon Jovi.

The highlight of Budapest of course were the baths. Dermot and I spent half the day soaking in the thermal baths of Budapest's most popular destination. The water smelt like the stuff you developed photographs in and the number of hairy, unfit men in speedos was a bit disturbing, but all that aside, it was heavenly.

We ate that night in an Italian restuarant where we drank Hungarian wine called Bulls Blood. Yes, Bulls Blood. Tasted like flowers.

We left Budapest wanting more and expecting to see it again.

And now we're back here, to Bratislava. 1 hour and 16 blogging minutes later. How's about that for killing some time?

Photos will be uploaded later, my fingers hurt. And Lenin awaits.