Bucharest. Way beyond our expectation. Romania is changing fast, and nowhere is changing faster than the capital. We arrived on the poorer southern outskirts of Bucharest on Thursday afternoon. The south side is dug up. Big time. And it’s pretty much what we expected. Crumbling concrete. Rough roads. The occasional horse and cart among the […]
The Cornish Wanderer
Across Bulgaria, plains, concrete and joy.
The contrast brought by distance. After two fabulous weeks trundling down the Black Sea coast it was time to head in land towards Bucharest, and hopefully to a man who can fix the water pump. The coast doesn’t give a real picture of the country, as we were to find out almost immediately. In the […]
Bulgarian beach bums.
Beauty. My perception of beauty is different to yours. In fact, my idea of what’s beautiful will be different today than what it was yesterday. In Vama Veche, the Romanian hippie resort, there was little that caused an adoring intake of breath as you stared across the cacophony. But it was fun. In Kamen Bryag, […]
Romania. Big change. The sea.
To the sea. At last we’re on a cliff top overlooking the sea. It has been 14 weeks and 4900 miles since I last saw the sea. The longest I’ve missed it. Corbu may not be the best, but I’m very happy to be here. But first we have two days of travel. The floods. […]
Delta Blues. Feeling the heat.
Romania. From pasture to city. Last week was a gentle ramble through the rural idyll of northern Romania. Calm. Bucolic (such a strange word). Ancient. On Saturday afternoon we rolled into Iasi (pronounced as Yjash) and everything changed. The grey concrete outskirts of Romania’s second city would be truly grim in drizzle, but with the […]
Romania. Running on plums. And other stories.
Plums. Arriving in Romania at this time of the year you might think that the country runs on plums. Trees are purple with the fruit everywhere you look. And in a way you’d be right. Apparently 75% of them end up bottled, as palinka. Palinka is their lethal plum brandy. It comes out to help […]