No alarm clock… no Fatih getting up at 6AM… finally i got em! ….. it was 9.30 Am and the crickets were outside the window and the birds singing. Our hostel window literally looked out right into the forest and made wake up a pleasure.
I got up and had my shower… i am literally out of clothes… I have to turn undies inside out.. douse with deodoriser and also socks to try and make my life a little less feral…. i haven’t done any washing since Odessa which was about a week ago… it is never a nice feeling knowing you are putting on dirty clothes covered in deodorant hoping no one will notice.
Fresh as a daisy i make my way down to the kitchen and everyone is eating, i turn breakfast down today with the two meals of Turkish from yesterday coursing through my veins i feel i can live without and just ensure i stay stay hydrated until lunch.
Today we will navigate to the Transfagarasan which is a mountain road that is loved for its scenery and also speed as it is classed as one of the best driving roads in the world.
The commute will take about 6 Hours in total from Brasov – Bucharest via the Transfagarasan which isn’t too bad but we need to hit the road sooner rather than later, we are on the road by 11AM and start making our way Fatih want to fuel the car up as there is no Fuel stops once we get into the mountain, and like a responsible driver he finds a gas station.
Here i get my water refill along with an Iced Tea drink to keep my Fluids up… i walk out of the gas station and Fatih still hasn’t fuelled the car.. i ask what the issue is and he says in turkey they do it for you and he has never actually fulled a car in 5 years of driving…. so a quick kiwi lesson on independence and i show him how to fuel a car… and also wash the windows…. after the Refuel is done we hit the road at the redline and Fatih makes up some ground in true Turk Style!
Our first stop today will be Fagaras it is on the northern side of the Transfagarasan and is a small town, it has a beautiful Orthodox Church with plated gold exterior roofs and also another citadel, Kamilla wants to see this town and seeing how we have all day we make our way there.
The town lovely and the church… although I’m not a church fan it is a spectacular site for anyone, orthodox churches are a bit of an odd thing….once you have seen one you kind of feel like you have seen them all, how ever this one was particularly stunning.
After a quick look in the church we decided to make our way to get some lunch, everyone thought pizza would be a good idea and we got kamilla on the Food find and she located a pizza Resturant about 200M away…. i wont tell you that it was amazing … nor will I describe to you the flavours… pizza tends to be pizza… cheese and toppings tend to be standard and the flavour is much like a club sandwich… it doesn’t matter where you have a club sandwich it always taste the same!
After lunch we went to the citadel and unfortunately it was very much like the last, however this one was in far better condition, it housed a museum that we walked through… however i must be honest… i was over it… as much as i love old buildings after a while you become desensitised to the buildings and there engineering of beauty.
I was interested to see the Transfagarasan that was my next gemstone i wanted to see, you might remember that Top Gear did a special a few ears back on this road and they claimed it to be a life changing experience… however they were in Italian Supercars…. and we…..we were in a rocket ship known as the VW polo… however i do not doubt Fatih’s driving skills to get every ounce of power out of the cars wee 1.4 Engine… he is the right man for the job!
We Leave Faragas and start our maiden voyage to the start of the Transfagarasan and as we travel through the beautiful country side my legs start to ache and i feel my eyes getting heavier and heavier…..then darkness
The screech of tyres and brake dust penetrate My ear drums and nostrils and i find myself awoken to a driving style similar to Lewis Hamilton…. before i open my eyes i know that we have started our ascent back into the mountain… as I slowly open my eyes i focus on Fatih he is perched in the drivers seat on high alert ensuring he hits each Apex with pure precision… i look left…Kamilla looks relaxed in her usual ways… so I figure we are okay and start to look out the window.
The road we are on would be a 15 degree angle and we are starting to navigate our way up the mountain side, out my window the Black trees of the Carpathian whizz past at warp speed and i catch a glimpse beyond of what words couldn’t even describe
I used to think New Zealand was beautiful … and it is… but every thing… everyone…. every animal holds beauty…. but as people we forget to see the beauty in life and this is beautiful… it would actually put majority of New Zealand to shame, i would say the Southern Alps capped in snow on a sunset might beat it…but only just… and not by much
As we climb higher and higher the view extrapolates ten fold and eventually we ask Fatih to give up his race car driving career for a moment and pull over.
We find a very dangerous spot to pull over and all pile out… Fatih has managed to get the right hand side of the car about 1 inch from my door so i have to pile our Kamilla sides, we navigate to a rock and take some photos of the surrounding area, it really is amazing
The cars roar past and Fatih is getting agitated as every car h passed he now knows he has to repass at the roll of a dice.
We pile back in and keep making our way up as we near the top of the Transfagarasan we start taking a photo stop every 5 KM and as we take a stop it adds about 10minutes to our travel, the day is starting to run out and if we stop every 5KM we want arrive until midnight.
Luckily Fatih sees this and makes a call to get through the mountain and our next stop will be in 15KM, we navigated the 147 Hairpins and when we pass through the mountain we are greeted by what i would call the most amazing view in the history of my life.
