Our first full day in Budapest was fabulous!  What a magnificent city.  Everything we have ever heard about the place fulfilled our every expectation and more.  We started the day with a "free" city walking tour with Andreas which cost us a discretionary tip.  We gave him double what he expected and it was by far the best value of our trip to date. This kid had an amazing grasp on European History as most Europeans do.  He was comical yet very informative at the same time.  I would highly recommend the tour.  It lasted for roughly 3 hours and we spent the balance of the day walking around on our own, late lunch and back to the apartment.  Tomorrow we head back downtown for another day which may include a boat tour on the Danube and dinner.

Unfortunately our room is sill a bit of a sweat box so we will be leaving Budapest on our scheduled day rather than extending as we would have under ideal conditions.  I think two full days will be plenty of time for someone who really doesn't like big cities and crowds.  

It has been a dreary rainy day so far but at 11 am the skies opened slightly and we made a decision to brave the weather and hope for a break in the rain.  

Downtown Debrecen, the second largest city in Hungary next to Budapest is impressive! The historic part is spotless and meticulously manicured.  The buildings seem bright and freshly painted.  The focal point is the huge cathedral as you enter the village.  The centre was relatively quiet compared to most cities we have toured but maybe it was the rainy weather that kept people at home.  The architecture was beautiful and well maintained.  We toured for a few hours and had lunch at one of the most famous hotels in Hungary, Hotel Aranybika. We had a lovely lunch in their spectacular dining room for a grand total of $11 for two. Anywhere else at a 5 star restaurant, you would be looking at $60-80 bucks.  I could not believe it!!

We couldn't have asked for a more appropriate way to leave one of our favourite countries than relaxing over a lovely traditional Romanian breakfast prepared by our B&B host Maria and discussing the struggles Romanians experience on day to day basis.  Maria has been typical of our experience with Romanians, kind, generous, honest, hardworking, well educated and quite simply, a joy to be with.  She says she is happy but hopeful for change.  Like so many people these days, she is totally disenchanted with her government and how corrupt they have become.  You can tell by the look on her face that she is not very optimistic for change anytime soon.  Romanians are also extremely embarrassed and angry at the reputation they have around the world as a nation of  "gypsies & thieves".  They are definitely getting a bad wrap from what we have experienced.

Leslie & have have really enjoyed our 13 days in Romania and have made many new friends.  It is doubtful we will return but will never forget how great these people have treated us during our short visit.

Our entry to Hungary was someone predictable, archaic border crossings with a lengthy processing procedure, not too sure what they are looking for or having to enter in their computer system for us to be granted access.  What we really find strange is how you are grilled by both the country your are entering and the country you are leaving in offices just meters apart.  To me it appears like another useless government bureaucracy.

You wouldn't notice much difference leaving one country and entering the other with the exception of no horse and wagons on the highways in Hungary, at least to this point.  The countryside appears a little more affluent but not by much.  We arrived in Debrecen 3 hours earlier than expected in spite of the 40 minute delay at the border. The apartment was a little disappointing and Leslie informed me that she will be handling the booking from this point on.  I must admit, she has done a fantastic job as our official tour guide and accommodation consultant.  I have been meaning to point out one thing on our blogs over the past few years but keep forgetting.  I make no apologies for the 1000's of churches we have photos of in our album link. Leslie has a thing about churches and cathedrals and I think we are close to having a photo of every church in the world.  We are now going to try to fall asleep in our scorching hot apartment.   Usually our criteria for choosing accommodation is private bath, secure parking, internet, air conditioning and spotless housekeeping.  

We were up at the crack of dawn with a very full day ahead of us.  Our trip is taking us to the very northern part of Romania enroute to Hungary tomorrow morning.  We arrived at our room at Pensiunea Mare at about 1 pm, unloaded some of our stuff and made tracks to Barsana Monastery, Spanta Cheerful Cemetary and the Memorial in Sighetu Marmatiei, all thanks to our tour guide and landlord in Cluj, Lucian.  Maria offered to prepare us an authentic Romanian Dinner upon our return for $10 Euro per person.  It was a deal we could not refuse and would give us an opportunity to get a taste of the real thing while visiting with a Romanian family and it was delicious.  The experience has left us with another new friendship and an evening we will never forget.  We couldn't have scripted a better way to end a fabulous day and a departure from one of our favourite European countries.  Don & Maria's daughter Julia acted as our translator and we spent much of the evening discussing world issues and how the 5 of us could solve most of them in one evening over dinner and drinks.  Wouldn't it be great if it was that simple?

Tomorrow we are off to Hungary.

