Hungary and Transylvania

So where are we now? Well, now we are in deepest, darkest Transylvania. The question there follows: how are you able to post a blog in that neck of the woods. The answer is of course the wonders of modern technology; even in such a remote place (if you don’t believe me then check our tracking page on the website) I have four bars of 3G signal. It has been an eventful few days since we left Germany. We spent a fairly cold night just outside of Telc – Telc is a beautiful town (UNESCO worthy even) but as we have discovered, it is often a little harder to appreciate such beauty in the pouring rain. However, the Czech weather decided to cheer itself up as we headed towards Brno – the second city of the Czech Republic. We were staying with my old au pair, Monica. During my formative years, I had four au pairs: Monica, Martin, Blanka and George; his real name is actually Jirka but such a name was too much of a challenge for my mother who swiftly changed it when driving him home from Stanstead on his first day. On our tour around Brno we met them all which was a delight and Monica’s home cooking was a lovely change from the petrol station lunches which are steadily deteriorating as we head east. Following Brno, we stopped via Bratislava for lunch and then powered onto Budapest. Being an ‘interrailing veteran’, Harry Behrens once again assigned himself as group leader for ‘The Pest’. However, it must be noted that this time he held himself in much higher stead than ‘The Dam’. Charlie B was the biggest casualty of the night closely followed by myself – you didn’t acquire the nickname ‘half pint Harry’ for nothing. Having completed our recovery in a geothermally heated Hungarian spa, we powered onto Romania. To shorten the drive, we turned to google to provide us with a camping spot somewhere along our route. What Google failed to tell us was that this campsite was at 3,750 ft; shivering in my sleeping bag, I soon realised that the depiction of snow in so many Christmas films is so wrong – Father Christmas never had to camp in it. Now on through Transylvania. Whilst it is true that it’s amazing stepping back 100 years, it appears that the roads have done the same. What’s better, no road or Romanian road – hard to tell. Anyway, a few more days in Romania and then onto Bulgaria. KBO.