Day 81 - Sighisoara to Bucharest

There are a number of castles in Transylvania and we decided to visit two of them, Bran Castle and Peles Castle.

Our first stop was Bran Castle and we had read that there wasn't much to see inside so we decided to only view it from outside. What we hadn't considered was that there were so many trees, buildings, stalls selling tacky plastic Dracula paraphernalia and hordes of tourists that there was very little of it to see at all.

On the road leading to the castle we had passed many locals selling cute baskets of juicy looking raspberries and blackberries so on the way back out we decided to buy a basket through the car window. At 10 lei or $3 they seemed like a bargain however there were only 6 blackberries and a thin layer of raspberries, the basket was filled with leaves and timber! Ripped off in Transylvania.

We were now a little concerned at how busy Peles Castle might be, though so far Serbia and Romania haven't seemed that busy. We have found the Romanian architecture to be quite interesting as although is has element of other European countries mingled in it there are also aspects we haven't seen before.

At the gateway into Peles Castle were many buildings containing restaurants that were in the same architectural style of the castle and they gave the appearance that they were built as part of the same complex.

The castle wasn't as large as expected but was really interesting inside and out, even though we were only permitted access to a small section inside.

Our arrival into Bucharest coincided with peak hour and we questioned our Airbnb host as to where we should park, he said there was free street parking right out the front of the building and there would be someone there to meet us at 5.30. However the apartment was on Victory Boulevard, one of the major roads in Bucharest Old Town and when we arrived there was no one out the front and there was definitely no parking allowed. So we did what everyone else in these parts of the world do and we pulled over and stopped the car there anyway. K went to investigate while M stayed in the car.

It wasn't long though before the flashing lights and siren of a police car pulled up behind. Why when we have never seen them pull over anyone else who stopped illegally?!  M thought they would tell him to move on but instead they wanted to see his license and car papers. K explained to the other policeman the situation we were in so he phoned the host who said that the entrance and parking was in another street around the corner and that is where the person was waiting to check us in. The policeman was very helpful in sorting out the situation but this is another time when we are having second thoughts about using Airbnb because of the check in hassle, it shouldn't be that hard to give clear check instructions and information on parking.