We come out of the tunnel and as my eyes readjust i see black mountains with a light fog radiating up out of them, the ambient air temperature up here is only about 19 degrees and almost feels like a cool summer day in New Zealand , there is no car fumes… no Cigarette smoke… it is clean green Romania and it is fantastic.
We stop at the 3rd hairpin on the way down and take some more photos that are nothing short of spectacular and then carry on down, there is a lake at them bottom of the Transfagarasan that everyone wants to see…. cant beat lake Wanaka… or Queenstown
……okay i take that back … it beats lake wanaka and Queenstown…. it is an untouched oasis, there is no commercialism here and the lake is a lake in its natural beauty, the water is blue and the trees surrounding it are green, there are no camp sites… there are no hotels… there is nothing and its the way a lake should be, the road winds around the lake and we are denied its beauty by a belt of trees , but we knows its there’s you can smell its beauty in the air… a freshness lingers in and outside the car, at the top of the lake we will be greeted by a Hydro Electric Dam that supple little power to the village at the foot hills of the Mountains.
About 30 Minutes after being treated by the lake we arrive at the dam and there are cars everywhere. It is a tourist hotspot, the Dam is about the same size as Clyde dam… how ever there is only one turbine and the power line leaving the station look like they wouldn’t even charge your iPhone!
There is a platform that you can walk up to and take photos of the lake and also be graced by the presences of what i would call “iron Man”, a stainless steel sculpture of a man on the mountain holding a lightening bolt to display the Dam’s power to its visitors.
We all get some photos and spend about 20 minutes here taking in the views and as we watch and enjoy the area the sun starts to set… we are still 3 hours from Bucharest and we have a long way to go.
Fatih hits the pedal to the Metal and we soar Down the road.. his driving is good.. not great but good but after a few hairy passing manoeuvres we are making good time, we soar out of the valley at light speed and start making our way across the Romanian plains toward Bucharest
We will stop in Pitesti for dinner and this is also where kamilla want to be dropped of as tomorrow she wants to go to Bulgaria before heading back to Russia,
Pitesti doesn’t actually offer much as a town but we are only here for food and to drop our Ruskie off (kamilla).
We want to ensure we have one final meal together as crew and put Kamilla if charge of the restaurant as she hasn’t let us down yet, she finds somewhere and Fatih locks it into google and starts navigating.
Pitesti is not beautiful…. to be fair its very ugly, just concrete everywhere however we are here and must drive through it to our Restaurant.. we pull up and it is 7PM…. and its closed… it looks like it hasn’t been open for years…well that’s that option out… Ahmed decided Romanian Domino’s might be the option and we navigate our way back into town.
Romanian Domino’s is very different to NZ Domino’s, the flavours are more simple and they also offer Pasta as well … something NZ offered up until they realised generation Y Doesn’t want Pasta only Pizza, here in romania they wait on you so you just take a seat and they take your order, same goes for KFC as well. We order the finest fast food pizza in all the land and wait.
While we wait , Kamilla and Ahmed converse in Russian and i have no idea what they are talking about Ahmed is from Uzbekistan and the language is similar to Russian, after about 10 minutes of talking he has convinced Kamilla to stay with as we didn’t feel safe that a 23 Year old Russian girl hitch hikes across a boarder by her self…. and to be fair it was probably a good call.
We finish out pizza and pile back in the the rocket ship and make way for Bucharest.
It’s 9PM at night a Fatih has decided to throw the rule book out of the window and we are hurtling toward Bucharest at 170KMH… i don’t think the rocket could handle much more… oddly enough everyone else was doing this speed so it seems to work, its not quite an Autobahn but its the best we have got. The journey that should take 3 hours take 90 minutes and we didn’t see any Polotia the whole journey and as we entered the city Fatih eased off.
I asked Kamilla if she had booked anywhere to stay and she said no, we quickly scanned booking.com and found a hostel in the centre that cost 8 Euros a night. We booked for 2 people and gave Fatih the address.
Fatih and Ahmed will stay on the south side of Bucharest as tomorrow they are going to the Black Sea to lie on a beach for a few days.
The city of Bucharest at night is much like any other city, it doesn’t exactly display is old buildings in pride however it does try its best, Fatih navigates to the old town where he will drop us off and we will part ways for a few days as i will go north and him south.
We get to our hostel and it is just Kamilla and I In the room, I lock eyes with kamilla and she already knows what I’m thinking… BEER TIME.
The hostel we have got has a rooftop bar so we decide to make or way up there, the bar is empty and we ask the waitress for 2 Beers… she looks back at us and tries to carefully navigate the conversation and tell us that they have no beer left ….. puzzled and disappointed i look at Kamilla to see what her reaction is… and don’t get much from her, so i order a red bull and Vodka and she follows suit
I can understand why the bar is empty as its very expensive the drinks cost 45LEI which Is about 20NZD… no cheaper that what westerners pay for a drink, they wont get much business at this rate… however the view is nice, we sit in the cool air and i ask Kamilla what Russia is like… seeing how i cant go there unless i apply for a visa in NZ … which isn’t viable currently.
After the one drink we decide that its time to call it a night and hit the hay for another day will come before us .
Quantum Entanglement 