I will start by apologizing in advance to our new & dear friends Diana who is from Cluj but now living in Brasov and Lucian, our apartment host in Cluj who was born in Baia Marie and claims it is boring.  Please forgive me for my opinion but understand, it is only my opinion!  I much prefer Brasov to Cluj Diana and Lucian, we will give you our opinion on Baia Maria tomorrow.  I hope we can still drink "medicine" together!!!

We are now into the second month of our 4 month Eastern European adventure.  We arrived in Cluj 2 days ago and visited the Turda Salt Mine...EXTREMELY AVERAGE, bordering on BORING!!  Cluj is even worse.  The best of the buildings are obscured by electrical wires and trolley bus lines.  What a shame!  It took us all of 1.5 hours to tour downtown Cluj and that was probably an hour too long.  There are much better places to visit in Romania so if your on a tight schedule, drop Cluj from your bucket list.

The one word to describe the Turda Salt Mine would be massive.  It is often referred to as one of the "Coolest Places Underground".  After paying the $7 entrance fee, you enter a tunnel carved out of rock approximately 6'w x 8'h that extends for what appears to be forever.  When people describe an after death experience and the light at the end of a large tunnel, I think that would be the best way to picture the Turda tunnel.  At the one of the corridors there is an entrance to an open pit that is enormous.  Leslie and I ascended and descended the 15 stories of narrow steep old wooden stairs that lead you from the viewing gallery at the top to the base of the shaft where there is a lake with of course a "tacky tourist area"!  It wouldn't be a famous tourist attraction without a bowling alley, billiard table, ping pong and an opportunity to get your photo take with Mickey & Minnie Mouse.  What they have to do with the attraction is beyond me.  Other than that, it was definitely worth the price of admission.  There were plenty of people at the site but other than the stairs and elevators that brought you up and down the mine shaft, crowd control was not a problem.

Last night we booked into a lovely little four star boutique hotel in Varatec.  We have been really luck with accommodations this trip, with only one drastic experience and one iffy.  Not bad for winging it and booking new rooms every 1-3 days.  Great value in Eastern Europe.  North American hoteliers could learn a lot from these people in terms of customer appreciation and great service.
The drive to Varatec was uneventful with nothing much to see enroute.  The tiny villages along the way were pretty neat and we saw lots of horse and buggies, some hauling hay and others were just families out for a joy ride.  Some of these people are so poor but they always seem to have a smile on their faces and it appears outwardly at least, that they are loving life, maybe not rich in material things but wealthy in terms of family values.

The drive today was quite different, long and very interesting.  Leslie had us touring a number of Citadels and paint monasteries.  They were truly amazing!  We arrived at our apartment at approximately 8:15 pm so we covered a lot of miles.  Going to be an early night and we are off to Cluj tomorrow to visit the underground salt mines Turda. We have been told it is an amazing place with a virtual city built underground in an abandoned salt mine.

Today we just chilled and enjoyed our lovely two bedroom apartment.  Leslie went to the local market a couple of hundred meters away and pulled a Glen, B.S.ing with everybody in site.  Met a young Romanian girl who lived in Edmonton for a period of time and got homesick and moved back.  Her parents still live in Edmonton.  One thing we have noticed about many of the young people in Eastern Europe, they are very highly educated with little or no opportunities for employment.  There appears to be a lot of growing discontent with governments.  I think we can all claim the same views on government.

Tonight we are hosting our landlords, a nice young couple about the same age as our kids.  They have purchased us some more of the local booze to sample so that should be interesting.  Tomorrow we are off to Targu Neamt to check out the fortress.

Like night and day...Dracula's Castle...BRUTAL, Peles Castle...FABULOUS!  And guess what?  No tacky tourist train.  Peles Castle is a class act, stunning architecture, beautiful hand carved woodwork throughout, original furniture and decor, it was great!  Lots of people but no cattle call.  There was security everywhere and the crowds moved effectively through the building with little to no waiting.  After the castle tour, we drove to Bucegi where there was supposed to be some incredible rock formation.  The drive was approximately 45 minutes up an winding mountain road and when we got to the top, there was a million cars and people everywhere.  We quickly turned around and made the trip down the mountain in half the time.  Another tourist trap from what I can see.  Actually out of curiosity I just Googled Bucegi mountain and and from what I saw, we didn't miss a thing.  We risked our lives driving that shitty road for one not so special rock formation.

This evening we walked to the main square of Brasov and had dinner.  It is about a one kilometer walk from our apartment.  The place was buzzing with families lazing around the square listening to live Romanian Music.  Great show!  The old town is really cool with lots of great architecture.  We had a nice dinner on the boardwalk and did a bit of people watching.  Leslie and I both admit that Romania is really growing on us and is one of our favourite European countries and to think we were considering stroking off our list.  What a mistake that would have been!